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Respond: New York: 37 people--including 2 high schoolers--were arrested today, Friday, June 18th, in a non-violent street carnival organized to protest the annual meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) economic superpowers. For nearly 2 hours, 500 costume clad protesters took over the streets, tying up traffic in New York City's Financial District and rallying in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Protesters danced to the pirate radio signal of 5000 watt mobile sound system. When the police seized the amplifier, the beat was carried on by portable radios and people drumming on 55 gallon steel drums. The first 5 people were arrested as they attempted to chain themselves together around a large sculpture of a globe. "Don't Let the G8 Decide Our Fate!" read the back of the t-shirts worn by those arrested around the globe. 32 others were arrested for blocking traffic while taking over the streets.
The protest party was organized by Reclaim the Streets/New York City, a local chapter of the international protest group Reclaim the Streets. It was part of a global day of protest against the G8 that included demonstrations in 41 countries in over 100 cities.
In San Francisco more than 500 protesters took to the streets of their financial district, in Boston it was more than 100. In Washington DC, more than 600 protesters formed a human chain around the US Treasury Department. From London and other cities around the globe reports are rolling in of demonstrations with tens of thousands of partying, protesting, participants. June 18th was picked as an international day of protest because today the world's eight most powerful nations are meeting in Cologne, Germany to plan their vision of the world. Their plan puts the needs of multi-national corporations before those of people, the environment, and democratic governmental bodies.
RTS/NYC member Ariane Rhoden says: "It's ironic--No, make that tragic--that at the same time democracy is spreading all across the globe, we are seeing groups such as the G8 and the World Trade Organization, none of whom were elected and none of whom are accountable to regular citizens, dictating the shape and direction of our world." About the Reclaim the Streets party/protest Steve Simon says: "For at least a little while, the interchange of bodies gyrating in motion dominated the streets of the financial district where the commerce of greed and profit usually reign supreme."
What is Reclaim the Streets? Born in London in 1995, RTS is world-wide movement, with local branches throwing road parties as part protest against the corporatization of public space, part dancing example of what public space could be. RTS/NYC hosted our first action in October 1998 in the middle of Broadway at Astor place, shutting down the street with over 300 people dancing to a pirate radio broadcast dance beat. On April 11th, 1999 we did it again: throwing a "garden party" on Ave A in the East Village, taking over the streets with 30 ft high tripods, flower boxes, hundreds of costumed dancers, and, of course, a kicking mobile sound system to protest the City's impending sale and destruction of community gardens. Today we brought our party to the heart of global finance. Tomorrow....
For more information on RTS/NYC, go to: On RTS International: For latest updates on June 18th Actions around the world:
June 19th Reuters Release
Reclaim the Streets NYC -

Saturday June 19 12:55 AM ET
Police Arrest 20 In New York Anti-Capitalist Event
By Eric Wahlgren
NEW YORK (Reuters) - About 20 protesters were arrested during a rowdy, anti-capitalism street demonstration that wove through New York's financial center Friday, briefly halting traffic on Wall Street.
The event in New York, like others planned in other major cities around the world, was timed to coincide with a summit in Cologne, Germany of the world's richest nations.
Although several New York protesters resisted arrest and vandals splashed orange paint on at least one office building, the rally was peaceful compared to protests in London, where several people were hurt and demonstrators clashed with riot police, burned cars and stormed a major financial exchange.
"It's not a protest,'' said Mitchel Cohen, 50, a New York poet over the din of people banging on steel tubs. "It's more a festival of resistance against the entire apparatus of global capitalism.''
Cohen was one of about 200 demonstrators who massed at Liberty Square in the shadow of the World Trade Center's twin towers, symbols of U.S. business might where a terrorist bombing in 1993 killed six.
New York police said about 20 of those who took part in the demonstration were arrested for disorderly conduct but there were no injuries.
Officers made many of their arrests at the intersection of Wall and New streets where demonstrators poured into the street and blocked rush-hour traffic including a double-decker tour bus, alarming sightseers.
`"I think they're all crazy,'' a New York investment banker said as he took in the scene.
Organized by an activist group called Reclaim the Streets, the noisy rally included students, construction workers and college professors.
The U.S. events were much smaller than protests in London, where police said up to 10,000 people took part including anti-monarchists, anti-car activists and campaigners calling on Britain to end Third World debt.
In San Francisco at least 450 activists with colorful banners, costumes, over-sized puppets and drums marched peacefully through the financial district as dozens of police watched over them.
The coalition of protesters against economic globalization targeted the World Trade Organization and San Francisco-based companies such as clothing retailer The Gap, oil company Chevron and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC - news) which they accused of committing environmental, humanitarian and labor crimes.
"We are here to throw some sunshine on these institutions,'' said Juliette Beck, an organizer of the rally. ''They are like Draculas. Bring them out to the sunlight, and they will wither away.''
At a Victoria's Secret lingerie shop, a few demonstrators in bras and panties put on a song and dance skit protesting what they said were sweatshop conditions in lingerie factories.
Police said they received calls from a number of worried corporations but had not sent out any official warnings or notices for Friday's event.