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| A protester holds up a poster as members of Occupy Wall Street march from Washington Square Park to the Financial District in New York, September 15, 2012. (Andrew Burton/Reuters/Landov) |
A protest
in New York City's financial district is planned for Monday to mark the 1-year
anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, a movement against corporate greed that
spawned tent cities of protesters around the globe and became a rallying point
for the "99 percent".
Twenty-five
people were arrested for disorderly conduct on Saturday at the beginning of
three days of festivities planned to re-energize the movement, which fell into
disarray after countless arrests, in-fighting and an eviction from Zuccotti
Park last November.
"This
weekend we will mark the occasion of our anniversary by once again showing the
powers that be that we see what they are doing, and that soon enough the whole
world will again as well," said a message on the Occupy website.
The scene
was celebratory today as members enjoyed a concert in Foley Square and attended
workshops on civil disobedience in preparation for Monday's march.
At 7:30
a.m. on Monday, one year to the day the movement began, protesters plan to
create "a swirl of mobile occupations of corporate lobbies and
intersections" in the city's Financial District, which is home to the
country's largest banks and the New York Stock Exchange.
The
"Occupy Wall Street" of today is largely not what many pictured when
they set out on their crusade against the so-called "1 percent."
One year
ago, Zuccotti Park bloomed into a mini-utopia for protesters, where meals were
provided free of charge and members voted democratically on group decisions.
Tents and
sleeping bags littered the park and the sounds of drum circles and chanting
protesters showed Occupy's booming presence.
The
encampment served as a model and inspired people to mobilize in dozens of
cities in the United States and around the world.
In London,
protesters camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral, near the London Stock Exchange.
In Oakland, they set up outside city hall.
The
movement, which relied on protesters having a physical space to occupy, began
to run out of steam after police officers clad in riot gear conducted a
nightime eviction at Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, 2011.
One by one,
camps around the globe, from outside the European Central Bank in Frankfurt to
Palm Beach have been shut down.
Monday is
expected to mark the first resurgence of the movement since it largely
disintegrated.
Rallies are
being planned in more than 30 cities around the world.
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