'Occupy Wall Street' to Turn Manhattan into 'Tahrir Square'

As the protesters call for President Barack Obama to establish a commission to end the influence money has over our representatives in Washington, it will be interesting to see whether New York will succeed in transforming Lower Manhattan into an American Tahrir Square. 

Occupy Wall Street, a leaderless resistance movement, was published by activist magazine Adbusters on July 13, and since then people from groups such as NYC General Assembly and US Day of Rage have participated to organize the event. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%, says the event's official website.

Hacktivists Anonymous are among the protestors, promising their involvement under the banner #OccupyWallStreet. Anonymous released a short video calling for participation, spreading the movement to other nations like Japan, Israel, Canada and Europe.

On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months, states the website.

While deemed as a mass movement against corporate dominance, the organizers' plan for Occupy Wall Street is to crowdsource the decision of what to demand through discussion.

More than having any specific demand, per se, I think the purpose of September 17th, for many of us who are helping to organize it and people who are coming out, is to begin a conversation, as citizens, as people affected by this financial system in collapse, as to how we're going to fix it, as to what we're going to do in order to make it work for us again, said an organizer Justin Wedes.

The protestors' demand will likely be focused on taking to task the people who perpetrated the economic meltdown, said Kalle Lasn, the editor-in-chief of Adbusters, reports CNN.

We're hoping it's something specific and doable, like asking Obama to set up a committee to look into the fall of U.S. banking. Nothing extreme about that.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to the protest in a press conference.

People have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it, said Bloomberg.

As long as they do it where other people's rights are respected, this is the place where people can speak their minds, and that's what makes New York New York.

Occupy Wall Street protesters will gather at the iconic bull of the Wall Street in Bowling Green Park at 12 p.m. on Saturday, followed by a General Assembly at 3 p.m. at One Chase Manhattan Plaza.