"PERISCOPE - ПЕРИСКОП" via Mike Nova
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Remain in Zuccotti Park as Cleanup Is Canceled
via NYT > Home Page by By MICHAEL BARBARO and KATE TAYLOR on 10/15/11
The abrupt reversal of plans to empty Zuccotti Park averted a clash at the southern tip of Manhattan.
Around the World, Protests Against Economic Policies
via NYT > Home Page by By RACHEL DONADIO and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS on 10/15/11
A day of protests against the financial system filled streets in dozens of cities. In New York, protesters marched to Times Square.
Protesters Against Wall Street
via NYT > Editorials by on 10/7/11
The protesters’ message is about an economy that is not working for most Americans. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.
Wall Street sit-in protest goes global
via News's Facebook Wall by News on 10/15/11
Wall Street sit-in protest goes global
Wall Street sit-in protest goes global
MILAN (Reuters) - Protesters worldwide geared up for a cry of rage on Saturday against bankers, financiers and politicians they accuse of ruining global economies and condemning millions to poverty and hardship through greed.
Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome | Reuters
via www.reuters.com on 10/15/11
Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome
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Occupy Wall Street spreads to Asia
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1 of 19. Cars burn during a demonstration of the 'Indignant' group against banking and finance in Rome October 15, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
Occupy Wall Street spreads to Asia (01:47)
ROME | Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:55pm EDT
ROME (Reuters) - Demonstrators rallied Saturday across the world to accuse bankers and politicians of wrecking economies, but only in Rome did the global "day of rage" erupt into violence.
Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protests began in New Zealand, rippled east to Europe and were expected to return to their starting point in New York. Demonstrations touched most European capitals and other cities.
They coincided with the Group of 20 meeting in Paris, where finance ministers and central bankers from the major economies were holding crisis talks.
While most rallies were small and barely held up traffic, the Rome event drew tens of thousands of people and snaked through the city center for miles.
Some protesters in masks and helmets set fire to cars, smashed the windows of stores and banks and trashed offices of the defense ministry. Police fired water cannon at demonstrators who were hurling rocks, bottles and fireworks.
Smoke bombs set off by the protesters cast a pall over a sea of red flags and banners bearing slogans attacking economic policies the protesters say are hurting the poor most. The violence sent many demonstrators running into hotels for safety.
PEACEFUL RALLIES
In contrast, small and peaceful rallies got the ball rolling across the Asia-Pacific region Saturday. In Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, 3,000 people chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed.
About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington and 50 in a park in the earthquake-hit southern city of Christchurch.
In Sydney, about 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.
Hundreds marched in Tokyo, including anti-nuclear protesters. In Manila a few dozen marched on the U.S. embassy waving banners reading: "Down with U.S. imperialism" and "Philippines not for sale."
More than 100 people gathered at the Taipei stock exchange, chanting "we are Taiwan's 99 percent," and saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and health care costs.
They found support from a top businessman, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang.
"I've been against the gap between rich and poor," Chang said in the northern city of Hsinchu. "The wealth of the top one percent has increased very fast in the past 20 or 30 years. 'Occupy Wall Street' is a reaction to that."
In Paris protests coincided with the G20 finance chiefs' meeting there. In the working class neighborhood of Belleville, drummers, trumpeters and a tuba revved up a crowd of a few hundred that began to march to the city hall.
"This is potentially the start of a strong movement," said Olivier Milleron, a doctor whose group of trumpeters played the classic American folk song "This land is your land."
Waitress Tiodhilde Fernagu, 26, took a day off work to attend. "For the first time in France there is a uniquely citizens' movement" outside party politics, she said.
"THE INDIGNANT ONES"
The Rome protesters, who called themselves "the indignant ones," included unemployed, students and pensioners.
"I am here to show support for those don't have enough money to make it to the next paycheque while the ECB (European Central Bank) keeps feeding the banks and killing workers and families," said Danila Cucunia, a 43-year-old teacher from northern Italy.
"At the global level, we can't carry on any more with public debt that wasn't created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who don't give a damn about us," said Nicla Crippa, 49.
"They caused this international crisis and are still profiting from it. They should pay for it."
In imitation of the occupation of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, protesters have been camped out across the street from the headquarters of the Bank of Italy for days.
The worldwide protests were a response in part to calls by the New York demonstrators for more people to join them. Their example has prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of cities from Saturday.
In Madrid, seven marches were planned to merge in Cibeles square at 1600 GMT and then head to the central Puerta de Sol.
In Germany, where sympathy for southern Europe's debt troubles is not widespread, thousands gathered in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig and outside the ECB in Frankfurt, called by the Real Democracy Now movement.
Demonstrators gathered peacefully in Paradeplatz, the main square in the Swiss financial center of Zurich.
In London, several hundred people assembled outside London's St Paul's Cathedral for a protest dubbed "Occupy the London Stock Exchange." Several hundred people protested in Vienna, Sweden and Helsinki.
Greek protesters called an anti-austerity rally for Saturday in Athens' Syntagma Square.
"What is happening (debt-driven financial meltdown) in Greece now is the nightmare awaiting other countries in the future. Solidarity is the people's weapon," the Real Democracy group said.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Hornby in Rome, Naomi O'Leary and Michael Holden, in London, Natalia Drozdiak in Berlin and Alexandria Sage in Paris; Writing by Andrew Roche; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Wall Street protests go global
via News's Facebook Wall by News on 10/15/11
Wall Street protests go global
Wall Street protests go global
ROME (Reuters) - Demonstrators worldwide shouted their rage on Saturday against bankers and politicians they accuse of ruining economies and condemning millions to hardship through greed and bad government.
Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome
via News's Facebook Wall by News on 10/15/11
Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome
Wall Street protests go global; riots in Rome
ROME (Reuters) - Demonstrators rallied Saturday across the world to accuse bankers and politicians of wrecking economies, but only in Rome did the global "day of rage" erupt into violence.
Around the World, Protests Against Economic Policies - NYTimes.com
via www.nytimes.com on 10/15/11
Protesters Take to Streets; Clashes in Rome
Max Rossi/Reuters
Demonstrators attempt to break through the entrance of a bank branch during a demonstration in Rome on Saturday.
By RACHEL DONADIO and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Published: October 15, 2011
Around the World, Protests Against Economic Policies - NYTimes.com
via www.nytimes.com on 10/15/11
Protesters Take to Streets; Clashes in Rome
Max Rossi/Reuters
Demonstrators attempt to break through the entrance of a bank branch during a demonstration in Rome on Saturday.
By RACHEL DONADIO and ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Published: October 15, 2011
ROME — In dozens of cities around the world on Saturday, people took to the streets, clutching placards and chanting slogans as part of a planned day of protests against the financial system.
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In Private, Wall St. Bankers Dismiss Protesters as Unsophisticated(October 15, 2011)
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Calls Flood In, City Backs Off and Protesters Stay(October 15, 2011)
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In Rome, a protest thick with tension spread over several miles. Protesters set fire to at least one building and clashed violently with the police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas.
In other European cities, including Berlin and London, the demonstrations were largely peaceful, with thousands of people marching past ancient monuments and many gathering in front of capitalist symbols like the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Elsewhere, the turnout was more modest, but rallies of a few hundred people were held in several cities, including Sydney, Australia, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Protests were also held in New York and several other cities in the United States and Canada.
But just as the rallies in New York have represented a variety of messages — signs have been held in opposition to President Obama yards away from signs in support — so Saturday’s protests contained a grab bag of messages, opposing nuclear power, political corruption and the privatization of water.
Despite the difference in language, landscape and scale, the protests were united in frustration with the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
“I have no problem with capitalism. I have no problem with a market economy. But I find the way the financial system is functioning deeply unethical,” Herbert Haberl, 51, said in Berlin. “We shouldn’t bail out the banks. We should bail out the people.”
Another protester in Berlin, Katja Simke, 31, said that it was clear “that something has to be done.”
“This isn’t a single movement but a network of different groups,” said Ms. Simke, who was opposed to income inequality but also cared about climate change and atomic energy. “I’m really positively surprised by how well this came together.”
Saturday’s protests sprang from demonstrations in Spain in May and the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that began last month in New York. This weekend, the global show of force came as finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations meet in Paris to discuss global economic issues, including ways to tackle Europe’s sovereign debt crisis
In London, where crowds assembled in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the ubiquitous emblems of the movement were in evidence. “Bankers Are the Real Looters” and “We Are the 99 Percent,” read several placards and flags. One demonstrator, dressed as Jesus Christ, held a sign that said “I Threw the Money Lenders Out for a Reason,” a reference to an episode from the Bible.
Brief clashes were reported in London, where police were out in force with dozens of riot vans, canine units and hundreds of officers. But the gathering was largely peaceful, with a picnic atmosphere and people streaming in and out of a nearby Starbucks.
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made an appearance at the cathedral and was met by hundreds of cheering fans, and was virtually borne aloft to the church steps, where he called the movement “the culmination of a dream.”
In Rome, Saturday’s protests were as much about the growing dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — who narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday — as they were was about global financial inequities.
“We’re upset because we don’t have prospects for the future,” Alessia Tridici, 18, said in Rome. “We’ll never see a pension. We’ll have to work until we die.”
In contrast, protests in Berlin remained peaceful and upbeat, with music and even a little dancing on a warm, sunny day.
“I like the carnival atmosphere,” said Juhani Seppovaara, 64, a photographer and writer originally from Finland now living in Berlin. “But for me there’s a little too much populism, very complicated matters reduced to one or two sentences.”
In Sydney, several hundred protesters carried signs with slogans including “We Are the 99%” and “Capitalism Is Killing our Economy.” The atmosphere was lively, with a brass band providing music in packed Art Deco-style public thoroughfares outside the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the city’s financial district.
In central Tokyo, where periodic rallies against nuclear power have been held since the March accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, about 300 protesters marched with signs through busy streets and heavy traffic, chanting “We’re With Occupy Wall Street!” “Down With the Rich!” and “No More Nukes!”
Two young men held a banner that expressed a somewhat apologetic solidarity: “Radioactivity Has No Borders. To the World From Japan: Sorry!” Another held a sign that read simply, “Let’s Complain More.”
“Even timid Japanese are finally starting to push for change,” said Miku Ohkura, 24, a college student in Tokyo, who said she had already been to about a half dozen protests for various causes in the last few months. She said that apart from being opposed to nuclear power, younger people were angry at being made to bear the brunt of Japan’s economic woes, with many unemployed or too poor to start families. “We all have different messages, but we’re all alike in that we want society to become more equal,” she said.
In Hong Kong, about 200 people rallied at Exchange Square, an open area near the International Finance Center, in the heart of the city’s banking and commerce district. Various groups staged sit-ins, protesting issues including growing income disparity and a political system that some demonstrators said was undemocratic.
Thousands of people protested in Hong Kong in March, criticizing the government then for not doing enough to help the poor. A far larger crowd marched through downtown Hong Kong on July 1, the anniversary of the territory’s return to China, over the widening income gap.
A 2009 report by the United Nations Development Report found Hong Kong had the greatest income disparity of the 38 developed economies it studied.
“It’s just embarrassing,” said Nury Vittachi, a Hong Kong resident who attended Saturday’s rally. The Hong Kong government likes to stress stability and prosperity, Mr. Vittachi said, but a widening wealth gap threatens those ideals.
“We’ve had decades of increasing inequality, culminating in the financial crisis,” said Jack Copley, 20, a student at the University of Birmingham who was protesting in London. “The best we can hope for,” he said, gesturing to the gathered crowd, “is that we can change the political climate to make it harder for politicians to rule in the interests of the few.”
Rachel Donadio reported from Rome, and Elizabeth A. Harris from New York. Reporting was contributed by Kevin Drew from Hong Kong, Nicholas Kulish from Berlin, Matt Siegel from Sydney, Australia, Ravi Somaiya from London, and Hiroko Tabuchi from Tokyo.
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