Wall Street protests find echo in Pune

Several Puneites gathered at Shaniwarwada on Saturday to take part in a poster campaign in support of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement that has spread from the United States to other countries.

When DNA visited Shaniwarwada on Saturday, volunteers under the banner of ‘Aamhi Nagarik’ (We, the Citizens) raised their voice against the issues they consider to be drawbacks that have made the government a weak force.

The volunteers said they were inspired by the protests carried out in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, France and recently in the US against the system. “Anna Hazare, through his movement, revealed the lacunae of the system. We want to raise these issues that have engulfed the nation on a global forum by supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Bal Krishna Sawant, who took part in the campaign, told DNA.

He said they intend to highlight problems like inflation, corruption and unemployment that the country is facing on the official blog of the Occupy Wall Street movement to gather public support on a global scale.

“We could identify with the protests being carried out on Wall Street. Their fight is against the tyranny of the system, and so is ours. Today we vented our anger against the system and the issues that have made our nation weak by writing them out on the posters,” said Sawant.

The volunteers said they were coordinating with the movement on Wall Street through the Internet. “October 15 has been named as global revolution day. Hence we carried out our first protest movement,” said Pooja Kale, who took part in the campaign at Shaniwarwada.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a month-old protest being carried out on Wall Street, the financial district of New York City, against the social and economic inequality, corporate greed and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on the government, among other concerns.