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Subscribe to RSSAs the Occupy Wall Street movement comes out of hibernation, a day of protests are planned around the nation. MSNBC's Richard Lui reports.
Updated at 03:38 A.M. ET: Protesters across the world marched through the streets Tuesday toting signs, playing instruments and wearing costumes to rally against austerity measures, call for more jobs and seek greater immigrants' rights on May Day.
Marches turned violent in Oakland and San Francisco, where a protester was throwing what appeared to be bricks and metal rods from the roof of a building into the crowd of demonstrators, reporters, and police - injuring at least one person, according to NBC Bay Area.
In Seattle, protesters dressed in black smashed windows and police pepper-sprayed some in the crowds.
In the United States, the protests are seen as the biggest test for the Occupy movement since many of its camps were shuttered late last year. Occupiers in more than 100 cities across the country were expected to protest on the day that traditionally celebrates workers’ rights.
In New York, demonstrators held a “free university,” and a “guitarmy” led a march.
“It was a long, energetic day with scores and scores of events and protests that is another step in building a movement for economic justice,” said Bill Dobbs of the Occupy Wall Street public relations team. “Occupy has re-blossomed in over 100 cities."
Occupy Cleveland cancels protest, distances itself from alleged bomb plot
Earlier Tuesday, about 1,000 Occupy protesters gathered in New York's Bryant Park, home to the main city library, with hundreds assembling the “guitarmy” and making posters before they left to march downtown. Chanting "Out of the stores, into the streets" and "Banks got bailed out; we got sold out," they filed down Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Avenue.
“There's too much fear for the general public to actually want to strike. They don’t want to lose their job. ... We haven’t reached that tipping point where people are more frightened for some place to live," said Robby McGeddon, 47, a tech worker carrying a maypole for May Day. "It will get to the tipping point but right now we're just practicing."
Miranda Leitsinger / msnbc.com
A protester representing the Musicians Union in New York's Union Square calls for eliminating "sour notes."
Of the protest, Daphne Carr, 33, co-organizer of the Occupy Music Working Group, said: “We're trying to find new, positive community-building ways to engage and protest and be a part of the burgeoning civil dialogue about what this country should be doing."
She also noted that music making "has been eroded from our public sphere so we're taking and re-claiming the right to play music publicly together in the streets, in the parks, without permits.”
The crowd swelled to a few thousand later in the day in Union Square as immigrant rights groups and unions representing teachers, transport workers, nurses, musicians as wells as others joined in a lively afternoon of art and music.
But the day was not without its detractors: at least one man heckled protesters and another yelled “Get a job!” as he elbowed his way through the crowd.
That didn’t get the protesters’ spirits down.
"This is like the resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement," said photographer Joel Simpson, 65, of Union, N.J., as the "guitarmy" sang "This land is your land" nearby. Though most of New York City didn't know the May Day protest was going on, he said, the movement "touches public consciousness in a very broad way and politicians have to at least pay lip service to it."
The New York protesters then streamed downtown, in an early evening march heading past the former Occupy Wall Street home, Zuccotti Park, to Bowling Green park near the southern tip of Manhattan. Occupy sent out a text message saying 30,000 people were in the streets, though it was not possible to determine how many were and police do not give crowd estimates. At one point, the protest appeared to stretch about 15 city blocks.
“We’re not so fragile that a day is going to make or break things but this was you know, a great … step,” Dobbs said, noting that the “organizing that goes on day-to-day and week-to-week is just as important in building a long-term sustainable movement.”
New York police reported 15 arrests by late afternoon for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the New York Daily News reported. Several demonstrators were caught carrying hammers but there was little vandalism, police said. Later Tuesday, Occupy said more arrests had been made.
Elsewhere:
Oakland police and May Day protesters face off. Watch video courtesy of KNTV.
San Francisco: Police armed with non-lethal pellet or bean bag guns aimed them at a protester who was throwing objects from the roof of the building, located at 888 Turk St, according to NBC Bay Area. The protester, dressed in black with a handkerchief covering his face, was throwing what appeared to be bricks and metal rods into the crowd of demonstrators, reporters, and police. Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak told NBC News the individual threw several items off the roof for several minutes, including two bricks and pipes. One brick struck a person and hit them in the head. The injured person refused treatment from medical personnel. NBC News reported that the rooftop protester was arrested and taken into custody.
Oakland, Calif.: Protesters playing cat-and-mouse with police pounded on windows of banks and other businesses, SFGate.com reported. After surrounding a downtown Bank of America branch, protesters chanted, "Oakland is the people's town; strike, occupy, shut it down." they also gathered at a Wells Fargo bank branch. Police later confronted demonstrators marching through downtown. Video by NBCBayArea.com showed at least one protester being dragged away by police. Protesters hurled items including a paint bomb at police and windows out of a police van, NBCBayArea.com reported. Police fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades before the skirmishing crowd dispersed. Police arrested at least four people.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Police tape off a Wells Fargo Bank in Seattle Tuesday after protesters broke the banks windows during a May Day march.
Seattle: Windows were broken and police arrested a handful of protesters as about 100 marched in downtown, NBC station KING reported. Many marchers were dressed in dark clothes, wearing face makeup and carrying sticks, live TV video showed. Police pepper-sprayed several protesters as problems developed. KING reported numerous tires slashed and large amounts of glass on the ground from vehicles and buildings, including the federal courthouse, smashed by protesters. Peaceful protesters remained at the downtown Westlake Plaza, where speeches and concerts continued, KING reported.
John Brecher / msnbc.com
Trumpeter Opaulo Mekkelsen marched with the Movitas Marching Band in Seattle. He said he was motivated by immigrants' rights.
"Part of me, I want to understand where they're coming from and then they pull something like this," said Sam, who would not give his last name, as he saw the back window of his car smashed out by protesters. Sam was on holiday from his home in British Columbia. "I'm from Canada," he said, "imagine the impression this gives me of the United States."
At an afternoon press conference, Mayor Mike McGinn said a group known as the “Black Block” did extensive damage to the Federal Courthouse, then moved on to block traffic. The mayor signed a proclamation authorizing police to seize from protesters any items that could be used as weapons, KING reported. Evening marches and protests were planned.
A group of May Day protesters dressed in black clothes and wearing face makeup smashed windows in downtown Seattle. Video courtesy KING.
Photoblog: May Day protests turn violent in Seattle
San Francisco: Golden Gate ferry workers picketed ferry terminals in the North Bay, but union organizers canceled a protest on the Golden Gate Bridge to give support to the ferry workers, the Oakland Tribune reported. However, scores of California Highway Patrol officers with helmets and batons lined the bridge and gathered around the toll plaza just in case. Bridge traffic was not disrupted.
Albany, N.Y.: State police arrested two men who set up a table without a permit in Lafayette Park, where Occupy protesters assembled Tuesday, the Times Union newspaper reported.
Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Sam (who declined to give his last name), left, speaks to local media after protesters in a May Day march in downtown Seattle smashed out the rear window of his car on 6th Avenue. "Part of me, I want to understand where they're coming from and then they pull something like this," he said. Sam was on holiday from his home in British Columbia, Canada. "I'm from Canada," he said, "Imagine the impression this gives me of the United States."
Chicago: Protesters and union supporters held rallies and marches with little disruption to the business district, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police Superintendent
Denver: Nearly 200 people marched downtown before turning onto the 16th Street pedestrian mall, blocking mall buses and traffic as they walked. The marchers also stopped in front of the Federal Reserve Bank. Police did not interfere, and only one person reportedly was arrested.
Los Angeles: Several demonstrators were taken into custody during a protest on Century Boulevard near the entrance to Los Angeles International Airport as union members, workers, immigrant-rights activists and others demonstrated for better-paying jobs to changes in immigration laws, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. However, about 2,000 police officers prepared to deploy early at a staging area in Elysian Park before a ralliers were to converge downtown Tuesday evening. Los Angeles County activated its Emergency Operations Center.
Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University, said he thought Tuesday would be the “biggest test since the fall of where Occupy is.”
Occupy activists fear becoming Democrats' 'pet'
“I think it’s still alive and thriving. I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon,” he said. “But I think after [Tuesday] we’ll know whether or not they were hibernating all winter and now they’ve re-emerged, or if they’ve died out.”
Occupy held protests during the spring on student debt and worker rights. They also have been working on a rollout of new versions of outreach web sites to facilitate coordination among different Occupy outfits. But a lot of effort has been focused on holding a May Day that will make a splash.
“Many activists have been working toward May Day for months and so they’ve decided to make it a test of strength,” said Todd Gitlin, a former leader of the 1960s-era group Students for a Democratic Society who has just published a book on Occupy. He added: “A lot of people in the larger society don’t think the movement still exists, so there’s some need to prove to them that it does exist.”
Occupy Wall Street has struggled during the last months without a camp, with some members starting their own groups while keeping a loose affiliation to the movement.
“It’s become fractured over time and I think people point a lot to that to the breakup of Zuccotti Park, and the natural disagreements that people had came more to the fore when people were separated and people formed their own circles upon which they continued. But it wasn’t the circle of great diversity that was right there at Zuccotti Park and people could grow from,” said William Johnsen, a 63-year-old veteran activist from Staten Island, N.Y. “It’s obviously a long-term process right now which will ultimately change into something else.”
Lefteris Pitarakis / AP
Workers and activists rally on May Day.
But Konrad Cukla, a 23-year-old graduate student who has been helping with Occupy May Day planning, said that since the park shut, occupiers have been engaging in key coalition building work, such as with immigrant rights groups in the city.
“All the labor unions have come together and for the first time are going to have a unified march with immigrant rights groups and Occupy,” he said as he walked with a musical band of occupiers -- the Rude Mechanical Orchestra -- dressed in green and black on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. “I think the movement is evolving, it's taking on more concrete allies and issues, engaging more with labor struggles -- also just expanding its horizons and bringing more people into the movement."
Rain City Superheroes: Midnight Jack, left, El Caballero, center, and Phoenix Jones relax Tuesday at a downtown Seattle Starbucks.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this report. Follow Jim Gold at msnbc.com on Facebook here.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
The only way we can correct our problem is to first remove Barrack Obama from out Oval Office and get a real person in their that knows how to do something
And that would be who?
PWD
Anybody but Odumbo, Reid, Biden, and Pelosi
Who is Odumbo?? Besides name one person other then Mother Theresa who would be a good leader.
settersperch..Talk about stupid..You've reach the epitome of ignorance,Ditto Head..Just another Hooter's Fox Lemming..
Bill
I already told PWD that I might have exagerated the number a little high, whats your problem,LOL
A symptom of democracy rotting from within.
As city governments baby these so call Occupy protesters, they are costing the very people they say they represent, millions in tax dollars, dollars that we do not have to waste. These protesters are nothing but thugs, hoodlums and criminals, otherwise why do they wear mask, attack the very people we pay to protect and serve and destroy our businesses, public buildings and deface our property. We are not demonstrating our strength, the city governments wants a hands off approach, but its not working. Police officers are getting hurt, public safety is in jeopardy and there will be no peace and orderly conduct in any of our cities. Let the police handle it and do away with the movement. The do not represent the 99%, they only represent themselves and provide nothing to society.
Ah, May 1st... The high-holiday where the Axis of evil sleep and eat in the same bed: commies, liberals and anarchists.
I hope Apple Inc is include in your hate for businesses not paying their fair share in taxes. How about all you OWS boycotting all Apple Products since your all against big bad business sticking to the people. Its time for all of you to give up your ipod, ipad and mac computers to show that you truly believe in not supporting corporate greed.
Apple is the brand the OWS Mafia loves and also turns a blind-eye to. Pure hypocritical. I guess the Apple logo signifies, "green"???
If one million OWS or supporters would get together, and invest one hundred dollars, they could buy one and a half million shares of coca cola, just be for they do this two for one stock split and have three million shares that they would collect dividends on, the next month they could buy a few million shares of JP Morgan, and they would also collect dividends on that the third month they could buy Alcoa they would be able to buy at least ten million shares of that stock, by the end of the year they would be collecting millions upon millions of dollars in dividends, that's what I could support, the people waking up and investing their way to wealth!
If any one million people would do this they would make millions of dollars, that they could invest in other things, why disrupt anything get together and make a trillion dollars, and really make a difference !
If one million teenagers would get together and invest one hundred dollars a month they could do the same thing, what is all this protesting about when you wont even do something so easy, the poor and middle class need to rethink things and stop whining and do something!
Do you 99% OWS Marxist scumbags really think that the real 99% of Americans who do love America are going to put up with your violence and your wanna-be Communist revolution?
They are not 99% they are only .00000000000000000002%
Yup.
PWD
I think you missed a zero, ROTFLOL
oops!!! lol
Let's just destroy everything and see what happens.
Looks like the OWS crowd is trying that in Oakland.
Just thought it ironic they're out there protesting corporations, yet they show the protesters sitting down enjoying the product of one of the largest corporations (Starbuck's). Really, if these losers really wanna make a difference in society, how about using all this energy to work on projects for the enhancement of the community instead of destruction of the community. Projects for the youth of America would be a good start and give them the springboard they need to be the true leaders of effective change for a better world.
These people are terroists not activists. The fastest way to lose support for your cause is to behave like a nutcase. People who participated in these destructive events have cast immense embarassment on themselves and the United States.
ya the wall street movemint didnt last long couse they got there point across, a year ago. seems like the conservative tea party, stoll the wall street movement also. I was wondering why they did it on may day. the most selabrated day in modern america. 1 year ago today. we took out cobra comander/ osama bin ladin
Democrat anarchists, who follow the Domestic Terrorism of Obama, are attacking the US. They should be jailed in Gitmo without trial for life! Obama should join them. Their leader needs to follow his flock!
The First Amendment gives one "the right of the people peaceably to assemble".
The moment that demonstrations are no longer peaceful, they are no longer a right guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Smashing windows and general mayhem just hurts their cause and is not a right guaranteed to them and for the safety of everyone, needs to stop.
Why not make the point with peaceful assemblies as OWS originally intended instead of hijacking OWS and using it as an excuse to destroy things?
If you think it is bad now wait until all these veterans come home from the middle east and can't find decent paying jobs. Then the 1% better look out their asses will be on the line along with some of the 10%. The rich are destroying this country taking anything they can and using as many of the 99% as they can. I would advise these people who are running their mouths better realize that they are defenseless against these veterans along with these occupy folks. Count on the police right when they face the stuff that may start they will haul ass and say you are on your own. Just food for thought folks but something to think about.
Veterans know the stupid Dems and obama screwed up the country, and besides, they buy them off everytime.
Jim
As a Vet,I can say you're wrong on your assumption. They will do what all Vets have done. They will survive and find a job,any job. They will go to school,they will survive. They will graduate,they will survive. They will succeed,they will survive.
In case anyone wasn't sure of their message.
I did not know that May 1 had any meaning toward Labor. The 8 hour work day? I have only worked 40 hour weeks when I couldn't get any overtime to makes end meet. I started working and paying Social Security and taxes 46 years ago. I started working 56 hours a week to raise a young family. I now work 56 hours a week to make ends meet and raise 2 grandchildren. I read where people in Europe work flex schedules and work far less hours than we do in America. They also get more vacation time and have national health care. Sounds like a great deal to me. I was really suprised to read where over 1 million Americans had left America and retired in Ecudors and all over south America even in Mexico many had moved to. Ecudors health Insurance cost 37.00 per month and they have Internationally accredited Hospitals and Doctors same as US has. It said that a couple could retire there for 2000 dollars per month and hire house help. If America is so great why can't we do that for our elderly and retired. Why must young people work so many hours just to make ends meet and at the end of the day they read where some CEO makes 20,000.00 dollars per hour. What is fair or American about that.
You think we should send the elderly to 3rd world countries for cheaper health care?
It's called inflation. The most insidious tax of all.
All those places are worse off than us. If you want $10 a gallon gas and doctors who double as mechanics, go for it.
I suggest you go to school,get an education,work hard and then you too can be a CEO!
TruthHurts,don't it?
Move to "Ecudors".
The Black Bloc Anarchists do not represent the nonviolenent civil disobedience of OWS. Please educate yourselves. You can start by googling Chris Hedges speaking out against Black Bloc tactics. Or not, and resort to right wing anger and paranoia as usual.
Good point. Looks like police need to start carrying more spare clips and come prepared with full auto weaponry. Big German Shepherds too. Scary little mutts. :)
If OWS will not police their participants, they will be taking responsibility for every action.
They will not police themselves, for good reason.
OWS is a symptom of problems in our economy. The simple fact is that our economy is driven by consumer demand, and when consumers have less disposable income, they don't generate enough consumer demand for everyone to work. Tax cuts do not create jobs; companies will not hire people unless there is a demand for more products and services, regardless of how much cash they are sitting on.
Anything that reduces consumer demand reduces jobs. It can be a vicious cycle, as each layoff reduces consumer demand, leading to more layoffs.
wow. great study. COUNTRY OR CORPORATION. corp's are killing themselves, to teach use,,??? what?? they need a dagree. rather than alomony. or inheritance. this is a national secerity risk.
Your post is an argument for tax cuts, since tax cuts increase disposable income!
lamp you are clueless.
CEO's get paid regardless. 1 billion a year garonted. your rite why would they want workers. to produce.for lower prices. by flooding the marcket.?which is good on many levels.exept small bussnesses. MY GOD. this is a national security risk if any.
Lamp
Learn English, please!
And this is a surprise to most people that the Occupy movement roited and destroyed buildings, what else did you think would happen from a bunch of mindless morons.
Those people are protesting for All Americans. It is the Corrupt Police Unions that are causing the violence by attacking innocent peaceful assembly by and for All Americans. The Police unions are working and ordered to create hostility, intimidation and unease. They need crime, criminals and prisons to keep their cash cow coming home. They need to create violence. They need laws and laws to be broken. That union is a problem.
OMFG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMMFAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This one should be on stage, really. LOL.
i have no pitty on the idiots at these protests,
they're all nothing but a bunch of whining crying babbling college clowns who haven't even served the first day on a real job, and they have the biggest pair to complain about how they deserve more from the pathetic excuses they provide society if they ever do actually plan on serving a purpose,
they need to try and work for decades doing something that has an actual tangible value when the work they do is done,
but it's the rest of societies fault that they decided to get the credit cards and all the loans they didn't think about being able to pay back.
now for those of you who have the pair just as big,
what make some mental midgets that have done nothing but rip people off by keep the wages down at such a wage that those people can't get the money to invest like the ones you arrogantly defend,
the country has millions upon millions of people who have worked for decades that see their retirements wasting away because of the greed in corporations and on wall street,
and you worthless baboons have the audacity to cry and complain about how it's the mechanic who has a few hundred thousand dollars invested to keep all of your over priced fashion statements that you drive from falling apart is too damned expensive,
but both sides on this debate has no problems with how much your ever so loved athletes, celebrities and every other useless excuse that gets far more than they have ever been worth for just entertaining all of you.
the only people who has been screwed through all this bullsnot is the person who still believes that working for a living will actually get it,
that has been nothing but a fantasy for the past few decades.
nothing but a bunch of talk from both sides of the debate, but no solutions, just accusations and insults from those who are the problem,
none of the posts except from a few that i saw have any clues as to what is the real problems.
most have been from the extreems in their beliefs that the working class expects too much,
or that the ones who think they have worked hard all their lives (which you are not in the category of the working class) and think you shouldn't have to pay others a wage it actually takes someone to pay your over priced excuses.
As an American Voter I expect you to be informed and if you cannot take the time to read and comprehend what these people are protesting than you should not vote, own a gun, conduct business or make money in this country. I expect you to take the time and go to The 99% Declaration website and read it from start to end. You cannot insult and be ignorant. If you are a taxpaying usa citizen you are expected to listen to all sides and form a informed decision and not be a traitor, commit treason or behave like a fox news sheep.
my posts show how patriotic i am,
i'm tired of idiots crying and complaining about how things cost them too much as they are proud to be posting from their computers that are/were made in the third world countries while the same idiots complain about not being able to get a job,
but they were the same ones who cried and complained about the environment and the so called damage the domestic companies had done, but say nothing about the so called damage done by the companies that produce the computers they continue to buy,
i get my computers that people (idiots throw out because they don't know what they're doing with them and think they're trashed).
i rebuild computers that are fast enough to do anything that is needed for most computer users unless the user is an idiot who thinks the most important thing in life is to play video games,
check craigslist and you will see what these mental midgets actually spend on a computer.
first ive heard of a web-site. thank u , but a for your state web-site also. it'll be harder for corp's to invade a state campain.
"if you cannot take the time to read and comprehend what these people are protesting than you should not vote, own a gun, conduct business or make money in this country." Wow justmy53, you sound like a Nazi.
Just
No one will read a stupid declaration by fools who represent .0000008%.
No matter how much you push it, it won't catch on.
P.S. Where's the 99%ers web site. why couldnt i sign up. Who started it , and why was i not elligable to cordinate it. spells FOX NEWS, rally. bet FOX news had many invites to the "rally".
The 99% Declaration is the website and YOU as an American should take the time to go there and read it from start to end. If you agree? sign it, donate to it, stand up for America and All Americans. Dont be shallow or narrow.....Take the time to read it fully
No one cares mister .0000008%
The Guy Faulkes masks show they don't realize that Faulkes was a tool of another multi-national, the Roman Catholic Church...
I hate those masks.
These people are like riled ants....the only solution is to get rid of the military - which is the biggest drain on our system while trying to takeover the world. The government is increasing itself exponentially eVERY MONTH as it needs more and more police in all their acronymal factions to police all the NEW laws....like a cancer - it kills it host and is mindless that it is anti-life.
I suggest that you take the time to read The 99% Declaration on their website, from start to finish. It is your duty as a taxpaying American Voter to read all sides and form an informed decision. These people are protesting for All Americans.
Just, They are not protesting for me! I believe in capitalism! Big corporations hire millions of people! These occupy freeloaders are part of the problem of why there are less jobs in the U.S. and more jobs overseas!
Justy
Wish all you want...no one cares.
please let mayday also be known for liberation-day for doggies and kitty-cats on death row--->>please go to your local kill-pound and rescue and adopt or foster a doggie or kitty-cat on death row now!
mayday is cuddle-day! for quadropeds and other fauna! go to your pound and replace your therapist now! cheaper than psych meds and more efffective than viagra in raising your ocytocine levels! hug a furball now! quadropeds are biped-mate-magnets (for other bipeds).
save a life this mayday. do it now! you know you want to!
good post