Occupy is back! Get involved in the American Spring!
Join us at the next OWS Orientation every Saturday at 2pm at the Gandhi statue in the southwest corner of Union Square.
Can’t make it? Email Tascha and the rest of the crew at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to get you sorted out!
Thanks for helping us create a beautiful May Day! The world watched as thousands of us gathered in the morning for a pop-up occupation, pickets and marches around New York City, and tens of thousands rallied at Union Square and then marched to Wall Street.
A sampling of media coverage is below. If you want to see some great photos, hear the voices of protesters, or watch Reuters call the day a “dud” and then turn around and retract it an hour later, read more!
‘Festive, Righteous Anger’: Occupy Makes May-Day Comeback With Massive Demonstrations – AlterNet
Midtown is a great place for chanting; your voice echoes off the tall buildings and you can hear it blocks away. Even better for marching bands, bells and whistles. There may not actually be 99 pickets, but midtown Manhattan is clogged with them in the morning, and they’re inside the heads of the people on the street–I walk past a couple discussing our “cruel,” unequal society as I hurry from picket to picket.
“No Work, No Shopping, Occupy Everywhere”: May Day special on OWS, immigration, labor protests & As Students Revolt over Cutbacks and Debt, NYC Occupy Stages May Day “Free University” for the 99% – Democracy Now!
In New York City’s Madison Square Park, hundreds of people attended a “Free University” hosted by Occupy Wall Street, where professors gave free classes to May Day protesters.
Tom Morello Leads Occupy ‘Guitarmy’ Through New York for May Day – Rolling Stone
“I traveled 3,000 miles to march with you today,” Morello told a diverse crowd of Occupiers during a ceremonial “mic check” in Bryant Park. “It is an honor to march these streets with you, to sing these songs with you, letting the powers that be know that we will be heard.”
The Occupy Guitarmy with Tom Morello – YouTube
Live blog and slideshow – New York Times
At a rally in Union Square, where protesters were gathering around 3:15, the themes were the ones that Occupy Wall Street has sounded from the outset of the movement last fall — opposition to big banks and the government that bailed them out after they helped cause the recession.
May Day 2012 Labor Speaks Out – YouTube
Tens of Thousands March in Oakland, New York for May Day and live blog – The Nation
Perhaps it would have been easy to adopt a pessimistic perception of the day standing in the rain at 4 am by the Brooklyn Bridge, waiting for a mass show of civil disobedience that never came… But it was in the evening, long after the rain passed and Reuters’s Conway Gittens hurried home to file, that the coalition representing the 99 percent really got to flex its muscle and show its potent strength.
Across New York City, People Honor May Day – Truthout
Walter Hillegas marches with a scale-model of the former World Trade Center. I was there for the first five days after the tower came down,” he tells me, “doing debris-recovery and victim-removal. I got sick and lost my job.” … “These guys taught me how to stand up,” he says of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters in whose midst he marches.
Occupy protests around the world – full list visualized and live blog – The Guardian
9.18pm: Protesters are proposing to occupy the location at 55 Water Street, I’ve just been told.
10.45pm: Driven out of the Veterans Vietnam Memorial at 55 Water Street, protesters appear to have gathered at Zuccotti Park – site of the encampment until November last year.
May Day 2012 – The New Inquiry
I’m standing in line at Duane Reade on the same street where thousands of people had gathered for a general assembly a couple hours earlier… He hands me my change and tells me to stay safe out there, a standard piece of advice that I’m not sure how to follow, since it’s the danger that makes it “out there.” I nod my thanks before quickly reconsidering the strange circumstances that lead a young black man in lower Manhattan to tell me to stay safe from the cops. I look back at him and say, “You too, man. You too.”
Workers express anger, gloom, elation on May Day – Associated Press
On the front lines of the world’s May Day protests this year, along with the traditional chants, banners and marches, a gamut of emotions flowed through the crowds: Anger. Fear. Elation. Despair. With Europe’s unemployed denouncing austerity measures, Asia’s laborers demanding higher salaries and U.S. protesters condemning Wall Street, Tuesday’s demonstrations by hundreds of thousands were less a celebration of workers’ rights than a furious venting over spending cuts, tax hikes and soaring unemployment.
US Workers, Students Reclaim May Day – Indypendent
According to the Department of Economics at the University of Berkeley, California, New York State rebates 15 billion dollars annually in stock transfer taxes to Wall Street. This potential revenue to the state is lost in the hands of the richest one percent of New York’s population, whose income share is currently 44 percent of total New York State income.
Occupy Wall Street resurgence a dud – Reuters
… and their retraction, “Occupy Wall Street resurgence far from being a dud”
Protest Hits City Targets & May Day protest in NYC brings confrontations – Wall Street Journal
The streets of New York were awash in Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters marking the spring revival of the movement that spread around the world. Hundreds marked May Day on Tuesday with protests, marches and rallies.
Stinging Gas Sends May Day Protesters in Oakland Fleeing – NPR
In New York, hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters and their supporters spilled out onto Fifth Avenue in a confrontation with police amid citywide protests, while thousands later gathered peacefully in Union Square.
Occupy Protesters Spread Labor Demonstrations From Midtown To Downtown (video + article) – NY1
While at least 45 arrests were made throughout Tuesday, overall Occupy Wall Street protesters and union advocates had a peaceful day of May Day demonstrations that stretched from Bryant Park in Midtown to Battery City Park in Lower Manhattan.
NYPD arrests 86 in Occupy Wall Street protests and slideshow – New York Daily News
Police arrested 86 Occupy Wall Street May Day protesters for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assaulting cops, the NYPD said Wednesday.
Occupy’s May Day in the Streets – Voice of America
The Occupy Wall Street movement took to the streets of several U.S. cities Tuesday to mark the May First International Workers Holiday.
OWS Takes Over New York for May Day and Live blog – Village Voice
Whether or not you believe Occupy Wall Street’s May Day protests were a make-or-break
moment for the movement, one thing is unquestionable: they made a lot of noise.
In the streets for May Day – Socialist Worker
The 30,000 union members, unorganized workers, immigrants, Occupy activists, socialists, anarchists, radicals, students and youth who gathered in Union Square to listen to speeches and march on Wall Street showed the potential to build a real movement of, for and by the 99 percent.
Did May Day save Occupy Wall Street? – Daily Beast
Protesters said that they hoped May Day would be a moment of resurgence for Occupy Wall Street, which has mostly flown below the radar after its eviction from Zuccotti Park last November.