Wall Street protesters march into third month

US: 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. AFP