Occupy Wall Street Occupies Global Streets
The leaderless, horizontally structured movement Occupy Wall Street (OWS) that has its roots in the US has spread in over 1,500 cities worldwide, the protesters claimed today, Oct. 16.
After triumphing in a standoff with the city over the continued protest of Wall Street at Liberty Square in Manhattan’s financial district, the movement has spread worldwide today with demonstrations in various cities globally and over 100 US cities from coast to coast.
[ Also Read: Is it the Death of Democracy in India? ]In New York, thousands marched in various protests by trade unions, students, environmentalists, and community groups. As occupiers flocked to Washington Square Park, two dozen participants were arrested at a nearby Citibank while attempting to withdraw their accounts from the global banking giant, informs OWS, which calls itself a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District.
[ Also Read: Can Obama Jobs Plan Reduce Poverty in America? ]It is believed that the movement is inspired by uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Italy and the UK, and it aims to expose how the richest 1% of people who are writing the rules of the global economy are imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and economic inequality that is foreclosing the future of the rest 99% commoners.
[ Also Contact: RMN Community Court Service for Online Justice ]Protests filled streets of financial districts from Berlin, to Athens, Auckland to Mumbai, Tokyo to Seoul. In the UK over 3,000 people attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange, said OWS.
[ Also Read: Americans Call for End to U.S. Militarism ]It further says that in South Africa, about 80 people gathered at the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, quoting a radio report. And 600 people have begun an occupation of Confederation Park in Ottawa, Canada today to join the global day of action.
In Australia, about 800 people gathered in Sydney’s central business district, carrying cardboard banners and chanting “Human need, not corporate greed.”
[ Also Read: Richard Dreyfuss says it’s Time for a Talk ]The movement’s success, according to OWS, is due in part to the use of online technologies and international social networking.
“We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of non-violence to maximize the safety of all participants and restore democracy in America,” says OWS in its mission statement.
