Arun K. Gupta

Join us! We are back on the road, telling the unique stories of the Occupy Movement!

Dear Friends,

As we were leaving Tucson last week after three days filled with meetings, interviews and debates about the Occupy movement, a local activist came up to us and said, “Your visit has energized the movement here.”

That one statement was the highest praise we could have ever wished for. When we started on this journey last fall, we didn’t know what to expect. What we discovered was the inklings of a new world in the unlikeliest places: from the Deep South and inner cities to rural plains and crumbling suburbs.

Now we are criss-crossing the country again to report on the Spring Awakening, and we have found a movement that has taken root in many places and which is growing in unexpected directions, whether it’s by attracting older activists who’ve been at it for decades or giving working-class people hope in a hard world.

We’ve just begun our trip, and there are so many tales to tell, but we need your help to make it happen. Please donate today so we can keep bringing important stories to light.

We strive to give life to the deeply moving words and images of people like Guadalupe Barrios, who is organizing Mexican-American youth in an immigrant-hostile Arizona; Amalia, an indigenous lesbian who is part of a resistance movement more than 400 years old in New Mexico; and Beth Stephens, an artist in San Francisco who has turned her neighborhood into a model for the anti-foreclosure movement.

For more than six months we have been telling stories like these in outlets like Salon, The Nation, The Guardian, The Progressive, Truthout, Free Speech TV, Al Jazeera and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. We’re reaching millions of people, and many occupiers have made a point to tell us that our reporting has brought them favorable attention and new activists.

But we can’t do it without you. Every bit matters, whether it’s $15, $50 or $200. Your support enables us to publish the words, ideas and images of the 99% from the bottom up across the country.

Many editors tell us because we have visited more than 35 occupations in 24 states (and counting), no other reporters can offer such a combination of sweeping analysis and on-the-ground observation.

We are not backed by corporate dollars or wealthy benefactors. We edit videos and write articles in coffee shops, sleep in backwater motels and eat sandwiches out of a cooler. But we love it. Reporting on this amazing social movement is the most inspiring thing we have ever done. And despite the perils and pitfalls on the road ahead, we have great hopes that the Occupy movement can profoundly change our society for the better.

Please help make that happen by contributing today!

Thank you,

michelle and arun

P.S. Make this a 99%-powered campaign by forwarding this message to your friends and encouraging them to donate as well!

Hey there,

Last week we went to Southern California’s Inland Empire to report on an Occupy action to shut down Walmart warehouse distribution centers. If you have never been there, it’s where the American dream degenerates into a landscape of mammoth sprawl, endless highways and rank consumerism. A few hundred people from five different occupations showed up at sunrise in support of hundreds of low-wage workers enduring abusive conditions in Walmart’s gigantic warehouses.

We were with protesters the whole day, and it was a moment where you can see the idealism of a new social movement crashing into the harsh reality of workers scraping by in a crumbling society. You can read the article here: http://occupyusatoday.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3e3faca56242aece8e20ba5bb&id=29cef8daa6&e=930dda90cf

We’re going to have plenty of new articles coming out, most of which will be on Salon. Next week we have an article coming out in The Nation. All our articles, films and updates are available on our website, occupyusatoday.com.

Best,
Arun Gupta and Michelle Fawcett