The Roots of Occupy 2.5

Revisiting 2011 to Build Resistance in 2025

By Sarah Langston
July 17, 2025 | 0700 EDT

As the anniversary of Occupy Chicago (September 23, 2011) passes, Occupy 2.5 reflects on its lineage and purpose. From early campaigns to race reckoning, here’s how key moments shaped the movement—and what that means today.

---

💰 1. Bank Transfer Day (November 6, 2011)

Originally intended to protest big-bank abuses, Bank Transfer Day prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans to move funds to credit unions—an act of consumer rebellion that echoed Occupy’s challenge to financial power (WPS.News, 2011a). The action showed that economic institutions—banks, credit systems—are political arenas, a lesson embraced by Occupy 2.5’s ecosystem of protest media and decentralized resistance.

---

🕒 2. Two Months into Occupy Chicago (November 19, 2011)

By November 19, 2011, although the tents had dissolved, Occupy Chicago remained vocal—especially at LaSalle & Jackson, in front of the Board of Trade and Federal Reserve (WPS.News, 2011b). This grassroots resilience—persisting without camp infrastructure—reflects today’s Occupy 2.5: decentralized, enduring, network-based.

---

✊ 3. Race, Representation & Reckoning (November 13, 2011)

WPS.News critically examined whether Occupy had adequately addressed racial exclusion (WPS.News, 2011c). Recognizing its limitations, the movement began grappling with internal bias. Occupy 2.5 honors that reckoning, prioritizing intersectionality and coalition-building from its outset.

---

🌐 The Mission of Occupy 2.5

Per [Occupy 2.5’s ‘About’ page][1], the project builds on these lessons: blending independent journalism, digital activism, satire, and innovative storytelling. Its aim is to craft a “continuum of dissent”—acknowledging historic missteps while forging a new model for protest in the digital age.

---

🔭 Beyond Reflection: From Memory to Momentum

• Commemorating economic agency: Revisiting Bank Transfer Day’s legacy with actionable consumer critiques in 2025.
• Championing decentralized resistance: Reviving energy from Occupy Chicago’s dispersal strategy for digital organizing.
• Reaffirming racial justice: Embedding anti-racist principles into all facets of Occupy 2.5’s work.

As Occupy 2.5 charts its course through 2025, understanding these roots isn’t nostalgia—it’s strategy. These stories offer a blueprint for global activists seeking systems change beyond slogans.

---

Read more about our mission at Occupy25.com/about

---

Archiving History: What We Lost—and What Remains—From Occupy Chicago

As Occupy 2.5 marks the 14th anniversary of Occupy Chicago, it confronts a difficult truth: much of its early visual record is gone. Archived footage from 2011–2012 is missing or broken due to platform shutdowns and hardware failure.

In May 2014, One True Media—a popular, free video-hosting tool used by activists—closed without providing download options (VideoProc, 2023; Defunct Brands, 2023). Without alternative backups, much eyewitness footage vanished. At the same time, physical drives—like the Toshiba Satellite external hard drive—far exceeded their expected lifespan (MTBF of around five years), ultimately failing and taking priceless video with them (Toshiba Storage, 2015; Reddit DataHoarder, 2022).

What remains lives in newer, more resilient formats. WPS.News still retains written reports and some visuals, while WTFM / WPS News Today on YouTube channels the surviving video archives—testament to the era’s grit. Yet the gaps are a stark reminder of how fragile protest memory can be.

Occupy 2.5’s mission page highlights the importance of archiving across platforms, formats, and formats—ensuring protest narratives persist beyond fleeting uploads. Today, content is backed up via cloud storage, mirrored servers, audio transcripts, and decentralized platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon.

This evolution underscores a key lesson: digital preservation is activism. Losing archives means erasing lived resistance. By fortifying its digital memory, Occupy 2.5 reinforces that protest isn’t just for the streets—it’s for history.