It happened. Despite my cynicism—and the cynicism of a lot of people I know—the Occupy Wall Street movement held strong and is now what seems to be a national movement, if not a global one.
You know that, Seattle. Well, kind of.
Hey, don’t get a big head about it!
On Wednesday, I arrived at Foley Square (where the protests headed from Zuccotti Park) to find tens of thousands of marchers covering every square inch of real estate. It was pretty amazing. Kind of had the feel of a classic Latin American revolution. There were even scratchy speeches being piped into the square on shitty amplifiers. And the crowd screaming back in support, and excited kids hanging off lampposts and statues. I half expected to see Fidel Castro emerge at some point.
This crowd was different, too.
It was not the Zuccotti, drum playing, ferret wrangling, white people dreadlock having, conspiracy theorizing type of crowd. It was mainly labor unions—all wearing different colored shirts to identify themselves—and a lot of square, well-read, worker bee lefty type folks. There were reportedly 50,000 people, and the crowd was markedly more diverse. Real New Yorkers, young and old. The ones who power the city, keep it clean, drive the buses, feed us. Construction workers, teachers, nurses, probably postal workers too. And I’ve been waiting to see that kind of crowd since, let’s be honest, the kids who have time to protest are not the ones really feeling the burn of this troubled economy like the working class in this city. Even I couldn’t poke too much fun at yesterday, at people who are affected by Wall Street the most giving their most to affect Wall Street.
By the time I left the crowd was back at Zuccotti, chanting and screaming at the growing police presence. Apparently some of the marchers had made their way to Wall Street proper and had been pepper sprayed, beaten with batons, and then arrested. As more and more cops showed up, it looked like things could get ugly.
How ugly? Real ugly.
It will probably get even uglier at some point. I don’t know how it couldn’t. Twenty days in a park, in the middle of the Financial District, blocks away from Groud Zero, and it’s only getting bigger and stronger. The movement is actually shutting shit down now. Regular people are joining them. Despite how much I hate to admit it, that guy from the first day, that all wide-eyed and excitedly called it the “revolution”—well, he might be right.
Dude you are overstating the protests.
nope.avi
What protest were you at? I work nearby and saw plenty of the aforementioned white people dreadlock-having type of folks there.
There is a reason China has a flying squad of security police to swoop in within minutes on anyone who attempts to make political statements on Tian An Men square in Beijing.
@4 for the Democracy Means Only Corporations Have Free Speech win.
I half expected to see Fidel Castro emerge at some point.
This doesn’t strike me as a positive sign.
The mood you describe sounds a lot like Seattle during the WTO, except that the cops are more well-behaved so far in New York. But that protest, despite what everyone remembers about the anarchists, was dominated by unions and serious lefties in the tens of thousands. And the central part of town, where the labor-led march and direct action people met, felt revolutionary, right down to people perching on lampposts and rooftops.