Where are the Occupy Wall Street protests heading?

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3 October 2011 Last updated at 22:58 GMT By Laura Trevelyan BBC News, New York Commentators are wondering if this movement could become a "Tea Party" for the left As a man known as Mercury puts the finishing touches to his corporate zombie make up, he explains why he's joined the anti-capitalist protests here in the shadow of Wall Street.

"We are inspired by the Arab Spring. Americans have rights but they're too often apathetic."

Welcome to Zuccotti Park, where the leaderless protest is now entering its third week.

Sophie is here to protest about the execution of a Georgia man, Troy Davis.

Will Estrella believes this is his generation's revolution.

And Brian Phillips, a marine turned housing community official, wants to see the Federal Reserve abolished.

The protesters aren't unified in their motivations or their demands, but they're tapping into discontent about inequalities in an America still struggling after one recession and fearful about entering a second.

'We're the 99%'

Brian Phillips, who wears his marine dog tags round his neck, says he has been lied to all his life by officialdom and he's had enough.

The protesters want a change in political and economic culture

That's what made him leave Washington state and his job at a low-income housing unit to come here.

Now Brian is efficiently dealing with media requests.

I tell him that I want to speak to one of the 700 arrested on Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday.

"Arrested Sunday!" calls Brian. Two young men step forward for me to interview.

That's how we communicate, Brian explains, with marine-like efficiency, as to his left a group start the day with yoga.

Police officers stand at the edges of the protesters' encampment, and today at least relations seem cordial enough.

But on Saturday the demonstrators say the police ushered them on to a roadway section of the Brooklyn Bridge rather than the pedestrianised walkway, fenced them in and then arrested them for disorderly conduct.

The NYPD says this isn't correct, and has released a video of the police telling the protesters not to go on the roadway section of the bridge.

Freelance photographer Will Estrella says the police clearly guided him and others on to the bit of the bridge they weren't meant to be on.

The NYPD's tactics for policing this protest have been called into question after a high ranking officer was seen on a YouTube video using pepper spray on demonstrators the weekend before last.

Will Estrella wants this to be a peaceful protest, a theme echoed across Zuccotti Park.

Most of the protesters I saw camping out at Zuccotti Park were young - in their mid-20s. Many have gone from job to job since graduating.

They have known difficult economic times in young adulthood, and they don't like a system which to them seems to reward what they call the "1%" of society.

"We're the 99%", they say.

Their manifesto supports the people of the world against corporate greed, and calls for people to assert their power and create a process to address the problems we face.

In the centre of Zuccotti park, amid the sleeping bags, is the communal food area.

Ange, a 24-year-old redhead who does freelance art work in Manhattan, is helping organise the food for the protesters.

"I like communal decision making, something that comes from the bottom up," she explains. Ange isn't sure how long she'll be here, but she's pleased to be part of a grassroots movement.

Where will this lead? No-one knows. But the protesters say their enthusiasm won't fade with the autumn sunshine.

The question is whether this ad hoc group of protesters - who feel they're getting the short end of the stick while corporate America hoards money - could morph into a political movement, a kind of left wing Tea Party.

The city's unions are now starting to back the protesters, something they didn't at first, suggesting they see the potential here.

Jesse Cooper Levy, a bearded 24-year-old, hopes this movement will influence politics.

His particular concern is what he sees as the corrupting influence of corporate lobbyists on Washington DC.

"What do you want?" I ask the protesters. "Change", comes the answer - a change in political and economic culture.

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Video: protesters March on Wall Street

Help 6 October 2011, last updated on: 10: 05 GMT

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Wall Street protest joined by unions

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Several unions joined students demonstrating in New York's financial district Wednesday in what have become known as the Occupy Wall Street protests.

National Nurses United, the Chinatown Tenants Union and the Transit Workers Union, the liberal group MoveOn.org, and community organizations like the Working Families Party and United NY were among those who joined the demonstration and a march in Lower Manhattan.

After gathering at Foley Square, an area encircled by courthouses and named for "Big Tom" Foley, a former blacksmith's helper who became a prominent state Democratic leader, they marched to Zuccotti Park, the protesters' unofficial headquarters.

Across the country, students at several U.S. colleges walked out of classes in solidarity.

Sterling W. Roberson, vice-president for the United Federation of Teachers, said union members shared the same ideals as activists who have been camped out in sleeping bags for more than two weeks.

"The middle class is taking the burden but the wealthiest of our state and country are not," he said.

Thousands of protesters packed the square, standing behind police barricades in front of the courthouse buildings. Some wore union T-shirts, others were in business attire, and many had left work early to be there.

Several Democratic lawmakers threw their support behind the protests Wednesday. "We share the anger and frustration of so many Americans who have seen the enormous toll that an unchecked Wall Street has taken on the overwhelming majority of Americans while benefitting the super wealthy," representatives Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison said in a joint statement.

The protests started on Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Since then, hundreds have set up camp in the park nearby and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal.

Protests are planned in Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. On Oct. 15, a group plans on staging a sit-in in Toronto’s financial district.

Chatter on social media suggests a similar event is planned for Vancouver’s financial district on the same day.

Other groups have periodically gathered and protested in spots throughout the U.S.

One of the larger demonstrations Wednesday was in Boston, where about 200 Northeastern University students gathered on campus to condemn what they called corporate control of government and the spiralling costs of their education.

The protesters have varied causes but have reserved most of their criticism for Wall Street.

They've called for higher taxes on the rich and a tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives, credit default swaps, and similar financial transactions to raise government revenues.

Occupy Wall Street protesters join unions at a rally in Foley Square in New York on Wednesday. Seth Wenig/Associated Press

“We have to start by making Wall Street pay to undo the damage that has caused immeasurable suffering while the high rollers on Wall Street, who created this crisis, are rewarded with bailouts, bonuses, tax cuts, and regulatory rollbacks,” the executive director of National Nurses United, Roseann DeMoro, said.

NNU is the largest union and professional association of nurses in the U.S., with 170,000 members.

"I think they're capturing a feel of disempowerment, feeling like nobody is listening to them," said Camille Rivera, executive director of United NY. "What do you do when no one is listening to you? You speak up, you take action."

MoveOn.org is planning a "virtual march" on its website by encouraging people to post photos of themselves with the caption: "I'm the 99 per cent" — a reference to those people not among the wealthiest one per cent of Americans and the debate over whether they should be taxed more.

About 700 protesters were arrested and given disorderly conduct summonses for spilling into the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday despite warnings from police.

It's not clear whether the protesters meant it as civil disobedience; some say they were tricked by police into entering the road and were wrongly arrested. Police video shows officers with bullhorns telling them to keep off the road.

With files from The Associated Press Accessibility Links

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