Last updated on May 3rd, 2012 at 12:26 am
Occupy Wall Street is back and stronger than ever. Watch the May Day live stream to see America get reoccupied.
Here is the live stream:
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Here is a timeline of some of the day’s events courtesy of Occupy Wall Street:
12noon: Hundreds of marchers crossing Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn into Manhattan. At least one grabbed and arrested, being taken away by cops. Large police presence on Manhattan-side of bridge.
11:50am: Both Madison Sq and Bryant Park are packed and calm, workshops (including student debt teach-in) going smoothly. Immigrant worker justice march has taken the street. 500+ on the march now at East 40th and Madison.
11:30am: In Portland, Oregon, students supporting the general strike are gathering outside public schools. For more on May Day in Portland, follow #M1PDX or their live-blog at LiberatePDX.org.
11:10am: Occupy Bushwick crossing the Williamsburg Bridge to join demos in Manhattan. Many folks heading back to Bryant Square to rest until next action. The Bike Bloc will be converging at 1 PM for wildcat march at Houston and 2nd Ave. Bring your bicycle! Meanwhile in Washington, DC, @OccupyKSt tweets: ¨We’re already arriving at Malcolm X park for celebration. #M1 festivities start at 3, march at 6!¨
11:05am: Hundreds in impromptu march down 5th Ave, being followed by police vans and scooters. Hundreds also at the Free University in Madison Square Park. Most labor and immigrant organizations won´t even be on the street until 4pm, and numbers are already swelling.
In their May Day Declaration of Solidarity, OWS wrote,
We are here to celebrate May Day. We are here to celebrate our power as people who have found unity of purpose. Today we assert our power as working people. We declare our solidarity with all people of the world. We affirm our rights to economic security, to meaningful work, to health care, to public services, to safe and healthy communities, to free, quality public education from pre-K to college, and to civil liberties. Today, we stand in solidarity with all who take popular action to secure such rights, as we begin to form genuine alliances that challenge a system that breeds inequality.
We are here to decry the rampant growth of social, political and economic inequality. We seek an end to an era wherein a handful of political and economic elites govern in the name of democracy. We want an end to assaults on our human rights. We want an end to tax breaks for the rich. We want an end to the attacks on our right to organize. We want an end to the mass incarceration of people of color. We want an end to all wars and an end to the militarization of our foreign policy. We want an end to our current political system that is bought and paid for by 1%- ers. We want legalization, equal rights, civil rights, and a path to citizenship for immigrant working families. And we want citizenship to mean, as it should, that all people are to be treated justly and equally by their government
…
We the people, including organized and unorganized workers, employed and unemployed, public and private, documented and undocumented, here, today, re-commit ourselves to being in solidarity with all people of the world. Our revolutionary spirit will only grow and deepen.
We are here to announce that “Another world is not only possible, but is on her way.” We are Tahrir Square. We are Santagma Square. We are Puerta Del Sol. We are Wisconsin. We are Ohio. We are New York. We are Puerto Rico. We are Los Angeles and Oakland and a multitude of cities across the country and the world. We are the 99%! Our time has come.
Let freedom spring!
The banks, the corporate interests and the media and politicians that they own have declared Occupy Wall Street dead hundreds of times. All through 2011 they kept trying to kill this movement, but it has only come back stronger. Police around the country will arrest protesters for jaywalking and any other frivolous charge they can think of in order to get the people off the streets, but are doing this under the orders of the one percent who own and control the political apparatus.
Occupy Wall Street is alive and well. The people have awoken from their winter’s nap, and ready to lead a revolution. The propaganda, arrests, and violence will come, but ninety nine will always remain greater than one.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
