Thousands of chanting, festive anti-globalisation activists, flanked by masses of police, marched through central New York today against an global financial gathering.
After rallying at the south-eastern corner of Central Park, thousands of demonstrators poured through the streets toward the plush Waldorf Astoria Hotel, site of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
They carried aloft an 80-foot bright orange dragon along with giant puppets, some depicting rich "fat cats" and others depicting their supposed victim, crisis-torn Argentina.
Protesters chanted "WEF, Shut it Down!" and brandished signs reading "Rebuild New York for People, Not for Profit," and "Human Rights, Not Corporate Greed."
The march, the first major demonstration against this five-day economic meeting, which began on Thursday, is also the first test since the September 11th terrorist attacks of the strength of the US movement against the perceived deficiencies of free-wheeling global capitalism.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks many in the anti-globalisation movement felt it would be inappropriate to demonstrate.
But the heat of the opposition to the WEF, which was meeting outside of the luxury Swiss ski resort of Davos for the first time in its 32-year history, was clear today.
Demonstrators said they hoped violence would be avoided and that much depended on the police response.
By mid-afternoon there had been just few arrests for minor, unspecified offenses, a New York Police Department spokesman said.
AFP