Friday, September 30, 2011

Day 14: More unions join Occupy Wall St

Photo by Matt Stoller.
Here's a quick update on the growing occupation of Wall Street:

Crain's New York Business is reporting that "veteran agitators" are flocking to Wall Street.

Some of the biggest players in organized labor are actively involved in planning for Wednesday's demonstration, either directly or through coalitions that they are a part of. The United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers Union Local 100 are all expected to participate. The Working Families Party is helping to organize the protest and MoveOn.org is expected to mobilize its extensive online regional networks to drum up support for the effort.
Chris Bowers at DailyKos reports,
In addition to rapidly increasing support for the action in New York City, Occupy Wall Street confirmed over the phone that there will be at least 26 solidarity occupations in the U.S. by Oct. 6. Further, they said that up to 70 were possible by the end of October, and recommended visiting Occupy Together for more information.
Matt Stoller visited the occupation in New York and observed on naked capitalism:

Occupy San Francisco
 You can tell this is a somewhat different animal than other politicized gatherings. No one knows what to expect. There are no explicit demands. It’s not very large. And yet, celebrities are heading to Zuccotti Park. Wall Street traders are sneering and angry. The people there are getting press, but aren’t dominated by it.
We quickly checked a few other cities and found Occupy Chicago protesters had camped out for seven days in front of the Federal Reserve Bank as of Thursday. Occupy San Francisco appears to be growing from the handful of occupiers in the city's Financial District. Occupy Seattle is up and running, preparing for a major action on Saturday.

More to come.