Poll: 60 Percent Have No Opinion Of Occupy Movement

By Andrea Salazar

A new survey shows that six out of ten Americans are indifferent about the 2-month-old Occupy movement that has spread to cities around the country after protesters “occupied” Wall Street.

According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll, 56 percent of the 996 adults surveyed don’t know enough about the movement to take a stance for or against it. The poll has a margin of error of +/-4 percent.

The poll also found that the percentage of Americans who disapprove of the way the movement has been conducted has increased from 20 percent in October to 31 percent in November.

In recent days, Occupy protests have clashed with police - most notably at the University of California-Davis campus where police pepper sprayed protesters Friday.

In an attempt to urge Congress to allow the Bush tax cuts expire, protesters from Occupy Wall Street will arrive in Washington, D.C. Wednesday after a 2-week march from Manhattan.

AFL-CIO 'Extremely Alarmed' By Occupy Wall Street Arrests

By Andrea Salazar

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responded to the recent mass arrests of Occupy Wall Street protestors Thursday, calling them a “tremendous dishonor to America.”

Protestors at an Occupy Oakland demonstration clashed with police Wednesday as did protestors in Atlanta. More than 100 people were arrested in Oakland and 53 in Atlanta.

“The Occupy Wall Street movement has elevated the national conversation by shining overdue attention on the struggles of the 99 percent for whom the economy is broken,” Trumka said in a statement. “When people can’t raise their voices around pervasive inequality, there is a fundamental problem with how we’re functioning as a nation.”

Trumka urged officials to follow in New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s footsteps and refrain from disbanding peaceful protests.

“We urge all elected leaders across the country to enable peaceful protestors to continue to exercise their most American of rights,” Trumka said.

New York City Gearing Up for More Protests, Student Walkouts

Scores of students and union members are set to join the Occupy Wall Street demonstration today, as the movement continues to pick up steam and support following the arrest of over 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge last weekend. 

Student groups throughout the city are coordinating mass walkouts from classes at noon today as a show of solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Members of the movement have been camping out at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan’s financial district for nearly three weeks now to protest corporations and their negative influence on public policy.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have of late also received the backing of several prominent labor unions and its members will join a union-led march at 4:30 this afternoon from Foley Square, a few blocks from City Hall, back to the Occupy Wall Street “headquarters” in Zuccotti Park.