To our Readers and fellow Activists everywhere,

Four years ago this week, a group of journalists, artists, activists and media mavericks working out of a small office in New York launched Occupy.com. Several of us were editors who, six months earlier, had founded the Occupied Wall Street Journal, the flagship newspaper of the Occupy movement. Others were web developers, music producers, art curators, photographers, social media experts and production designers. Our goal: to create a robust media channel providing a new, unique lens from the perspective of the 99%, reporting and helping drive the economic, environmental, political and social changes ushered in by Occupy Wall Street.

It didn’t matter that people left the parks. What mattered was that Occupy had created a new vocabulary, changed the national conversation, and initiated a new era of global protest. As a media organization birthed from the movement, we saw it as our mission to maintain that lens, to help expand that vocabulary, that conversation, that protest.

The establishment loves to claim that Occupy was only a flash in the pan; that it vanished almost as immediately as it arrived. But on this day of reflection and anniversary, we’d like to remind our readers that history is already telling a very different story. Since 2011, the popular energy stirred by Occupy has shaped dozens of movements driving impacts across America and across the world. Black Lives Matter. Fight for $15. $50 billion in fossil fuel divestment. For-profit colleges shuttered because of student debt resistance. Abroad, Occupy Central rocked the streets of Hong Kong while protesters from Brazil to Turkey to Ukraine seized the Occupy mantle to direct their own movements for social change.

And let’s not forget: Senator Bernie Sanders’s impassioned campaign for the Democratic presidential ticket is built on two of Occupy’s primary issues: income inequality and the need to break up “too big to fail” banks.

The eruption that occurred at Zuccotti Park redrew the lines of civic protest and political engagement in America and across the globe. And for the past four years, Occupy.com has been there every step of the way, documenting and reinforcing the importance of these movements. We continue to be an unsponsored, independent, non-profit media organization dedicated to our original mission.

We are now at a crossroads and the blunt reality is this: we need your ongoing, committed support in order to be sustainable. Occupy.com requires resources to pay writers, editors and videographers, to cover stories of regional and international importance, and to continue providing top-quality, on-the-ground reporting of issues that matter to you most. If you value what we do, we need to know it. Please help Occupy.com so that we can continue our work.

We run a lean, publicly sponsored News & Media site that relies exclusively on readers like you for support. We are in this because we believe systemic change is needed to save our planet and to shift the balance of power between the 99% and the 1%. We think you agree. You may not feel your voice is represented in the political and economic spheres of power, or in the corporate media. But you know it is represented here.

Media everywhere is scrambling economically. We are grateful for any and all of the financial and moral support you can provide. To be sustainable, we need recurring monthly donors. Translation: for the price of a couple of coffees per month, you can keep Occupy.com running. We’re asking not only for your help by becoming a monthly donor, but also by helping others to become involved as well. Share our articles and videos with your friends. Tell people why you support our work. Please send us any ideas, comments or criticism, so that we can communicate with you directly, contact us.

Like the Occupy movement, we believe in a bottom-up approach: People Power delivering collective action. That is why, as Occupy.com celebrates its 4th year, we want to take this moment to remind you and ourselves why we are doing what we do—and to seek your support, as well as your feedback, so that we continue to provide you with the high-level work you’ve come to expect. Another world is possible, and we’re helping to envision it every day. We look forward to your support!

- The Occupy.com Team

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