In cities all over the world and across the U.S., thousands of protesters gathered yesterday inspired by Occupy Wall St – hundreds were arrested in various cities around the U.S. More reports to come!
New York City
The day started with an anti-war march through Manhattan ending at Zuccotti Park / Liberty Plaza (which still hasn’t been shut down). An estimated 15,000 people shut down Times Square, chanting, "We are unstoppable – another world is possible!" Thousands more gathered in Washington Sq. Park and marches and rallies popped up across the city. World Can’t Wait organizer on the scene reported "people are high on struggle like I haven’t seen in decades."
Artist who created the giant drone model at the march:
The photo to the right was taken at Wall Street and Broadway and was part of a walking display organized by World Can’t Wait that featured sheets wrapped in a way so as to appear as burial wrappings for babies killed by drones. The march route from Wall Street uptown was blocked periodically by construction scaffolding, so I took the drone directly to Times Square by car and set it up near the Recruiting Station there, aided by two friends who handled the drone while I parked the car.
It was a position of great visibility and opportunity to talk with people and answer questions; many, many photos were taken by those in the crowd and tourists.
The march itself was a tremendous experience because of the huge, immensely spirited crowd and the very clever and apt signs.
It is a great privilege to be able to experience this awakening.
NYC World Can’t Wait began the day’s marches with a drone tableau (a large, mobile representation of a drone, a funeral procession with people carrying representations of dead babies and our “Out of Iraq and Afghanistan – Not in Our Name banner) as part of the UNAC march starting from Wall St. and Broadway. We marched around Zuccotti Park handing out fliers. This part of the march was spirited if the crowd was decidedly sparse being that there were several marches and demos going on, so people were in various places.
Our anti-war group then marched with others from the “Occupy Wall Street” to Washington Square Park. As we grew, the anti-war part got smaller proportionately, while the whole thing got larger but we remained an integral part of the whole.
At Washington Square there was a student event going on. Everything melded – plus there was a bank action right nearby. From there we all marched up to Times Square. From then on, lots and lots of people joined in and the proportions of those with anti-war posters and banners grew smaller and the chants of “We are the 99%” and “The banks got bailed out, we got sold out“ dominated.
The march grew from hundreds to thousands. We marched on the sidewalks on both sides of Sixth Ave. It took a long time to get to Times Square as there were so many of us. When we got to 42nd Street, Times Square was already packed so the cops had us continue up to 46th St.
We were able to turn west there but then were forced to remain on 46th St. and didn’t get in to Times Sq. itself.
The cops got rather riotous at that point. Lots of white shirts and suits went running down the block, with lots of plastic handcuffs, motorcycles. We could see horses further down.
On 47th Street police blocked people from entering the Times Square area and several people were arrested. On our block not much happened though. They tried to boss us around with the megaphones (“Walk east on 46th Street” to get us out of the area) but people stood their ground – all kinds of people, not just the usual protesters. The crowd chanted that we were a non-violent demonstration, that the whole world was watching and basically refused to move.
Eventually, people started filing out of the side streets around Times Sq. There was a report that there’d be an “Occupy Wall Street” general assembly at 10 pm in Washington Sq. That’s when we left.
We had many interesting conversations, interactions and observations throughout the day. People are recognizing all sorts of things and have basically had enough of the status quo. Now that they see numbers of people coming out, they feel more comfortable doing it and saying what they’re seeing and feeling and experiencing. We were all in it together. People were eager to take one of the 2,000 World Can’t Wait fliers we distributed, buy every anti-war button we had and to take pictures of our “Our of Iraq and Afghanistan” banner.
Despite the crowd control measures of the NYPD, which were overdone in all ways, it was a great day! It feels as if people have woken up! We have entered a new stage. We have joined the rest of the world. This is the positive side of globalization.
Chicago
World Can’t Wait joined Occupy Chicago in a march that brought thousands to downtown Chicago Saturday night. It started with a rally at Jackson and Lasalle, outside the Federal Reserve Bank, and ended at Michigan and Congress where protestors set up tents. Marchers represented all types of people – young, old, families, veterans, teachers and more. They were angry about high unemployment, Wall Street bailouts, corporate greed and endless wars. Activists and several union representatives, including the Chicago Teachers Union and the Teamsters, spoke at a rally at the end of the march. Anthony, member of Chicago World Can’t Wait and Iraq veteran, spoke about raising our voices in resistance at Occupy Chicago and everywhere to end U.S. wars.
People set up about 2 dozen tents in Grant Park with the goal of staying the night to draw attention to corporate abuse and express solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Police arrested 175 protesters with a misdemeanor violation of city ordinance for not leaving the park after it closed at 11 p.m.
The Chicago group has protested outside the Fed around-the-clock for 23 days. The protesters have been non-violent.
Crowds gathered at 6:30 pm at LaSalle and Jackson where the Federal Resrve is located and where for 23 days Occupy Chicago has been holding daily protests. For 23 days the protesters have complied with every order and request of the CPD…Last night however, in solidarity with the Global Day of Action Occupy Chicago with over 2000 people marched to Michigan and Congress (Grant Park) it’s new home where a tent city was erected. Chicago World Can’t Wait played a significant role in last night’s protest…carrying the infamous and most photographed banner of World Can’t Wait: "War Crimes Must Be Stopped No Matter Who Does Them" with the mugshots of Bush and Obama. Again last night people photographed our banner over and over again…we were thanked by people in the march for bringing this this message there and by folks in the square. The night was full of heart felt speeches, including from Anthony Wagner Iraq veteran who has toured with We Are Not Your Soldiers.
At one point during his speech Anthony Wagner expressed his support of these occupations by saying "These are good occupations not those ones in Iraq and Afghanistan." There were several speeches with anti-war component to them. At about 10:30 pm a message was communicated through the human microphone saying that the CPD said that anyone in the park at after 11 pm would be in violation of a city ordinance. Throughout the night the protesters talked and chanted about how it was our right to occupy and that we would not move. This message was related 2 or 3 more times. During this time, after seeing reports of the Times Square demo and the chant that developed there "We are Unstoppable, a better world is possible!" We decided to take that chant up here…soon the whole park was filled with this beautiful and bold sentiment. At about 1230 people began forming a tight grouping around the tents…soon a human chain was formed. The CPD moved in slowly and began arresting people and removing the tents…in some cases they demanded that peoplle in tents come out. One tent was slashed open with knives because occupiers refused to come out.
Over 200 people were arrested, including a World Can’t Wait activist, who since been released. Taking lessons from NYPD the CPD used two CTA buses to transport some of those arrested. A group of about 50 people went to the police precinct and waited outside in solidarity with those arrested…the mood was very high and spirited as people were released through out the early morning hours and people were committed to going back to the park today. This is by no means over…it’s just the beginning!
San Francisco
Photo from The Chronicle. More reports to come.
Los Angeles
Boston
