Months After Zuccotti Park Eviction, Occupy Wall Street Springs Up Outside New York Stock Exchange
HAVANA TIMES, April 13 — Occupy Wall Street protesters are camping out again, this time across the street from the Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan. For the past four nights, dozens of activists have camped outside as they prepare for a major day of action on May Day.
It’s the first time Occupy Wall Street activists have set up an encampment in the Financial District since New York police raided Zuccotti Park five months ago.
“This is Wall Street. This is where—for people, where the heart of all this economic injustice in the world comes from and exists,” says protester George Machado. “So we’re here standing in the face of that in blatant, explicit contest to that.”
JUAN GONZALEZ: Occupy Wall Street protesters are camping out again in downtown Manhattan, now across the street from the Stock Exchange. For the past four nights, dozens of activists have camped outside as they prepare for a major day of action on May Day. This marks the first time Occupy Wall Street activists have set up an encampment in the Financial District since New York police raided Zuccotti Park five months ago. Democracy Now! spoke with some of the activists last night.
GEORGE MACHADO: My name is George Machado. This is Wall Street. This is where—for people, where the heart of all this economic injustice in the world comes from and exists. So we’re here standing in the face of that in blatant, explicit contest to that. And we’re also using this space to face outward to all the people who move through here, both—and trying to enter in conversation and not just be confrontational and agitating.
JOSÉ MARTÍN: So, my name’s José Martín. And now we’ve finally come out, using a law that was passed in 2000 by court order, to demonstrate on the sidewalk right across from the New York Stock Exchange, one of the main financial institutions in this country that is actually—is allowing the bankers to profit off of the debt of students, of workers, as well as the starvation of 20 million people every year, the homelessness of more than 10,000 people in this city alone, as well as many others across the planet, and the exploitation of workers in the earth, the world over.
See this program on Democracy Now!