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| A demonstrator shouts slogan from a burnt Carabinieri police vehicle during a demonstration of the "Indignant" group against banking and finance in Rome October 15, 2011. |
走出去!华尔街头的抗议.ROME - Anti-capitalist protesters rallied globally on Saturday, denouncing bankers andpoliticians over the international economic crisis, with violence rocking Rome where cars weretorched and bank windows smashed.
Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, protests began in New Zealand, touched partsof Asia, spread to Europe, and resumed at their starting point in New York with 5,000 marchersdecrying corporate greed and economic inequality.
After weeks of intense media coverage, the size of the US protests have been smaller than G20meetings or political conventions have yielded in recent years. Such events often draw tens ofthousands of demonstrators.
The demonstrations by the disaffected coincided with the Group of 20 meeting in Paris, wherefinance ministers and central bankers from major economies were holding talks on the debt anddeficit crises afflicting many Western countries.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has gathered steam for a month, culminating with the globalday of action. It remains unclear what momentum the movement, which has been driven bysocial media, has beyond Saturday.
While most rallies were relatively small and barely held up traffic, the Rome event drew tens ofthousands of people and snaked through the city center for miles (kilometres).
Hundreds of hooded, masked demonstrators rampaged in some of the worst violence seen inthe Italian capital in years, setting cars ablaze, breaking bank and shop windows and destroyingtraffic lights and signposts.
Police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannon to try to disperse militant protesters whowere hurling rocks, bottles and fireworks, but clashes went on into the evening.
Smoke bombs set off by protesters cast a pall over a sea of red flags and banners bearingslogans denouncing economic policies the protesters say are hurting the poor.
The violence sent many peaceful demonstrators and local residents near the Colosseum and StJohn's Basilica running into hotels and churches for safety.
Peaceful rallies
In contrast, small and peaceful rallies got the ball rolling across the Asia-Pacific region onSaturday. In Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, 3,000 people chanted and banged drums,denouncing corporate greed.
In Sydney, about 2,000 people protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.
Portugal was the scene of the biggest reported protest action, with more than 20,000 marchingin Lisbon and a similar number in the country's second city Oporto, two days after thegovernment announced a new batch of austerity measures.
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| A protester hit a Carabinieri police vehicle during a demonstration by the 'Indignant' group in Rome October 15, 2011. |
Hundreds broke through a police cordon around the parliament in Lisbon to occupy its broadmarble staircase.
"This debt is not ours!" and "IMF, get out of here now!," demonstrators chanted. Banners read: "We are not merchandise in bankers' hands!" or "No more rescue loans for banks!"
Around 4,000 Greeks with banners bearing slogans like "Greece is not for sale" staged an anti-austerity rally in Athens' Syntagma Square, the scene of violent clashes between riot police andstone-throwing youths in June.
Many were furious at how austerity imposed by the government to reduce debt incurred byprofligate spending and corruption had undermined the lives of ordinary Greeks.
"They have ruined our world, everything that people have conquered," said Maria Kolozi, 56, aschool teacher.
In Paris, around 1,000 protesters rallied in front of city hall, coinciding with the G20 financechiefs' meeting, after coming in from the working class neighborhood of Belleville wheredrummers, trumpeters and a tuba revved up the crowd.
"This is potentially the start of a strong movement," said Olivier Milleron, a doctor whose groupof trumpeters played the classic American folk song "This land is your land."
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| Demonstrators attack a Carabinieri paramilitary police vehicle during a demonstration by the 'Indignant' group against banking and finance in Rome October 15, 2011. |
