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| Q&A with Todd Gitlin: does the election make Occupy even more relevant? | Q&A with Todd Gitlin: does the election make Occupy even more relevant? |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| As the most expensive election campaign in history unfolds in one of the world's oldest democracies, and fresh details emerge each day of malpratice and abuses of power at leading financial institutions and banks, what of the popular movement last year which questioned it all? | |
| Ten months after the Occupy Wall Street movement set up stage in a park in downtown New York, and sparked protests across America, sociologist Todd Gitlin probes its actions and ideals in his new book Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Nation is out as an e-book and a paperback will be released in August. | Ten months after the Occupy Wall Street movement set up stage in a park in downtown New York, and sparked protests across America, sociologist Todd Gitlin probes its actions and ideals in his new book Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Nation is out as an e-book and a paperback will be released in August. |
| Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University and self-styled troublemaker who was active in the student movements of the 1960s, writes: | Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University and self-styled troublemaker who was active in the student movements of the 1960s, writes: |
| This book is an initial report on something very much in progress … I introduce some movers and shakers, trace the human, social, ideological roots of the movement, as best I understand them, and explore how they relate to the whole political-cultural ecology that includes them, including the larger organizations around them, the political parties, and Wall Street itself. I explore the movement's spirit, so unusual in the annals of social movements, yet not without precedent: its leaderless-ness, its nonviolence, its rituals and obsessions, its divisions over conventional politics, over reform and revolution. I make some arguments about what seem to me the most promising directions, and worry about perils. I worry with this movement, not just about it. | This book is an initial report on something very much in progress … I introduce some movers and shakers, trace the human, social, ideological roots of the movement, as best I understand them, and explore how they relate to the whole political-cultural ecology that includes them, including the larger organizations around them, the political parties, and Wall Street itself. I explore the movement's spirit, so unusual in the annals of social movements, yet not without precedent: its leaderless-ness, its nonviolence, its rituals and obsessions, its divisions over conventional politics, over reform and revolution. I make some arguments about what seem to me the most promising directions, and worry about perils. I worry with this movement, not just about it. |
| In a live webchat, Gitlin will speak about the movement's successes and failures, and also tell us what he thinks about how big money – billions of dollars in election campaign and shadowy Super Pac spending – is affecting the nature of American democracy, which is routinely held up as an ideal to the rest of the world. | In a live webchat, Gitlin will speak about the movement's successes and failures, and also tell us what he thinks about how big money – billions of dollars in election campaign and shadowy Super Pac spending – is affecting the nature of American democracy, which is routinely held up as an ideal to the rest of the world. |
| Gitlin will be joined by three Occupy protesters – Laura Long from Occupy Oakland, Kelvin Ho from Occupy Chicago and David Osborn from Occupy Portland – who remain involved in a range of issues roiling America, from foreclosures to unemployment. | Gitlin will be joined by three Occupy protesters – Laura Long from Occupy Oakland, Kelvin Ho from Occupy Chicago and David Osborn from Occupy Portland – who remain involved in a range of issues roiling America, from foreclosures to unemployment. |
| Join us live at 1pm ET on Thursday, July 19, with your questions and comments for our panelists. Or use the comments section below, and we will put your thoughts to them. | Join us live at 1pm ET on Thursday, July 19, with your questions and comments for our panelists. Or use the comments section below, and we will put your thoughts to them. |