These protests are an organizing tool…this allows us to show the how the income of the 99% has declined at the same time as union membership declined. We need to start occupying workplaces, we need to organize and take back or we become a corporate society. We should not be afraid to organize. This is an educational opportunity for unions.

Before Wisconsin AFSCME member Tim Birkley's trip to Occupy Wall Street to "explore the connection between the February occupation of his capitol by thousands of teachers, students and state workers and the occupations happening across the country and around the world," he told Mark E. Andersen that:

Who would have thought, in the wake of the 2010 elections, that we would see a year with so much joyous, determined activism on the left?