Occupy Wall Street organizer David Graeber dies at 59

David Graeber, a professor and activist who helped organize the Occupy Wall Street movement, died in Venice on Wednesday, his agent told The Associated Press. 

Graeber, 59, was a professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he studied anarchism and anti-capitalist movements. 

“We are very shocked and saddened to learn of David Graeber’s death,” the LSE tweeted. “David was a hugely influential anthropologist, political activist and public intellectual. He will be greatly missed as a friend and colleague. His brilliant work will be read by generations to come.”

We are very shocked and saddened to learn of David Graeber’s death. David was a hugely influential anthropologist, political activist and public intellectual. He will be greatly missed as a friend and colleague. His brilliant work will be read by generations to come. pic.twitter.com/wnZp4xGOaT

— LSE Anthropology (@LSEAnthropology) September 3, 2020

His wife, Nika Dubrovsky, tweeted that Graeber died in a hospital in Venice but did not specify a cause. 

“Yesterday the best person in a world, my husband and my friend .@davidgraeber died in a hospital in Venice,” she tweeted. 

Graeber was born in New York City to activist parents. He was an academic at several institutions, including Yale University and eventually the LSE. 

He was best known for his work organizing Occupy Wall Street, a grassroots response to the 2008 financial crisis, which, through a series of demonstrations, sought to point out economic inequalities in the country, particularly the fact that the richest 1 percent of the population dominated the U.S. economy.