Occupy Wall Street activists have called for worldwide protests ahead of Saturday’s G20 summit in France, demanding that the G20 leaders introduce a “Robin Hood” tax on high-finance transactions and currency trades by banks and institutions.
Anti-corporate demonstrations are continuing across the US, despite tougher tactics from police, including mass arrests. In Chicago, 130 have been held and charged with camping out in a city park after closing time. Back in New York, where the rallies began over a month ago, dozens have been arrested in a police crackdown on activists in recent days.
Author and activist David Swanson, who has been at the protests in Washington, believes neither the police nor the upcoming cold spell will stop the growing movement.
“We are starting to hear talk from the police again that they are being pushed by someone in the administration higher up to drive us out of there. We’ll see what comes of that. We are not leaving,” he told RT.
“We are protesting not just our government but its funders, its handlers, its think-tanks, and we are building a community and we are making decisions, and we are networking with the other ‘occupy’ movements around the country,” he said. “We’ll see what the police do and what the weather does to these occupations but, you know, the weather won’t shut down half of this country… and there are a lot of people camped out there that have no intention of ever leaving.”