May Day Protests Worldwide, Resurging Labour Movement?
In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, it seems labour groups have become much more active, coinciding with the OWS movement.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...JvT_story.htmlOAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of protesters in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures. Police fired tear gas to disperse marchers in Oakland, Calif. And black-clad demonstrators smashed windows in Seattle.
Activists across the U.S. joined in worldwide May Day protests Tuesday, with anti-Wall Street demonstrators leading the way in some cities as they tried to recapture the enthusiasm that propelled their movement last fall.
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While some protesters clashed with police, the melees were far less violent than ones that erupted last fall when the movement was at its peak. Marches and strikes led to a handful of arrests but no major disruptions.
Many of the rallies, which drew activists pushing a variety of causes, also did not have the same drawing power that gatherings had last year for the Occupy movement or a half-dozen years ago for May Day rallies for immigration reform.
In recent years, activists in the U.S. used May Day to hold rallies for immigrant rights, but the day has been associated for more than a century with workers’ rights and the labor movement both in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Across the world on Tuesday, protests drew tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets from the Philippines to Spain. They demanded everything from wage increases to an end to cuts in education, health care and other austerity measures.
The U.S. protests were the most visible organizing effort by anti-Wall Street groups since the movement’s encampments were dismantled last fall.
The major developments include:
— In Oakland, the scene of several violent clashes between activists and police in recent months, the situation threatened to boil over again when police fired tear gas, sending hundreds of demonstrators scrambling.
Officers also fired “flash-bang” grenades to disperse protesters converging on police as they wrestled people to the ground while trying to make arrests, police said. Nine people were taken into custody.
Earlier, some protesters tried to force businesses to shut down for not observing calls for a “general strike.”
— In Seattle, black-clad protesters used sticks to smash small downtown windows and ran through the streets disrupting traffic. Police have made at least six arrests.
While much smaller in scale, the mayhem was reminiscent of the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in the city that caused widespread damage to stores and forced the cancellation of some WTO events.
Authorities said many of the most violent protesters were trying to hide in the larger crowd by shedding their all-black clothes after they had caused damage with things like rocks, hammers and tire irons.
— In New York, hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters spilled out onto Fifth Avenue in a confrontation with police amid citywide May Day protests, while thousands later gathered peacefully in Union Square.
The group had promised the day would mark a spring revival of their movement.
Occupy organizer Mark Bray said the mood had changed since the group’s first organized events late last year. “There was a sense of novelty to Occupy in October,” he said. “Today is more celebratory, and nostalgic.”
protests even sprouted outside the White House:
of course, the corporate media of america are putting their spin on the movement, implying they're no better than terrorists who send white powder to people.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/2012-...8#.T6Ci7lb_L3MBy ALAN FARNHAM and SUSANNA KIM (@skimm)
May 1, 2012
Stinging gas has caused 'May Day' protesters to flee downtown Oakland and police detained at least six people in New York as Occupy demonstrators and labor and immigration activists participated in "May Day" protests across the country on Tuesday.
Protest organizers said they intended to show the "1 percent" what life without the "99 percent" would look like, as they encouraged workers and students to take a day off in solidarity against income inequality and "unjust" corporate practices.
Police in Oakland took at least four people into custody on Tuesday though it is unclear if police fired the gas as several hundred protesters blocked traffic near Oakland City Hall, the Associated Press reported.
ABC New York affiliate, WABC, reported that four protesters were detained during the march across Williamsburg Bridge, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and at least two protesters were detained in Midtown Manhattan.
An estimated 200 protesters are in Madison Square Park in New York City, while another 500 people are in Bryant Park. In Chicago, an estimated 1,000 people have gathered in a section of Union Park despite occasional rain, the Chicago Tribune reported. There have been an unknown number of arrests in Philadelphia and Los Angeles International Airport related to the protests.
As letters containing white powder, later determined to be non-toxic, arrived in mail rooms of Manhattan banks and New York's City Hall, a wide range of protesters gathered around the buildings of corporations and city centers across the country.
The FBI announced on Tuesday that that they arrested a group of anarchists who allegedly plotted to use explosives to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio and attack this summer's Republican National Convention in Florida. The FBI's criminal complaint does not state the attacks were planned as part of the May Day protests.
Pete Dutro, an Occupy organizer from Brooklyn, N.Y., said the date of the nationwide strike is related to the Haymarket massacre in Chicago. Demonstrators were protesting on May 4, 1886 in favor of an eight-hour workday when a bomb was thrown, killing both police and workers. Some labor groups recognize May 1 as "International Workers' Day."
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"Without labor, we do not produce things. That's kind of why this started," Dutro, 37, said. "The labor conditions were not good back then, people were being exploited and you had a huge disparity in income. And that's what we're facing right now."
Dutro, a part-time tattoo artist and former grad student studying finance, said he became involved early on in the Occupy Wall Street movement because of his personal experience as a business owner and his struggle to pay for health care.
Diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2004 and not able to afford health insurance, Dutro said he had to close his two businesses, a tattoo shop and web design company. He said they together employed 25 people.
"I was a real job creator, but at that point in my life I could not afford health insurance and the cost of living and running a business was outrageous," he said.
Dutro and the other Occupy Wall Street protesters were cleared out of Zuccotti Park in November, two months after they began their encampment, and protesters have since been forcibly removed in cities across the country.
Andy Thayer, a Chicago Occupy member and the spokesperson for the Coalition Against NATO/G-8, called this year's strike "a national phenomenon" with immigration rights advocates partnering with the Occupy movement.
"There's a good buzz about it -- the kind of display not been seen in many decades: a demonstration of solidarity on immigrant rights, but also about labor's winning back rights or winning rights anew," Thayer said.
Events are taking place at all hours of the day, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York.
In New York, community groups, unions and Occupy Wall Street protesters converged at a number of locations starting at 8 a.m., including the Chase Building, New York Times Building, Sotheby's, and a U.S. post office. Protesters planned to march over the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan after meeting in Continental Army Plaza at 10:30 a.m.
Dutro said some events are taking place without a permit, like a guitar workshop in Bryant Park, which he expects will attract attention from the police.
"Everything's been really crazy," Dutro said, in reference to the planning leading up to May 1. "People are coming back to town, asking what's going on."
Dutro said he received 200 emails on Monday about the events.
"It's a nightmare," he said.
Dutro said he has been coordinating with protesters in other cities, including Los Angeles. There, a strike at Los Angeles International Airport is scheduled for 6 A.M. in conjunction with some members of the Service Employees International Union and United Service Workers West.
Another protest event in Los Angeles, dubbed, "Let Them Eat Cupcakes," is planned for tony shopping area, Rodeo Drive, around noon.
In Chicago, gatherings include a protest at noon in Union Park, followed by a march downtown at 1 p.m.
Thayer said there is "special urgency" in Chicago related to Chicago's NATO summit on May 20 to 21. Later in May, Thayer said there will be a mass march led by veterans against war who will be turning in their medals in Grant Park.
The Federal Protective Service, which guards federal buildings, announced last week that there will be protective "Red Zone" around Chicago's downtown federal buildings this week in advance of the summit.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the officers will carry non-lethal weapons.
Thayer called the security plan "totally over the top," and said it reminded him of the security detail for the "Trans Atlantic Business Dialog" which took place in 2002.
as NPR noted:
May Day Protests Under Way In U.S., Worldwide
Categories: National News
12:39 pm
May 1, 2012
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by EYDER PERALTA
EnlargeEric Risberg/AP
Two members of Occupy Oakland join striking Golden Gate Bridge, bus and ferry workers at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur, Calif on Tuesday.
From Brazil to England, from Morocco to Paraguay, May Day protests are on their way.
Here in the United States we're seeing protests in both coasts from New York to Los Angeles.
Here's how The Wall Street Journal set up the protests in Manhattan:
"Protesters kicked off May Day in Midtown Manhattan with apparently peaceful pickets outside the offices of major corporations and dozens of smaller targets, including restaurants and bank branches.
"Early rains seemed to dampen turnout Tuesday morning, but as the skies let up more demonstrators streamed into Bryant Park, the staging area designated by organizers from Occupy Wall Street, labor unions and immigrant groups."
And here's how our friends at KQED, who are live-blogging the protests, set up the protests in the San Francisco area:
"The morning ferry commute for North Bay denizens headed to San Francisco has already been cancelled due to a labor action by workers in a dispute over health care, and last night in the Mission car windows were broken and the police station on Valencia Street was vandalized by a group of protesters."
We'll keep our ear to the ground and update this post as the day progresses, so make sure to refresh this page.
Update at 5:46 p.m. ET. Abusing The 99 Percent:
The New York Times reports the protests in New York have swelled. And so have the number of arrests, which now total 30.
One thing that the Times points out is that the themes that brought the Occupy movement to spotlight have very much reemerged today. Here's one protester the Times spoke to:
"'I just watched the whole economy becoming devastating, and no one wants to hire me," Kenzia Snyder, 59, a freelance chef from Chelsea, said at Union Square. "There are so many issues that are all coming together. It's shameful how the powers are abusing the 99 percent."
Update at 4:10 p.m. ET. In Seattle, Police Fire Tear Gas:
The Seattle Times reports that after protesters broke a window at the U.S. District Court building police fired tear gas to stop them.
Update at 3:52 p.m. ET. Arrests, Gas Fired In Oakland:
KQED reports that police have made at least one arrest in Oakland.
"Reporting for KQED, Don Clyde says violence has broken out at 14th and Broadway in Oakland," KQED's News Fix reports. "Clyde saw a woman on the ground face down surrounded by police, media and protesters. Bottles were thrown at police, who are trying to push the crowd back. Flashes and smoke. At least one arrest."
The AP reports that authorities fired gas at several hundred protesters who were blocking traffic near the Oakland City Hall.
The AP reports:
"The chaotic scene recalls several earlier clashes between Occupy protesters and Oakland police.
"The protests are part of worldwide May Day demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands of people into the streets from the Philippines to Spain. They demanded everything from wage increases to an end to austerity measures."
Update at 12:46 p.m. ET. Acts Of Civil Disobedience:
The New York Times reports that the protest in New York got off to a slow start, forming picket lines in front of the Bank of America tower at 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas.
The Times also reports on a couple of small acts of civil disobedience:
"Protesters carrying placards denouncing corporate greed very briefly blocked Fifth Avenue – for about 15 seconds – and were moved along by officers. At another point, a man was led off in cuffs after witnesses said he stopped while crossing a street in Midtown and would not move, but the police did not confirm any arrests as of 11 a.m."
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...-u-s-worldwide
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