Most of the articles in this edition of Overland were written before the Occupy Together movement began. The issue was finished as occupations spread to more than 80 countries and 1000 cities, in the biggest wave of international protest since the Iraq war. In Melbourne, where Overland’s based, Occupy demonstrators were violently dispersed in an extraordinary police operation. As we go to press, crackdowns are scheduled for other cities across the world.

Occupy Together has been criticised for not articulating a coherent list of demands. But what the movement has done is create space for debate, radically rupturing the bipartisan consensus around focus group politics and neoliberal economics. And that’s an incredibly important accomplishment.

We see Overland’s project as something similar. The journal provides a place where progressives can argue ideas, can formulate alternatives to a status quo in which the wealthiest 1 per cent of adults own 40 per cent of all assets and the poorest half of the population make do with 1 per cent of global wealth.

Suddenly, these are exciting times. We don’t know what will emerge from the current tumult but we’re confident that Overland will be part of it.