Wall Street Protests Spread to Four Continents

British police sealed off routes to the London Stock Exchange and Italian officers conducted nationwide raids following protests against economic inequality on four continents.

Officers carrying batons and gas sprays manned steel barriers close to St Paul’s Cathedral in London to block access to the LSE to protesters supporting the Occupy London Stock Exchange group. At least 25 police vans with wire-mesh screens and carrying additional officers were parked in side streets.

“I want to see stricter regulation of the finance system,” said Joe Spence, 23, an anthropology student at Kent University, one of those who have camped out for three nights next to Christopher Wren’s 17th century church. “I want a government that will not just pander to the banks.” A notice at the campsite, about 100 yards from the LSE, read “Jail the Bankers.”

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that began last month in Lower Manhattan moved uptown on Oct. 15, as about 6,000 people gathered in Times Square during what organizers called a “global day of action against Wall Street greed.” The protests spread to Europe and Asia at the weekend, with more than 100 people were injured in Rome, where as many as 200,000 gathered, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Italian Raids

Italian police today launched raids in cities including Florence, Rome and Milan, according to the Ansa news agency. Gas masks and balaclavas were seized in Florence, it reported. Other protests are continuing today in Zurich, Dublin, Amsterdam and Madrid.

Demonstrators plan to stay “as long as it takes,” Spyro van Leemnen, a London demonstrator, said in a telephone interview.

Protesters spent a third day in front of the Reserve Bank of Australia after weekend rallies against economic inequality on four continents that included riots in Rome and arrests in New York and Chicago.

About 30 people gathered in front of Australia’s central bank in Sydney. Signs on a nearby fence included: “When I do it, it’s counterfeiting. When the Reserve Bank does it, it’s called Quantitative Easing.” Another 70 protesters occupied Melbourne’s city square in front of the Westin Hotel.

“Around the world, we’re seeing people coming out in record numbers — not just to protest and then go home,” said Tim David Frank, 27, a teacher involved with the Occupy Sydney movement. “These are people who’ve decided to live and stay overnight, on the streets, outside of the financial institutions to remind them that we exist and that our world should be based on our interests, not just theirs.”
‘The 99 Percent’

Chicago police arrested about 175 protesters in Grant Park around 1 a.m. local time yesterday after they refused to disperse, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Tokyo, Toronto and other cities also saw protests in support of the month-old movement, which organizers say represents “the 99 percent,” a nod to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz’s study showing the top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of U.S. wealth.

In Hong Kong, protests extended for a second day yesterday after about 40 demonstrators slept overnight in a foyer beneath the Asian headquarters of HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) in the central financial district.

Armed with tents, bullhorns and a gas-powered generator used to help them recharge their laptops, the protesters occupied the public thoroughfare under the building as about a dozen police stood by. Demonstrations were also held in Seoul and Taipei.
‘Tear Down Capitalism’

“Wall Street has a campaign to start asking questions about capitalism but this is not enough,” said art student Derrick Benig, 22, who slept in a tent overnight in Hong Kong. “I want to tear down capitalism.”

In Rome on Oct. 15, firecrackers were thrown at the Ministry of Defense and windows of Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini and Poste Italiane SpA shattered, Sky TG24 reported. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called “the unbelievable violence” in Rome “a worrying signal for civil coexistence.”

“Violent extremists have to be identified and punished,” Berlusconi said in a statement.

More than 800 people have been arrested in New York since the protests began Sept. 17, mostly for disorderly conduct, as demonstrators solidified their hold on Zuccotti Park, which has become the de facto epicenter of Occupy Wall Street.
‘Rise Up’

A wider confrontation was avoided after the park’s owner, Brookfield Office Properties Inc., postponed a cleanup that would have removed and banned protesters’ sleeping bags, tents and other gear that provided overnight accommodations.

Protesters and local politicians had gathered 300,000 signatures, flooded the city’s 311 information line and drew more than 3,000 people to the park to oppose the cleanup, according to Patrick Bruner, an Occupy Wall Street spokesman.

“The world will rise up as one and say, ‘We have had enough,’” Bruner said in an e-mail. A news release from the organization said there were demonstrations in 1,500 cities worldwide, including 100 in the U.S.