Kevin Hagen for the New York Daily News
Occupy Wall Street activists gathered before their planned May Day protest events at Bryant Park in Manhattan
May Day protests got off to a slow start across New York City Tuesday morning as the NYPD braced itself for a day of renewed clashes with demonstrators.
The heavy rain appeared to dampen any early efforts by Occupy Wall Street to disrupt commuters journeys to work but pro-labor events were expected to gather pace later in the day.
At Bryant Park, May Day supporters started gathering from 8 a.m., sipping coffee and huddling under umbrellas.
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A few Occupy Wall Street-related banners began to appear, emblazoned with the We are the 99 slogan.
Other groups formed, each with its own particular ax to grind, including one anti-Disney gathering and another against Bank of America.
The rich are profiteering off of our taxes," said student Michael Pellagatti, 24, of Jersey City, who said he had been involved in Occupy Wall Street since it first set up camp in downtown Manhattans Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17. It has to stop.
A potentially confrontational march is scheduled to head across Williamsburg Bridge to Wall Street at 10:30 a.m. and another will head from Union Square to Wall Street at 5:30 p.m.
Occupy Wall Street activists have called for a general strike by workers and students Tuesday, and several organized labor groups including the Transport Workers Union. will be meeting for their own march.
"Tuesday is May Day! Make it a day without the 99. No work! No school! No housework! No shopping!" read a message on one of the websites affiliated with the movement.
Were on strike, said Rich Rollison, 60, a retail designer from Brooklyn, who took his 9-year-old daughter, Jude, out of school to protest. We are hoping that this revives the Occupy Movement. We need to restore democracy.
The May 1 protest will widely be seen as a test of Occupy Wall Streets muscle after it was booted out of Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15 after a nearly two-month occupation.
cboyle@nydailynews.com
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