Occupying Wall St

Wall Street itself is at the same time quintessentially American and the most untypical of New York's streets. It's narrow and crooked, completely unrepresentative of the US city grid plan, and almost unnavigable at the moment with crowd barriers and guards everywhere - a bit like being at the zoo. The reason is that some latter day Dr Who has transposed the political activism of the 60s into modern day Manhattan. Thousands of protestors rallied and then marched on Wall St today, people from every walk of life, class and race prepared their placards and demanded that the bankers, hedge funds managers, the 1% who own more than a third of the wealth in the US, be called to account. Singing, making speeches and chanting, the demonstration united the original alternative protestors who had been inspired by Adbusters to occupy Wall St, and trades union members from all over New York. I saw nurses, taxi drivers, actors, freelance workers, sex workers, doctors, teachers and municipal workers all demanding that Wall St be regulated, convicted and controlled while working people should be bailed out and given a chance.
The occupiers are using all the techniques of Tahrir Square and more - they have live streaming video monitoring every move the NYPD makes. The cops on the other hand have lots of plastic ties - wrist sized - designed to do I don't know what, one of the live streaming tv crews was arrested and continues to broadcast from the inside of a paddy wagon.
Some of the chanting sounds slightly religious - the statement and response of the catechism springs to mind. Lets keep religion out of this. We can think for ourselves and attack capitalism at the same time without deviating too far from an agreed plan of action.
Perhaps the opportunity to debate the issues of the day and find new solutions to age old problems will be as dramatic as the events in the Middle East.
One banner read "Arab Spring, European Summer, American Fall" , not too much to hope for.