Before Zuccotti Park

My involvement in what became Occupy Wall Street began in July 2011, before the September 17 occupation of Zuccotti Park. I responded to an appeal circulated by @AnonymousIRC and began supporting the emerging movement through Twitter. During the heady days of Occupy, I promoted and communicated with occupations in as many cities as I could reach. I was participating electronically in the national movement; I do not claim to have been physically at Zuccotti Park during the occupation.

Occupy Chicago: A firsthand record

I became physically involved with Occupy Chicago and remained connected through its later stages. There was no single clean ending to Occupy Chicago. The movement appeared to end more than once, and people continued trying to keep it going. I recorded extensive original video footage. The surviving recordings, including a raw-footage collection and a compiled collection, are part of the historical record. I did not film the last few meetings, so the footage is extensive but not complete.

After the encampments

Clearing an encampment did not resolve the problems that brought people into the streets: inequality, political capture, concentrated corporate power, and the distance between public institutions and ordinary people. After Occupy Chicago lost its street presence, I continued working independently through writing, archiving, and public commentary. The methods changed; the underlying commitment did not.

Occupy 2.5 and WPS News

I operate Occupy 2.5 at occupy25.com as an independent activist publication. Its original WordPress site was established before June 25, 2024, the earliest archive capture we have identified; it sat largely dormant before developing into an active publication in 2024. Its precise founding date remains unverified. I also operate WPS News at wps.news, an independent news knowledge base. It preserves material about the United States and the wider world. Decisions made in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, and elsewhere have consequences across borders. We all live here, and people everywhere bear the costs of war, authoritarianism, exploitation, and reckless leadership. WPS News is an archive, not a claim to be a conventional newsroom.

Preserving Occupy Chicago in 2026

In September 2026, WPS News began a planned 26-part Occupy Chicago retrospective. Seven installments had been published by October 19, 2026. The series complements my contemporary writing from 2011 and the surviving original videos. Together these materials preserve not just an interpretation of Occupy, but firsthand evidence of participation and what happened in Chicago.

The warning in print

My political concerns preceded Occupy. I wrote Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies in 2006, examining trends that I feared could lead toward increasingly authoritarian government and an unhealthy concentration of power. Vortex Press published it in 2008, as the Great Recession began. After that publisher disappeared and the rights returned to me, I revised the book and republished it through Lulu.com in 2014 as Conspirators, Confederates, and Christians. It is available through Amazon. I was not the only person who saw warning signs; my contribution was to document what I saw.

Music as continuing protest

My work now also includes music released as Cliff Potts & the AI Rebellion. The songs are not limited to Occupy itself. Across a broader catalog, I use satire, storytelling, and AI-assisted musical production to address the ongoing struggles of ordinary people: economic insecurity, inequality, political power, conflict, and the human cost of decisions made far away. Much of my perspective comes from the United States, but the people affected are part of a much larger world. Two confirmed 2026 releases are Occupy Chicago: 15 Years Later, a two-track single released September 18, and Mark Your Name, released October 16. I have already shared the Occupy Chicago recording with Jerry Ashton. As of October 19, 2026, the total streaming revenue from my music was five cents. I do not do this for income; I do it because the work and the record matter.

Still fighting from the Philippines

I now live in the Philippines for a mixture of personal, practical, and political reasons. I am deeply opposed to the authoritarian direction I see in American politics, and living abroad has only made the international consequences of government actions more apparent. I am nearly 69. I have lost my wife and my son, and I have lived through other difficulties I do not need to catalogue here. I cannot be on every street corner or attend every demonstration. But I can still write, publish, document, preserve footage, and make music. None of this has been a profitable undertaking. It has been an attempt to keep faith with the people and the questions that brought me into Occupy in 2011.

What survived

The police could clear the streets and remove the tents. They could not make the economic and democratic questions disappear. Occupy was more than an encampment. For me, it became a continuing responsibility to challenge power and preserve the record. Fifteen years later, I am still doing that work. The occupation left the streets. The idea did not. And neither did I.

Historical sources and links

Occupy 2.5: https://occupy25.com

WPS News: https://wps.news

For the Sake of the Record (November 3, 2011): https://wps.news/2011/11/03/for-the-sake-of-the-record/

Raw Occupy Chicago videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMth54cIzxDLu-rJo9b-XZg4kZKzSAO1t

Compiled Occupy Chicago videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMth54cIzxDKmiiAXT478G9eN4jll2VIT

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 1: https://wps.news/2026/09/05/ochi-1-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 2: https://wps.news/2026/09/12/ochi-2-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 3: https://wps.news/2026/09/19/ochi-3-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 4: https://wps.news/2026/09/26/ochi-4-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 5: https://wps.news/2026/10/03/ochi-5-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 6: https://wps.news/2026/10/10/ochi-6-of-26/

Occupy Chicago retrospective, installment 7: https://wps.news/2026/10/17/chicago-streets-7-of-26/

By Cliff Potts

Cliff Potts became involved in the emerging Occupy movement in July 2011, before the occupation of Zuccotti Park began. Working through Twitter and other social media, he promoted and supported Occupy actions across the United States before becoming directly involved with Occupy Chicago, where he recorded original video footage and participated in the movement through its later stages.

Following the decline of the street occupations, Potts continued documenting political and economic issues independently. He operates Occupy 2.5 (occupy25.com), an activist publication, and WPS News (wps.news), an independent international news knowledge base. His work includes books, historical essays, a 26-part Occupy Chicago retrospective, archival video collections, and protest-oriented music released as Cliff Potts & the AI Rebellion.

Now living in Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines, Potts continues his independent publishing and archival work fifteen years after joining Occupy. His central message remains unchanged: the physical occupations ended, but the struggle for economic justice, democratic accountability, and human dignity continues.