No. 78

Wall Street protesters: We're in for the long haul

The protesters who have been camping out in Manhattan's Financial District for more than two weeks eat donated food and keep their laptops running with a portable gas-powered generator. They have a newspaper - the Occupied Wall Street Journal - and a makeshift hospital.

They lack a clear objective, though they speak against corporate greed, social inequality, global climate change and other concerns. But they're growing in numbers, getting more organised and show no sign of quitting.

City officials "thought we were going to leave and we haven't left," 19-year-old protester Kira Moyer-Sims said. "We're going to stay as long as we can."

Saturday's arrests of more than 700 protesters who tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge appeared to do little to dampen enthusiasm Sunday.

The Occupy Wall Street demonstration started out last month with less than a dozen college students spending days and nights in Zuccotti Park, a private plaza off Broadway. It has grown sizeably, however, both in New York City and elsewhere as people across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles, display their solidarity in similar protests.

Why is the "Occupy Wall Street Movement" protesting in Manhattan's financial district? The website of the movement states:

"Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent."

Read more |  Forbes, 03.10.11

Download the MITN iPhone app
Add us on Facebook
Made in the Now Three Sixty Five