The Occupy Wall Street movement has close to $300,000, aswell as storage space loaded with donated supplies in lower Manhattan. Itstared down city officials to hang on to its makeshift headquarters, showed itsmuscle Saturday with a big Times Square demonstration and found legions ofactivists demonstrating in solidarity across the country and around the world.
Could this be the peak for loosely organized protesters,united less by a common cause than by revulsion to what they consider unbridledcorporate greed? Or are they just getting started?
There are signs of confidence, but also signs of tensionamong the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the movement thatbegan a month ago Monday. They have trouble agreeing on things like whethersomeone can bring in a sleeping bag, and show little sign of uniting on anypolicy issues. Some protesters eventually want the movement to rally around agoal, 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. He said activists were working withlegal experts to identify alternate sites where the risk of getting kicked outwould be relatively low.
Wall Street protesters are intent on hanging on to themomentum they gained from Saturday's worldwide demonstrations, which drewhundreds of thousands of people, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. They're fillinga cavernous space a block from Wall Street with donated goods to help sustaintheir nearly month-long occupation of a private park nearby.
They've amassed mounds of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags,cans of food, medical and hygienic supplies — even oddities like a box ofknitting wool and 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shield protesters frompepper-spray attacks). Supporters are shipping about 300 boxes a day, Strekalsaid.
The space was donated by the United Federation of Teachers,which has offices in the building.
Close to $300,000 in cash also has been donated, through themovement's website and by people who give money in person at the park, saidBill Dobbs, a press liaison for the movement. The movement has an account atAmalgamated Bank, which bills itself as "the only 100 percent union-ownedbank in the United States."
Strekal said the donated goods are being stored "for along-term occupation."
"We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!"Kara Segal and other volunteers chanted in the building lobby as they arrivedto help unpack and sort items, preparing them to be rolled out to the park.
While on the streets, moments of madness occasionally eruptin the protest crowd — accompanied by whiffs of marijuana, grungy clothing anddisarray — order prevails at the storage site.
It doubles as a sort of Occupy Wall Street central commandpost, with strategic meetings that are separate from the "generalassembly" free-for-alls in the park. One subject Sunday was data entry:protesters are working to get the names and addresses of donors into adatabank.
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 protesters involved in long-running demonstrations against austeritymeasures declared common cause with the Occupy Wall Street movement. In Rome,hundreds of rioters infiltrated a march by tens of thousands of demonstrators,causing what the mayor estimated was at least euro1 million ($1.4 million) indamage to city 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 moved theirdemonstration out of a park after hearing that a couple was getting theirwedding photos taken there — but the bride and groom ended up seeking them outfor pictures.
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 todisperse.
Activists around the country said they felt that Saturday'sprotests energized 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, saying "policy is forleaders to come up with."
"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. He added that although he is not in debt and ownshis own home, other people in his neighborhood are suffering and"everyone's interests are interconnected."
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, andthat she expects it will eventually take the movement a step further.
"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 BNY Mellonthis month, accusing it of defrauding clients in foreign currency exchangetransactions that generated nearly $2 billion over 10 years. The company hasvowed to fight the lawsuit and had no comment about the protesters' allegationabout pensions.
Lisa Deaton, a tea party leader from southern Indiana, saidshe sees some similarities between how the tea party movement and the WallStreet protests 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."
The Wall Street protesters' lack of leadership and focus onconsensus-building has help bring together people with different perspectives,but it's also created some tension.
"Issues are arising — like who is bringing in sleepingbags without permission," said Laurie Dobson, who's been helping aself-governed "working group" called "SIS" — for Shipping,Inventory and Supplies.
Sleeping bags were among items cited by Zuccotti Park'sowner, Brookfield Properties, as not allowed on the premises — along withtents, tarps and other essentials for the encampment. By Sunday, all thoseitems were back.
Strekal didn't see that as a problem. Protesters could doit, he said, "because we're winning the PR war."