Occupy is Back in NYC
Special to HT by Allison Herbert
HAVANA TIMES, May 3 – It’s officially spring in New York City. The sun is out, trees are in bloom, and the streets are filled with the echoes of angry chants and rhythmic drumming. That’s right, Occupy is back in full force and this time, they’ve got sound permits.
Despite a slow start on a rainy Tuesday morning in Bryant Park, Occupy’s May Day event reached record breaking proportions numbering in the thousands by the time it reached Union Square and continued to grow as throngs of marchers started down Broadway tightly pressed between rows of NYPD.
Notwithstanding high tensions and some thirty arrests, the protests remained relatively peaceful.
The Crowd was big, music was loud, speeches expressed outrage, yet the overall atmosphere has shifted since last fall. People stand behind tables selling 99% T-shirts and buttons, stalls with pamphlets selling communism, libertarianism, anarchism, a man dresses as Jesus dragging the cross, someone carries a sign reading “Obama = Nazi”.
An overwhelming measure of spectacle and banality has infected what was once a group of thirty kids sleeping in a park.
The various labor unions, social services, and immigration organizations present offered some degree of legitimacy and respectability to the setting. Along with Occupy’s organizers their leaders called for equal rights, living wages, government funding, and an overall end to the proclaimed plutocracy.
It’s been months since Occupy Wall Street received its final eviction notice from Zuccotti Park, the movement lost its spot in the limelight and has been struggling to regain a foothold in the media ever since.
May Day’s event was the first large scale attempt at resuscitating its impact on the world stage with marches and rallies in countries all over the world. Whether it’s given the movement enough momentum for a summer of protest remains to be seen.
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Here inn the “People’s Republic of Vermont” this year our own May Day has definitely undergone a sea change! In the past, for the most part it was composed of a motley crew of the “narodniki” from the 60’s and early 70’s; Besides the usual suspects (some of whom must now use walkers and canes!),this year it was composed of many union members, Abnakis, migrant farm workers, college students and young organizers, etc. It was the largest gathering I’ve seen here; I’d estimate between 1,000 and 2,000 (taking the best part of an hour to march from Montpelier City Hall to in front of the state capitolio; moreover, it was livened up with a brass band, samba music, etc. Even the chants were livlier and wittier. I was energized. As Dylan once crooned: “The times, they are a’changin!”