This is the second of two installments of a multimedia-accompanied creative feature recounting the events of Occupy Wall Street’s May Day General Strike, which took place on May 1, 212. Be sure to check out the first installment, published on Thursday, May 3rd, for a recap of the day’s earlier events.
Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and the Occupy Guitarmy melded in with the thousands-strong mass of Occupy Wall Street protesters as they went east down 41st Street from Bryant Park. It was shortly after 2: p.m. on May 1, 212, and Occupy Wall Street’s May Day General Strike was starting to look like the movement’s marches of last fall.
Donning a white shirt and a black hat, Morello strummed and sang the old workers’ tune, “Which Side Are You On,” with a cluster of the Occupy Guitarmy as they walked in a sea of increasingly active protesters. A majority of those marching were young adults in their twenties and early 3′s, and the more discerning of observers might have noticed that the immigration movement was present, helping to swell the ranks.
Marchers turned right onto 5th Avenue, flanked by an increasingly outnumbered police force. The NYPD officers did their best to both keep the protesters on the sidewalk and deal with cross-town traffic as the marchers made their way south toward the march’s final destination — Union Square.
Amid the familiar cries of “All day, all week – Occupy Wall Street” and “Bank of America – Bad for America,” members of the Occupy Guitarmy played “One Guitar” and “Which Side Are You On,” inviting those around them to sing along. The tone in the march was one of jubilation, an affirmation of the movement’s post-Zuccotti presence. There was also an inexplicable tension, a sentiment that something was building.
The march continued southward, and with each block the marchers overtook, one could hear more talk of taking the street. We’ve got the numbers, they said. We can work around the police. What are they going to do?
Finally, on 33rd and 5th, the march poured into 5th Avenue amid hoots and cheers, dancing and singing. As women twirled their way between lanes and men in Guy Fawkes masks skipped and chanted with glee, a team of NYPD officers on scooters sped northward, meeting the protesters just south of 33rd street and forming a beeping, motorized barricade as a last-ditch effort to push the protesters back onto the sidewalks. It failed, of course, as marchers simply went around the scooters on the sidewalks and once again took to 5th Avenue after they’d passed the barricade.
The street again turned to a scene of revelry and gleeful disobedience. Chants and music echoed down 5th Avenue as workers and tourists stopped to gawk at the marchers. A chant in spanish spread throughout the marchers as they passed Washington Square Park, veering now onto Broadway:
A! A ti! A ti, capitalista!
A! A ti! A ti, capitalista!
Protesters regrouped just south of Washington Square Park, stopping to allow stragglers to catch up in order to ensure that their numbers were strong enough to defend against the growing police presence. Once they were again in full force, Occupiers, musicians and immigrants marched together, going south on Broadway and eventually spilling out into the northwest corner of Union Square, where the unions were waiting to welcome them in for the night’s closing activities.