On Monday, protesters were camped out in Los Angeles near City Hall, assembled in front of the Federal Reserve Bank building in Chicago and marching through downtown Boston to rally against corporate greed, unemployment and the role that financial institutions have played in pushing the country into its continuing economic malaise.
Though the groups have no central organization and protesters in various cities are encouraged to come up with their own list of reasons for demonstrating, the protests have been organized using Facebook and Twitter to collect money, food and blankets and to enlist more supporters.
The groups have committees responsible for welcoming, security, transportation, art and the news media. Each has its own Google group. The arrests Saturday of more than 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge for blocking the roadway have energized the movement, and on Monday, new protests were planned for other cities, including Memphis, Tenn.; Allentown, Pa.; and Hilo, Hawaii, according to organizers.
Later this week, rallies are scheduled for Detroit; Portland, Ore.; Minneapolis; and Baltimore, as well as in cities that rarely see such civil disobedience — Mason City, Iowa; Mobile, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and McAllen, Tex., according to Occupy Together, an unofficial hub for the protests that lists dozens of demonstrations planned for the next week, including some in Europe and Japan.
In Chicago on Monday morning, about a dozen people outside the Federal Reserve Bank sat on the ground or lay in sleeping bags to shield themselves from the autumn chill. All around them were protest signs and hampers filled with donated food and blankets. A couple of people played instruments. A few passers-by asked if they needed anything.
The demonstrators, who have been in Chicago since Sept. 24, said they had collected so much food that they had started giving the surplus to homeless people.
Micah Philbrook, 33, who said he had been camping outside the bank for more than a week, cited the Wall Street protests, which began Sept. 17, as his motivation.
“It spoke to me so much I had to do something,” Mr. Philbrook said. He acknowledged, however, that “it’s all blurring together.” Each evening at 7 p.m., he said, the number of protesters swells as people come from school or work and the group marches to Michigan Avenue.
As is true with the protests in New York and elsewhere, the participants are demonstrating for a variety of reasons.
“We all have different ideas about what this means, stopping corporate greed,” said Paul Bucklaw, 45. “For me, it’s about the banks.”
Sean Richards, 21, a junior studying environmental health at Illinois State University in Normal, said he had dropped out of college on Friday and had taken a train to Chicago to demonstrate against oil companies.
Mr. Richards said he did not plan to go back to school and would continue sleeping on the street for “as long as it takes.”
“We’re sending corporations a powerful message that we know what they’re doing,” he said. “For people, we’re sending the message that we have to unite as one front.”
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