The Legacy of Occupy Wall Street, with Ruth Milkman and Nastaran Mohit

When Occupy Wall Street emerged a decade ago in a tiny park in the Financial District of New York City, it was met with skepticism among some activists. But as the occupation persisted and eventually spiraled into a global protest movement, that cynicism began to yield to inspiration, even for seasoned activists and organizers. Though Occupy didn’t last very long, its enduring afterglow has shaped many subsequent campaigns and movements, including some leaders in the labor movement. In this second installment of our two-part series on Occupy, we discuss the movement’s ramifications for organizing and class consciousness in New York and beyond, with Ruth Milkman, labor scholar at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies and co-author of a landmark study on the participants of Occupy Wall Street, and Nastaran Mohit, Organizing Director of the NewsGuild of New York.