Anti-capitalist protests turn into global movement!

PARIS, France - October 16, 2011 - Hundreds camped out in London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam Sunday, after clashes in New York and Rome, during protests some see as the start of a new global movement against corporate greed and budget cuts.

Organizers said 250 people spent the night outside St Paul's Cathedral in London's financial district where there was a camp of 70 tents.

Some 200 people also camped in front of the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt, while in Amsterdam, 50 tents were put up outside the stock exchange.

There were rallies in 951 cities in 80 countries around the globe on Saturday, building on a campaign launched on May 15 with a rally in Madrid's Puerta del Sol Square by a group calling itself "Indignados" ("Indignants").

The rallies passed mostly peacefully, but in Rome a few hundred among tens of thousands of protesters set cars alight, smashed up banks and hurled rocks at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas and water cannon jets.

Of 135 injured, 105 were police officers, and two protesters injured by exploding smoke bombs had their fingers amputated. Police arrested 12 people.

There were also clashes in New York, where the "Occupy Wall Street" movement has gained pace. Police made 88 arrests there.

Early Sunday, Chicago police arrested 175 protesters as they cleared a protest camp in the city's Grant Park.

"The Indignados movement rises again with global force," Spain's El Pais daily said.

In Italy, La Stampa wrote, "The world takes to the streets: united, peaceful and colorful."

Repubblica columnist Eugenio Scalfari wrote, "The fact is there is now clearly an international movement. Its preface was the 'Arab Spring'. It expresses the anger of a generation with no future and no faith in traditional politics but above all financial institutions seen as responsible for the crisis and profiteers of the damage to the common good."

Tens of thousands turned out at the biggest rallies in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome. There were thousands more in Washington and New York.

In London, scuffles broke out after a few thousand people gathered in the financial district near St Paul's Cathedral, raising banners that read, "Strike back!" "No cuts!" and "Goldman Sachs is the work of the devil!"