Wall Street protesters march into third month

NEW YORK: Occupy Wall Street marched into its third month Friday after protests in several US cities and parts of Europe, with 250 arrests and clashes with police in the movement’s New York epicenter.

Thousands of activists protesting against alleged corporate greed marched across New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Thursday in a show of force after being evicted from their home base in a Manhattan park earlier this week.

The protests were part of a “Global Day of Action” to mark the movement’s two-month anniversary, with hundreds of demonstrations planned across the country to protest against the “one percent” of political and business elites.

Police evicted protesters in Los Angeles and Dallas, arresting dozens of people in the latest crackdowns on the tent camps that have sprouted in several US cities, which local officials view as a health and public safety hazard.

In London, protesters refused to budge as a deadline to leave their camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral passed, with the City of London Corporation now expected to start legal action to remove them.

Thousands also marched in Spain and Athens to protest austerity measures and public spending cuts, although the demonstrations were not directly linked to the OWS movement.

“We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!” chanted the crowd on the Brooklyn Bridge, which organizers said was 20,000 strong. New York police refused to offer a crowd estimate.

Union activists and students joined the movement’s hardened members for the march, which was kept to the bridge’s pedestrian walkway – allowing evening rush hour traffic to proceed unhindered under the watchful eye of police.

Trucks and cars honked their horns in support of the demonstrators, who carried small electric candles in a festive atmosphere.

“Economic disparity has become worse and worse and we’re becoming a third world country. The people who have the most are not paying their fair share,”said 72-year-old Helen Engehardt.

“The people who turned Wall Street into Las Vegas are not being held accountable.”The feel-good evening came after a day of acrimony between protesters and police outside the New York Stock Exchange, where clashes led to more than 200 arrests, according to a New York Police Department spokesman.

Chanting “Wall Street’s closed!” “We are the 99 percent” and “Whose street? Our street!” about 1,000 demonstrators engaged in a tense face-off with hundreds of police, including many on horseback.

The stock market opened on time but protesters managed a 45-minute blockade outside. Police eventually intervened to break through, establishing a corridor to escort traders and workers.

The ensuing clashes sent police and protesters clattering to the ground.

Police repeatedly clubbed one man with a baton, while several protesters were handcuffed and dragged into police trucks.

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said seven police officers had been hurt in the morning clashes. Police later said that 64 people were arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge march, bringing the number of arrests to more than 250.

Up to 2,000 people later regrouped in Zuccotti Park, the symbolic heart of the movement, where a sprawling encampment was dismantled by police in a nighttime raid early Tuesday.

“We need to show we are bigger than Zuccotti Park, that we are resilient, that we refuse to submit to brutal police tactics,” said Jessica Lingel, 28, a librarian from New Jersey.

At least one exasperated New York cop seemed to concede victory to the protesters.

“They’ve blocked everything off. This is what happens when you kick them out of the park: you stir a hornet’s nest,” said the officer, who would not provide his name. “They wanted to disrupt Wall Street, and they’ve done it.”In Washington, more than 200 protesters marched under police escort through the heart of the US capital and across a bridge over the Potomac River.

In Chicago, thousands blocked rush hour traffic as they marched past financial institutions to a rally in front of the Chicago Board of Trade, chanting “Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!”On the West Coast, more than 70 people were arrested after a day of protests that included a morning sit-in at a major downtown intersection in Los Angeles. Police in Portland, Oregon said 34 people had been arrested during the day.

More than 460 protests were planned across the country, according to activist group MoveOn.

Read more »

Posted in: INTERNATIONAL

China’s Wen warns “outside forces” off sea dispute

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday that “outside forces” had no excuse to get involved in a complex dispute over the South China Sea, offering a veiled warning to the United States and others not to stick their noses into the sensitive issue.

But Wen also struck a softer line during a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, offering $10 billion in loans and lines of credit and saying China only wanted to be friends.

China claims a large swathe of the South China Sea, which straddles key shipping lanes and is potentially rich in energy resources.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei are the other claimants to parts of the sea, and along with the United States and Japan, are pressuring Beijing to try and seek some way forward on the knotty issue of sovereignty, which has flared up again this year with often tense maritime stand-offs.

While the White House says U.S. President Barack Obama will bring up the issue at another summit on Saturday, also in Bali, China has said it does not want it discussed, preferring to deal with the problem bilaterally amongst the states directly involved.

“The dispute which exists among relevant countries in this region over the South China Sea is an issue which has built up for several years,” Wen told the ASEAN leaders, according to a copy of his remarks carried on the Foreign Ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

“It ought to be resolved through friendly consultations and discussions by countries directly involved. Outside forces should not, under any pretext, get involved,” he added.

Japan has also expressed concern over the dispute, and India has become involved via an oil exploration deal with Vietnam in the South China Sea.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters that China had sent positive signals about further discussing the code of conduct for the waters.

“I think this is an important development,” the minister added.

In July, China and Southeast Asian countries agreed on a preliminary set of guidelines in the South China Sea, a rare sign of cooperation in a row that has plagued relations in the region for years.

LOANS AND TRADE

Despite the disagreements over the South China Sea, Beijing has been keen to deepen trade and economic ties with Southeast Asia, and has a free trade agreement with the bloc.

“The China-ASEAN relationship is solidly based and has great potential and a promising future,” Wen said.

“China will forever be a good neighbour, good friend and good partner of ASEAN. We will work closely with you to implement all the agreements we have reached to bring more benefit to our people and make greater contributions to peace and prosperity in our region.”

To this end, Wen said China would offer ASEAN another $10 billion in loans and lines of credit, including $4 billion of soft loans, on top of a similar pledge of $15 billion two years ago.

China will also set up a 3 billion yuan ($473 million) fund to expand practical maritime cooperation by promoting cooperation in environmental protection, navigational safety and combating transnational crimes, Wen added.

He said that China and ASEAN should step up cooperation in the financial field, by increasing the use of local currency swaps and “encourage the quoting of China’s yuan and ASEAN currencies in each other’s interbank foreign exchange”.

“The world is undergoing profound and complex changes. The global economy may experience uncertainty and instability for a long time to come,” he said.

“China and ASEAN should be both confident and sober-minded, keep our destiny firmly in our own hands and advance in the direction we have set to pursue our goal.”

Read more »

Posted in: INTERNATIONAL