Prediction: The May 1st "general strike" is going to be an enormous flop.

[Tace]

209. Occupy Is The Top Headline On Bloomberg At 6 p.m.

"Enormous flop"? You decide.

Occupy Starts U.S. May Day Protests With Chants, Waltzes

By Henry Goldman and Pham-Duy Nguyen - May 1, 2012 5:15 PM ET

Demonstrators took to the streets in May Day protests across the U.S., sending a singing “Guitarmy” to Manhattan’s Union Square and smashing windows in Seattle.

Organizers said the events marked a springtime resurgence of Occupy Wall Street, and they punctuated their message with trombones, hand-held drums, a San Francisco kayak flotilla and a crowd a half-mile long moving down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Calls for a global general strike with no work, no school, no banking and no shopping were heard in Toronto, Barcelona, London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney.

In Oakland, California, police used gas to end a confrontation with demonstrators. In New York, a crowd of thousands gathered at Union Square in anticipation of marches on Wall Street and officers made several arrests.

“Occupy gives people a world to step into when they feel they don’t belong anywhere else,” said Ina Bransome, 68, a Brooklyn resident who joined demonstrators in Manhattan’s Bryant Park.

Occupy groups across the U.S. have protested economic disparity and high foreclosure and unemployment rates that hurt average Americans while bankers and financial executives received bonuses and taxpayer-funded bailouts. In the past six months, similar groups, using social media and other tools, have arisen in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-01/occupy-wall-street-starts-may-day-protests-amid-soaking-rain.html