Occupy Wall Street gains cities; NYC student walkouts planned

Dan Watson | October 4, 2011
Editor-in-Chief


Two weeks after fewer than a dozen college students sparked a mass demonstration in New York City's Zuccotti Park, protests continued to ignite in new cities across America on Tuesday as Occupy Wall Street entered its 18th day.

On Monday, New York protesters dressed as zombies and ambled past the New York Stock exchange, continuing to denounce Wall Street's spread across the U.S. Over the wekend, more than 700 people were arrested at a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Despite its nebulous objectives, the protests have spread from coast to coast, including Los Angeles, where protesters have said they will camp out at City Hall for at least a week.

Tomorrow in New York, a national student walkout is planned to protest "unforgivable student debt and soaring tuition rates."

At night, a union march to the site of the protest is planned for 1:30 p.m. The march is supported by the United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United and Transport Workers, PSC-CUNY United NY, the Strong Economy for All Coalition, the Working Families Party, Vocal-NY, New York Communities for Change, Community Voices Heard and Alliance for Quality.

Here's the news from Occupy movements across America,



From Occupy Chicago, where protests reached the 13th day, the Huffington Post reports:



"Chicago police have asked Occupy Chicago demonstrators to move their belongings off the street outside the Federal Reserve Bank at 231 N. LaSalle St., as NBC 5 reported Tuesday. A dozen protesters remained outside the bank, while other organizers planned to spread their occupation to other areas of the city -- "phase two" of the demonstration, as its Twitter feed described Tuesday."



From Occupy DC, where participants have gathered in McPherson Square.



According to the Washington Post:

"Occupy DC has no defined policy agenda or demands. But when asked why they showed up, many participants could agree on one thing: corporations have too much influence over the political system."

From Occupy Boston, according to the Beacon Hill Patch:

"Sure, some may say the crowds in Dewey Square aren’t that big and this is just a movement for the purpose of belonging to a movement. Or some may echo the feelings of a comment a jogger yelled as he ran by the Rose Kennedy Greenway yesterday, saying, “get a job,” -- insinuating that protesters are just lazy hippies causing trouble for no reason."



From Occupy Philadelphia, where plans are still in the works for protests.



According to Newsworks:

"Tonight "Occupy Philadelphia" is meeting to hammer out plans. Jon Laing, with the group "Occupy Philadelphia" said there are a few possible occupation sites, including Rittenhouse Square, Love Park, Ben Franklin Parkway, and City Hall."



From Occupy Maine, where dozens of people protested downtown in Monument Square, Portland.
From Occupy Portland, where police were encouraging a permit for the event planned Thursday.
From Occupy Syracuse, where the group in Perseverance Park will hold a general assembly on Tuesday night.
From Occupy St. Louis, where about a half-dozens stood outside the Federal Reserve Bank on Monday.
From Occupy Wall Street efforts that might reach the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, according to the Star Tribune.
From the Occupy Wall Street protest in Santa Barbara, where protesters were set to meet today at De la Guerra Plaza. According to KCET.

"It seems the Gordon Gekko Legacy holds steadfast & true in Santa Barbara where the unfortunate beg for change in the shadows of multi-million dollar estates. Apparently Greed IS good here, as it seems to have won in straight sets. "Occupy Santa Barbara" can't even seem to occupy an entire lawn."

Even Canada is getting in the act, with protests scheduled for Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-gains-cities-nyc-student-walkouts-planned

China must be laughing out loud at the so called defenders of human rights and freedom !

, Unions, students join Wall Street protesters
By DEEPTI HAJELA and VERENA DOBNIK - Associated Press | AP – 4 hrs ago.
, Occupy Boston protesters gather outside a building in the Financial district in Boston, …

.NEW YORK (AP) — Unions lent their muscle to the long-running protest against Wall Street and economic inequality Wednesday, with their members joining thousands of protesters in a lower Manhattan march as smaller demonstrations flourished across the country.

Protesters in suits and T-shirts with union slogans left work early to march with activists who have been camped out in Zuccotti Park for days. Some marchers brought along their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders as they walked down Broadway.

"We're here to stop corporate greed," said Mike Pellegrino, an NYC Transit bus mechanic from Rye Brook. "They should pay their fair share of taxes. We're just working and looking for decent lives for our families."

Of the camping protesters, he said, "We feel kinship with them. We're both looking for the same things."

People gathered in front of the courthouses that encircle Foley Square, then marched to Zuccotti Park, where they refueled with snacks and hurriedly painted new signs as the strong scent of burning sage wafted through the plaza.

Previous marches have resulted in mass arrests. Police said there were about 28 arrests on Wednesday night, mostly for disorderly conduct. But at least one arrest was for assaulting a police officer; authorities said a demonstrator knocked an officer off his scooter.

The demonstrators Wednesday night posted a video on YouTube in which a police official is seen swinging a baton to clear a crowd of protesters. It was unclear from the angle of the video if anyone was hit. Officers are allowed to use batons and pepper spray in crowd control efforts.

Another arrest came when a group of about 300 people decided to start marching again Wednesday night after the main march had ended.

The protesters have varied causes but have spoken largely about unemployment and economic inequality and reserved most of their criticism for Wall Street. "We are the 99 percent," they chanted, contrasting themselves with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

Susan Henoch, 63, of Manhattan said she was a "child of the '60s" and came out to the park for the first time Wednesday. She held a sign that read, "Enough."

"It's time for the people to speak up," she said. "Nobody's listening to us, nobody's representing us. Politics is dead.

"This is no longer a recognizable democracy. This is a disaster," she said.

Some of the union members traveled from other states to march.

Karen Higgins, a co-president of National Nurses United, came down with a group of colleagues from Boston. She said they had seen patients who skipped important medical tests because they couldn't afford them.

"Tax Wall Street," she said. "Those who make all the money need to start paying their fair share."

The Occupy Wall Street protests started Sept. 17 with a few dozen demonstrators who tried to pitch tents in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, hundreds have set up camp nearby in Zuccotti Park and have become increasingly organized, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper.

Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the protesters, but some Republican presidential candidates have rebuked them. Herman Cain, called the activists "un-American" Wednesday at a book signing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest," the former pizza-company executive said. "That's not the way America was built."

On Tuesday, CBS reported that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called the protest "class warfare" at an appearance at a Florida retirement community.

Activists have been showing solidarity with movement in many cities: Occupy Providence. Occupy Los Angeles. Occupy Boise.

More than 100 people withstood an afternoon downpour in Idaho's capital to protest, including Judy Taylor, a retired property manager.

"I want change. I'm tired of things being taken away from those that need help," she said.

In Seattle, at least four demonstrators who had been camping out since the weekend in a downtown park were arrested after they refused orders from city park rangers to pack up. The reception was warmer in Los Angeles, where the City Council approved a resolution of support and Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa's office distributed 100 rain ponchos to activists at another dayslong demonstration, according to City News Service.

In Boston, hundreds of nurses and Northeastern University students rallied together to condemn what they called corporate control of government and the spiraling costs of their education. The students banged on drums made of water jugs and chanted, "Banks got bailed out, and we got sold out."

"This is an organic process. This is a process of grassroot people coming together. It's a beautiful thing," said David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Many of those protesting are college students. Hundreds walked out of classes in New York, some in a show of solidarity for the Wall Street movement but many more concerned with worries closer to home. Protests were scheduled at State University of New York campuses including Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, New Paltz and Purchase.

Danielle Kingsbury, a 21-year-old senior from New Paltz, said she walked out of an American literature class to show support for some of her professors who she said have had their workloads increased because of budget cuts.

"The state of education in our country is ridiculous," said Kingsbury, who plans to teach. "The state doesn't care about it and we need to fight back about that."

Not every campus appeared to feel the rumblings of dissent. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, there were students publicizing breast cancer awareness and National Coming Out Week, students crawling on their elbows in an apparent fraternity hazing ritual, quarreling evangelicals and even a flash mob to promote physical fitness, but no sign of the Wall Street protests.

Senior Alex Brown tried to promote an event on Facebook, but said students' disgust with the government and wealth inequality was "not enough to reach a fever pitch."

Some protesters were recent graduates looking for work, including Rachelle Suissa, who held up a sign in Manhattan that read: "I have a 4.0 GPA & $20,000 in debt. Where's my bailout?"

The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman said she has applied for at least 200 jobs and is finding it difficult to remain optimistic.

"I don't understand what's going on here," she said.

Wednesday was quieter for the New York protesters than Saturday, when about 700 people were arrested and given disorderly conduct summonses for spilling into the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge despite warnings from police. Wednesday's march route was well marked with metal barricades along the side of the road.


http://news.yahoo.com/unions-students-join-wall-street-protesters-205839370.html

johnie:

The protesters have varied causes but have spoken largely about unemployment and economic inequality and reserved most of their criticism for Wall Street. "We are the 99 percent," they chanted, contrasting themselves with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

Susan Henoch, 63, of Manhattan said she was a "child of the '60s" and came out to the park for the first time Wednesday. She held a sign that read, "Enough."

"It's time for the people to speak up," she said. "Nobody's listening to us, nobody's representing us. Politics is dead.

"This is no longer a recognizable democracy. This is a disaster," she said.

"The state of education in our country is ridiculous," said Kingsbury, who plans to teach. "The state doesn't care about it and we need to fight back about that."

God dey!

johnie:


Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the protesters, but some Republican presidential candidates have rebuked them. Herman Cain, called the activists "un-American" Wednesday at a book signing in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"They're basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest," the former pizza-company executive said. "That's not the way America was built."

Politicians!

johnie:


Some protesters were recent graduates looking for work, including Rachelle Suissa, who held up a sign in Manhattan that read: "I have a 4.0 GPA & $20,000 in debt. Where's my bailout?"

The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman said she has applied for at least 200 jobs and is finding it difficult to remain optimistic.
"I don't understand what's going on here," she said.

This is my favourite. Classic!

Yet you can't see the news on BBC. And CNN. They are still showing us Arab spring while American Autum is going on on-televised except on Russia Today(RT).

Is wall street in Lagos or Abuja?

olabukola:

Yet you can't see the news on BBC. And CNN. They are still showing us Arab spring while American Autum is going on on-televised except on Russia Today(RT).

So you noticed too!

Do you know that there have been hundreds protesting in Israel since July (See pictures below). No mainstream western media carries it. You won't hear it on CNN or BBC. But the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan and Syria uprisings are staples.

Don't believe the hype!

Israeli protests: 430,000 take to streets to demand social justice
Harriet Sherwood in Tel Aviv guardian.co.uk, Sunday 4 September 2011 11.40 BST

Up to 300,000 take part in Tel Aviv, 50,000 in Jerusalem and 40,000 in Haifa in Israel's biggest ever demonstration


A record 430,000 people have taken part in demonstrations across Israel to demand social justice and a lower cost of living Link to this video Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday night in Israel's biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and a clear government response to the concerns of an increasingly squeezed middle class.

About 430,000 people took part in marches and rallies across the country, according to police. The biggest march was in Tel Aviv, where up to 300,000 took part. There was an unprecedented 50,000-strong protest in Jerusalem, and 40,000 marched in Haifa. There were smaller protests in dozens of other towns and cities.

It had been billed as the "march of the million" but organisers said a turnout matching the 300,000-strong demonstrations four weeks ago would be a triumph. Israel's population is 7.7 million.

Saturday's demonstrations followed 50 days of protests that have rattled political leaders and led commentators and analysts to ask whether a new social movement would transform Israeli domestic politics for the next generation.

The movement, which has the support of about 90% of the population according to opinion polls, began when a small group of activists erected tents in Tel Aviv's prosperous Rothschild Boulevard in protest at high rents and house prices.

Tent cities mushroomed across the country and protesters rallied behind the slogan: "The people demand social justice." Among the issues raised were the cost of housing, transport, childcare, food and fuel; the low salaries paid to many professionals, including doctors and teachers; tax reform; and welfare payments. The government established a committee led by the economics professor Manuel Trajtenberg to examine the protesters' demands, which is due to report later this month.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday night blew whistles and banged drums as they marched in a carnival atmosphere to a large square for a rally. Residents hung banners from balconies and cheered as they passed.

"We are the new Israelis," the student leader Itzik Shmuli told the rally. "And the new Israelis want only one simple thing: to live with dignity in this country."

He added: "Tonight we make history again. The people are supporting a protest started by the young people and, a week after the protest was proclaimed over, we are on the verge of breaking another record. From now on the government knows that at any given moment Israelis can return to the streets and must therefore deliver the goods."

Daphni Leef, one of the organisers of the original tent protest, said: "This summer is the great summer of the new Israeli hope born of despair, alienation and impossible gaps … The Israeli society has reached its red line, and has gotten up and said: 'No more.' This is the miracle of the summer of 2011."

Under a homemade banner saying "Walk like an Egyptian", Ruti Hertz, 34, a journalist, said that until this summer people had been privately ashamed of their inability to make ends meet. "Each person was lonely in their situation, thinking it's my own problem." That had changed with the protests.

She said that she and her teacher husband, Roi, were living on the same income as when they met 10 years ago. "We don't ask for much, just to be able to finish the month without taking from our parents."

Roi's monthly take-home pay of 5,500 shekels (£940) went on nursery fees for their two young daughters, she said.

Vered Cohen Nitsan, a primary school teacher from Netanya, said she had joined the march "to protest, to support the people of my country and [because] I wish my children will have an easier life in the future".

She added: "For years, you think you just have to work harder and struggle. And now people start to talk to one another and you see it's not your personal problem."

At a rally in Haifa, Shahin Nasser, an Israeli-Arab, said: "Today we are changing the rules of the game. No more coexistence based on hummus and fava beans. What is happening here is true coexistence, when Arabs and Jews march together shoulder to shoulder calling for social justice and peace. We've had it."

The protests have been criticised by some on the left for not paying more attention to the discrimination suffered by Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of Israel's population, or Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Weekly demonstrations, whose turnout had been steadily building, were suspended for two weeks after an attack by militants near the Egyptian-Israeli border in which eight Israelis were killed. Some commentators suggested that the movement had lost its momentum.

Protest organisers said the tent cities would be dismantled but the movement would continue with other actions. Many tent-dwellers had already left as the Israeli summer holidays ended.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/israel-protests-social-justice

Arab Spring
American Autum

Nigerian Harmmattan anyone?

Occupy Wall Street goes global
Posted by Suzy Khimm at 10:28 AM ET, 10/13/2011


The U.S. anti-corporate movement has inspired an offshoot occupation in London. It will kick off this Saturday with a rally headed to the London Stock Exchange, as Dealbook notes today. OccupyLSX describes itself as part of a global movement against “corporate greed” and inequality, and UK Uncut — a group of activists who’ve fought austerity measures — has already signed on to support it. From the OccupyLSX Web site:

The words ‘corporate greed’ ring through the speeches and banners of protests across the globe. After huge bail-outs and in the face of unemployment, privatisation and austerity we still see profits for the rich on the increase. But we are the 99%, and on October 15th our voice unites across gender and race, across borders and continents as we call for equality and justice for all.

There have been recent popular uprisings in London, like this summer’s riots that many have linked to economic discontent and anti-austerity measures. By contrast, the OccupyLSX movement has already distinguished itself as an organized, civil society protest with a clear purpose. Unlike their New York counterparts, the OccupyLSX organizers say they want a specific agenda, vowing to build “a future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.” It’s not the only popular U.S. movement to go global in recent months: a Tea Party offshoot sprung up in Australia last year.

OccupyLSX cites its Facebook page as a display of its growing support: as of Thursday morning, it had about 4,600 people saying they’d show up. That’s a small crowd, as far as these sorts of demonstrations go, but piggybacking off the U.S. movement, OccupyLSX is anticipating the media attention: their Web site already lists dedicated press contacts.

*Update: Other cities spanning 78 countries are also planning October 15 solidarity events to protest economic injustice, but not all seem to be as directly modeled on Occupy Wall Street.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-wall-street-spreads-to-london/2011/10/13/gIQAnbsRhL_blog.html

Wall Street sit-in goes global Saturday

By Alastair Macdonald

LONDON | Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:52am EDT

Oct 14(Reuters) - For an October revolution, dress warm.

That's the word going out - politely - on the Web to rally street protests on Saturday around the globe from New Zealand to Alaska via London, Frankfurt, Washington and, of course, New York, where the past month's Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired a worldwide yell of anger at banks and financiers.

How many will show up, let alone stay to camp out to disrupt city centres for days, or months, to come, is anyone's guess. The hundreds at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park were calling for back-up on Friday, fearing imminent eviction. Rome expects tens of thousands at a national protest of more traditional stamp.

Few other police forces expect more than a few thousand to turn out on the day for what is billed as an exercise in social media-spread, Arab Spring-inspired, grassroots democracy with an emphasis on peaceful, homespun debate, as seen among Madrid's "indignados" in June or at the current Wall Street park sit-in.

Blogs and Facebook pages devoted to "October 15" - #O15 on Twitter - abound with exhortations to keep the peace, bring an open mind, a sleeping bag, food and warm clothing; in Britain, "Occupy London Stock Exchange" is at pains to stress it does not plan to actually, well, occupy the stock exchange.

That may turn off those with a taste for the kind of anarchic violence seen in London in August, at anti-capitalism protests of the past decade and at some rallies against spending cuts in Europe this year. But, as Karlin Younger of consultancy Control Risks said: "When there's a protest by an organisation that's very grassroots, you can't be sure who will show up."

Concrete demands are few from those who proclaim "We are the 99 percent", other than a general sense that the other 1 percent - the "greedy and corrupt" rich, and especially banks - should pay more, and that elected governments are not listening.

"It's time for us to unite; it's time for them to listen; people of the world, rise up!" proclaims the Web site United for #GlobalChange. "We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us , We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organise until we make it happen."

By doing so peacefully, many hope for a wider political impact, by amplifying the chord their ideas strike with millions of voters in wealthy countries who feel ever more squeezed by the global financial crisis while the rich seem to get richer.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

"We have people from all walks of life joining us every day," said Spyro, one of those behind a Facebook page in London which has grown to have some 12,000 followers in a few weeks, enthused by Occupy Wall Street. Some 5,000 have posted that they will turn out, though even some activists expect fewer will.

Spyro, a 28-year-old graduate who has a well-paid job and did not want his family name published, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system".

Angry at taxpayer bailouts of banks since crisis hit in 2008 and at big bonuses still paid to some who work in them while unemployment blights the lives of many young Britons, he said: "People all over the world, we are saying 'Enough is enough'."

What the remedy would be, Spyro said, was not for him to say but should emerge from public debate - a common theme for those camping out off Wall Street since mid-September, who have stirred up U.S. political debate and, a Reuters poll found , won sympathy from over a third of Americans.

A suggestions log posted at 15october.net ("This space is ready for YOUR idea for the revolution" range from a mass cutting up of credit cards ("hit the banks where it counts" to "use technology to make education free".

For all such utopianism, the possibility that peaceful mass action, helped by new technologies, can bring real change has been reinforced by the success of Arab uprisings this year.

"I've been waiting for this protest for a long time, since 2008," said Daniel Schreiber, 28, an editor in Berlin. "I was always wondering why people aren't outraged and why nothing has happened and finally, three years later, it's happening."

Quite what is happening, though, is hard to say. The biggest turnouts are expected where local conditions are most acute.

Italian police are preparing for tens of thousands to march in Rome against austerity measures planned by the beleaguered government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Yet in crisis-ravaged Athens, where big protests have seen violence at times of late, a sense of fatigue and futility may limit numbers on Saturday. In Madrid, where thousands of young "indignados", or "angry ones", camped out for weeks, many also feel the movement has run out of steam since the summer.

Germans, where sympathy for southern Europe's debt troubles is patchy, the financial centre of Frankfurt, and the European Central Bank in particular, is expected to be a focus of marches calling by the Spanish-inspired Real Democracy Now movement.

Complicating German sentiments, however, a series of small bombs found on trains has stirred memories of the left-wing guerrilla attacks that grew in the 1970s from frustration at a lack of change after the student protests of 1968.

CITY OF LONDON

British student protests a year ago were marked by some acts of violence by what authorities say were hard-core anarchists. Days of looting in London in August were put down to motives that mingled political discontent with criminal opportunism.

As an international centre of finance, the City of London is key target. But organisers know strong police powers make setting up a Wall Street-style protest camp there far from easy.

"There's quite a bit of fatigue setting in," said one young veteran of last year's protests against higher university fees. "But if it's still going by Monday or Tuesday, I think that will excite students and they will head down. The City is much more the focus of people's anger now, compared to a year ago."

A long Saturday of rallies may start in New Zealand, where the Occupy Auckland Facebook page provides links recommending "suitable clothing , a sleeping bag, a tent, food" -- but, in a family-friendly spirit, strictly no drugs or alcohol.

Asian authorities and businesses may have less to fear, since most of their economies are still growing strongly.

Tracking across the time zones, through towns large and small ("Occupy Norwich!" reads a website from the picturesque English city), the New York example has also prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of U.S. cities from Saturday.

In Houston, protesters plan to tap into anger at big oil companies. As the world's day ends, hardy souls will be marching in Fairbanks. "We will be obeying traffic lights," insist the authors of OccupyAlaska.org, and they "will be dressed warm".

History suggests such actions are unlikely, of themselves, to change the world. As one anonymous poster at 15october.net writes, "Fleshing out ideas into living reality has always been the bugbear of radical politics". And while anger at corporate greed is widespread, there are plenty of voters who would agree with the Australian who posted on the OccupySydney site that those marching will be "the lazy, the paranoid, the confused".

But some analysts do see a potential for political change.

Jeff Madrick, a prominent economics writer, speaks warmly of the serious and reasonable debate he found at Zuccotti Park. Revolutions may be rare, but the protests could push lawmakers to act on some of the demands, he said last week: "It may begin to change public opinion enough to give Congress, people in Washington, the courage of their own convictions."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/wallstreet-global-idUSL5E7LD3VU20111014

Ex-Occupier now holds Wall Street job
By Chris Knowles and Raelyn Johnson, CNN
December 8, 2011 -- Updated 1038 GMT (1838 HKT)


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Tracy Postert was fully committed to the Occupy Wall Street protests, she tells CNN

The biochemist says she had been looking for work, but couldn't prove it to naysayers

She showed up at Zuccotti Park with her résumé, and soon had a job offer

She now researches biotech companies for John Thomas Financial -- on Wall Street

New York (CNN) -- The occupiers of Wall Street have been portrayed by some as radicals, young kids without focus, ne'er-do-wells who'd do anything but get a job. But one woman used her time in at Zuccotti Park differently, and as a result she has gone from Occupy Wall Street to occupying an actual office on Wall Street.

In the gathering of the so-called 99%, Tracy Postert had no idea she would be the one who would be working for the 1%.

"There were some days it was a carnival, or lots of music, drumming, costumes, marching, protesting," said Postert, describing the weeks she spent demonstrating at the park in downtown Manhattan.

Frustrated with the economy, Postert says she jumped right into the Occupy Wall Street movement -- all in -- banging drums and washing paint- and dirt-covered sidewalks.

She sounds like the protester stereotype, but she isn't; she has a doctorate in biochemistry.

In the past few years, the biochemist said, she had found herself at times unemployed or underemployed. Until a few weeks ago she decided to change her protest sign to a "Job Wanted" sign and hunkered down in Zuccotti Park with a handful of résumés.

"Passers-by would say, 'Get a job,' and I didn't have a really good response to that," Postert told CNN.

"I wanted to say, 'Well, I'm trying to get a job,' but you know you can't really prove it." Postert said. "So I said, why don't I make a sign (and prove) that I am actively looking for a job?"

Within two days, she said, someone spotted her. They exchanged e-mails, and an offer followed.

That someone was a top executive at a Wall Street financial firm -- in other words, the enemy.

"It might sound like it's a fish-out-of-water story -- (round) peg in a square hole -- but it's really not," said Wayne Kaufman, a market analyst at John Thomas Financial.

"She was standing there. She had her sign, she had her résumé, and I just passed by her and I chatted with her just for a brief few seconds. And she was obviously an intelligent person," Kaufman said.

"The résumé spoke for itself, it was very impressive," he said. "So, I sent her an e-mail the next day and , she responded almost immediately.

"I asked her if she wanted to come in for an interview; she said yes. I told her what I had in mind for her according to her skill set, and the rest is just history."

For now, Tracy is researching early stage biotech companies for John Thomas Financial. She says she plans to take a test that would allow her to become a broker, and thus a full-fledged member of the 1%. So what are her former Occupy Wall Street compatriots saying?

"I have been accused of being a traitor to both sides. Some people are saying that the whole time I was at Occupy Wall Street I was really a Wall Street insider," says Postert.

She said she plans on keeping her sign. She pledged to protest again when she finds something she feels is worth protesting.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/07/us/occupy-wall-street-job/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2