In the past few years, civil unrest has grown in the Middle East and Europe. Young people have set fire to automobiles in France, protested in places like Greece and the United Kingdom, and have staged massive demonstrations against the government in the Middle East during what has become known as the “Arab Spring”. While the United States has been largely unaffected by these widespread protests, plans for a “Day of Rage” are in the works on September 17th. The main focus of these demonstrations is Wall Street, but there are other protests planned for other locations on that date, as well as protests on later dates at other locations.
Wall Street Day of Rage
Several groups are getting together to protest on Wall Street on September 17th, including the group US Day of Rage. Organizers are not planning a small afternoon protest outside of the New York Stock Exchange. On the US Day of Rage web site, organizers encourage activists to “bring your tent.” Other groups, such as Occupy Wall Street, are planning for the event by suggesting signs for protesters to bring, figuring out logistical problems such as providing massive numbers of peanut butter sandwiches to the people there, and holding committee meetings to prepare for the event. One of the stated goals of this group is to “use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America.” They hope to stay in New York and “occupy Wall Street for a few months.” Whether they will succeed in occupying Wall Street for a significant amount of time or not remains to be seen.
Other September 17th Protests
The people involved with the US Day of Rage are not limiting their protests to just Wall Street on September 17th. Currently, alternate protests are scheduled in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Day of Rage web site says that they may be protesting against major banks in other locations, but these other alternate locations have not been posted on their web site.
Alternate Protests
The Days of Rage are not just limited to the September 17th locations. A protest is planned at the Arizona capitol on October 15th. Another protest is scheduled for Washington DC on October 6th. Depending on how much press the initial protest gets, there may end up being more dates scheduled.
While the US Days of Rage protesters claim to want a nonviolent protest, when you gather large groups of people together in one location under the common bond of “rage”, there is no guarantee that things will turn out as peaceful as the organizers would like. I personally plan to stay as far away from these protests as possible. If things get out of hand, I don’t want to be anywhere nearby.
Sources:
Occupy Wall Street.org
US Day of Rage.org