Continued..

Here in New York, the city’s powerful unions are set to join the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations now entering its 20th day. Their march to City Hall be bolstered by the walkout of hundreds, potentially thousands, of students at major public universities in New York City where tuition rates are on the rise. The movement received a boost Monday when the SEIU 1199 healthcare workers union issued a statement of support for the protest, promising to send nurses to train those providing first aid at the encampment. The healthcare workers union joins the Transport Workers Union, which runs the city’s subway and bus system, in supporting the growing movement. On Monday, attorneys for the TWU attempted to obtain a temporary federal restraining order to prevent the police from commandeering buses operated by its members to ferry protesters who are arrested. Over the weekend, the NYPD used at least three city buses to transport some of the more than 700 protesters arrested attempting to cross the Brooklyn bridge. Tony Murphy is an activist with the Bail Out the People movement.

Demonstrators are marching on Wall Street today on the third day of a campaign dubbed "Occupy Wall Street," which began on Saturday when thousands gathered in New York City’s Financial District. Inspired by the massive public protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square, hundreds have slept outside near Wall Street for the past two nights.

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests in the financial district took a dramatic turn on Saturday when protesters tried to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. When police arrested 700 of the demonstrators, the event quickly turned into one of the largest arrests of non-violent protesters in recent history. Some protesters claim police lured them onto oncoming traffic on the bridge’s roadway; others said they did not hear instructions from police telling them to use the pedestrian walkway. Meanwhile, similar "Occupation" protests have spread to other cities, including Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, where hundreds of protesters are now camped out in front of City Hall.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, now entering its 17th day, draws inspiration from the Arab Spring. According to its website, the protest consists quote, "people of many colors, genders, political persuasion. The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%." The encampment received a boost last week when one of New York City’s largest unions, The Transit Workers Union, announced its backing. Labor unions in the city plan a solidarity march with Occupy Wall Street this Wednesday. Meanwhile, most of the 700 people arrested Saturday have since been released but were given citations for disorderly conduct and a criminal court summons. Similar occupation protests that spread to other cities including Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, where protesters are now camped out in front of City Hall.

This Saturday will mark the beginning of the third week of the Occupy Wall Street protest. A major demonstration is scheduled here in the Financial District and lower Manhattan. Protesters say they’re planning to stay here indefinitely and hope that Occupy Wall Street inspires similar protests across the country.

For the past two weeks, the media center here at Occupy Wall Street has been the way the protesters have gotten word out to the rest of the country and the world. Over here is the food area. Hundreds of people here have been eating donated food every day: muffins, apples, power bars. They have been serving three meals a day to the hundreds of protesters who have been camping out here. Tents are spread throughout this part of Liberty Plaza. Protesters are preparing to spend another night, the 13th night in a row inside this park, as part of Occupy Wall Street. The Police have barred the use of tents, but it has not stopped protesters from staying here even in the rain and the cold. On the northern end of Liberty Plaza space has been set aside for protesters to make homemade posters. Some of them read: "You are the 99%,” “System Change. Not Climate Change,” “Wall Street Bonuses = Money From Crime.”