ROME — In dozens of cities around the world on Saturday, people took to the streets, clutching placards and chanting slogans as part of a planned day of protests against the financial system.

 

In Rome, a rally thick with tension spread over several miles. Small groups of violent young people turned a largely peaceful protest into a riot, setting fire to at least one building and a police van and clashing with police officers, who responded with water cannons and tear gas.

Local news media reported that dozens of protesters had been injured. Law enforcement officials would not confirm those figures, but said 20 police officers had been hurt.

 

In other European cities, including Berlin and London, the demonstrations were largely peaceful, with thousands of people marching past ancient monuments and gathering in front of capitalist symbols like the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Elsewhere, the turnout was more modest, but rallies of a few hundred people were held in cities including Sydney, Australia, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Protests also continued in New York and were held in several other cities in the United States and Canada.

 

But just as the rallies in New York have represented a variety of messages — signs have been held in opposition to President Obama yards away from signs in support of him — so Saturday’s protests contained a grab bag of messages, opposing nuclear power, political corruption and the privatization of water.

 

Despite the difference in language, landscape and scale, the protests were united in frustration with the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

 

“I have no problem with capitalism. I have no problem with a market economy. But I find the way the financial system is functioning deeply unethical,” Herbert Haberl, 51, said in Berlin. “We shouldn’t bail out the banks. We should bail out the people.”

 

In New York, where the occupation of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan was moving into its second month, a large crowd marched north early Saturday afternoon to Washington Square Park, where they were joined by several hundred college students who decried, among other things, student debt and unemployment.

 

In late afternoon, the crowds marched up Sixth Avenue, beseeching onlookers to join in — “You are the 99 percent,” they cried — to a heavily barricaded Times Square. There, they convened with thousands of other protesters and caught hundreds of tourists at unawares. “We thought they were going to stay down on Wall Street,” said Sandi Bernard, 59, who was visiting from Waldorf, Md., and wondered if she would have trouble making the 8 p.m. curtain call for “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

 

Some tourists pumped their fists and whooped from atop double-decker sightseeing buses as the protesters cheered back. Carol Hoyt, 58, of Connecticut, joined the protesters along with her husband and friend, after overhearing a policewoman mention that the marchers were on their way.

 

“I love a good confrontation; we need it,” Ms. Hoy said. “We are pretty near broke, and we can’t keep up anymore.”

 

Shortly after six, crowds of protesters surged against barricades as the police pushed back, reinforced by mounted officers. For the protesters, marching on Times Square held almost as much significance as did Wall Street.

 

“Times Square represents business as usual: buy, buy, buy in this economic climate, watch the latest show,” said Elias Holtz, 29, a Web designer who lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “But the crisis is everywhere.”   

 

Earlier, about a dozen protesters entered a Chase branch in Lower Manhattan and withdrew their money from the bank while 300 other people circled the block, some shouting chants and beating on drums. The former Chase customers, who declined to reveal how much they had in their accounts — though a few acknowledged it was not much — said they planned to put their money into smaller banks or credit unions.

 

About 20 people were arrested while demonstrating at a Citibank branch in Greenwich Village.

 

In Washington, several hundred people marched through downtown, beginning in the early morning, passing by several banks. Escorted by the police, the marchers also demonstrated in front of the White House and the Treasury Department before moving on to a rally on the National Mall, where they were joined by representatives of unions and other supporters.

 

Kelly Mears, 24, a former software engineer, said he was despondent about the direction of the country and was inspired to join the protest after following the one in New York on Twitter and other social media. Mr. Mears and dozens of other protesters have been camped out in McPherson Square, a park not far from the White House, for the past two weeks.

 

“You see how people are beholden to corporate interest no matter how hard you might have worked to get them elected,” Mr. Mears said. “There is a disconnect.”

 

Saturday’s protests sprang not only from Occupy Wall Street movement that began last month in New York, but also from demonstrations in Spain in May. This weekend, the global protest effort came as finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations meet in Paris to discuss economic issues, including ways to tackle Europe’s sovereign debt crisis

 

In London, where crowds assembled in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the ubiquitous emblems of the movement were in evidence. “Bankers Are the Real Looters” and “We Are the 99 Percent,” read several placards and flags. One demonstrator, dressed as Jesus Christ, held a sign that said “I Threw the Money Lenders Out for a Reason.”

 

Brief clashes were reported in London, where the police were out in force with dozens of riot vans, canine units and hundreds of officers. But the gathering, attended by people of all ages, was largely peaceful, with a picnic atmosphere and people streaming in and out of a nearby Starbucks.

 

The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, made an appearance at the cathedral, where he was met by hundreds of cheering fans. He called the protest movement “the culmination of a dream.”

 

In Rome, Saturday’s protests were as much about the growing dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — who narrowly survived a vote of confidence on Friday — as they were about global financial inequities. Tens of thousands of people turned out for what started as peaceful protests and devolved into ugly violence. The windows of shops and bank windows were smashed, a police van was destroyed and some Defense Ministry offices were set alight.

 

“We’re upset because we don’t have prospects for the future,” Alessia Tridici, 18, said in Rome. “We’ll never see a pension. We’ll have to work until we die.”

 

In contrast, protests in Berlin remained peaceful and upbeat, with music and even a little dancing on a warm, sunny day.

 

“I like the carnival atmosphere,” said Juhani Seppovaara, 64, a photographer and writer originally from Finland now living in Berlin. “But for me there’s a little too much populism, very complicated matters reduced to one or two sentences.”

 

About 350 miles away in Frankfurt, thousands gathered under a giant blue euro sign at the European Central Bank, in an orderly and well-organized demonstration complete with public toilets.

 

Thomas Lindner, 45, said the New York protests had inspired him to join the demonstration.

 

“The banks get rescued right away, but the poor people don’t get any support,” Mr. Lindner said.

 

Nearby, a man who said he went by only one name, Fränky, passed out fake 10-euro notes as part of a campaign to abolish money.

 

In Sydney, several hundred protesters carried signs with slogans including “We Are the 99%” and “Capitalism Is Killing Our Economy.” The atmosphere was lively, with a brass band providing music in thoroughfares outside the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the city’s financial district.

 

In central Tokyo, where periodic rallies against nuclear power have been held since the March accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, about 300 protesters marched with signs through busy streets and heavy traffic, chanting “We’re with Occupy Wall Street!” “Down with the rich!” and “No more nukes!”

 

Two young men held a banner that expressed an apologetic solidarity: “Radioactivity Has No Borders. To the World From Japan: Sorry!”

 

Another held a sign that read simply, “Let’s Complain More.”

 

“Even timid Japanese are finally starting to push for change,” said Miku Ohkura, 24, a college student in Tokyo, who said she had already been to about a half-dozen protests for various causes in the last few months. She said that apart from being opposed to nuclear power, younger people were angry at being made to bear the brunt of Japan’s economic woes. “We all have different messages, but we’re all alike in that we want society to become more equal,” she said.

 

Throughout the day, that sentiment was echoed around streets and squares all over the world.

 

“We’ve had decades of increasing inequality, culminating in the financial crisis,” said Jack Copley, 20, a student at the University of Birmingham who was protesting in London. “The best we can hope for,” he said, gesturing to the gathered crowd, “is that we can change the political climate to make it harder for politicians to rule in the interests of the few.”

Oct. 15, 2011

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