Occupy Wall Street

Nightly marches support Quebec student strike

Published Jun 11, 2012 9:21 PM

June 4 — Just as the occupation of Zuccotti Park by the Occupy Wall Street movement was a continuous protest, never pausing until it was finally cleared in a mess of police violence, OWS has begun another energetic action campaign.

While the U.S. corporate-owned news media have ignored the huge nightly mobilizations of striking Canadian students, Occupy Wall Street has not.

For roughly the last two weeks, each night at 8 o’clock in New York City’s Washington Square Park, the air is filled with chants of “Sol! Sol! Sol! Solidarité!” and “From Canada to NYC, education must be free!” The clang of pots and pans is heard. Several dozen OWS activists, many of them wearing bright red squares, the symbol of the Canadian student strike, are there to make noise.

After rallying in the park, the activists proceed into the streets. With no permit or permission, and in plain view of the notoriously violent New York City Police Department, they take the streets for hours. When police order them back onto the sidewalks, they are ignored. When police try to shove them back, the cops are shoved back. Tour buses are stopped and activists tell the tourists the truth, not just about the strikes in Canada, but also about the continued repression of Occupy Wall Street.

The militancy of these demonstrations is unprecedented. Garbage cans are kicked over, dumpsters are thrown in the streets to block police vans, and banks are targeted for even more militant acts of resistance. Chants such as “This system has got to die, that is why we occupy!” and “No justice, no peace, take the streets and fuck the police!” are heard as cops with batons try to clear the streets, their faces sweaty and red with anger as they chase the militant crowds for hours late into the night.

On May 30, the march grew to a crowd of 300, with students, university faculty, community members, labor unionists and passersby joining in. As this march was ending in Times Square, a police officer violently tackled an African-American OWS activist, who was immediately defended by the crowd. The resulting scuffle involved a few punches and kicks, witnesses told Workers World. No one was arrested.

Workers World Party has had a strong presence at these mass outpourings, displaying its large banner that reads “Expand Occupy Wall Street! Shut down capitalism! Fight for socialism!” at several of the marches. Copies of Workers World newspaper are enthusiastically taken by the demonstrators, especially when news about the Canadian student strike, missing in the capitalist press, can be found in its pages.

The continued strength of youth-led resistance to capitalist austerity and a sense of global solidarity among “the generation without a future” are very apparent at OWS actions. Despite months of police repression all across the country, the rage and energy of this new movement have not subsided.