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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:
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so let me get this straight. They say that the people at the top need to pay more in taxes. Then they protest and "call for higher wages and more jobs". Can they make up their minds? Are they wanting to have the people that run the business pay the government more or to hire more and pay the individuals who work for them more?
Their inability to analyze and rationalize astounds me!
How about less profits to pay their worthless greedy CEO's and shareholders a 600% increase. Their welfare and loopholes are EXPIRED and they didnt create nothing. Quit whining. And stand up for 99% of Americans.
I stand up for the 54% who pay taxes, not the parasites in the streets. Obama has succeeded in demonizing hard work and using one's talents to get rich.
Me too. I pay my fair share without loopholes or tax welfare cuts. How about those at the top pay theirs without tax welfare and loopholes too? I stand up for those additional people that want to crawl out of poverty and pay more tax too.
sob.. sob..i partyed through colledge didn;t pay attention and now .. sob sob... i shouldn't have to work hard for my money like my parents did.. sob sob. we need more easy jobs.....i know lets not work and go protest that we cant get lots of easy high paying jobs..... yea i bet their is a lot of mommy and daddy's money there wrapped up in college for these protesters.
Oh sob sob. Baloney. The greedy sob's and their overpaid ceo's are looking at the end of their 600% profits and welfare. Done Zip OVER. If they didnt pocket enough millions and billions after raping this country for years than that is just to freaken bad. One thing about it is this? NO amount of money will save them from their self made KARMA or Disease. NO amount......rich in the pockets and poor in the soul.
Where did you get the idea that they are looking for easy, high-paying jobs? They are looking for the same opportunity that we had when we started out. No more, no less. They did exactly what we told them to do. They studied, they went to school, they got a degree and then......nothing. The jobs are gone because we decided that a $.20 per share profit on a stock was more important than their futures. We decided that the almighty dollar and Wall Street were more important than the future of our nation.
I applaud every one of them for fighting for their futures and if that makes you and me a little uncomfortable, too bad for us!
IsrJablonski,
Damaging other's property isn't fighting for your future. Going out and hustling for whatever job's are available is. You've created and developed children that want and expect everything, with little or no sweat in the game. I can't tell you how many parents I know that wouldn't let their children get college jobs, because the jobs were beneath their dignity. We've created the "Me" generation and we will all pay for it. Literally.
Im so proud of these spirited Americans. Each and Every one of us must join in with them in every city in this land. Awareness and opening discussion is the answers to our problems. Everyone reading this is in the same boat whether you admit it or not. The country has be sold out to corporations and cpacs are buying our elections. IT MUST STOP AND STOP NOW. Get out there and find your local protest and speak up Americans. Stand up and speak up.
I guess you feel the same way about Unions? They take millions from their members and spend it on Democrat politicians without giving their members any say. In fact, unions have given 10 times more money to Democrats than corporations have given to Republicans. Who's buying who?
Unions represent working class Americans. Without unions, corporations would have complete and total control, and we would be back to 19th century working conditions. Obviously, Republicans want to eliminate them. No weekends, no overtime, no vacation, no maternity leave...
i have to work. people should go and vote intelligently if they want real change. our corrupt and inept politicians are the ones responsible for the sorry situation our country is in right now but somehow they manage to deflect the blame on the job creators of our country. they could start with barney frank and dodd. what about the unions? have the ows really delved on the impact of unions in our economy? the ows should get their sh-t together before they do real damage to our country.
@lukewarm, how do you figure they take millions from their members? Explain that, without LYING! First, it's against Federal laws for any union dues to be spent on politics. It has to be used for the union itself. Therefore they are not taking millions like you a@@holes claim.
Now does unions have PAC's. Yes they do, just like the corporations, and the politicians themselves have. Don't like it, do away with any and all PAC's.
Clotho, so the workers who clamored to work in the assembly plants of Honda, Toyota, etc. who have refused to join the UAW are being exploited? Working unpaid overtime with no vacation etc.? NOT. The era of Unions actually benefiting their members is essentially over. Break all of then with the exception of the UMW, MSHA does not do their job well enough so the UMW is needed, still.
Sally ann,
Please, make your sign and go join the your movement. But stop embarrassing yourself here. I am sure you do not know the depths of the union pockets. If you would do alittle research you would find out more than you want. Just google Union funds in politics.
I was, at first. But this is going on too long.
Either take a substantial step toward resolution in some way or at least do something to show you want to achieve a particular end to the objective.
This is what happens in societies that lean only in one direction toward peace, tranquility, but conceal extreme oppression for decades.
There has to be resolve.
Actual peace sometimes requires force. It is unfortunate, but historically fact-based. The great nations in Europe did not acquire their land holdings by sitting on the street in a tent day after day, did they. How was this achieved?
If this is real, then shame on the United States for putting the kids out on the street.
What a legacy for your descendants to behold.
Sally Ann, I have friends, that are teachers, on the West Coast, that are blazing mad because the NEA has sent Union money to Wisconsin to fight to remove the Republican Governor. They weren't part of the decision, as to where their money went. You tell me who has too much control.
Dave D, the money may have came from the union PAC, but it wasn't union dues money. There is a difference between the dues money and the PAC money, but some people hate unions so much that they have to blur the line between the two.
How was the union PAC setup? What does their bylaws for the PAC say? Who ever sent that money there may have been, under the PAC bylaws, had the right to make that decision. When the teachers voted on their PAC, did they read the bylaws? If so, they maybe mad, but big deal, they, not you or me, voted those bylaws in, along with the PAC.
Must be nice to be able to take months off to protest the people who work.
Or they are unemployed, and they would rather be productive than sit at home watching TV.
THE GOOSE THAT LAY THE GOLDEN EGGS should be mandatory readings for the ows.
How about doing something actually constructive,, like going to work, or looking for a job.
How do you know these people do not work. maybe their on vacation? days off? or out of class? How many jobs did you create this year?
Its not my job to create jobs.
"How do you know these people do not work. maybe their on vacation?"
Did you read my post? I guess not, "like going to work," And I could spend my vacation in a whole lot better ways.
I can't wait till the country finally reaches it goal of 99% of college educated people, it going to be rough on the 1% like me to support them.
Please don't include me in the rag tag gaggle of the OWS leftist, communist, socialist loving misfits. I don't want any part of their twisted idealism. I am not rich, I have never made over 65K and I paid off my student loans.
Why is it that every college professor and liberal start their sentences with "I think" when it's obvious that they don't think before opening their mouth?
you say that as if ignorant right wing rednecks even possess the ability to "think" You "tards" do not even take the time to read the MS.
People who think? Our leaders. Something the repucks do not have at all.
The ignorance of the people on this vine never fails to amaze. Why do you guys rely on faux news as if they will give you the straight story. Do not claim otherwise!!! If you actually read the OWS mission statement you would not sound so ignorant and uneducated. If you are not willing to do the work....SHUT UP!!!!
Hey gp! I was raised to work for my living! These sleasebags want everything for nothing! Or are you one of the gimme gimme bunch too?!?!?!
Most of those insulting and complaining are brainwashed by fox news and corporation. Its really like handing a book to a blind deaf and dumbo. These kind of people will not even try. Their so full of hate and distortion they have no ability to ration or offer solutions. Just insults to those fighting for America and Americans
Len....you just proved my point. You know absolutely NOTHING about OWS.....
gpotts, I read the OWS manifesto posted on the web and the one being handed out downtown and nothing listed on either document is possible in the real world. Apparently OWS flunked the course that described "cause and effect". They want life to be "fair" when life has never been, is not now and never will be "fair".
TO sum up, OWS agenda = pure unadulterated twaddle.
If the protesters get in my way to go to work, are they fair game? I mean like hunting season? And how many is the limit? I think they may fall under the same catagorie as rodents, no limit.
You redneck idiot. You dont work except being an a hole on a daily bases
Justmy, at least the "redneck" can spell as well as you can!
Can anyone give an explanation for the Occupy Oakland people to protest Child Protective Services?
Probably not doing their jobs with the funds they get. How many children have been abused in CPS custody? How many times have they failed to act? How many parties do they have a year in Las Vegas? Just a guess. But maybe protesting another wasteful agency not doing their job.
Then why just pick on CPS for "Probably not doing their jobs with the funds they get."? Aren't there more Gov't Agencies doing that very same thing? For example GSA?? Why isn't Occupy in front of the GSA Offices too??
Oh great these clowns again. Well we seen what they accomplished after sitting around doing nothing last year. What makes them think doing the same old song & dance is going to change anything now? It's over. Now get back to wasting your pathetic lives in a more private setting please.
better yet! get a job!!! be a productive part of society!!!
Well maybe if you actually read up on what they stand for and what they are doing.....you might get some insight. Suggestion? Turn off Fox news. And go to 99% declaration. Read it all and then come back to discuss. OK?
I have a mission statement too. I'm going to be president of the US someday. I'm going to sit outside the capital building with a sign that says "I want to be President" & will continue to do so until I'm elected. I have no other means or ways I'm going to make it happen other than that. So please, will you vote for me? After all, I made a sign that says it so it has to happen.
I hate to judge, but this has gone on almost as long as the war in Afghanistan and now is time for a step toward a resolution.
If nothing results soon, then it is a farce - or mocking those that are truly suffering.
May Day, the great Communist holiday. And most people don't even realize that or even care anymore.
I hope they don't create any damage or any harm today.
But, if they do, its on Obama and his ilk. He empowered them and energized them for his own purposes. He owns whatever happens. He cannot pull back now (although he will certainly spin this like a top).
You idiot. Do you know what may day stands for? And if they do ........I will first blame repucks, fox blah blah and cpacs
Standard fare from the brainwashed left.
Have fun with your comrades today.
Its tough to pay off your student loans for your useless philosophy degree when all you do is sit in the park and play drums all day
You are a common moron right? How about you give up your job for one of them to pay their outragous student loan.......at least they attempted an education unlike some people.....hint hint
I'm currently and happily paying off my student loans thank you very much.
Well the whole point of an education is to get a job, perhaps a better one than without extra education, yet even with that extra education they still never learned how to get a hiring advantage over someone with just a HS diploma or GED ? Yeah, sounds like they're real smart. Or possibly just lazy.
I haven't heard any reports of bodies being tossed from the GWB or being dragged feet first out of any of the tunnels. Must be they thought better of blocking access to NYC when they realized they'd be interfering with the truckers' ability to earn a living for their families.
Not that I'm advocating violence against anyone, but if you OWS punks wanna dance..........?
The Occ-U-mom movement reminds one of a red ant pile after a hard rain: Both has multitudes gathering in DIRT daring someone or something to step on it. Saul Alinsky (Obama's ratical/extremist, socialist/communist mentor) once said, to paraphrase: "The only moment I want/need is a bowel movement!" Perhaps he's right, because it's stronger than dirt in the example above.
Free college, high pay for no work, free drugs, 14 year old runaways in every lice infested tent, free biodegradable crap bags, amnesty for the illegals as long as they are taking your stuff, you pay for my house, equal outcome for minimum effort, STD's are a right not a privilege, all jobs are guaranteed and management level or above....
Nibor' How many occupy camps have you been to? Another right winger that spout bs. without any proof or concrete evidence to back up their bs.
But there are no communists in the dimocrat party? I see clearly where this is going.
Elder Ed; How about some solid evedence of communism in the Democratic Party? You really don't have any or even understand what communism is do you?
Apparently you do not either.
You sold out long ago to the enemy, and you don't even realize it.
The Dev. Maybe you shopuld take your head out of your AZZ.
What Are Your Legal Issues Occupy Movement??
It is difficult to know what to think of this movement. I am uncertain why a group would protest so long about something that should have been handled long ago. I guess that is the William Marshal DNA in me that wants to see something in writing. This has dragged out long enough. And it is disruptive to the society of the nation. I feel that assembly is a step toward a directive, the outcome of which will benefit each party involved. But, if nothing advances imminently from an assembly, then this is merely an annoyance to obstruct the normal course of life and nothing more.
That is a shame because anyone that assembles or demonstrates from here on in for a very different purpose will be associated to this group, in scope, even if they have nothing to do with Occupy Wall Street.
I like to see something resolved. This is not getting it done.
That is the law side of me.
Then, I have to wonder about a political group funding its activity. If they are unable to answer my question posed at the top, then this is nothing but an excuse to party.
How about a brain to occupy some heads. The crap people will pull... 99% shy of a full load. What a waste of time. I'll be occupying the bar later :D
Well, I work for a living, like a lot of people do. I also got a college degree, in a useful field. Basket weaving 101 or liberal arts degrees are not in demand. But a lot of these people protesting have degrees in a useful field, and cannot find a job, they graduated when the bubble broke, or shortly afterwards.
Companies are not hiring older people, or very seldom people without some experience in their field. So I can understand why they are protesting. The average American has been sold out, the Banks, Wall St, some corporations got bail out. There is a difference there people.
I do not agree with some of the ways they protest, and I am against any property damage they may or may not cause. But they do have the right to protest against the govt, be it local, state, or federal. Stopping them from peaceful protest is against the law. Passing laws to stop them from gathering on public property is also illegal, it just hasn't gone to court yet to prove that it is illegal.
Complain all you want, call them any names you wish, but the fact remains, they are fellow Americans who, like most of us, got screwed by the govt over the last 30 yrs. It started before I was born, but read some history about the laws passed in the last 30 yrs, you might get a clue. It's evident a lot of the OWS people have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l3Y9CARUwio
Typical OWS punk.
The ignorance on this board never ceases to amaze. Stop reading Faux News headlines and actually talk to some protesters. The real enemy is not them, it's the scammers who walked away with billions in bailout executive pay for tanking companies, banks that loan high interest loans to poor people who they know can't afford it, and our politicians that can't work together to get anything passed to save themselves. Most of the protesters do work, hence the labor strike with unions!
The enemies are not out on the streets with signs. You all who think unions are the problem? Look back at history. Look how many fires killed hundreds of people in New York in the early 1900s because they didn't have unions to strike unsafe working conditions and sprinklers systems. Life would be the same now but for people organizing and protesting. The couch commandos on this board who can't be bothered to even talk to a protester really have nothing to say.