Occupiers arrested in May Day demonstration
Five Occupy protestors were arrested as they were evicted from Paternoster Square in the City of London in the May Day demonstration.
The action was heralded “a success” by the Occupy movement as the 99% took to the streets around the world to fight corporate control of the economy and austerity measures being enforced by governments.
Demonstrations in several US cities and around Europe were supported by unions to commemorate what has always also been known as Workers’ Day.
The attempt to camp at Paternoster Square came after hundreds of people descended on the capital to show their distaste for privatisation of public services and government spending cuts. The heavily criticised Workfare programme was also targeted with McDonalds and Tesco being closed down when activists occupied them along Oxford Street.
Across the pond in New York, Oakland and LA thousands marched down city streets to show that the movement still had a lot of momentum left, despite media reports of the contrary. Police responded violently in many cases, arresting the mainly peaceful activists and using tear-gas to try to suppress the public discontent.
Demonstrations in Rome and Milan were also well attended as workers paraded down the streets in support of their rights and against the TAV high-speed train project.
Spain’s biggest unions UGT and CCOO brought thousands onto the streets in Barcelona and Madrid while Greece also saw huge crowds marching in favour of worker’s rights and against the recently-passed austerity package introduced last year.
In Berlin, the police violently attacked demonstrators to bring to an end the traditional May Day celebrations there, forcing thousands of Germans to disperse with numerous arrests being made.
May Day promises to be the start of an active summer for Occupy protestors across the world with camps and actions being planned for the forthcoming weeks pressing for real change in the way politicians run their respective countries.
Occupy camps burst onto the scene last autumn with the occupations at St Paul’s Cathedral and the New York Stock Exchange inspired by the Arab Spring and the Real Democracy movement across Spain.
The editorial unit
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