Occupy Wall Street's May 1st "General Strike" [Liveblog]

General Strike

May First General Strike light graffiti via Brandon Neubauer on Flickr

Today is the day – Occupy Wall Street and other associated groups have been planning actions for the May 1st General Strike, and today we’ll be monitoring the result of their planning.

This entry will be updated throughout the day, with the latest information showing up at the bottom of the page, timestamped in the live blog. Refresh the page to see the latest updates. On the right side of the page is a list of Occupy Wall Street Twitter accounts which will provide a real-time feed of what is happening around the city. A Great Big City is not responsible for any content or links that are posted in that sidebar by Twitter users.

Even before May Day begins, we have seen suspicious powder incidents at banks across the city, at least one of which contained a reference to May 1st. If this is indeed an action from an Occupy Wall Street-related group, it would indicate a significant change in protest tactics, and may draw a greater police presence during the May 1st demonstrations.

Leave your comments below or send in your photos and info on today’s protests in the comments section or on the contact page

In advance any May 1st protest activity, a document from NYPD SHIELD was circulated around the web. The six-page PDF document is a summary of the actions that Occupy Wall Street has planned for the day, and details some of the tactics that protesters may use, including the “black bloc” tactic of protesters wearing bandannas and masks to conceal their identity and a potentially rowdy “wildcat march” planned for 1:00pm at Sara D. Roosevelt Park.

The second major event before the May 1st protest began was a series of NYPD visits to at least three protesters’ homes, during which they were questioned about their May Day plans. Originally the story was posted to Anarchist News, but Gawker contacted the protesters for more information about how and why the protesters were questioned.

Live streaming video

Timcast will be live-streaming video all day from the May Day protests, and has consistently high-quality video combined with insightful commentary.

May Day Radio

Check out this live radio show being broadcast today called May Day Radio. Listen on the embedded player below or click through to their website for other listening options.

Other live video streams

Other liveblogs


Who are Aespa (에스파), the first K-pop girl group in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade?

What's up for August 16

Beware of scam text messages from a fake NY DMV website

Bargain-Priced 2-Bed in a Gated Community

West Farms 1-Bed Brings Bright Light and a Neighborhood Zoo for $1,425

Live a Bright Life in Ocean Hill for Less Than $2K Per Month