Occupy May Day protests begin around the globe; protest turns violent in San Francisco

Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York and other cities around the world Tuesday for a day of marches, strikes and teach-ins for what the Occupy movement has called a “general strike” for economic justice. May Day protests have been launched for some 125 cities in U.S., Europe and Australia, on a day labor unions have typically celebrates as International Workers Day. This year, the Occupy Wall Street movement has called for May 1 to be “A Day Without the 99 Percent” and urged students to skip school and employees not to go to work to show their support for the movement. Already an estimated 4,000 workers have marched through downtown Athens to protest the austerity measures in that country. In the U.S., New York labor unions, immigrant groups are expected to participate in a large-scale march from Union Square to Wall Street later in the day, and Occupy D.C. protesters are set to march from Meridian Hill Park to the White House Tuesday evening. In San Francisco, the protests took a violent turn, when some Occupy protesters broke windows and spray-painted police cars in the Mission District Sunday night, according to news reports. Organizers said a plan to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge has been scrapped. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that law enforcement is ready to manage what is expected to be a day of wide-ranging demonstrations throughout the city, including possible bridge and tunnel blockades, dozens of smaller pickets and a “pop-up” occupation of Bryant Park across the street from the headquarters of Bank of America. Occupiers say Tuesday will start of their spring resurgence, after the cold weather lull following the eviction of dozens of Occupy camps across the country in the late fall and winter. It is the first of what they hope will be several high-profile protests throughout the month of May, including events organized for the G8 Summit May 18-19 at Camp David and the NATO summit in Chicago May 20-21. “A lot of people thought we weren’t doing much because we’ve been working on this for months, since January,” said Jackie DiSalvo, an English professor who is an organizer for Occupy Wall Street. “This is our coming out. We’re calling it our spring awakening.” Locally, members of Occupy D.C. plan a festival and rally at Meridian Hill Park beginning at 3:30 p.m., followed by a 6:30 march from the park to the White House. Marchers are set to head down 14th Street to New York Avenue to the White House. A D.C. police spokesman said they have no plans to shut down lanes of traffic to accommodate them.