'Occupy' movement energized by large NY protests

NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street claimed victory Friday after a "historic day" of action drew tens of thousands of protesters onto streets worldwide and breathed life into the embattled movement. But the future of the OWS campaign denouncing growing social inequality, corporate greed and corruption remained in doubt after its symbolic New York epicenter was uprooted this week along with camps in other cities. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quick to minimize the impact of OWS, which said 32,500 had gathered to mark the anti-capitalist movement's two-month existence at Foley Square in lower Manhattan before many marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. "It was an opportunity for a bunch of unions to complain or protest or whatever they want to do," Bloomberg said, claiming that many of Thursday's protesters were affiliated with unions and not the protesters who had camped out in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District. The peaceful show of force followed a more raucous protest earlier in the day, when about 1,000 people tried to block access to the New York Stock Exchange in demonstrations leading to violent clashes that left seven policemen and 10 activists injured and more than 250 people arrested. "It was the right thing at the right time, you have to give people time to express themselves," Bloomberg said, adding: "I don't think that the things they are trying to protest about have gone away." Still, OWS claimed victory and said there were protest actions in at least 30 cities across the United States and around the world, including US protests in Los Angeles, Portland, Oakland and Washington. "I think it was a success, with the large number of people who were engaged," the movement's Bill Dobbs told AFP, referring to the New York protest. After a police raid dismantled their New York camp in Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, the Occupy movement said its new slogan was "You can't evict an idea whose time has come." "The mobilization today proved that the movement is on the ascent and is capable of navigating obstacles," the group said on its website. The protests won extensive media coverage, with most major New York newspapers and others around the country carrying images of the clashes on their front pages. "I felt that this was a really important moment historically," school teacher Coral Zayas told New York Daily News as she decried the growing US income gap and worsening conditions in many school districts. "It's unacceptable that today, probably many people were down on Fifth Avenue buying $3,000 bags... and my kids don't have enough space to work in or a decent text book." With Occupy activists evicted from camps in New York, Portland, Oakland and Dallas, the group is pondering its next moves. The movement must now "rethink strategy, as we do all the time -- how to build a larger movement, how to give people the tools to impact policy, how to organize," Dobbs said. "The work doesn't stop because they have destroyed everything" in Zuccotti Park, the staging ground for the New York protests. Exactly how Thursday's action is impacting public opinion remains to be seen, but many experts agree that violence by protesters often undercuts a movement's cause. A survey of Americans released Wednesday by the Public Policy Polling Institute said the percentage of respondents supporting the movement slipped from 35 percent last month to 33 percent, while opposition rose from 36 percent to 45 percent. — AFP