On Saturday, October 15, the Occupy Wall Street movement spread to the Chase Bank plaza in New Paltz, where protestors marched, chanted and carried homemade signs decrying corporate control of American politics.
YouTube user kiew0101 took the video above of protestors marching through the streets of New Paltz on Saturday. ("Don't photograph, join us!" one woman exhorts the off-screen videographer around the 3:25 mark.)
The Times Herald-Record estimates that about 125 people participated in the New Paltz demonstration. Some of them did some traveling to participate:
Aggravating, constant tales of huge CEO bonuses drove Nancy Castleman of Olive out to the rally. She wants the government to focus on creating jobs, not lowering taxes.
"I'd like to see everybody who wants a job having one," she said. "I want my grandkids to live the American dream."
Meanwhile, on Wall Street, the main event continues on. The movement occupied some space in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, when the paper reported that 74 protesters were arrested during a march on Times Square:
Holding signs reading "debt is slavery," "in a gentle way you can change the world," and "We are not anonymous," the protesters stopped traffic in busy Midtown Manhattan streets and provided a new spectacle for tourists and New Yorkers amid the bustle of iconic Times Square. It was one of the largest demonstrations yet from the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has camped out in a Lower Manhattan park since Sept. 17 to protest finance industry bailouts, unemployment and income inequality.
Local videographer Jessica Vecchione visited the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City on October 9, and interviewed many protestors. In the video below, several people talk about how well-organized the Occupy Wall Street group has become.
Today, October 17, marks the one-month anniversary of the protests at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. Over the last month, the protest encampment has become something like a micro-city of its own, with organized medical treatment, food and shelter for participants, nearly $300,000 in donations in a (union-owned) bank, and borrowed space nearby for storing a flood of donated goods being mailed to the protesters from all over the world.
"It's a real community," one woman says in Vecchione's video. "With its own problems, but it's a real community."
Another man talks about the movement's commitment to direct democracy, in which (ideally) decisions are made with everyone's input rather than by elected representatives:
"There are a lot of really intelligent grassroots political organizers here. There's a lot of respect here. There's a lot of respect for the outward community, there's a lot of respect for the police. There's a lot of respect for process, and for coming up with good ideas, and for real democracy, direct democracy."
