Samstwitch
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Dozens of cities prepare for biggest May Day protests in U.S history with Occupy activists expected to riot nationwide
*The Occupy Movement is calling for a general strike tomorrow, urging workers and students to stay at home
*Protests focused in New York where they plan to block the Brooklyn Bridge and target financial firms
*Events planned in 115 cities across U.S, including Oakland, Chicago, and San Francisco
April 30, 2012: Dozens of cities across the U.S. are preparing for what could be the largest May Day protests that America has ever seen. The Occupy movement is calling for a general strike tomorrow and is urging millions of workers to stay home in an act of defiance. Tens of thousands of activists will target banks and blue-chip companies in a deliberate attempt to bring European style May 1 protests to America on a large scale for the first time. Students are being told to stay away from university and consumers are being urged to not buy anything for the entire day too.
The focus will be New York where protesters are planning to bring the city to a halt by blockading major arteries like the Brooklyn Bridge. Even tunnels into the city could be closed down by gangs of protesters running through traffic. But across the U.S. events are are scheduled for more than 115 cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Oakland.
A post on an Occupy related website reads: ‘No work, no school, no shopping, now housework, no compliance. ‘If you can’t strike call in sick. If you can’t call in sick hold a slow down.’
According to the timetable of ‘permitted actions’ on occupywallst.org, the day in New York will begin in Bryant Park at 8am with a ‘pop up occupation’ over the road from the Bank of America New York HQ. There will also be a march over the Williamsburg bridge, a protest in Union Square where rock band Rage Against the Machine will play and separate protests by unions, residents’ organisations and school pupils.
Among the arteries into the city that could be targeted are the Brooklyn Bridge - where 700 people were arrested in October for walking across it - the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel, causing traffic chaos and bringing Manhattan to a standstill. Come nightfall however there are fears that a ‘radical after-party’ at an undisclosed Financial District location could turn violent.
Banks have been working together and gathering intelligence to try and avert having their offices smashed up or broken into by anarchists. Their fears have been stoked by Occupy websites calling on marchers to target financial firms like Goldman Sachs or to storm the New York Stock Exchange.
New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that whilst he will tolerate protest he won’t let Occupy take over the city. He said: ‘They don’t have a right to disrupt other people and keep other people from protesting or just going about their business, and we will do as we normally do - find the right balance.’
Occupy Oakland, the most radical of all the Occupy groups in the U.S. has said that it scrapped plans to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge but would still organise a huge rally for the evening. There will also be protests in from college towns such as Amherst, Massachusetts, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia.
Occupy began on September 17 last year when protesters occupied Zuccotti park in Manhattan but were cleared out two months later. By then the movement had inspired dozens of copycat protests around the world including in the UK and France. After the crackdown its organisers were forced to holding one-off events but are now hoping to use May 1 as a way of putting themselves back in the limelight. They are trying to latch on to what in the U.S. has traditionally been a day for labour unions to achieve their goal.
SOURCE: Occupy May Day protests: Dozens of cities prepare as activists expected to riot nationwide | Mail Online