The crowd sourced campaign will officially begin at approximately 16:00 GMT on Friday and is set to conclude in the heart of summer, on July 4th.
“On April 4th, there will be launch celebrations at hundreds of former Occupy locations globally. We will honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy of nonviolent action and spend the day connecting with allies and strategizing spring action campaigns,” an event organizer says in a statement.
As has become part and parcel of the Occupy movement, the group is low on concrete demands, saying that the campaign “will become what you, the people, make of it, self-organizing and organically evolving, a new culture will emerge.”
The campaign hopes to reoccupy all the 951 cities across 82 countries, which had seen an Occupy-inspired event at the height of the protest movement. New York City, the epicenter of the original Occupy Wall Street movement, along with London, Sydney, Amsterdam, Seville, Ontario, Johannesburg, Brussels, and LA are just some of the locations slated to take part in the global campaign.
This time around, organizers say 1,518 occupations are planned worldwide.
Organizers have asked the public the spread the world via Twitter with the hashtags: #WaveOfAction #GlobalSpring #ReOccupy #BeTheChange.
Meanwhile, in Brussels police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters at a trade union rally that turned ugly. Around 15,000 people reportedly took to the streets in a march against austerity and unemployment.
Initially, the trade unions expected to see 40,000 demonstrators rallying in Brussels.
Although Occupy activists have viewed the demonstration and subsequent police crackdown as part of their global day of action, trade union representatives have disavowed any connection with the movement.
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Brussels: Police Disperse Protesters With Tear Gas, Water Cannon
Around 25,000 people, according to Brussels police spokeswoman, Ilse Van de Keere, marched against austerity and unemployment. They were faced with a heavy-handed police response.
Initially, the trade unions expected to see 40,000 demonstrators on the streets of Brussels.
Some demonstrators threw oranges and cobblestones at police. Violent clashes also took place near the US embassy.
Traffic was paralyzed in the Belgian capital, and public transport stopped well short of the protest location.
Trade unions representatives from across the EU gathered in Brussels, following a call from the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC). This is the first “euromanifestation” in 2014, with the participants demanding “a new way for Europe.”
It has been reported that clashes happened between the police and dockers from Antwerp and Gent, who led the march and started throwing projectiles at police.
The trade unions are demanding an economic policy that involves “no austerity, but big investment aimed at steady economic growth and quality jobs,” said the ETUC press secretary, Emanuela Bonacina.
Demonstrators are urging EU citizens to vote for candidates that “will change the order of governing the EU,” during the European elections that are set to take place on May 22-25.
The ETUC is also suggesting measures to battle austerity, such as yearly investments at 2 percent of GDP over the next 10 years to stimulate new private investment.
Demonstrators clash with police at the end of a demonstration by tens of thousands people coming from some 20 European countries in the European district of Brussels to denounce the austerity measures in Europe on April 4, 2014. (AFP Photo)
Demonstrators clash with police at the end of a demonstration by tens of thousands people coming from some 20 European countries in the European district of Brussels to denounce the austerity measures in Europe on April 4, 2014. (AFP Photo)
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