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BAYAN-USA Statement on Occupy Wall Street
Posted on 13 October 2011 by admin
Press Statement
October 12, 2011

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN-USA, email: chair@bayanusa.org
 

Fil-Ams on OWS– To Stand Against Economic Inequality Is Justified and Necessary
 

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN-USA, salute the historic Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in New York City and the surge of solidarity protests that have unfolded across the country and even globally. BAYAN-USA member organizations are amongst those who are proudly marching in the streets of downtown Manhattan as well as in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, under the umbrella call of exposing and opposing the vastly unequal distribution of wealth between the American people and the tiny financial oligarchy of banks and financial firms Wall St. represents.
 

At a minimum, OWS raises the basic question of fairness and equality, and the fact that there are no such principles under the current state of the US economic system. At a maximum, OWS has the potential to qualitatively raise the level of class consciousness in the US that can contribute to the shaping of a broad anti-imperialist united front in the belly of the world’s number one imperialist superpower. Whatever direction it takes, the unraveling of the rotten character of capitalism and its irreconcilability with human prosperity continues to push the angry American people to the realization that to stand against economic inequality is not only justified, but necessary for change to happen.
The ongoing decline of the domestic US economy in the form of the liquidation of the public sector, the hyper-dominance of military and prison industries, and the massive multi-trillion dollar bail-outs of big banks such as JP Morgan Chase and Goldman-Sachs is the result of a protracted domino effect from the worsening global economic crisis. This crisis is attributed to the flawed and unsustainable character of monopoly capitalism, or imperialism. Imperialism’s neoliberal economic framework, with its reliance on finance capital, has transformed the global economy into a virtual pyramid scheme of transnational bank transactions and predatory lending, built on risk and speculation versus the real economy. It is the same economic decline that moves the OWS protesters across the US because of rising unemployment and that is chronic to the Philippine economy, driving 4,000 Filipinos to leave the country everyday in search of jobs.
 

As a large immigrant group in the US, Filipino-Americans have a key role to play in exposing that the tyranny of corporate greed is rooted in the system of imperialism that not only impacts our communities here in the U.S., but is the root of the suffering of our people in our homeland and the cause of forced migration of Filipinos throughout the world. This is because of the Philippines’ particular experience as a semi-feudal, semi-colonial outpost for US imperialism, and how Third World poverty is manufactured out of this condition. This continues to be apparent under the regime of Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III, whose neoliberal economic agenda has turned the Philippine economy into one dependent on foreign investment rather than on its own domestic production as a nation. Without a Philippine economy that is nationally sovereign– including a genuine agrarian reform program that is equitable for the majority of the Filipino people who live off of it and a genuine program for national industrialization that can provide jobs so Filipinos don’t have to look for them abroad– the Philippines will remain tied to a rotten global economic system that is showing clear signs of decay, causing more burdensome misery for the Filipino people.
 

As with all other pyramid schemes, this one too is destined to collapse. But the timing of this collapse can be hastened by a broad mass movement determined to knock it down and build a better alternative. Just as the people’s movement in the Philippines for genuine national independence and democracy espouses a vision for socialism as a viable and pro-people alternative, as are governments in Latin America asserting their sovereignty by nationalizing their industries and natural resources, so must the American people fight for an alternative economic system that not only puts people’s needs over profits, but one that is not built on world hegemony and the destruction of other nations all over the world.
 

PEOPLE OVER PROFIT!
 

NO TO CORPORATE GREED!
 

DISMANTLE FINANCIAL OLIGARCHY!
 

DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM!
 

LONG LIVE OCCUPY WALL STREET!

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MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY TO THE WORKERS WORLD PARTY
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle
8 October 2011

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), send warmest greetings of solidarity to the Workers World Party and congratulate it for convening its Party national conference with the “The Global Capitalist Economic Crisis: What it will take to fight it”, on October 8-9, 2011 in New York.

This national conference comes at a most exciting juncture in the history of the people’s struggle against imperialism and all reaction. The deepening crisis of the imperialist system is shuddering the very centers of the capitalist system and causing the political tumult and upheavals in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere.

The working class and the rest of the people are resisting the escalation of exploitation and oppression in both developed and underdeveloped countries.. The US and its imperialist allies are finding themselves sinking in quagmires where they have launched wars of aggression and are now faced with growing armed resistance by the people.

The daily militant gathering of protesting people at Wall Street is of signal importance. They are at the very heart of big business in Manhattan, New York, shouting: enough of the duplicity, exploitation, plunder and attacks on jobs, social security, health and welfare, enough of the attacks of capital on the working people!

We commend the WWP for shedding light on the grave problems of monopoly capitalism and showing the road of anti-imperialist and democratic struggle towards proletarian revolution and socialism. The WWP stands on solid ground and deserves the support of all the people who fight for their rights against exploitation, oppression and all kinds of discrimination.

Long live the Workers World Party!
Long live the US working class and people of various nationalities!
Long live international solidarity!

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MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY TO COMRADES IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM AND REACTION (Quito, Ecuador)
Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
October 4, 2011

Comrades:

We, in the International Coordinating Coordinating Committee of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, express our felicitations of solidarity and salute all of you for your firm struggle for national independence and democracy against imperialism and reaction.

We are deeply pleased that the leaders of the member-organizations of Frente Popular, the confederation of people’s and sectoral organizations in Ecuador and other allied organizations are present to listen to the reports of comrades who attended the Fourth International Assembly of the League in the Philippines last July.

We are hopeful that this meeting can succeed in introducing the League to the progressive mass movement in Ecuador, in spreading the results of the Fourth International Assembly and in encouraging Ecuadorian mass organizations to join the League and form a national chapter.

It is of urgent necessity that we exert all efforts to continuously strengthen the anti-imperialist and democratic movement of the people by raising their political consciousness and fighting will, to organize the progressive forces in every country and continent and to mobilize ever greater masses against imperialist plunder and war.

The crisis of monopoly capitalism has been accelerated and aggravated by the US-instigated policy of neoliberal globalization in the last three decades. The entire world capitalist system is now afflicted by protracted depression, the worst since the Great Depression.

As the crisis worsens and deepens, the monopoly bourgeoisie becomes more greedy and exploitative than ever before and more violent and more aggressive than ever before. It tries in vain to overcome the economic and financial crisis through military production and war of aggression. In this connection, it whips up all forms of reactionary currents, including fascism, chauvinism, racism and religious bigotry.

But the economic, social and political crisis of global capitalism worsens and deepens. The basic contradictions in the world are exacerbated: those between the imperialist powers and the oppressed peoples and nations, between the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat and even among the imperialist powers themselves.

In times of the grave crisis of monopoly capitalism, the broad masses of the people suffer the worst forms of exploitation and oppression. At the same time, they are goaded and driven to fight back. They struggle for national and social liberation. They aspire for national independence, democracy and socialism.

In this regard, we urge you to study and grasp the basic principles and policies of the League with regard to as many as 18 major concerns. The Fourth International Assembly has put forward the General Declaration and resolutions to sharpen motivation and provide guidance to the peoples of the world in the anti-imperialist and democratic struggle.

We are hopeful that more organizations join the League immediately and to form national chapters subsequently. Further, the national chapters can form global region coordinating committees. As in any other global region, it is possible for two or more national chapters to form the global region coordinating committee in Latin America and the Caribbean. The International Coordinating Committee of the League will become more efficient and effective if supported by national chapters and global regional coordinating committees.

We look forward to the further rise of militant mass movements, spreading like a conflagration to bring down the power of the imperialists and their puppets in entire continents. The conditions of severe crisis are favorable for the rise of various forms of mass struggles throughout the world. It is our fervent desire that the League plays an important role in mobilizing the peoples for more extensive and more intensive anti-imperialist and democratic struggles on a global scale. ###

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ANG BAYAN, October 7, 2011
Strengthen the broad patriotic front against US imperialist intervention!

CPP (Ang Bayan)
October 13, 2011

US imperialist intervention is intensifying in the Philippines under the puppet Aquino regime. Relentlessly interfering in the country’s internal economic, political, military and cultural affairs, US imperialist overlords have been brazenly brandishing their military power to further consolidate more than a century of neocolonial domination in the country and push harder for policies that cater to foreign interests to the detriment of the people.
 

Since US imperialism’s establishment of the Philippine neocolonial state in 1946, the Filipino people have been mired in chronic crisis due to the plunderous operations of foreign companies and their exaction of superprofits from the country’s resources. They conspire with the big comprador bourgeoisie and the big landlords in oppressing and exploiting the masses of workers and peasants and in extracting and living off the country’s natural resources. They have been using the reactionary state and fascist military to suppress the people for taking action to achieve national and democratic change.
 

For more than three decades, the Philippines has been bogged in ever deeper crisis due to the relentless implementation of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and denationalization policies by successive puppet regimes. These policies have led to an increasingly crushing debt burden, more widespread unemployment, wage freezes and the destruction of productive forces. They have spurred massive landgrabbing to the detriment of food production, the plunder of the country’s natural wealth and the degradation of the environment. The Filipino people are now suffering from hunger and poverty at levels unprecedented in the country’s history.
 

Despite these policies’ disastrous effects, US imperialism’s reactionary puppets have the gall to further drive the Philippines into the abyss of neocolonialism. Their sinister goal is to further open the country’s economy, deceiving the people with the illusion of a “world without borders” in order to banish from their minds the importance of patrimony, of freedom, sovereignty, national dignity and the right to self-determination.
 

Reactionary puppets and the Aquino regime’s men have resurrected calls to amend the 1987 constitution to completely do away with provisions that support the national patrimony. To the Filipino people, this brings back memories of the 1946 campaign to adopt the Parity Amendments granting equal rights to Americans to do business, own land and exploit the country’s resources.
 

In the name of “attracting foreign investments,” reactionary puppets have been pushing for amendments that would allow foreign capitalists to buy land in the Philippines and permit 100% foreign-owned companies to operate in the country. If these measures push through, the problem of landlessness and the eviction of peasants from their farms will surely worsen. This will also surely spell the demise of small local businessmen who, for decades, have failed to recover from the dumping of imported goods and the influx of foreign capital.
 

For decades, reactionary economists have peddled the lie that attracting foreign investments is the solution to the country’s economic problems. For several decades, successive reactionary regimes have not stopped thinking about what incentives they could offer to foreign capitalists. They have depressed workers’ wages, enforced widespread contractualization, suppressed unions, provided tax holidays and allowed 100% profit repatriation, control over hundreds of thousands of hectares of land and mountainous areas and the use of public funds in their investments.
 

Direct foreign investments in the Philippines grew almost thirtyfold from $914 million in 1980 to $24.9 billion in 2010. But there has been no development. Instead, the Philippine economy has further deteriorated. Manufacturing’s share in the overall economy is down to its level in the 1950s. The country suffers from an unemployment rate that is not only unequalled in its history but unresolvable even with the allout campaign to export migrant labor.
 

The new Parity Amendments being pushed will usher in a new era in Philippine neocolonial history—a time of unbridled foreign plunder under a puppet regime. Philippine “freedom” will be further devoid of meaning. The puppet state will be reduced even more to being a mere administrator of foreign interests in the country, whose direction and future will lie completely in the hands of foreign monopoly capitalists.
These moves by the reactionary state pose both a threat and a challenge to the Filipino people, especially the working class, the peasant masses, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. They are the ones who bear the brunt of the oppressive and exploitative system. The added burdens wrought by the new Parity Amendments and the complete surrender of the country’s economic sovereignty will weigh most heavily on their shoulders.
 

The Filipino people must thoroughly resist attempts to further condemn the Philippines to semicolonialism. The reactionary puppets’ insistence on completely surrendering Philippine economic sovereignty must be confronted head-on by allout struggle to defend national freedom, democracy and the right to self-determination.
 

The entire people must rally around the banner of the patriotic front to effectively thwart plans by the reactionary puppets for the allout betrayal of the country and continuously advance the struggle for national freedom. We must propagate the patriotic spirit, especially among the youth and studentry. We must shatter the illusions of “globalization” and “development” being peddled by the imperialists and their puppets by propagating the patriotic study of the country’s history.
 

The patriotic front must advance the policies of self-determination and resist foreign intervention in the country’s internal affairs. It must demand the abrogation of all unequal military treaties and an end to the permanent presence of American troops in the Philippines. The patriotic forces must fight for an independent foreign policy based on mutual respect among nations and against intervention.
 

The patriotic front must advance nationalist or patriotic economic policies. It must fight for the junking of pro-imperialist laws such as the Oil Deregulation Law, the Foreign Investments Incentives Act, the Mining Act of 1995 and other laws that favor foreign capitalists and are contrary to the interests of local investors. It must fight for the abrogation of unequal economic treaties like the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, the Treaty of Amity with Japan and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, among others.
 

It must advance the principle of self-determination in economic policies and resist the dictates of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. It must demand an end to the Philippines’ debt reliance. It must push for land reform and national industrialization.
At the foundation of the country’s patriotic front are the revolutionary and progressive forces. They must persevere in mobilizing the broad masses and in advancing the armed struggle for national and social liberation. Part of this effort are the antifeudal struggles in the countryside which include movements to protect the environment and the livelihoods of the peasant masses and the minority peoples against big comprador mining and logging.
 

Also part of this overall effort are urban struggles against heavier tax burdens, monopoly pricing of petroleum products and reductions in social spending as well as mass struggles for higher wages and to defend the right to decent jobs.
 

In the face of the longstanding and deepening depression of the world capitalist system, US imperialism has been browbeating its semicolonies like the Philippines in order to further exploitat their natural resources and their cheap labor.

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ILPS USA statement in support of “Occupy Wall Street” Movement
Thursday, 13 October 2011 00:00 ILPS USA ICC Members North America
ILPS-USA International Coordinating Committee Members


It is right to rebel

The International League of Peoples Struggle, representing hundreds of organizations in 43 countries, stands with the young workers, students and unemployed occupying Wall Street and city centers around the United States. You are fighting a battle that needs to be fought. You have a right to march and protest without fear of arrest or brutality.

Mass action is the only way forward

You are right to take to the streets in mass action rather than waiting for change from overpaid Republican and Democratic politicians who are on corporate payrolls. You are right to follow the militant path taken by people from Egypt and Tunisia to Greece and Spain, from Britain to Chile to Wisconsin. From Social Security and the 8-hour day in the 1930s to civil rights laws in the 1960s, mass action is the only way people in this country have won any rights from the corporate ruling class.

You are right to take the battle to the doorsteps of that class, the unelected tyrants who own the top 500 banks and corporations. Every day, at electronic speed, they send trillions of dollars around the world in financial transactions while millions cannot find work or afford health care. Their decisions shutter factories, destroy jobs, throw people out of their homes and wreck the economies of communities and entire nations.

Wall Street is the enemy of all humanity

These bankers and billionaires also rake in super-profits from murderous imperialist wars against people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine and elsewhere. In the U.S., they have created a monstrous police state-prison-industrial complex to lock up mostly youth of color, the children of generations of workers, whom they now deny the right to a job.

Bloomberg lies, jobs die

New York City Mayor Bloomberg, one of the richest men on earth, lies when he says that banks create jobs. His banker pals at JPMorgan Chase and Citibank have destroyed 7 million jobs since 2008. This billionaire parasite is closing schools, bus lines, clinics and libraries while increasing his personal fortune by billions of dollars since he took office.

Where did the bankers get their billions?

They stole them! And not just the bailout money they were given by both the Bush and Obama administrations. The fortunes of the top 1 percent are the unpaid labor of generations of workers not just in the United States but all over the world. It was created in farms and factories, mills and building sites, mines and offices from the Nile Delta to the Mississippi Delta, from South Africa to South Korea to South Carolina, from Mindanao to Mexico to Michigan. Many of the biggest fortunes in the U.S were founded on the slave trade. This wealth belongs to all humanity.

Imperialism is the source of their power

It is not a matter of making the rich pay their “fair share.” They have no right to even a penny from anyone else’s labor. We must smash their power over our lives. The source of that power is imperialism, the merger of finance and industrial capital that is plundering the entire world. To fight them we must take a clear stand against imperialism and racism and join hands with people all over the globe who are fighting the same enemy.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties represent Wall Street, we have to fight for ourselves. As ILPS Chairperson, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, pointed out in his Keynote Address to the 4th International Assembly this past July, "The Democratic and Republican parties in the US compete as do Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola in flagrantly carrying out the policy dictates of the financial oligarchy and the military industrial complex. Both parties agree on raising the US debt ceiling. And to blunt public protests, they promise to bring down the public deficit, with the Democrats wishing to reduce the tax cuts for the corporations and upper class and the Republicans demanding the further reduction of government social spending."

Everyone on this planet has the right to a job, food, health care, education, a home and a peaceful life. The wealth is there! We created it! But to take it back, we must deepen our struggle, strengthen our unity and increase our organization and continue to fight!

A JOB IS A RIGHT! HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT! EDUCATION IS A RIGHT! A HOME IS A RIGHT!
 

WE CAN GET THEM IF WE FIGHT!

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

Press Release
October 16, 2011

Reference: Jackelyn Mariano, Co-Coordinator, BAYAN USA Northeast, bayanusa.ne@gmail.com

NYC Filipinos in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street March Against Wars, Political Repression, and Imperialism on Global Day of Action

NEW YORK, NY – On Saturday, October 15, 2011, Filipinos under the banners of BAYAN USA and GABRIELA USA joined the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) in a march against imperialist wars. They responded to a call from the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) urging its member organizations around the globe to mobilize in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and against imperialist wars of aggression. October 15th also marked the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.

The OWS movement has been growing nationally and globally for a month since its launching on September 17. A movement that has been celebrated for its broad appeal, OWS actions have offered a space for many groups of people to express their grievances with the capitalist economic system that fuels the current global economic crisis. The Filipino contingent added its voice to the growing mass movement with calls denouncing U.S. economic intervention and U.S. wars of aggression, particularly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and the Philippines.

The relentless greed of U.S. imperialism has pillaged third world countries for centuries, stealing resources and human labor for the profit of the ruling class, which includes top bankers, high-ranking politicians, and corporate leaders. Additionally, U.S neoliberal economic policies have brought about massive financial cuts to basic services, such as health care, housing, food, and education. People all over the world have been resisting this crisis by organizing and mobilizing their communities to fight for their rights and welfare. Waging war in these countries – as well as in poor, marginalized urban areas in the First World through racial profiling, police brutality, and the prison industrial complex – has been the United States’ strategy to quell people’s uprising.

“About a decade ago, President George W. Bush called the Philippines ‘the second front on the war on terror,’” stated Jackelyn Mariano, Co-Coordinator of BAYAN USA Northeast. “Until today, the United States government has been funneling millions of dollars in military aid to the Philippines. Like in Afghanistan, however, this money is not used to supposedly maintain people’s safety from terrorism, but instead is used to protect the interests of the 1%, multinational corporations and the Philippine elite. Instead of investing in social services, the U.S. government prioritizes funding its military industrial complex, which acts to repress popular movements that threaten the power of the global ruling class."

Since 2001, over 1000 unarmed legal activists in the Philippines have been killed and over 200 have been forcibly disappeared by the Philippine military. These acts of political repression were directed by U.S.-designed counterinsurgency programs, such as Operation Plan Bantay Laya (Freedom Watch) I and II launched by former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroro, and Operation Plan Bayanihan (Coming Together for One Cause) launched by current President Benigno Aquino III.

Chanting “Stop the War, Feed the Poor”, the Filipino contingent marched north on Broadway with UNAC from Wall Street to Zuccotti Park, the site of the Occupation, up to Washington Square Park, the site of a youth-led rally in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. At 4PM, they then joined a solidarity meeting at Judson Memorial Church organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, DRUM, and BAYAN USA, to hear veteran Chicano activist and recent target of FBI and Grand Jury repression Carlos Montes and others discuss why immigrant rights and antiwar activism are connected to the OWS movement.

“We must understand that all the problems that we face – joblessness, human rights violations, political repression, war – they all have one root cause, and that is imperialism,” stated Yves Nibungco, Co-Coordinator of BAYAN USA Northeast. “Occupy Wall Street has made it clearer to the mainstream that capitalism does not work, so we must unite together as one to organize and build a brighter future for our society.” The solidarity meeting attendees then joined a larger rally in Times Square, which drew close to 50,000 people, as part of the continuing Occupy Wall Street movement. ###

Media Advisory:
 

ILPS-Indonesia Chapter: Against Imperialist Plunder Repression and War

Jakarta, 15 Oktober 2011.

Jakarta-International League of Peoples Struggle-Indonesian Chapter (ILPS-Indonesia) answered ILPS global day of action against imperialist plunder, repression and war with picket at the front of US Embassy in Jakarta (15/10). The picket is coordinated around the globe, together with peoples in 80 countries, ILPS-Indonesia reiterated their call to put end imperialism.

The picket was started from Indonesia Bank Building then march to US embassy. A long the way ILPS-Indonesia activists are shouting their slogans that are catch peoples attention during that Saturday morning, resist-resist US Imperialist, No 1 terrorist and long live international solidarity. Not only slogans they bring many placards also that stated their position against imperialism, feudalism and capitalist bureaucrats, that are now hold a power in Indonesia as reactionary regime. Stop Land Grabbing, Stop Union Busting, Stop Imperialist Plunder and War and SBY-Budiono, puppet regime these the placards.

In his speech at the front of US embassy, Rudi HB Daman, Chair of ILPS-Indonesia stated that US imperialist is the main oppressor that led others imperialist countries to impose and shift the burden of the crises to the peoples.

Imperialism, US in particular, must end their oppression, plunder, and war around the globe. US imperialist should responsible for the misery that surrounded working peoples in the world, including Indonesia peoples that are suffered because their domination in various aspects of live in Indonesia, politic, economy, military and cultural said Rudi.

Rudy added that peoples around the world should unite and consolidate their power to defend and fight for their rights amidst of crises.

Today peoples of the world are stand together in global campaign to call anti imperialist struggles. Crises that spread around the world is a sign for the end of imperialist domination. Its a high time for the peoples to rise and strive in the anti imperialist struggle for better future in life. He add
 

Benhard Agapa, from Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua-AMP (Alliance of Papua Students) was expressed his concern of the recent fascist action that are been done by mining company (Freeport) in collaboration with Indonesia Police Departement, where 3 Freeport workers was been shot when they launch one month strike.

Freeport already operated in Papua more than 40 years, and the present of this US mining company, is not bring any benefits for Indonesian peoples, Papu peoples in particular. On the contrary, their present only bring violences that are being used to suppress peoples, like what happened to Petrus Ayamiseba, Freeport Indonesia worker, that are being shot in the strike action, to demand wage hike said Benhard.

The picket is closed with reading their demands, they are Stop Imperialist war and interference in the world, stop US intervention on Indonesia in various aspect of politic, economy, cultural and military, Stop Imperialist plunder. As to Indonesia government ILPS Indonesia demand to the SBY-Budiono government to stop neo liberal policies, and to conduct genuine land reform and build strong and independence national industry ##
 

Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global: Protests & Clashes in Rome

theredphoenixapl.org

Riot police have fought militant protesters in Rome as the biggest of a series of global rallies against banks and politicians tipped into violence. At least 70 people were injured, three of the...

Occupy' protest spreads to 82 nations - Business - NZ Herald News

www.nzherald.co.nz

Protests against corporate greed, executive excess and public austerity began to gel into the start of a worldwide movement yesterday as tens of thousands marched in scores of cities