Events marking the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement include a rally this afternoon in Ottawa where protesters are taking to Confederation Park, as MPs return to the House of Commons following their summer break.
About 100 Occupy Ottawa supporters, who could be heard chanting "Stephen Harper's got to go" as they made their way to Confederation Park, are being joined by members of Occupy Toronto and various unions Monday to speak out against cuts to public services and jobs.
Protesters are also demanding that Prime Minister Harper resign and pushing for systemic change.
Among other things, they're demonstrating against legislation passed before Parliament closed for the summer that contained amendments to dozens of pieces of legislation, including employment insurance and Old Age Security. As well, the government's ongoing downsizing of government departments and agencies is affecting hundreds of public service workers.
Ottawa is one of several Canadian cities participating in worldwide Occupy events to mark the first anniversary of the grassroots movement against economic disparity and social injustice.
In Vancouver on Monday evening, some 50 protesters marched through the city – chanting slogans in support of the environment, free public transit and other causes – to the corporate offices of Enbridge. They scrawled chalk graffiti on the entrance and surrounding sidewalk denouncing among other things the energy company's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"We don't want the pipeline and we don't want Harper," one speaker told the crowd before leading an anti-Harper chant.
Monday's rallies started in New York City, with protesters converging on the financial district and attempting to block sidewalks leading to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) early in the morning. Police dispersed protesters, and arrested more than 100 people.
Hundreds were participating in the New York rally, a far cry from the thousands who launched the movement in the city's streets and parks last year.
"Police are in force and have barricaded streets around Wall Street," CBC's David Common reported Monday morning from New York City. "If you aren't in a suit, [there's] no chance [of] getting past the barricade."
Common said he had witnessed at least a dozen arrests.
The anniversary commemoration, taking place over three days, began Saturday, when about 300 people marched to a small concrete park in New York's lower Manhattan that served as headquarters for the protest movement and was its birthplace.
Police took at least a dozen people into custody near Trinity Church that borders Zuccotti Park. Police said they made arrests mostly for disorderly conduct, but no total number was released.
Protesters also marched from Washington Square Park and headed down Broadway toward Zuccotti Park, chanting and waving signs.
A shadow of its former self
Common said Monday that protesters just a block from the New York Stock Exchange were "dynamic, on the move, carrying signs and chanting."
Dozens of cities around the world are holding marches and rallies.
Occupy Canada's Facebook page says "Take Canada Back" events are set for 17 cities across the country.
Occupy Vancouver, for one, plans a protest at 5 p.m. local time at the federal building on West George and Hamilton streets, Sasha Wiley Shaw, who was part of an occupation on the north lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery last year, told CBC News on Monday morning.
The Occupy movement isn't nearly as big as it was more than a year ago, when protesters set up tents in city and community parks around the world near financial centres as their unified front against corporate greed, poverty and inequality.
However, the encampments were broken up by police, and one by one the tent cities were dismantled.
The movement has been criticized for not having leaders or specific demands.
While the community that took shape in Zuccotti Park still exists, and there are communities involved in the movement in other parts of the world, Occupiers mostly keep in touch online through a smattering of websites and social networks.
Shaw, who remains an active Occupy supporter in Vancouver, said she believes the movement continues to grow and spread.
"I was getting Occupy solidarity messages from places like Germany this morning. Thousands of people are back at Zuccotti Park. So, you know, we said a year ago it's a long game. When you look at a one-year-old baby, you don't ask, 'Is that person successful yet?'"
Related on HuffPost:
Huffington Post editor Craig Kanalley has posted pictures from Zuccotti Park tonight here.
| @ katz : NLG says confirmed arrests reached 160. 30 released so far. #S17 |
Comparing today's Occupy protests to ongoing demonstrations in the Middle East and China, Bloomberg Editorial Writer James Gibney says, "You're making the U.S. look bad."
In a new opinion piece, he talks about the religious and nationalistic based protests overseas being much more interesting than today's events in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Occupy Wall Street movement's one-year anniversary seems to be many bongos short of a good drum circle, notwithstanding a continuing cavalcade of scandals involving top-tier banks supposedly chastened by the regulatory lapses that helped precipitate one of history's biggest erasures of wealth. Come on, guys -- at least torch a bus or sumpin'.
Journalism & Public Media Campaign Director at Free Press Josh Stearns has posted his thoughts on the past year of Occupy with a new blog post.
He writes about attacks on journalists and freelancers covering Occupy:
The attacks on press were troubling on many levels but particularly because media making was such a central part of the Occupy movement. From tweets to blog posts, pictures to streaming video, Occupy made strategic use of the Web from day one and inspired a new generation of activist journalists who chronicled the movement. While covering the NATO protests this summer in Chicago, Laurie Penny tweeted that “In 2012, youth power’s equivalent of the peace v-sign is the camera phone held aloft.”
A march has just concluded, bringing protesters back to Zuccotti Park. They're greeted by dozens of cops, including in riot gear, per Patrick deHahn.
| @ patrickdehahn : Probably 100 cops in the plaza with the red cube, about half are riot cops. #ows #s17 |
| @ macfathom : Just now: @johnknefel arrested, Village Voice photographer @csmuncyphoto thrown to the ground and briefly detained, then released. |
Read more about journalists arrested today here.
The latest count of those arrested in New York is now 146, Newsday reports, citing an NYPD spokeswoman.
| @ TheAtlantic : Happy birthday, Occupy! (Income inequality is still getting worse.) http://t.co/OEyhkXBp |
A number of protesters have regrouped at Battery Park after marching through the FInancial District this morning. Here's what the scene looks like:
(Photo by AP/John Minchillo)
The Guardian reports that there have now been 135 arrests related to Occupy Wall Street, citing an NYPD spokesman.
| @ AnonymousPress : RT @nastiachurkina: chanting at #Zuccotti Park: "happy birthday, occupy! happy birthday to you!" #S17 #OWS Park is packed. |
The Associated Press has some raw video of arrests during Occupy Wall Street demonstrations today in New York.
WATCH:
| @ OccupyWallStNYC : Another march brewing now, circling #LibertySq now, then bifurcating and heading W and N! #OWS #S17 |
Frances Fox Piven writes for The Guardian that it's a mistake to call the Occupy movement dead. She notes, "The great protest movements of history lasted not for a moment but for decades."
Some demonstrators have taken the streets in San Francisco and pitched tents in support of the Occupy movement.
(Photo by AP/Ben Margot)
Lukas Walczak just posted an Instagram photo showing Zuccotti Park.
| @ LukasWalczak : Back at zucotti #s17 #ows #occupywallst http://t.co/kktxDu8Q |
“The movement has lost steam," says Jamie Chandler, a political science professor at Hunter College in New York. “Occupy Wall Street failed to influence Washington because organizers didn't professionalize. They didn’t form PACs and field candidates."
From The Village Voice's Nick Pinto:
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| @ macfathom : Also in Zuccotti Park: more people than I've seen since the November eviction. |
Some Occupy protesters gathered at Battery Park in New York today. Here's video from this afternoon of the scene at Battery Park.
New video from journalist Daniel Bentley shows the human microphone back in use at Zuccotti Park.
“This may be the last opportunity we have before the election to have the voices of the people heard,” 47-year-old demonstrator Robert Cammiso told The New York Daily News.
According to the Associated Press:
But the protests lacked the heft of last year's Occupy events. Last year there were thousands of protesters. On Monday morning, there were a few hundred at most.
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| @ katz : Several arrests outside Goldman Sachs on West Street #S17 http://t.co/3C7YN2Aw |
Protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street gather near a police blockade by Wall Street.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
| @ HuffPostMedia : Journalists arrested covering Occupy Wall Street protests http://t.co/lQ92x2Tg |
| @ allisonkilkenny : Sign at zuccotti: "nothing has changed" #ows #s17 |
Mashable is rounding up citizen journalism reports and photos via social media related to the Occupy Wall Street anniversary protests.
More than 100 have been arrested so far during today's protests in New York, police say.
For context on what's happened to the Occupy Wall Street movement since it began a year ago, here's an excellent explainer from Safi Knako.
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CBC | Posted: 09/17/2012 11:30 am Updated: 09/18/2012 12:42 am