-by Bruce Leshan
October 6, 2011- The Occupy Wall Street movement has hit DC in a big way.
Thousands of protestors are "occupying" Freedom Plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue [1]. They say they won't leave until there are more jobs, less corporate greed, an end to the wars, and more taxes on the rich. And they plan to stay day and night until they change the world.
There are tents, tamborines, drums, banjos, rap music and protest signs.
The protestors marched out of the plaza, past the White House and up to the headquarters of the US Chamber of Commerce on Lafayette Park. They waved resumes and demanded jobs.
Many are demanding the government quit spending so much in Iraq and Afghanistan and spend more on jobs and infrastructure in the United States.
Activists on the left think this may be their Tea Party moment, their chance to reshape the political and financial system to help the 99 percent of Americans they think have been dispossessed by a power structure they say favors the rich and the big corporations.
"We are going to non-violently interfere with the work of the Chamber of Commerce, the Pentagon, of K Street, of Congress, of the White House," says David Swanson, an organizer from OccupyWashingtonDC.org. "These are people who are not working for me."