Wall Street protesters buoyed by global support

Anti-Wall Street demonstrators marched again Saturday in New York City as protests against corporate greed and economic inequality spread around the world.

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Over the past month, the protests have expanded from New York's financial district to cities across the United States and abroad. Demonstrations were called this weekend in the U.S., Canada and Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa.

About 1,000 people marched throughout New York's financial district, banging drums and chanting, "We got sold out, banks got bailed out," "All day, all week, occupy Wall Street," and "Hey hey, ho ho, corporate greed has got to go."

A Reuters reporter saw about 20 people being arrested at a Citibank branch in Greenwich Village as marchers moved uptown.

Story: Protests go global, rampage, tear gas in Rome

Protesters said those arrested were trying to withdraw their money and close their accounts. Police did not immediately have details.

"It's not every day that you get to be at the most significant uprising in a generation," Occupy Wall Street said on its Facebook page. Protesters said they did not have any police permits for the New York demonstrations.

Police were directing protesters to stay on the sidewalk, saying they would arrest anyone who did not keep moving.

The march came a day after protesters at the heart of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in New York exulted Friday after beating back a plan they said was intended to clear them from the privately owned park where they have slept, eaten and protested for the past month. They said their victory will embolden the movement across the U.S. and abroad.

"We are going to piggy-back off the success of today, and it's going to be bigger than we ever imagined," said protester Daniel Zetah after Friday's announcement that protesters could remain in the park.

In the U.S., marches were planned in cities large and small from Providence, Rhode Island, to Little Rock, Arkansas; to Seattle. About 200 people camped overnight in Detroit, a group spokeswoman said.

How does a group like Occupy Wall Street get anything done?

In New York, a march on a bank was scheduled for late morning with a rally simultaneously elsewhere, to be followed by other events through the day that were to culminate in what organizers called an Occupation Party starting late in the afternoon in Times Square.

The U.S. protests were linking up with anti-austerity demonstrations that have raged across debt-ridden Europe for months.

A call for mass protests on Saturday originated a month ago from a meeting in Spain, where mostly young and unemployed people angry at the country's handling of the economic crisis have been demonstrating for months. It was reposted on the Occupy Wall Street website and has been further amplified through social media.

On Saturday, tens of thousands nicknamed "the indignant" marched in European cities from Sarajevo, Bosnia, to Stockholm.

The Friday showdown in New York came as tensions rose, with dozens of arrests in several U.S. cities and scattered clashes between demonstrators and police.

The owners of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan had planned to temporarily evict the protesters Friday morning so the grounds could be power-washed. The protesters, their numbers swelled to about 2,000 before daybreak, feared the cleanup was a pretext to break up the demonstration. They vowed to stand their ground.

Just minutes before the appointed hour, park owners Brookfield Office Properties announced it would postpone the cleanup at the request of "a number of local political leaders." The company gave no details. Word of the decision brought boisterous cheers from the demonstrators.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose girlfriend is on Brookfield's board of directors, said his staff was under strict orders not to pressure the company one way or the other. He noted that Brookfield can still go ahead with the cleanup at some point.

Cold nights and pepper spray
In San Diego, police used pepper spray to break up a human chain formed around a tent by anti-Wall Street demonstrators. Police in riot gear herded hundreds of protesters away from the Colorado state capitol early Friday in Denver, arresting about two dozen people and dismantling their encampment. In New Jersey's capital of Trenton, protesters were ordered to remove tents near a war memorial.

Nearly 1,500 gathered Saturday for a march past banks in downtown Orlando, Florida. About 50 people ranging from college students to older people met in a park in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, carrying signs calling for "Health Care Not Warfare." Organizers expected more people to come and go during the day.

Some made more considerable commitments to try to get their voices heard. Nearly 200 spent a cold night in tents in Grand Circus Park in Detroit, donning gloves, scarves and heavy coats to keep warm, said Helen Stockton, a 34-year-old certified midwife from Ypsilanti, and plan to remain there "as long as it takes to effect change."

"It's easy to ignore us," Stockton said. Then she referred to the financial institutions, saying, "But we are not going to ignore them. Every shiver in our bones reminds us of why we are here."

Hundreds more converged near the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing with the same message, the Lansing State Journal reported.

Rallies drew young and old, laborers and retirees. In Pittsburgh, marchers also included parents with children in strollers and even a doctor. The peaceful crowd of up to 2,000 stretched for two or three blocks.

"I see our members losing jobs. People are angry," said Janet Hill, 49, who works for the United Steelworkers labor union, which she said hosted a sign-making event prior to the march.

Rallies downtown, uptown
Retired teacher Albert Siemsen of Milwaukee said at a demonstration in the Wisconsin city that he'd grown angry watching school funding get cut at the same time that banks and corporations gained more influence in government. The 81-year-old wants to see tighter Wall Street regulation.

Around him, protesters held signs reading, "Keep your corporate hands off my government," and "Mr. Obama, Tear Down That Wall Street."

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick visited protesters in Boston's Dewey Square for the first time. He said that after walking through the camp, he better understands the range of views and was sympathetic to concerns about unemployment, health care and the influence of money in politics.

And in Denver, a few thousand came to a rally downtown in support of the movement, KUSA-TV reported.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights leader, led a march in Washington that was not affiliated with the Occupy movement but shared similar goals. His rally was aimed at drumming up support for President Barack Obama's jobs plan. Thousands of demonstrators packed the lawn in the shadow of the Washington Monument to hear labor, education and civil rights leaders speak, including Sharpton.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Meghan Barr, Karen Matthews and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia, Patrick Condon in Minneapolis, Mike Householder in Detroit, Colleen Long in New York and Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44914155/ns/us_news-life/

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