Drumming all day isn't going to pay your rent.
So get smart and get off the streets.
Evicted Wall St protesters seek rebound with rally
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to rebound on Thursday with a march on the New York Stock Exchange to show their battle against economic inequality still has life after they were evicted from a nearby park.
Most rallies by the two-month-old movement have numbered in the hundreds of people in New York but protesters and city officials expect thousands of demonstrators to pour into the Wall Street area from 7 a.m. to try to stop workers from getting to their desks in the financial district.
It will be a test of whether Occupy Wall Street and the loose-knit global alliance it inspired will flag or grow after police cleared a camp of hundreds of protesters from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan on Tuesday.
"This movement is really not about tents as much as it is about an idea," said spokesman Ed Needham. "There's also going to be events in 100 countries around the world tomorrow."
Occupy Wall Street plans to shut down the home of the New York Stock Exchange and the heart of American capitalism to kick off a day of protests. But the movement acknowledged tight security was likely to prevent protesters from getting close to the stock exchange.
Another protest spokesman, Mark Bray, said "the idea is to inconvenience Wall Street bankers going to work, not to hurt anyone. We are committed to nonviolent civil disobedience."
Authorities were prepared for a possible influx of tens of thousands of protesters and aimed to balance public safety with their right to free speech and assembly, said Howard Wolfson, a New York deputy mayor.
"We take it seriously," he told reporters. "Our forces will be deployed accordingly."
Protesters say they are upset that billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks during the recession allowed a return to huge profits while average Americans have had no relief from high unemployment and a struggling economy.
They also believe the richest 1 percent of Americans do not pay their fair share of taxes.
In San Francisco, police arrested 95 anti-Wall Street demonstrators on Wednesday after protesters entered a Bank of America branch in the city's financial district and set up a tent inside.
"We are the 99 percent," the protesters chanted as they were being arrested.
"NEED A SHOW OF SUPPORT"
The Zuccotti Park camp was set up on September 17 and became the epicenter for the movement, sparking rallies and occupations of public spaces across the United States and elsewhere in the world.
After the police cleared the park and it was cleaned, demonstrators were allowed to return but were banned from setting up camp again. Numbers dwindled to less than two dozen overnight on Wednesday.
"I was dismayed by the number of people who stayed," said Sam DeLily, 23, from the New York borough of Queens. "I was disappointed that more people didn't realize we'd need a show of support last night more than ever." A couple of dozen protesters took refuge at two Manhattan churches that offered them a place to sleep. Hundreds more were put up by New Yorkers who offered their homes, Needham said.
The clearing of the Occupy camp in New York followed recent evictions in Atlanta, Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City. Unlike action in Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, most protesters left voluntarily.
The movement has a large donated space near Zuccotti Park where it has been storing thousands of items such as clothing, medical supplies, canned food and toiletries. "We're going to sit tight and see what direction this takes," protest spokesman Nathan Stueve said when asked what would happen to the donated goods in the storage space.
The protesters in New York have also raised more than $500,000. Organizers had allocated that money for food, medical care, laundry and communications. They said on Wednesday they would still use the money for those purposes.
"We're going to occupy this park for a long time," said Jason Holmza, 30, of Washington state. "Right now we've got to figure out where to turn our attention to."
(Writing by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman, Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Mark Egan, John O'Callaghan and Peter Cooney)
3 comments:
idon't see these people as being really stupid except in the fact that they did not make it common factor that what they need is jobs. wall street is in part responsible for this, also our gov., invest in the u.s., forget about turkey,india,mexico,etc. we need a more powerful economic structure,and that starts with jobs, we want to end welfare,we want to own homes,have a good life for our families, we want jobs for the people to get them off welfare, retirement ages have been raised{this means jobs for older people}people graduating high school,and college need jobs,people coming out of military service need jobs,the main attitude of most americans is shut up and get a job. go out and stry to support your family in this economy with a min. wage job,lol, meaning this time lots of luck. the rich don;t even want to invest in our country.all these mills in the south were moved to mexico,india,and all over. people are actually inporting people from other countries to fill jobs in these large corp. or buss. anymore a working class hero is nothing to be if you are american. so thesec people need to get their act together, and put it out there, that their plight and the position they hold in life,is not because they asked for it. what saddens me right now is the violence.
these people are not stupid in any factor except that they have not put out a united front,for the cause,and the reason wall sreet was the point of this gathering to have first come into play.the average americans answer is shut up and get a job. that is their exact point,where,and how?we want people who have lost their jobs,their homes,their lives that they were working so hard to build,which depended on their jobs in the first place,and it;s gone. they don't have a place to go. they don;t like where they ended up. welfare sucks,they want off.then the age of retirement has been raised,this means older people need jobs. there are people who are graduating high school and college,they need jobs,even people who drop out of high school need jobs. soon there will be many people who are veterans who need jobs. the idea is not to bring the finicial inst. to crash and burn,it is that they need to be investing in america to make us stronger finicially. forget about turkey,mexico,india,etc.that is the big investment trend is all going these days. money creates jobs.back in 70's after all these vets were returning fron the war,mexico was opened for buss.,and all these mills in the south closed, and marched to the world, that was due to gov. we had many homeless then too. the rich want to open doors for themselves,not the people. would you want to work two or three min. wage jobs,if you can get one,just one to try to support your family,and meet their needs,just to barely survive in this economy? it will continue to worsen if people do not wake up. people need to sit down,if they feel these people are just bums, and figure the costs of their housing, food,and utilities.just those basic needs,and cut down to what life would be like if you could not even do that much in their lives. invest in america,and jobs for americans.
Wonderwoman- Yes Wall Street is part of it, but not the entire reason why things are the way they are. Politicians haven't been doing their jobs.And while protesting in front of Wall Street is understandable, why give the government a pass? If Bush were still president, I sincerely doubt that they'll be at Wall Street.
And I understand why people are frustrated- especially the vets, I think it's so unfair that many are coming home without jobs. But did you know that a chain of Wall Street companies are holding job fairs strictly for Vets? That one of those big banks these protestors hate so much actually gave away mortgage-free homes to wounded soldiers? No, I don't think they can save everyone, but at least they've helped people, unlike most politicians.
I just don't see what the point of protesting is. When you really want a job, or really need a job, then look for one. My uncle was laid off from the bank he had been working for for so many years. But he didn't stop sending in resumes, he didn't stop searching online and on foot. He finally got hired after a year without work, and although it took a while, he never gave up. He didn't waste his time protesting at rallies or demanding the world to listen to his personal woes. He just went out there and got a job.
And if the rich isn't investing right now, you can't blame most of them. The rest of the world is becoming competitive, which is why America needs a business-friendly president.
Then again, that's just my two cents.
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