Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protestors, environmentalists and anti-climate change activists “flooded” Lower Manhattan Monday on the eve of a United Nations Climate Summit, among other reasons, to raise awareness about the devastating effects of global warming and its connection to corporate America.
Demonstrators demanded justice for what they described as Wall Street’s profiteering and perpetuation of what they deem a severe “climate crisis.”
Organizers hosted civil disobedience training sessions at Battery Park prior to marching on Wall Street, sharing codes and signs with each other so large groups could sit-in all at once, also dispersing pamphlets with the course’s route and legal representation information for those arrested.
Speakers included a host of activists from across the globe, among them, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges.
“No one will stop [Wall Street profiteers] but the people!” he boomed from “The People’s Microphone,” whereby others within earshot repeat the main speaker’s message so all can hear. “We are the people! This means revolution!”
The mass demonstration-turned-mass-sit-in, dubbed “Flood Wall Street,” which organizers anticipate will result in droves of arrests, settled in the middle of streets throughout the financial district.
Wearing blue, carrying signs and singing a pre-practiced anti-capitalism song, the protestors halted traffic, climbed buses and telephone poles and overflowed police barricades while teams of news crews and journalists ran alongside them.
Early on, the protestors deviated from a path cleared by police, instead zig-zagging through narrow roads cluttered with trapped taxis, tour buses and other vehicles.
For the most part, it was a peaceful morning, as New York City police officers accommodated the flood of people, watching and even opening barricades for those who either wanted to enter or exit the sit-in.
Protestors waved flags and toted huge signs that read “Flood Wall Street” and “Capitalism = Climate Chaos” as they marched, also hurling a giant, 15-foot high inflatable “Carbon Bubble”–which was eventually burst by police as the crowd rolled it atop a 300-foot unfurled banner.
“People gonna rise with the water,” they sang. “We’re gonna calm this crisis down. I hear the voice of my great-granddaughter, singing ‘Shut down Wall Street now!'”
Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protestors, environmentalists and anti-climate change activists “flooded” Lower Manhattan Monday on the eve of a United Nations Climate Summit, among other reasons, to raise awareness about the devastating effects of global warming and its connection to corporate America.
Demonstrators demanded justice for what they described as Wall Street’s profiteering and perpetuation of what they deem a severe “climate crisis.”
Organizers hosted civil disobedience training sessions at Battery Park prior to marching on Wall Street, sharing codes and signs with each other so large groups could sit-in all at once, also dispersing pamphlets with the course’s route and legal representation information for those arrested.
Speakers included a host of activists from across the globe, among them, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges.
“No one will stop [Wall Street profiteers] but the people!” he boomed from “The People’s Microphone,” whereby others within earshot repeat the main speaker’s message so all can hear. “We are the people! This means revolution!”
The mass demonstration-turned-mass-sit-in, dubbed “Flood Wall Street,” which organizers anticipate will result in droves of arrests, settled in the middle of streets throughout the financial district.
Wearing blue, carrying signs and singing a pre-practiced anti-capitalism song, the protestors halted traffic, climbed buses and telephone poles and overflowed police barricades while teams of news crews and journalists ran alongside them.
Early on, the protestors deviated from a path cleared by police, instead zig-zagging through narrow roads cluttered with trapped taxis, tour buses and other vehicles.
For the most part, it was a peaceful morning, as New York City police officers accommodated the flood of people, watching and even opening barricades for those who either wanted to enter or exit the sit-in.
Protestors waved flags and toted huge signs that read “Flood Wall Street” and “Capitalism = Climate Chaos” as they marched, also hurling a giant, 15-foot high inflatable “Carbon Bubble”–which was eventually burst by police as the crowd rolled it atop a 300-foot unfurled banner.
“People gonna rise with the water,” they sang. “We’re gonna calm this crisis down. I hear the voice of my great-granddaughter, singing ‘Shut down Wall Street now!'”
Flood Wall Street comes on the heels of the “People’s Climate March” Sunday, which drew more than 300,000 protestors into Upper Manhattan in anticipation to the climate summit.
“The Earth is in crisis,” declared a jubilant “Magick,” from San Francisco, one of several hundred who plopped down in the middle of the street in front of Wall Street’s famous bull statue near the corner of Morris Street and Broadway. “We are all part of a cult of capitalism that’s taken over the planet.
“Look how they barricaded us in,” she continued. “We’re prisoners right now trying to demonstrate with this Earth.
“If we are connected with the Earth, we will all find a way to be resilient,” she added, before asking a police officer why she and the sea of other protestors were “barricaded in.”
The sea of protestors will be heading to “flood” the New York Stock Exchange for the 4 p.m. closing bell.
Flood Wall Street comes on the heels of the “People’s Climate March” Sunday, which drew more than 300,000 protestors into Upper Manhattan in anticipation to the climate summit.
“The Earth is in crisis,” declared a jubilant “Magick,” from San Francisco, one of several hundred who plopped down in the middle of the street in front of Wall Street’s famous bull statue near the corner of Morris Street and Broadway. “We are all part of a cult of capitalism that’s taken over the planet.
“Look how they barricaded us in,” she continued. “We’re prisoners right now trying to demonstrate with this Earth.
“If we are connected with the Earth, we will all find a way to be resilient,” she added, before asking a police officer why she and the sea of other protestors were “barricaded in.”
The sea of protestors will be heading to “flood” the New York Stock Exchange for the 4 p.m. closing bell.
