Perilous
Times
Occupy Wall Street protests booming world-wide after one
month
October 18, 2011
AFP
The month-old Occupy Wall Street movement is enjoying new
momentum, with nearly $US300,000 ($A296,369) in the bank and the
satisfaction of drawing global attention to what it sees as major
economic inequalities.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed sympathy with the
protesters, and even protest-averse China said some issues raised
are worth considering.
From a few dozen people camping out in a small Manhattan park near
the rising World Trade Centre complex, the movement swelled to
hundreds of thousands of people rallying around the world this
weekend and numerous encampments springing up in cities large and
small.
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Hundreds of protesters on Monday mingled with bemused bank workers
in a new tent camp outside London's St Paul's Cathedral. But in
Seattle, police arrested people who wouldn't move their tents from
a park.
The UN leader said the finance chiefs from the Group of 20 rich
and developing nations, now meeting in Paris, should listen to the
demonstrators. "Business as usual, or just looking at their own
internal economic issues, will not give any answers to a very
serious international economic crisis," Ban said.
"That is what you are seeing all around the world, starting from
Wall Street, people are showing their frustrations, are trying to
send a very clear and unambiguous message around the world."
The Wall Street protesters still haven't settled on a specific
demand but are intent on building on momentum gained from
Saturday's worldwide demonstrations, which drew hundreds of
thousands of people, mostly in the US and Europe.
President Barack Obama referred to the protests during 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 demonising those who work there".
The largest of Saturday's protests were in Europe, linking up with
long-running demonstrations against government austerity measures.
In Rome, hundreds of rioters infiltrated a march by tens of
thousands of demonstrators, causing what the mayor estimated was
at least 1 million euros ($A1.36 million) in damage. Hundreds of
thousands turned out in peaceful protests across the continent,
including in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Austria and
France.
Around the US, more than 350 people were arrested in a half-dozen
cities during protests. On Monday, prosecutors dropped charges
against civil rights activist Cornel West and 18 others who were
arrested while protesting on the steps of the US Supreme Court in
Washington.
Interest in the demonstrations over economic inequality even
reached China, where online calls for similar protests did not
appear to elicit any responses.
"We feel that there are issues here that are worth pondering,"
said Liu Weimin, a foreign ministry spokesman during a regular
briefing in Beijing on Monday.
In New York, $US300,000 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.
Donated goods range from blankets and sleeping bags to cans of
food and medical and hygienic supplies. 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, said Justin Strekal, a college student and
political organiser who travelled from Cleveland to New York to
help.
"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."