Yesterday, I dropped by Wall Street to see what the fuss was all about. (Turns out, it was the day of the biggest Dow Jones point drop in history.) There I happened upon a protest against the government bailout plan. A complete photo album of the event is here....Protests on Wall Street (50+ photos)
The Reverend Jesse Jackson was present, but mostly this was a union event. Most of the speakers were union leaders, and most of the protesters were identifiable union members. There were two messages: (1) No bailouts for "rich" bankers as long as the working man was suffering, and (2) Vote for Obama.
New York is used to demonstrations like this, and this one went off without a hitch. The police corralled the protesters with metal barriers, which the protesters politely respected. Because they were all concentrated in one small area, it appeared to the TV cameras (and my camera), that there were many more people than there actually were. (If you were a tourist visiting Wall Street, you might not have even noticed that a protest was taking place.) The speakers were very emotional, and there wasn't a lot of economic theory expounded.
On the periphery of the main demonstration were a few independent protesters, like one advocating socialism (above) and another suggesting we vote for Paris Hilton as a write-in candidate (below).
Some samples from the album...
