A day of worldwide protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States began Saturday with the hundreds of people gathering in cities from Japan and South Korea to Australia.
Organizers had hoped to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.
However by Saturday afternoon in Rome, protesters had started smashing shop windows and torching cars as violence broke out during a demonstration.
Black smoke billowed into the air in downtown Rome as a small group of violent protesters broke away from the main demonstration. They smashed car windows, set at least two vehicles on fire and assaulted two news crews of Sky Italia, the TV reported. Others burned Italian and EU flags.
Police were out in force in Rome as some 100,000 protesters were expected a day after Premier Silvio Berlusconi barely survived a confidence vote. Italy, with a national debt ratio second only to Greece in the 17-nation eurozone, is rapidly becoming a focus of concern in Europe's debt crisis.
"People of Europe: Rise Up!" read a banner in Rome. Some peaceful demonstrators turned against the violent group and tried to stop them, hurling bottles at them, Sky and the ANSA news agency reported. Others fled, scared by the violence.
Protesters nicknamed "the indignant" also marched in other cities across the world.
In Frankfurt, continental Europe's financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in front of the European Central Bank, while in London, around 500 people marched from St. Paul's cathedral to the nearby stock exchange.
A website called 15october.net urged the people of the world to "rise up" and "claim their rights and demand a true democracy."
"Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end," the website says.
In Sydney, about 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.
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"I think people want real democracy," said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org. "They don't want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable."
The crowd cheered a speaker who shouted, "We're sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!"
How does a group like Occupy Wall Street get anything done?Danny Lim, a 67-year-old immigrant from Malaysia, said he moved to Australia 48 years ago in search of opportunities.
Now he no longer trusts the government to look after his best interests. He thinks Australia's government has become too dependent upon the U.S. for direction.
"The big man ? they don't care. They screw everyone. Eventually we'll mortgage our children away," Lim said.
In Tokyo, where the ongoing nuclear crisis dominates public concerns, about 200 people joined the global protests Saturday.
Under the light drizzle, the participants marched outside the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, chanting anti-nuclear slogans, while opposing the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade bloc that Japan is considering joining.
"No to nuclear power," the marchers chanted as they held up banners.
'Taiwan's 99 percent'
In Taiwan, over 100 people gathered at the Taipei 101 skyscraper, home to the stock exchange, chanting "we are Taiwan's 99 percent", saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and healthcare costs.
They found support from a top businessmen, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp Chairman Morris Chang, who told reporters in the northern city of Hsinchu that Taiwan's income gap was a serious issue.
"I've been against the gap between rich and poor," Chang said. "The wealth of the top 1 percent has increased very fast in the past 20, 30 years. 'Occupy Wall Street' is a reaction to that. We have to take the issue seriously..."
In Manila, about 100 members of various groups under the Philippine left-wing alliance, Bayan, marched on the U.S. Embassy Saturday morning to express support for the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States and to denounce "U.S. imperialism" and U.S.-led wars and aggression.
They carried a large banner that said, "Resist imperialist plunder, state repression and wars of aggression," and another expressing "Solidarity action for Occupy Wall Street."
They also chanted "U.S. troops, out now!" in reference to the presence of hundreds of U.S. soldiers, mostly in the southern Philippines, involved in anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops. One man carried a placard saying "Genuine people's democracy lives in the streets."
'Victims'
In South Korea, activists began gathering on the streets of Seoul.
The Korea Herald newspaper reported that a coalition of 30 local civic groups planned to hold a two-day protest in the main financial district of Yeouido and other parts of the capital.
The protesters, who have adopted slogans and imagery used by those in the U.S., say the rally is designed to motivate "99 percent of Koreans" to complain about the actions of the wealthiest "1 percent," the paper said.
"The situation is the same in South Korea (as the U.S.), where the financial institutions have speculated to earn high profits in a short time, creating victims," the coalition said in a statement, the Herald reported.
The protesters want compensation for people who lost money in the banking crisis.
Seoul police warned that damaging public facilities, occupying roads and assaulting police officers would not be tolerated, the Herald said.
"We will arrest those who stage illegal protests on the spot and also seek legal action even after the rally ends," the Seoul Metropolitan Agency said in a release, the paper reported.
The call for mass protests around the world Saturday originated a month ago from a meeting in Spain, where mostly young and unemployed people angry at the country's handling of the economic crisis have been demonstrating for months.
It was reposted on the Occupy Wall Street website and has been further amplified through social media.
Riot police prepare
Riot police in Europe prepared for trouble ? cities such as London and Athens have seen violent confrontations this year.
Protesters in London vowed to occupy the London Stock Exchange Saturday. Nights of rioting rocked the British capital in August after the fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old man.
"We have people from all walks of life joining us every day," said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has grown to some 12,000 followers in a few weeks.
Spyro, a 28-year-old who has a well-paid job and did not want to give his full name, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system."
In Germany, where sympathy for southern Europe's debt troubles is patchy, the financial center of Frankfurt and the European Central Bank in particular are expected to be a focus of marches called by the Real Democracy Now movement.
"I've been waiting for this protest for a long time, since 2008," said Daniel Schreiber, 28, an editor in Berlin. "I was always wondering why people aren't outraged and why nothing has happened and finally, three years later, it's happening."
Some analysts thought the protest momentum in countries such as Greece and Spain was wearing out.
"More people agree with these protests than actually take part," said Professor Mary Bossis of the University of Piraeus.
Despite despair over austerity measures that have slashed wages and pensions and put hundreds of thousands out of work, the spark for sustained action was lacking, she said.
"There is anger, there is rage ... but what it takes to overturn the current situation is missing," she said.
In Canada, protests were planned for Saturday in cities including Montreal and Vancouver. In Toronto, demonstrators plan to gather at Canada's main stock exchange.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he doubted Canadians would be as angry as their neighbors to the south as Canadian banks have not received a U.S.-type bailout.
He declined to comment when asked if he was concerned about a possible repeat of street violence that Toronto experienced at the G-20 summit last year.
U.S. politicians conflicted
In the United States, the hundreds of protesters at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park ? site of the original Occupy protest ? called for more people to join them.
Politicians in both President Barack Obama's Democratic Party and the Republican Party struggled to come up with a response to the growing nationwide movement.
Democrats have been largely supportive but also wary of endorsing criticism of Obama's rescue of big banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank bailout was launched in the last months of President George W. Bush's administration.
Republicans at first criticized the demonstrations but have shifted their tone in recent days.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned of "growing mobs" but later said the protesters were "justifiably frustrated."
In Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich referred to the protesters as "left-wing agitators."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a reference to the New York protest in a speech at The Economic Club of New York.
"The protests happening just a few miles from here ought to be a reminder to all of us that we have a great deal of work to do to live up to the expectations of the American people," she said Friday.
And a group of 100 authors including Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham signed an online petition declaring their support for "Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world."
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44912532/ns/world_news/
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