Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement went global yesterday with demonstrations all over the world. Almost all were peaceful. There was so much going on that to cover it all would be impossible, but this excerpt and these three video clips should help bring you up to date.
Linking up with the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York, tens of thousands of people around the world took to the streets Saturday to reiterate their anger at the global financial system, corporate greed and government cutbacks.
Rallies were held in more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States, with some of the largest taking place in Europe. The demonstration in Rome turned violent, but crowds elsewhere were largely peaceful.
“What’s exciting about what’s happening is a sense of international solidarity,” said Ben Walker, 33, a university teacher from Norwich, England, who was carrying a tent and planning on camping overnight near the London Stock Exchange.
Organizers of the global demonstration said on their Web site that they were demanding a “true democracy.”
“United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future,” they said.
The global demonstrations came on the same day that finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations met in Paris to discuss solutions to the debt crises engulfing Europe.
Television images from Rome showed police launching tear-gas grenades and firing water cannons as a breakaway group clad in black set cars on fire and smashed bank machines and shop windows… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
In the first video clip, we have news from London and Brussels.
There was no sign of violence in either.
In the second, we have news from Rome, where violence did break out.
Note, that the 99% demonstrators were completely peaceful. The violence came at the hands of a separate group of demonstrators, who used the demonstration as an occasion for havoc. From what little I know of Berlusconi, I would not be at all surprised if the second group was a black flag operation, set off by agent provocateurs.
In the last, a friend from Vancouver expressed concern because of previous violence in demonstrations there, so here is some video of those rampaging Canucks in action. 😉
Weren’t they scary?
Thank you to all the peaceful demonstrators who put themselves on the line everywhere.
7 Responses to “OWS Goes Global!”
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They are all heroes to me.
Marco Galli wrote in a post on care2 that the black clad hooligans were paid right wing activists.
Patti, I have been unable to confirm that.
There should be no safe haven for them. Any bets on the next G20 being in China?
I wouldn’t be surprised. They don’t mind killing a few dozen demonstrators there.
OWS may have not yet formulated a formal agenda, but their causes are all of ours: the grievance of the un- or under-employed; the exponential growth in the chasm separating the über-rich from the rest of us; the corrupting influence of big money in government granted the imprimatur of the corrupt justices on the SCOTUS (and you know their names); the impunity that Wall St. titans have been granted despite their greed being directly responsible for the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression; and the fact that right-wing repubicans have been able to obstruct almost all measures that would be an anodyne for those grievances.
We, the 99%, appear to be waking up … I just hope it’s not too late!
Amen, Nameless.
From your mouth to God’s ear.!
TC, at church on Sunday 16/10/11 the sermon very much involved discussions of the Biblical 1% and the current 1%. As I listened, I kept coming back to the articles etc that we’ve seen here, thanks to your hard work. I have a copy and will e-mail them to you once I have copied and compressed them.
I am glad that the Black Bloc, who were rumoured to be appearing at Occupy Vancouver, did not appear and that everything went off well. As I listened to the news yesterday, I realised that they were quite organised with porta-potties, a first aid tent, a makeshift kitchen, a PA system etc. Apparently about 2 dozen tents were set up by the Art Gallery with quite a few staying the night in -2C temperatures. I see from your video clip that there is a diversity of ages and thankfully typical laid Canadian temperament. I just hope that there is some good old fashioned Canadian sticktoitiveness.
It is too bad that a group of Italian anarchists decided to do their own brand of protest causing so much violence and damage. Like you, I think Berlusconi could have arranged for some agents provocateurs to aggravate matters so he could look like a hero and draw attention away from his dalliances and other faux pas. I am pleased that the mayor of Rome encouraged the Occupy Rome group to try for a peaceful protest again later in the week. I just hope he is sincere.
And this has gone global. Australia, Japan, the UK, Canada, various other places in Europe, and South America, though I’ve heard almost nothing of the latter.
It is interesting that some of the news coverage seems to think that there is no clear message from all the protests. But I think there is a clear message that fits into any country — equality and true democracy! There will no nation not touched by this movement which was born in Canada (Adbusters), grown in the US with OWS, and spread around the world.
Mahatma Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.