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Occupy movement continues in Europe

Monday, October 17, 2011 - 02:01

Oct.17 - Hundreds of protesters camp out in front of financial institutions across Europe and plan to stay until their anti-capitalism message is heard. Jessica Gray reports.

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Morning dawns outside St Paul's Cathedral in London. Around 100 tents remained pitched after Saturday's Occupy Movement protest that drew thousands in support. Protesters here are hoping their message that the capitalist financial system is broken will attract more people to join their camp. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREG WILKINSON, PROTESTER WHO SPENT NIGHT IN THE CAMP, SAYING: "Things are getting more and more unequal. Capitalism has never been a very good thing, but at least sometimes it's done its job and kept people at work and increased their incomes. For the last few years it's been increasing the incomes for the top one percent, very fast indeed and leaving the others flat, if they are lucky enough to have jobs." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER WHO GAVE HER NAME AS TILLY SAYING: "We are facing huge cuts in everything. Cuts in the NHS, cuts in education, cuts in front-line services." Londoners say they might not support the demonstrators' message, but they appreciate the peaceful nature of the sit in. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILL COOPER, COMPANY TREASURER, SAYING: "Peaceful demonstration is good but I don't enjoy the violence that comes with some of the demonstrations we've seen." The London demonstration was just one of numerous across Europe and Asia, following in the footsteps of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. In Germany, people camped outside the European Central Bank say their message is being heard. (SOUNDBITE) (German) SPOKESPERSON OF "OCCUPY FRANKFURT", AARON KLAUS "We are very happy that politicians have realised that something is going wrong. That's why we are here. We hope that something is going to change now and that it was not only idle talk and in two months nobody is talking about it anymore. We hope that something is going to move." Tens of thousands of people around the world took to the streets on Saturday over equality and the widening rich-poor gap. Jessica Gray, Reuters