Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
The resistance continues at Liberty Square, with free pizza 😉
“I don’t know how to fix this but I know it’s wrong.” ~ Unknown Author
Foley Square, NYC. 4:47 PM
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
They are very young, very white, and largely inexperienced in organizing. But the Occupy Wall Street crew has picked the right target: finance capitalists, the class that is the common enemy of the human race. In that sense, “the Zuccotti Park campers are eons ahead of the faux radicals and ‘progressives’ who, in terror of the Tea Party and Republican presidential clown candidates, will soon return to the Obamite fold in their eternal search for lesser evils.” Obama was, and will remain, the candidate of Wall Street.
Streamed by We are Change in New York, NY.
NEW YORK – Unions gave a high-profile boost to the long-running protest against Wall Street and economic inequality Wednesday, with their members joining thousands of protesters in a lower Manhattan march. Across the country, students at several colleges walked out of classes in solidarity.
People gathered at Foley Square, an area encircled by courthouses and named for “Big Tom” Foley, a former blacksmith’s helper who became a prominent state Democratic leader. From there they marched to Zuccotti Park, the protesters’ unofficial headquarters.
Sterling W. Roberson, vice president for the United Federation of Teachers, said union members shared the same ideals as activists who have been camped out in sleeping bags for more than two weeks.
“The middle class is taking the burden but the wealthiest of our state and country are not,” he said.
Thousands of protesters packed Foley Square, standing behind police barricades in front of the courthouse buildings. Some wore union T-shirts, others were in business attire, and many left work early to be there.
People in the crowd were carrying red-white-and-blue signs bearing a giant star-graced A — representing the motto “Rebuild America.” Other signs bore slogans including “Tax Wall Street” and “Make Jobs Not Cuts.”
For amusement, Glenn Greenwald shreds CNN’s newest anchor, Wall St. apologist, Erin Burnett and her condescending scorn for Occupy Wall Street. Burnett is another reason not to watch CNN.
by Greg Sargent
“I’m really encouraged by what I’m seeing. People around the country are finally organizing to stand up to the huge influence of corporations on government and our lives. This kind of citizen reaction to corporate power and corporate greed is long overdue.”
That’s Russ Feingold, who spoke with me yesterday in order to voice his strong support for Occupy Wall Street, making him one of the most prominent liberal Democrats in the country to endorse the protests. Feingold’s strong backing will be seen as significant by the movment’s supporters, because thus far few elected Dems have publicly voiced support for it.
Earlier today, students from at least 100 college campuses around the country walked out of class in a show of solidarity and support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
While the Occupy Wall Street movement has yet to present a coherent agenda or message, the college students who marched today in support of it were clear about their concerns. They banded together to make their voices heard, many citing the rising amount of student loan debt and the increasing cost of college, in addition to a dearth of decent jobs for recent graduates.
“With budget cuts and tuition increases, students’ voices are demanding to be heard,” said Conor Tomás Reed, 30, a participant in today’s walkout. Reed teaches at the City University of New York and is also a student at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “It’s a collective roar, and students are beyond disgusted and fed up. The time is especially ripe for this kind of mobilization.”
Today marked a significant day for the movement as a whole, both for its organization and coordination among college campuses and for its ability to mobilize supporters across not just a city, but an entire nation.
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — U.S. labor unions will support the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations because the protests spreading nationwide have tapped into the anger of unemployed Americans, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
“We’re not going to try to usurp them,” Trumka, leader of the nation’s largest labor federation, said today on a conference call with reporters. “We’ll support them around the country and we’ll continue to work collectively with one another.”
Bushnell Park in Hartford was the spot that protesters decided to occupy on Wednesday as the demonstrations that began in New York spread into Connecticut and other states. They’re protesting “income inequality and corporate greed.”
The populist-themed, and increasingly popular, Occupy Wall Street movement hit Connecticut’s capital city on Wednesday, as dozens of protestors of all ages and races gathered before the entrance to Bushnell Park in Hartford to express their dissatisfaction with what they termed income inequality and corporate greed.
What started as a small gathering of a handful of protestors shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning had swelled to a large and vocal group that numbered close to a hundred less than an hour later – and the movement showed no signs of losing steam as the morning wore on and more and more people seemed to be drawn to the crowd.