Laura Flanders & Friends | Solving Economic Inequality: An Occupy Movement for this Moment? @LauraFlandersAndFriends | Uploaded September 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 hours ago.
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Were you one of the hundreds of thousands of people on the streets during the Occupy movement? For many the movement was a political awakening, as people rallied to end economic inequality and support democracy in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. On this 13th anniversary, how does the spirit of Occupy live on? And what progress — if any — has been made when it comes to the wealth gap? Joining us for that conversation is Marisa Holmes, author of the recently released book “Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This Is Just Practice” and director of “All Day All Week: An Occupy Wall Street Story” which looks at the takeover of Zuccotti Park in New York City in September 2011. Also joining us is Taifa Smith Butler, President of Dēmos, a public policy organization working to build a multiracial democracy and economy. Previously she was a leader at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Award-winning journalist Amir Khafagy returns to co-host this episode. Our guests explore the links between economic inequality and authoritarianism and ask how far we've come as a nation to create structural, policy and practice-based changes on the economic front. How can we create a people-led economy that will lead to collective power? All that, plus a commentary from Laura.

“Dēmos has always talked about the inextricable links of economic power and political power. As I think about where we are historically with the retraction of resources, with the threat of authoritarianism and fascism and this demographic shift that is happening in our nation and the inequality that continues to proliferate, if we do nothing, we'll be looking at apartheid in America.” - Taifa Smith Butler

“During Occupy, we really rejected representative politics because it seemed not responsive to people's needs . . . So we just thought, ‘We're going to do this ourselves’. We have to build alternatives ourselves from the bottom up through mutual aid networks . . . That's what I think is going to transform the economy . . .” - Marisa Holmes

“Occupy was one of the most important things that ever happened to my life. I was maybe 21, 22 years old . . . I was just a kid from Queens, and that was the beginning of my political awakening.” - Amir Khafagy

GUESTS:
Taifa Smith Butler: President, Dēmos
Marisa Holmes: Author, Organizing Occupy Wall Street
Amir Khafagy (Co-host): Journalist, Report for America Member, Documented

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CREDITS:
Executive Producer: Laura Flanders
Supervising Producer: Sabrina Artel
Senior Consulting Producer: Rory O’Connor
Senior Video Editor: David Neumann
Audio Director: Jeannie Hopper
Development Director: Sarah Miller
Communications Director: Janet Hernandez
Executive Assistant: Nady Piña
Technical Creative: Nat Needham

Thumbnail photo via "All Day All Week: An Occupy Wall Street Story".

00:00 – Intro
04:30 – Remembering the Occupy Wall Street Movement
7:06 – Combating Inequality and Inequity
11:53 – Anarchism and Democracy
14:20 – What We Can Do As the Majority
20:13 – Pessimism & Coming Together for a Peoples’ Economy