Wall Street, Protest | featured news

Occupy encampments have closed, but some argue the movement has made a lasting mark... But as the last of its urban encampments close and interest wanes in a movement without an organizational hierarchy or an action agenda, it's unclear whether Occupy's first birthday will be its last.

What do a bunch of protesters camped out in city parks nationwide have in common with people who are the backbone of the government establishment? Enough that members of at least four federal labor unions rallied in support of the Occupy movement in a Lafayette Square demonstration Thursday.

Oakland prepared Wednesday to again become the epicenter of Occupy Wall Street movement as local organizers aided by labor unions and advocacy groups finalized plans for a broad-based call to action that was expected to include marches, pickets outside banks, school shutdowns and an attempt to close the nation's fifth-busiest port.

Filmmaker Michael Moore, who has been supporting the Occupy Wall Street protesters this week, has come clean and admitted that he is indeed among the nation’s wealthiest citizens, but without providing details of just how rich he is.

Months before the first occupiers descended on Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, before the news trucks arrived and the unions endorsed, before Michael Bloomberg and Michael Moore and Kanye West made appearances, a group of artists, activists, writers, students, and organizers gathered on the fourth floor of 16 Beaver Street, an artists' space near Wall Street, to talk about changing the world. There were New Yorkers in the room, but also Egyptians, Spaniards, Japanese, Greeks. Some had played a part in the Arab Spring uprising; others had been involved in the protests catching fire across Europe. But no one at 16 Beaver knew they were about light the fuse on a protest movement that would sweep the United States and fuel similar uprisings around the world.

Protesters in Rome smashed shop windows and torched cars as violence broke out during a demonstration in the Italian capital, part of worldwide protests against corporate greed and austerity measures. The "Occupy Wall Street" protests that began in Canada and spread to cities across the U.S. moved Saturday to Asia and Europe, linking up with anti-austerity demonstrations that have raged across the debt-ridden continent for months.

Protesters expressed fears Thursday that a scheduled cleanup of the private park where they've been camped out near Wall Street is merely a ploy to unravel the demonstration.

Rasmussen Reports returns from the field with what I think is the first poll about Occupy Wall Street. The buried lede: At the moment, the protesters who've been mocked on CNN and Fox News, accused of class warfare by Mitt Romney, and handled delicately by the White House, have... decent favorable ratings.

Demonstrators are preparing to march on New York's financial district, with rallies also planned in several other US cities. Occupy Wall Street organisers hope to attract thousands of people to the rally in lower Manhattan, having won the backing of powerful unions. The demonstrations are now in their third week and show no sign of fading.

Protesters camped out in Manhattan's Financial District on Sunday, a day after more than 700 of them were arrested.