A tri-fold pamphlet introducing the New York City General Assembly
Label
A tri-fold pamphlet introducing the New York City General Assembly
Creator
Occupy Wall Street General Assembly; Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group
Object Type
Pamphlets
Description
Occupy Wall Street's New York City General Assembly (NYCGA) was the decision-making body for the movement. As a decision-making body, NYCGA based its principles and strategies in anarchist praxis and functioned horizontally, using a modified-consensus-based system. In a spokes-council model, the General Assembly was comprised of multiple working groups who organized autonomously around issues like access to/distribution of food, media and communications, direct action, legal support, and more. The Archives Working Group, who donated a large collection of records created during the course of the Occupy movement, the records of which comprise this exhibit, were one such group at Occupy. The NYCGA took inspiration from similar assemblies that operated in Egypt's Tahrir Square and Madrid's Puerta del Sol. The use of the "people's mic," an organic way to amplify speech through repetition, was popularized at the General Assembly. This three page, tri-fold pamphlet is a kind of primer to the NYCGA, introducing the reader to how the NYCGA operates and inviting the reader to join. In the weeks following Occupy's eviction from Zuccotti, joining the GA became more challenging as police refused individuals carrying large bags entry into the park. Facilitators for the GA began to allow emergency proposals to be made without having them first circulate in advance, and activists took to live-tweeting the GA in order to communicate broadly.
Image Description
On the cover of this tri-fold pamphlet is a foregrounded image of the Wall Street bull with a dancer pirouetting on its back. Behind the bull, in the background, a protest street battle ensues with a haze of teargas and protestors wearing gas masks. The pamphlet, produced in black and white, is titled NYC General Assembly. In its interior there are two black and white images of protestors holding protest signs under a section called "Occupy Wall Street—Background." There is a section called “NYC General Assembly—How It Works,” and a third section on the various groups that comprise the General Assembly. The final section provides four photographs of hand gestures used to communicate during the General Assembly. The back page of the pamphlet offers contact information and directions
Citation
General Assembly pamphlet, circa 2011-2012; TAM.630 Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group Records; box 36, folder 3; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University