NEW YORK - October 17, 2011
The expanding occupation of land once limited to a small
Manhattan park in the shadow of the rising World Trade Center
complex continued through the weekend, with hundreds of thousands
of people rallying around the world and numerous encampments
springing up in cities large and small.
For the most part, the protest action remained loosely organized
and there were no specific demands, something Legba Carrefour, a
participant in the Occupy D.C. protest, found comforting on Sunday.
"When movements come up with specific demands, they cease to be
movements and transform into political campaign rallies," said
Carrefour, who works as a coat check attendant despite holding a
master's degree in cultural studies. "It's compelling a lot of
people to come out for their own reasons rather than the reasons
that someone else has given to them."
The demonstrations worldwide have emboldened those camped out at
Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the movement that began
a month ago Monday. But there is conflict too. Some protesters
eventually want the movement to rally around a goal, while others
insist that isn't the point.
"We're moving fast, without a hierarchical structure and lots
of gears turning," said Justin Strekal, a college student and
political organizer who traveled from Cleveland to New York to
help. " Egos are clashing, but this is participatory democracy
in a little park."
Even if the protesters were barred from camping in Zuccotti
Park, as the property owner and the city briefly threatened to do
last week, the movement would continue, Strekal said.
Wall Street protesters are intent on building on momentum gained
from Saturday's worldwide demonstrations, which drew hundreds of
thousands of people, mostly in the U.S. and Europe.
Nearly $300,000 in cash has been donated through the movement's
website and by visitors to the park, said Bill Dobbs, a press
liaison for Occupy Wall Street. The movement has an account at
Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as "the only 100 percent
union-owned bank in the United States."
Donated goods ranging from blankets and sleeping bags to cans of
food and medical and hygienic supplies are being stored in a
cavernous space donated by the United Federation of Teachers, which
has offices in the building a block from Wall Street near the
private park protesters occupy.
Among the items are 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shield
protesters from pepper-spray attacks). Supporters are shipping
about 300 boxes a day, many with notes and letters, Strekal said.
"Some are heartwrenching, beautiful," and come from people who
have lost jobs and houses, he said. "So they send what they can,
even if it's small."
Strekal said donated goods, stored for a "long-term
occupation," have been used to create "Jail Support" kits
consisting of a blanket, a granola bar and sanitary wipes for
arrested protesters to receive when they are freed.
The movement has become an issue in the Republican presidential
primary race and beyond, with politicians from both parties under
pressure to weigh in.
President Barack Obama referred to the protests at Sunday's
dedication of a monument for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the
civil rights leader "would want us to challenge the excesses of
Wall Street without demonizing those who work there."
Many of the largest of Saturday's protests were in Europe, where
those involved in long-running demonstrations against austerity
measures declared common cause with the Occupy Wall Street
movement. In Rome, hundreds of rioters infiltrated a march by tens
of thousands of demonstrators, causing what the mayor estimated was
at least euro1 million ($1.4 million) in damage to city property.
U.S. cities large and small were "occupied" over the weekend:
Washington, D.C., Fairbanks, Alaska, Burlington, Vt., Rapid City,
S.D., and Cheyenne, Wyo. were just a few. In Cincinnati, protesters
were even invited to take pictures with a couple getting married;
the bride and groom are Occupied Cincinnati supporters.
More than 70 New York protesters were arrested Saturday, more
than 40 of them in Times Square. About 175 people were arrested in
Chicago after they refused to leave a park where they were camped
late Saturday, and there were about 100 arrests in Arizona - 53 in
Tucson and 46 in Phoenix - after protesters refused police orders
to disperse. About two dozen people were arrested in Denver, and in
Sacramento, Calif., anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was among about
20 people arrested after failing to follow police orders to
disperse.
Activists around the country said Saturday's protests energized
their movement.
"It's an upward trajectory," said John St. Lawrence, a Florida
real estate lawyer who took part in Saturday's Occupy Orlando
protest, which drew more than 1,500 people. "It's catching
people's imagination and also, knock on wood, nothing sort of
negative or discrediting has happened."
St. Lawrence is among those unconcerned that the movement has
not rallied around any particular proposal.
"I don't think the underlying theme is a mystery," he said.
"We saw what the banks and financial institutions did to the
economy. We bailed them out. And then they went about evicting
people from their homes," he said.
In Richmond, Va., about 75 people gathered Sunday for one of the
"general assembly" meetings that are a key part of the movement's
consensus-building process. Protester Whitney Whiting, a video
editor, said the process has helped "gather voices" about
Americans' discontent.
"In regards to a singular issue or a singular focus, I think
that will come eventually. But right now we have to set up a space
for that to happen," Whiting said.
Some U.S. protesters, like those in Europe, have their own
causes. Unions that have joined forces with the movement have
demands of their own, and on Sunday members of the newly formed
Occupy Pittsburgh group demanded that Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
pay back money they allege it overcharged public pension funds
around the country.
New York's attorney general and New York City sued BNY Mellon
this month, accusing it of defrauding clients in foreign currency
exchange transactions that generated nearly $2 billion over 10
years. The company has vowed to fight the lawsuit and had no
comment about the protesters' allegation about pensions.
Lisa Deaton, a tea party leader from southern Indiana, said she
sees similarities between how the tea party movement and the Wall
Street protests began: "We got up and we wanted to vent."
But the critical step, she said, was taking that emotion and
focusing it toward changing government.
The first rally she organized drew more than 2,500 people, but
afterward, "it was like, `What do we do?"' she said. "You can't
have a concert every weekend."
---
Associated Press writers Suzette Laboy in Miami, Steve Szkotak
in Richmond, Va., Kevin Begos in Pittsburgh, Laurie Kellman, Ben
Nuckols and Stacy A. Anderson in Washington, Tom LoBianco in
Indianapolis, Sophia Tareen and Carla K. Johnson in Chicago
contributed to this report.
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