Thousands of protesters take to Wall Street

Thousands of people -- some chanting motivational slogans and others beating drums or waving flags -- marched from Foley Square to Zuccotti Park in a rally that linked labor unions and the anti-Wall Street demonstrators who have "occupied" the lower Manhattan financial district for almost three weeks.

The groups coalesced into a crowd of about 10,000 who came together to voice dissatisfaction with what they called corporate exploitation of the working class at the doorstep, literally, of the financial elite.

The sentiments expressed by the Occupy Wall Street protest, which began Sept. 17, have spread to such cities as Los Angeles, Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City, Mo.

Saturday, police arrested 700 demonstrators after they spilled onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. "This is what democracy looks like," some chanted Wednesday. "The people united will never be defeated."

Smithtown native Yvonne Gougelet, 28, of Manhattan, was dressed as the infamous Marie Antoinette, the French queen who expressed disdain for the poor during the French Revolution in the 18th century.

"I knew it was going to be a big day," she said. "A lot of people are starting to realize that our problems are intertwined, and the root of our problems is corporate greed."

Roslyn Heights native and Queens resident Saisha Gray, 32, and her sister, Manhattanite Elana Jaroff, 21, were helping their mother, Bhavani Jaroff, deliver to protesters vegetarian chili, brown rice, tortilla chips and microgreens prepared in her restaurant, i Eat Green, in Roslyn Heights.

"This is exactly what I expected," Gray said. "And it hasn't topped out. It's resonated. The right wing has the tea party to express their disaffection. The left hasn't seen that until now, a real dissatisfaction with the situation and the fact that our problems aren't addressed in political discourse."

Among the marchers were students and the unemployed, activists and laborers.

Police said there were about a dozen arrests Wednesday night, mostly for disorderly conduct.

The demonstrators Wednesday night posted a video on YouTube in which a police official is seen swinging a baton to clear a crowd of protesters. It was unclear from the angle of the video if anyone was hit. Officers are allowed to use batons and pepper spray in crowd control efforts.

Members of some of the city's largest unions were present: the Service Employees International Union, the Transport Workers Union, the United Federation of Teachers.

"I didn't know what to expect but I'm very enthusiastic," said Mark Bray, 29, of Jersey City, a doctoral student.

J.P. Patafio, 43, of Princeton, N.J., a bus operator and TWU Local 100 representative, said, "I think it's just going to grow. I'm hoping that when we come back in a month, it'll be 100,000 in the streets."

With Zachary R. Dowdy