The month-old Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow,with nearly $300,000 in the bank and participants finding satisfaction in thewidening impact they hope will counter the influence on society by those whohold the purse strings of the world's economies.
The expanding occupation of land once limited to a smallManhattan park in the shadow of the rising World Trade Center complex continuedthrough the weekend, with hundreds of thousands of people rallying around theworld and numerous encampments springing up in cities large and small.
For the most part, the protest action remained looselyorganized and there were no specific demands, something Legba Carrefour, aparticipant in the Occupy D.C. protest, found comforting on Sunday.
"When movements come up with specific demands, theycease to be movements and transform into political campaign rallies," saidCarrefour, who works as a coat check attendant despite holding a master'sdegree in cultural studies. "It's compelling a lot of people to come outfor their own reasons rather than the reasons that someone else has given tothem."
The demonstrations worldwide have emboldened those campedout at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the movement that began amonth ago Monday. But there is conflict too. Some protesters eventually wantthe movement to rally around a goal, while others insist that isn't the point.
"We're moving fast, without a hierarchical structureand lots of gears turning," said Justin Strekal, a college student andpolitical organizer who traveled from Cleveland to New York to help. "...Egos are clashing, but this is participatory democracy in a little park."
Even if the protesters were barred from camping in ZuccottiPark, as the property owner and the city briefly threatened to do last week,the movement would continue, Strekal said.
Wall Street protesters are intent on building on momentumgained from Saturday's worldwide demonstrations, which drew hundreds of thousandsof people, mostly in the U.S. and Europe.
Nearly $300,000 in cash has been donated through themovement's website and by visitors to the park, said Bill Dobbs, a pressliaison for Occupy Wall Street. The movement has an account at Amalgamated Bank,which bills itself as "the only 100 percent union-owned bank in the UnitedStates."
Donated goods ranging from blankets and sleeping bags tocans of food and medical and hygienic supplies are being stored in a cavernousspace donated by the United Federation of Teachers, which has offices in thebuilding a block from Wall Street near the private park protesters occupy.
Among the items are 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shieldprotesters from pepper-spray attacks). Supporters are shipping about 300 boxesa day, many with notes and letters, Strekal said.
"Some are heartwrenching, beautiful," and comefrom people who have lost jobs and houses, he said. "So they send whatthey can, even if it's small."
Strekal said donated goods, stored for a "long-termoccupation," have been used to create "Jail Support" kitsconsisting of a blanket, a granola bar and sanitary wipes for arrestedprotesters to receive when they are freed.
The movement has become an issue in the Republicanpresidential primary race and beyond, with politicians from both parties underpressure to weigh in.
President Barack Obama referred to the protests at Sunday'sdedication of a monument for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the civil rightsleader "would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street withoutdemonizing those who work there."
Many of the largest of Saturday's protests were in Europe,where those involved in long-running demonstrations against austerity measuresdeclared common cause with the Occupy Wall Street movement. In Rome, hundredsof rioters infiltrated a march by tens of thousands of demonstrators, causingwhat the mayor estimated was at least €1 million ($1.4 million) in damage tocity property.
U.S. cities large and small were "occupied" overthe weekend: Washington, D.C., Fairbanks, Alaska, Burlington, Vt., Rapid City,S.D., and Cheyenne, Wyo. were just a few. In Cincinnati, protesters were eveninvited to take pictures with a couple getting married; the bride and groom areOccupied Cincinnati supporters.
More than 70 New York protesters were arrested Saturday,more than 40 of them in Times Square. About 175 people were arrested in Chicagoafter they refused to leave a park where they were camped late Saturday, andthere were about 100 arrests in Arizona — 53 in Tucson and 46 in Phoenix —after protesters refused police orders to disperse. About two dozen people werearrested in Denver, and in Sacramento, Calif., anti-war activist Cindy Sheehanwas among about 20 people arrested after failing to follow police orders to disperse.
Activists around the country said Saturday's protestsenergized their movement.
"It's an upward trajectory," said John St.Lawrence, a Florida real estate lawyer who took part in Saturday's OccupyOrlando protest, which drew more than 1,500 people. "It's catchingpeople's imagination and also, knock on wood, nothing sort of negative ordiscrediting has happened."
St. Lawrence is among those unconcerned that the movementhas not rallied around any particular proposal.
"I don't think the underlying theme is a mystery,"he said. "We saw what the banks and financial institutions did to theeconomy. We bailed them out. And then they went about evicting people fromtheir homes," he said.
In Richmond, Va., about 75 people gathered Sunday for one ofthe "general assembly" meetings that are a key part of the movement'sconsensus-building process. Protester Whitney Whiting, a video editor, said theprocess has helped "gather voices" about Americans' discontent.
"In regards to a singular issue or a singular focus, Ithink that will come eventually. But right now we have to set up a space forthat to happen," Whiting said.
Some U.S. protesters, like those in Europe, have their owncauses. Unions that have joined forces with the movement have demands of theirown, and on Sunday members of the newly formed Occupy Pittsburgh group demandedthat Bank of New York Mellon Corp. pay back money they allege it overchargedpublic pension funds around the country.
New York's attorney general and New York City sued BNYMellon this month, accusing it of defrauding clients in foreign currencyexchange transactions that generated nearly $2 billion over 10 years. Thecompany has vowed to fight the lawsuit and had no comment about the protesters'allegation about pensions.
Lisa Deaton, a tea party leader from southern Indiana, saidshe sees similarities between how the tea party movement and the Wall Streetprotests began: "We got up and we wanted to vent."
But the critical step, she said, was taking that emotion andfocusing it toward changing government.
The first rally she organized drew more than 2,500 people,but afterward, "it was like, 'What do we do?'" she said. "Youcan't have a concert every weekend."