Global ‘Day of Rage’ protests in 951 cities

THE global “Day of Rage” against the world’s financial system won some limited sympathy from political and economic leaders yesterday, after protests that were peaceful everywhere but Italy.

There were rallies in 951 cities in 80 countries around the globe on Saturday in an extension of a campaign born on May 15 with a rally in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square by a group calling itself “Indignados” (“Indignants”).

Cities from east Asia to Europe and north America saw rallies on Saturday denouncing capitalism, inequality and economic crisis, but riot police were busy only in Rome.

The city cleared up yesterday , a day after masked “Black Bloc” protesters torched cars, attacked banks and hurled rocks, coasting the city €1 million in damages.

“They must be condemned by everyone without reservation,” Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.

“Yesterday we once again showed the world the anomaly of Italy and today, again, we have to feel shame,” La Stampa newspaper said. Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the capital would long suffer the “moral damage” of the rampage.

Many Italians asked why police had managed to arrest only 12 of the violent demonstrators.

Tens of thousands of other “indignant ones” had marched peacefully against the government of deeply-indebted Italy.

Yesterday a small group of peaceful protesters gathered by a church near where some of the violence took place to continue a sit-in. “We are the real indignant ones,” one said. “They stole our day.”

The biggest rallies were in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, where tens of thousands came out. There were thousands too in Washington and New York.

“I think it is very moving that the movement that was born here has extended throughout the world. It was about time people rise up,” said 24-year-old Carmen Martin as she marched towards Puerta del Sol.

Portugal’s Publico daily said: “In Portugal, as in the rest of the world, the global agenda of the October 15 rallies combined with a local agenda.”

Spanish outrage has been fuelled by multi-million-euro payouts for top staff at failed regional banks, amid high unemployment and harsh spending cuts.

But most turnouts worldwide were lower.

“People don’t want to get involved. They’d rather watch on TV,” said Troy Simmons, 47, protesting in New York, where the Occupy Wall Street movement that inspired the global day of unrest began.

In New York a few dozen people were arrested for minor offences. Chicago police said they arrested about 175 protesters in a downtown plaza where some had set up tents and sleeping bags. Details of the charges were not immediately available.

Other cities across the United States and Canada saw modestly-sized and peaceful demonstrations.

“I am going to start my life as an adult in debt and that’s not fair,” student Nathaniel Brown said in Washington.

The wave of protest was not quite all over yesterday. Around 250 protesters set up camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral on the edge of London’s financial district, promising to occupy the site indefinitely to show their anger over the global economic crisis.

The group had tried to take over the area in front of the nearby London Stock Exchange on Saturday. After being thwarted by police, the group moved to the cathedral and put up 70 tents. Some said they would stay there as long as possible.

“People are saying enough is enough, we want a real democracy, not one that is based on the interests of big business and the banking system,” said protester Jane McIntyre.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had some sympathy. “It is true that a lot of things have to be faced up to in the Western world and there have been too many debts built up by states, and clearly in the banking system a lot has gone wrong,” he said.

“However, protest won’t be the answer to that. The answer is (for) governments to control their debts and deficits. I’m afraid protesting the streets is not going to solve the problem.”

“We support the right to peaceful protest, it’s very important those protests are kept peaceful,” Hague added.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the financial system could not be left in such a fragile state.

“It is our task to make the world financial system much more solid . . . that is how I interpret part of the message that comes from this movement,” Trichet said.

But he said authorities should not go as far as to “demolish” the banks, as they financed three-quarters of the economy.

“We are halfway there. We have already reinforced the regulation for commercial banks. There is still a lot of work to do, notably on the non-banking [institutions],” he said.

The rallies tracked the sun from the Asia-Pacific region westwards on Saturday, but the first demonstrations in the east made ripples rather than waves.

Protesters gathered in their hundreds in Japan and across Southeast Asia. Wealthy Singapore didn’t even manage that.

There were small mostly peaceful protests also in Amsterdam, Dublin, Geneva, Miami, Montenegro, Paris, Sarajevo, Serbia, Vienna and Zurich, with protesters chanting anti-capitalist slogans and wearing satirical masks.