Occupy Wall Street Protesters Go on Hunger Strike

Occupy Wall Street protesters started a hunger strike Saturday to demand a new occupation campsite in an unused lot.

Protesters in New York were evicted from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan on November 15 after almost two months of camping in the small square to protest rule of capitalism, income inequality, corporate greed and the influence of corporate money in US politics.

Hunger strikers planned to gather Saturday in Duarte Square, about a mile North of Zuccotti Park, protest organizers said in a press release. They hope to be allowed to camp in a vacant lot owned by Trinity Church.

Protesters who are arrested plan to continue their hunger strikes in jail, the press release said.

The Occupy protests, spearheaded by the activist magazine Adbusters, began in Zuccotti Park on September 17 and have spread to other cities throughout the US and the world.

Yesterday’s press release called on protesters in other cities to join the hunger strike.

“This is a call for escalation in response to the escalated levels of government-enacted violence and repression,” it said.

“In cities across the nation, mayors chose to stifle freedom of speech and the right to assemble by evicting peaceful occupations using illegal and unconstitutional force.”

Occupy encampments in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Seattle have also been shut down.