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'Occupy' protests swell worldwide

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Protestors chant slogans during a demonstration in San Francisco, the U.S., on Oct. 12, 2011. Hundreds of protestors attended the demonstration here on Wednesday to respond the Occupy Wall Street protest and to protest against the high umemployment rate and the wide gap between the rich and the poor. [Liu Yilin/Xinhua]

"Occupy" protests that started in Wall Street in September is quickly spreading across the globe as protesters gear up for the international Day of Action on Saturday.

The move came after Occupy Wall Street protesters avoided a showdown with the police, as the government backed off at the last minute from an earlier plan to evacuate the protesters from their camp in lower Manhattan.

The organizer of the Occupy Wall Street announced on their website that protesters will demonstrate in concert over 951 cities in 82 countries Saturday and protesters in New York City will march all the way up to Times Square for a big rally.

In Canada, thousands of people are expected to attend the protests in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, the capital Ottawa and other major cities, local organizers said on Facebook and Twitter.

In Britain, a rally will take place in front of the London Stock Exchange, to protests against corporate power.

Saturday's event in New York City will feature themes ranging from jobs, education, housing, environment to war, according to a notice posted on the movement's website: http://occupywallst.org.

The Occupy Wall Street protests emerged on Sept. 17, with only a few dozen demonstrators -- mostly young people -- trying to erect tents before the New York Stock Exchange. With access denied by the police, they turned to Zuccotti Park, just two blocks away from Wall Street and owned by Brookfield Office Properties, a multinational real estate corporation, as their camping ground.

The number of participants has since grown to hundreds, with such facilities as food stand, mini-library and makeshift hospital set up on site. They even started to publish their own newspaper, ironically titled "The Occupied Wall Street Journal."

The protesters speak against corporate greed, social inequality, global climate change and other problems, but have so far failed to render any clear political demand or reform scheme. Nevertheless, they have found vehement support from people of various walks of life, as an increasing number of Americans are frustrated by the country's slow recovery from the three-year recession and persisting high unemployment of 9.1 percent.

Brookfield Office Properties, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, complained that the Zuccotti Park had become trashed and unsanitary and planned to begin a section-by-section power washing of the park by 7 a.m. Friday.

Brookfield Properties, however, early on Friday announced that the cleanup campaign would be postponed a few more days until it tried to reach an agreement with protesters that would keep the park area safe, clean and available to the public.

New York City Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway on Friday confirmed Brookfield Properties CEO made the request for a postponement of the cleanup in an e-mail sent to him.

Friday's postponed cleanup has been taken by the protesters as a victory and a clear message that the power of the people has prevailed against the Wall Street.

"We are winning and Wall Street is afraid," said Kira Moyer- Sims, a protester from Portland, Oregon, in a text posted on the movement's website. "This movement is gaining momentum and is too big to fail."

Academicians have also responded positively toward Friday's postponement and OWS protests.

Patrick Bolton, Professor of Business at Columbia University, said: "The whole point of OWS is to occupy. So to try to dislodge the protesters from Zuccotti Park seems very confrontational. I think NY city was right to back off. I think that the forced evacuation of the park would only have attracted attention to the protesters more and would have resulted in making the movement stronger."

"Today's movement is the product of a deep economic crisis and is directed at more abstract enemies: 'Wall Street' and the failed government policies after the crisis. But which government is the right target? Federal, the states? White house or congress? It is going to be very hard to direct this movement towards concrete short term political objectives, "said Bolton, who predicted that "this movement will peter out....

Douglas Chalmers, Professor at Columbia University in Political Science Department, said: "I think they are calling attention the most important issue facing the country - inequality and the impunity of the rich - and getting the parties to realize it will be a very important part of politics in the next decade."

On the announcement of a postponed cleanup of the park, hundreds of broom-wielding protesters also marched toward the Wall Street Friday morning in New York City, with sporadic clashes taking place between the police and protesters near Broadway and Liberty Street where protesters allegedly threw bottles and bags of garbage to the police who traced them all the way on foot or on motorbikes, which led to multiple arrests of the protesters by the police.

Protests also took place in Seattle in Washington State, Detroit in Michigan State and Denver in Colorado State. Dozens of protesters were arrested in Denver.

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