As protests kick off in France ahead of the G20 Summit, RT goes to the biggest Occupy Wall Street camp in the US to find out what the demonstrators on both sides of the Atlantic have in common.
From France to the US – from an alternative G20 Summit in Nice – to Occupy Wall Street in New York.
“A lot of the protests at the G20 Summit are motivated by the fact that it’s a very undemocratic system that doesn’t allow for people’s voice, and that’s a lot of what this is about too,” said Graduate Sociology student Amanda Maull.
The biggest Occupy camp in America has been standing united with the G20 protests in demanding greater participation in making decisions that affect everyone.
“Some of the objectives of the G20 nations make sense. Things like stopping global warming, stopping world hunger and all that, are things everyone would be on board with. It’s just the process, the way in which they go about actually making these decisions is the thing that people feel excluded from, and rightfully so,” said William Scott, a university professor.
The protesters have been calling for a total re-vamp of the system that, they say, excludes the 99 percent, while those in power play dangerous games.
“They keep printing money, they keep spending money, they keep killing people in wars,” said real estate agent Giorgio Sanchez.
Inequality across the globe is what keeps people out on the streets on both sides of the Atlantic.
“It’s a really big crisis. When they are living in luxury and not sharing it, and other people are struggling to find somewhere to stay warm or to eat food. This is a huge discrepancy that all of our world leaders and all of us should rise up to deal with this crisis,” said OWS press team working group volunteer Jason Ahmadi.
G20 leaders are set to concentrate on ways to prevent a Greek default and get Europe through a crisis. Protesters want these to not just be quick fix band-aids on what they see as a broken system.
“If they prevent these economies from failing, that would be a good thing. I just hope that they would do so in a way that provides for a lot-term sustainable economy that benefits everyone,” said occupier and Catholic worker Loran Hart.
“Hopefully they can look at all of these uprisings, or occupations, or movements across the world and take a cue from that,” said occupier Haywood.
If the leaders don’t hear this message, protesters are said to continue.
“Mass movement of resistance still has a lot of potency. It happened in the Middle East,” said Professor of English Jess Row.
G20 protesters and Occupy Wall Street protesters are in different locations, but have similar goals. As protesters in France are being kept at a safe distance from where the leaders are gathering, global demonstrations against wealth inequality and financial irresponsibility are unified for the voices to break through to those in power.