Singapore warns against anti-banker protest in Raffles Place

Dalforce 25 SG

SINGAPORE — Singapore police warned anyone planning to attend an Occupy Wall Street-style demonstration in the city-state's financial district this weekend that their involvement would be "unlawful".

Officers urged members of the public not to participate in the protest in Raffles Place, which organisers said would include a march to the Singapore Exchange building.

Singapore keeps a tight rein on public protests, with organisers required to apply with the police for a permit which are mostly rejected due to what authorities see as law and order risks.

"Police received reports that a netizen is instigating the public to stage a protest gathering at Raffles Place on Saturday, 15 October 2011 in support of a similar protest action in New York," police said in a statement.

"Police urge members of the public not to be misled and participate in an unlawful activity."

However, organisers insisted they would push ahead.

"#OccupyRafflesPlace is still happening!" proclaimed a post on the social networking site Facebook.

It was unclear who was organising the mass action, which exhorted would-be participants to bring placards, musical instruments and other devices to "make as much noise as possible".

But organisers also urged protesters to refrain from violence and not to bring political party or trade union banners, drugs or alcohol.

"We are occupying Singapore's Central Business Districts to demand accountability and change," said the Facebook posting, which also criticised state-linked investment firms Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp.

A Facebook community site set up by the anonymous organisers -- who have denied links with any political parties -- received 211 "likes" by 0300 GMT Friday.

The Occupy Wall Street protests in the US were launched on September 7 by Americans protesting "greed" in the country's financial heartland.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hdxVsgVTuM1GH_NdAMmFElCjelUw?docId=CNG.1fbdf11133b71269e5b8fa4960901ddb.21

FireIce SG

like.

if anyone relli wu ji to appear

likeyou SG

It wont happen here in spore.

People are busy struggling to meets the ends. Not time for this protests.

Dont worry, raffles place will remain the same as usual.

mancha SG

April Fool joke wasted.

M the name SG

@likeyou. You are wrong ! There is an "major" serious finanical-related protest happen in Speaker Park during 2008 where large numbers of investors with a few eldery lost their hard-earned savings investing in structured products like Lehman Minibonds and DBS High Notes, just because they are finanical product from nation bank, they thought it is safe and have high return. Link : http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/10/11/lehman-singapore-protest-idUSSIN2239320081011 Unless similar incident whereby Singapore finanical bodies do stupid thing and lose a lot of money or our bank "never" open again, I doubt there will be another big protest like the one similar in 2008

Fcukpap SG

yam goong....

Dalforce 25 SG

Protests against economic mismanagement and corporate greed are going global.

In addition to the Occupy Wall Street movement sweeping the US, protesters from over 70 European and Asian nations are set to hold co-ordinated mass rallies on October 15.

Activists from 78 nations, organizing themselves through the Internet and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, are due to take to the streets on Saturday in a joint effort to protest at the crippling global economic crisis and hold politicians and bankers responsible.

“United in one voice, we will let politicians and the financial elites they serve know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future,” reads the statement on the website for the upcoming protests, http://15october.net/.

“We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers, who do not represent us,” it adds.

According to the organizers, the protests will involve 868 cities in Europe, the United States, South America, Asia and Africa.

Protests in the EU are focusing on unemployment and cuts in public services. The situation is particularly acute in debt-stricken countries like Greece where harsh austerity measures are being imposed in exchange for EU and IMF bailouts.

RT’s correspondent Priya Sridhar, reporting from India, says Asian activists are planning to stage protests in Taipei, Seoul, Jakarta, Hong Kong and even the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

According to Sridhar, in India itself, there is a growing sentiment against big international corporations using the country’s cheap labor and resources for their benefit alone.

“People here are a little bit suspicious of the multinational companies, specifically American companies,” she said.“Just recently I went to Hyderabad and met with some of the Maoists, who are a growing movement here in India. They are against globalization and their main point is that while the Indian economy might be growing, the rich in India are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and it is the foreign corporations that are really benefiting from India’s young workforce and not India as a whole, and that is a point that I think has really struck accord with many people here in India, and it is not just the Maoists.”

A mood of protest has also reached China, where capitalism-oriented reforms have not pleased the country’s socialists.

According to Asia Times Online, the country’s new leftists are hailing the Occupy Wall Street movement as a “great revolution” against capitalism around the world. Chinese supporters of the OWS have reportedly staged street protests in at least two cities of Henan province – Luoyang and Zhengzhou – in recent days, to support the American movement, the source reports.

Recent events in America have also sparked a heated online discussion in the country. On October 1, Chinese popular blogger Sima Pingbang uploaded a lengthy article saying events in the United States herald a global revolution that will bury capitalism. The leftist’s website, Utopia, has devoted a special page to the American movement and the “death of capitalism.”

The Occupy Wall Street protests have been ongoing in the United States since September 17, spreading from New York to dozens of American cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland.

While the protesters have often been accused of failing to present a focused message, discontent with growing economic inequality provides the unifying force for the ever-expanding movement.

As RT’s Marina Portnaya reports, the most recent statistics have shown that one per cent of America’s population owns 40 per cent of the national wealth; the worst wealth inequality the country’s seen in 25 years. She also noted that the top one per cent, who take home some 25 per cent of America’s national income, also own half of the country’s stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

http://rt.com/news/occupy-wall-street-world-825/

nfshp253 SG

I don’t understand why some people protest against investment failures. Any kid will know that all investment carries risk and profits are not guaranteed. If it was, why would anyone work a regular job?

FireIce SG

they got work on Sat?

Just_do_it_lah SG

they got work on Sat?

M the name SG

Well, leaving "risk" aside, it is an well known secret that stock/securities/contra market are dominated by huge or maybe scheming "big/rich boy".That why as an ordinary investors, you will always find that due to the buying or selling privilege and control these "big boy" had, every trade you do the odd is always against you and you end up in losing deal.And you never know if those maket tip, news,forecast or even "rumour" are part of their baits for you to react to their advantage.And lastly majority of the investors always riding the ripples or waves of the market without exercising their self control and discipline and just trade prudently which is another important reason why they always lose.

mancha SG

The Americans protest is a means to an end. The end result they want is for the government to control the financial markets more effectively.

The Occupy Raffles Place is a copy cat of the American protest, and is an end in it self. To take a dig at the PAP government and nothing else.

dragg SG

the rich and powerful scratch each others' back.

nobody was indicted for the lehmann thing isnt it?

will protest help?

FireIce SG

http://www.facebook.com/occupySG/posts/127047560734035

hahaha~

Fcukpap SG

expected - nothing happens

Jiani SG

because nobody dared.

5 minutes everyone arrested

BanguIzai SG

WORLD OCT. 15, 2011 - 04:00PM JST ( 83 )

TOKYO —

Groups spanning the globe from Asia to Europe—and in every U.S. state—announced demonstrations and other action on Saturday protesting corporate greed and inequality in what organizers describe as 24 hours of public action.

The rapidly growing “Occupy Wall Street” could link a protest that started in New York’s financial district together with longer-standing anti-austerity demonstrations that have raged across Europe amid a roiling economic crisis.

In Tokyo, where the ongoing nuclear crisis dominates public concerns, about 200 people joined the global protests on Saturday afternoon.

Under the light drizzle, the participants marched outside the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, chanting anti-nuclear slogans, while opposing the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade bloc that Japan is considering joining.

“No to nuclear power, no TPP,” the marchers chanted as they held up banners.

Protesters at the heart of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in New York exulted Friday after beating back a plan they said was intended to clear them from the privately owned park where they have slept, eaten and protested for the past month. They said their victory will embolden the movement across the U.S. and beyond.

“We are going to piggy-back off the success of today, and it’s going to be bigger than we ever imagined,” said protester Daniel Zetah.

The owners of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan had announced plans to temporarily evict the hundreds of protesters before dawn Friday so that the grounds could be power-washed and inspected. But protesters feared it was a pretext to break up the demonstration and swelled their ranks by several thousand, recruiting through Facebook, Twitter and word-of-mouth.

Minutes before the appointed hour, the word came down that the park’s owners, Brookfield Office Properties, had postponed the cleanup. Brookfield, whose board includes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s girlfriend, said in a statement that it had decided to delay the cleaning “for a short period of time” at the request of “a number of local political leaders.”

As protesters celebrated, about 15 people in a breakaway group were arrested nearby in a clash with police. A legal observer marching with the group refused to move off the street for police and was run over by an officer’s scooter. He fell to the ground screaming and writhing and kicked over the scooter to free his foot before police flipped him over and arrested him.

And a video posted online showed a police officer punching a protester in the side of the head on a crowded street. Police said the altercation occurred after the man tried to elbow the officer in the face and other people in the crowd jumped on the officer, who was sprayed with a liquid coming from the man’s direction. Police said the man, who escaped and is wanted for attempted assault on an officer, later said in an online interview he’s HIV positive and the officer should be tested medically.

A man who identified himself as the protester, Felix Rivera-Pitre, said in a statement posted online that he didn’t provoke the officer. “I was just doing what everyone else was doing in the march,” he said. “It felt like he was taking his frustrations out on me.”

In San Francisco, protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement heckled News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch during a speech at an education forum, accusing the media mogul of trying to profit from public education.

“Corporations own all the media in the world. Why should they not own all the education as well?” an activist who identified himself as Joe Hill yelled sarcastically.

Murdoch appeared unfazed.

“It’s OK, a little controversy makes everything more interesting,” he said to audience applause before continuing his speech.

In Denver, dozens of police in riot gear herded protesters away from the Colorado state Capitol grounds, dragging some and arresting about two dozen as they dismantled the encampment the protesters have held for three weeks.

In Trenton, the New Jersey state capital, protesters were ordered to remove tents near a war memorial.

Organizers in Des Moines, Iowa, accepted an offer Friday night from the mayor to move from the state Capitol where they were prohibited from staying overnight to a city park blocks away, averting a possible showdown.

San Diego police used pepper spray to break up a human chain formed by anti-Wall Street demonstrators at a downtown plaza where they have camped for a week.

In Philadelphia, protester Matt Monk, a freelance writer, was elated by the news out of New York.

“That means at the very least, the powers-that-be, wherever they are, know that they have to contend with us in a less heavy-handed way,” he said.

A call for mass protests on Saturday originated a month ago from a meeting in Spain, where mostly young and unemployed people angry at the country’s handling of the economic crisis have been demonstrating for months. It was reposted on the Occupy Wall Street website and has been further amplified through social media.

In Sydney, Australia, around 300 people gathered Saturday, cheering a speaker who shouted, “We’re sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!”

At the Sydney rally, Danny Lim, a 67 year old immigrant from Malaysia, said he moved to Australia 48 years ago in search of opportunities. Now he no longer trusts the government to look after his best interests. He thinks Australia’s government has become too dependent upon the US for direction.

“The big man—they don’t care. They screw everyone. Eventually we’ll mortgage our children away,” Lim said.

In Manila, about 100 members of various groups under the Philippine left-wing alliance, Bayan, marched on the U.S. Embassy Saturday morning to express support for the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States and to denounce “U.S. imperialism” and U.S.-led wars and aggression.

They carried a large banner that said, “Resist imperialist plunder, state repression and wars of aggression,” and another expressing “Solidarity action for Occupy Wall Street.” They also chanted “US troops, out now!” in reference to the presence of hundreds of U.S. soldiers, mostly in the southern Philippines, involved in anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops. One man carried a placard saying “Genuine people’s democracy lives in the streets.”

South Korean activists have pledged to bring 1,000 people into the capital’s Yoeuido financial district and in front of Seoul City Hall to protest inequality.

Rome is girding for major protests Saturday by demonstrators known as the “indignati.” As Premier Silvio Berlusconi survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, protesters outside shouted “Shame!” and hurled eggs toward the legislative building.

Italian TV reports from Milan showed about 20 young people trying unsuccessfully to enter a building where Goldman Sachs has an office, and spraying red paint on the entrance.

Protesters in London vowed to occupy the London Stock Exchange on Saturday. Nights of rioting rocked the British capital in August after the fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old man.

In Canada, protests were planned for Saturday in cities including Montreal and Vancouver. In Toronto, demonstrators plan to gather at Canada’s main stock exchange.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he doubted Canadians would be as angry as their neighbors to the south as Canadian banks have not received a U.S.-type bailout. He declined to comment when asked if he was concerned about a possible repeat of street violence that Toronto experienced at the G-20 summit last year.

In the United States, politicians in both President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party and the opposition Republican Party struggled to come up with a response to the growing nationwide movement. Democrats have been largely supportive but also wary of endorsing criticism of Obama’s rescue of big banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank bailout was launched in the last months of President George W. Bush’s administration.

Republicans at first criticized the demonstrations but have shifted their tone in recent days. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned of “growing mobs” but later said the protesters were “justifiably frustrated.” In Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich referred to the protesters as “left-wing agitators.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a reference to the New York protest in a speech at The Economic Club of New York.

“The protests happening just a few miles from here ought to be a reminder to all of us that we have a great deal of work to do to live up to the expectations of the American people,” she said Friday.

And a group of 100 authors including Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham signed an online petition declaring their support for “Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.”

Dalforce 25 SG

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Last updated at 3:24 PM on 15th October 2011

Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protests began in New Zealand, rippled round the world to Europe and were expected to return to their starting point in New York.

Organizers hope to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.

Germany: People protest against structures of the current global financial system with posters in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt

Italy: Protesters look at a parked car on fire during a demonstration, in downtown Rome after tens of thousands marched today as part of a global day of protests

Global: Violence erupted on the streets of Rome, right , as thousands took to the streets spurred on by the Occupy Wall Street movement, left

Most rallies were however small and barely held up traffic. The biggest anticipated was in Rome, where organizers said they believed 100,000 would take part.

'At the global level, we can't carry on any more with public debt that wasn't created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who don't give a damn about us,' said Nicla Crippa, 49, who wore a T-shirt saying 'enough' as she arrived at the Rome protest.

'They caused this international crisis and are still profiting from it, they should pay for it.'

The Rome protesters, including the unemployed, students and pensioners, planned to march through the centre, past the Colosseum and finish in Piazza San Giovanni.

Some 2,000 police were on hand to keep the Rome demonstrators, who call themselves 'the indignant ones', peaceful and to avoid a repeat of the violence last year when students protesting over education policy clashed with police.

As some 750 buses bearing protesters converged on the capital, students at Rome university warmed up with their own mini-demo on Saturday morning.

Sweden: A protester holds a banner reading Capitalism is also a Dictator' as she takes part in the Occupy Stockholm demonstration held at Sergels Torg

Stockholm: Protesters launched worldwide street demonstrations on October 15 against corporate greed and biting cutbacks in a rolling action targetting 951 cities in 82 countries

Taiwan: Taiwan: A participant holds a placard reading 'Can't raise a family, Can't support a country', left, in Tapei while others sings songs to keep up spirits

The carried signs reading 'Your Money is Our Money', and 'Yes We Camp', an echo of the slogan 'Yes We Can' used by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In imitation of the occupation of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, some protesters have been camped out across the street from the headquarters of the Bank of Italy for several days.

The worldwide protests were a response in part to calls by the New York demonstrators for more people to join them.

Their example has prompted calls for similar occupations in dozens of U.S. cities from Saturday.

Demonstrators in Italy were united in their criticism of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and angry at his victory in a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday.

The government has passed a 60 billion-euro austerity package that has raised taxes and will make public health care more expensive.

South Korea: Protesters participate in an Occupy Seoul rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street protest against corporate power

Spain: Protesters practice yoga at the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, before the demonstration to be held in the afternoon

Hong Kong: A man holds a placard during a protest to express anger at 'the inequities and excesses of free-market capitalism' in Hong Kong on October 15

On Friday students stormed Goldman Sachs's offices in Milan and daubed red graffiti. Others hurled eggs at the headquarters of UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank.

New Zealand and Australia got the ball rolling on Saturday. Several hundred people marched up the main street in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, joining a rally at which 3,000 chanted and banged drums, denouncing corporate greed.

About 200 gathered in the capital Wellington and 50 in a park in the earthquake-hit southern city of Christchurch.

In Sydney, about 2,000 people, including representatives of Aboriginal groups, communists and trade unionists, protested outside the central Reserve Bank of Australia.

'I think people want real democracy,' said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org, as about 1,000 gathered in the Australian city.

'They don't want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable.'

Hundreds marched in Tokyo, including anti-nuclear protesters. Participants marched outside the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, chanting anti-nuclear slogans, while opposing the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade bloc that Japan is considering joining.

In Manila, capital of the Philippines, about one hundred people marched on the U.S. embassy under the Philippine left-wing alliance, Bayan, waving banners reading: 'Down with U.S. imperialism' and 'Philippines not for sale'.

Worldwide: A protester climbs on the bronze statue of bull during an Occupy Hong Kong rally outside the Hong Kong Exchange Square on Saturday, as a car burns in Rome where things turned violent today

America: A protester screams as Seattle Police officers try to separate his arms linked with others hoping to prevent the removal of a tent pitched behind them in downtown Seattle's Westlake Park

Italy: Masked protesters wore masks and carried weapons as they took to the streets of Rome to protest

They carried a large banner that said, 'Resist imperialist plunder, state repression and wars of aggression,' and another expressing 'Solidarity action for Occupy Wall Street', according to MSNBC.

They also chanted 'U.S. troops, out now!' in reference to the presence of hundreds of U.S. soldiers, mostly in the southern Philippines, involved in anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops.

More than 100 people gathered at the Taipei stock exchange, chanting 'we are Taiwan's 99 percent', and saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and healthcare costs.

They found support from a top businessman, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang.

'I've been against the gap between rich and poor,' Chang said in the northern city of Hsinchu. 'The wealth of the top one percent has increased very fast in the past 20 or 30 years. Occupy Wall Street is a reaction to that.'

Germany: Participants protest during a demonstration at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as the world rallies against corporate greed and inequality

Netherlands: Protestors hold placards outside the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam

Australia: Man holds a placard at the Occupy Melbourne protest as they gathered at City Square for the first day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049466/Occupy-Wall-Street-protests-spread-world-global-day-revolution.html#ixzz1arfzPbPM

Dalforce 25 SG

We need a Lenin to start a revolution against these corrupt banking motherfuckers!

To me, the most ominous flaw in our constitutional set-up is the fact that the federal government does not have control over of money and credit and does not have control of corporations.

It is therefore not really sovereign. And it is not really responsible, because it is now controlled by these two groups, corporations, and those who control the flows of money. The new public financing of the Presidential elections is arranged so that they can spend as much as they want: voluntary contributions, not authorized by the candidate, are legal.

The administrative system and elections are dominated today by the private power of money flows and corporation activities...

http://www.carrollquigley.net/Lectures/The-State-of-Individuals-AD-1776-1976.htm

QX179R SG

No-show for Occupy Wall Street-style gathering

SINGAPORE: An online movement calling the public to stage a rally at Raffles Place in support of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in New York fell through on Saturday.

The worldwide protests are aimed at galvanising 99 percent of people to stand up against the super-wealthy one percent.

The Singapore movement had 3,000 followers on Facebook, with 75 indicating they would attend.

The event page asked the public to gather at Raffles Place MRT from 2pm with placards and musical instruments and to "make as much noise as possible".

However, it ended in a no-show.

Raffles Place - a bustling place on weekdays - was its usual sleepy self on Saturday afternoon, with only a handful of tourists and a few local residents milling around the area.

Singapore police had earlier urged the public not to be misled and participate in what it termed would be an unlawful activity.

- CNA/ir