Read Occupiers Journal

A message from Democracy for America:

An important part of what sets the Occupy Wall Street movement apart is its leaderless organizing and organic growth. No one person or organization leads it. That's also why no one person or organization can stop it. No one person owns it. We all own it. Because of that, it can be hard sometimes to find out what's really going on.

You can follow the blog or watch the live stream at OccupyWallStreet.org. You can get up to the minute updates by following the many hastags on Twitter. But for me that's not enough. Since I can't be there on the ground, I always want to know what it really feels like at the occupations in New York and other cities across the country -- the personal, gritty stuff the big news media sources won't tell you. Real stories from real people taking part everyday on the ground.

That's why we've created "The Occupiers Journal" -- first-hand accounts, personal stories and regular updates from DFA members taking part on the ground, in the middle of all the action.

Sign up here to receive these first-person stories from Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The idea started from a personal email from Josh Silverstein, a leader of the local DFA group Democracy for New York City. He was there for that inspirational moment last Friday when the police and Mayor Bloomberg backed down and the thousands of protesters in Zuccotti Park won their right to stay there.

Here's part of what he wrote:

At about 5:30am, I happened upon a large crowd where at the center were several of the people in the @directaction group. They were unsure of how large the crowd was going to be so there was discussion of a back-up plan. Apparently they were going to try to hold a portion of the park.

Then just before 6:00am the crowd swelled to encompass the entirety of the park and people were increasingly pumped and excited, many of whom had seemed to be visiting the park for the very first time (I heard several perplexed protesters asking why people said "mic check.")

Then the very people of @directaction I had been speaking with an hour before convened a General Assembly and went over the plan, which was to have those willing to be arrested stand on the perimeter of the park and lock arms and then those not willing to be arrested to go across the street. Nearly everyone at the General Assembly raised their hands indicating they'd stay in the park. We started going over what to expect if you are arrested and then the breaking news was announced that Brookfield Properties retreated from their threat to "clean" the park and were willing to work with protesters and let them stay. Cheers immediately broke out and a band soon started parading through the crowd.

We beat Bloomberg and Brookfield properties back from trying to retake the park!

We're going to collect as many as these kinds of stories as we can and send out at least one a week -- or whenever something big happens. Sign up here if you'd like to get them.

Together, we will fight and we will win.

In solidarity,

- Gregg Ross, Political Campaign Manager
Democracy for America