November 17, 2011 News NEW YORK (AFP) –

Occupy Wall Street activists
have vowed to avenge their eviction from a
protest camp with an attempt Thursday to
disrupt the New York Stock Exchange, then
rally on the city’s subway and major bridges. The website occupywallst.org announced a
“Global Day of Action” that will combine
demonstrations across the United States with
protests in other nations including Belgium,
Germany, Poland Spain, Nigeria and other
countries. The level of participation in the rallies could
provide a clear indication of Occupy Wall
Street’s clout exactly two months since the
movement sprang up to protest against the
elite “one percent” — and two days after New
York police cleared out the tent camp in Manhattan. “We will no longer tolerate the oppression of
the one percent,” the OWS website said. “This is why we’re fighting back tomorrow….
We will shut down Wall Street and we will #
occupy all of New York City with our bodies,
voices and ideas.” Organizers in New York said protesters would
start gathering at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) at
Zuccotti Park, scene of the dramatic police raid,
then march to nearby Wall Street and the stock
exchange. The action was due to begin six hours before
the global movement faced a major challenge
in London, where a deadline for anti-capitalist
protesters camped at St Paul’s Cathedral to
leave was scheduled to expire. “Enough of this economy that exploits and
divides us,” the OWS announcement said. “It’s
time we put an end to Wall Street’s reign of
terror.” Previous OWS protests have been peaceful, but
with tensions rising between the activists and
police it was unpredictable what would happen
when the crowd tried to enter Wall Street —
almost certainly to be blocked from entering. The wider US movement has also seen trouble
this week, with an Occupy camp in Oakland
being broken up and a suspected gunman
being shot dead by police at the University of
California at Berkeley, although it was not
linked to the hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters who had descended on the elite
college. OWS promised to “confront Wall Street with the
stories of people on the frontlines of economic
injustice. There, before the Stock Exchange, we
will exchange stories rather than stocks.” From there, the program calls on protesters to
meet at underground rail hubs “and take our
own stories to the trains.” A final installment is
scheduled as a rally on a major square near
police headquarters and various courthouses,
then a march across bridges, likely meaning the nearby Brooklyn Bridge. The announcement strikes a lighthearted note,
calling for music and an unexplained “festival
of light” on the bridges. However, if the bridge
marches block traffic, as police say a previous
march on Brooklyn Bridge did, then arrests are
almost sure to follow. The number of people marching, their
determination and how well they control the
unsanctioned demonstrations will be a key test
of strength for the gritty movement. Numbers
could swell Thursday, particularly in the later
part of the day, with support from sympathetic trade unions. Another unknown is the level of participation
in other US cities that have embraced the OWS
cause, as well as in other countries. Atlanta, Detroit, Portland and Washington, DC,
are some of the cities said to be planning
events. According to www.occupywallst.org, Spanish
university students in a dozen cities will go on
strike and a demonstration will take place in
Madrid, where the “indignant” protests were a
precursor of the “occupy” movement. There will be rallies in Belgium, Germany, Italy,
Poland, Nigeria and other countries, according
to the site. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, following
the cue of several other US cities, ordered this
week’s crackdown in response to what he said
was a deteriorating health and safety situation
in the cramped tent camp. The raid left OWS visibly weakened Wednesday,
with only small numbers coming back to
Zuccotti Park, where they are now allowed to
congregate, but not live.