OLBERMANN: When Occupy Wall Street protesters are physically confronted by police, the demonstrators often chant, "The whole world is watching." But our number-two story on the "Countdown" tonight -- we might be entering a new phase in which the whole world's participating against the concentrated power of the economic elite.
A movement called United for Global Change, at the website 15october.net, is promising demonstrations tomorrow in 951 cities in 82 countries. They are primarily in North America, Europe and South America, but protesters in Milan, Italy, got a head start today by marching, chanting, throwing fruit and storming the offices of Goldman Sachs. Yeah, let's see you do that against Bloomberg. Our cousins have much to teach us.
Beyond Italy, the United for Global Change website features posters in many languages. According to The New York Times, protesters in London hope to occupy the stock exchange. Our cousins there have many things to teach us. In France, they want to march from the stock exchange to the central city square.
Meanwhile, back here in New York, an Occupy event planned for Times Square at 5:00 P.M, its promotional poster designed by Shepard Fairey, who is behind Barack Obama's "Hope" graphic during the 2008 campaign. That's how quickly things change. Let's bring in Jamie Kilstein, the activist, comedian, co-host of "Citizen Radio," who's visited Zuccotti Park several times while covering these protests. Good to see you, sir.
JAMIE KILSTEIN: Thank for having me, and thanks for doing all this coverage.
OLBERMANN: Of course. It's news and -- theoretically -- we're supposed to be covering the news.
KILSTEIN: I hear that, and then when I turn to other stations, I forget that.
OLBERMANN: I know. Solyndra is the news apparently today. I missed it. Is it more correct, as we look at this worldwide phenomenon, to say that Occupy Wall Street is actually the American version of the European protests?
KILSTEIN: I definitely think they have a lot of similar grievances when it comes to austerity. We'll know for sure if, in five years, you know, Brooklyn hipsters are saying, "I like the European protests a lot more."
But I'm just excited that for the first time in so long, the entire world has solidarity with America. I mean, I remember during all of George Bush's administration, I'd go to perform overseas, and people would be like, "Where are you from?" And I'm like, "America!" or "Canada!" or whatever. And now, you go over there, and they're proud. You hear people in Egypt who have gone through, you know, so much, cite us as inspiration -- that absolutely blows my mind.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, we have a good track record -- just not recently -- so they have something to go -- but to watch those tapes in -- that's, like, a new group in Milan that's just showing solidarity. And they have pink smoke flares. And they have paint to throw on the walls. And they're throwing fruits and vegetables at the buses. And I'm not saying we need to have that here -- because part of the bar that's being raised for Occupy, both Wall Street and everywhere else in the country, is to be non-violent, even if non-violent means "Don't be violent against fruits and vegetables" -- but there's still something,I don't know -- refreshing, at least -- to watch this and kind of, like -- there you go. Those are people out there hanging their backsides off the end of the pier and waiting to see what happens.
KILSTEIN: Right, absolutely. But I think you had something -- you had a non-violent version of that this morning. You know, you do watch that and you get so excited because it's everything you're feeling inside and they're doing it, and now I know not to mess with Milan ever. Right? But --
OLBERMANN: Seriously. "Drive some motorbikes into us, will you? Ciao."
KILSTEIN: But what's so exciting about this morning is -- you know, things like this have happened before -- not to this level, but they haven't been covered by the corporate media, right? And you even see how the corporate media treated Occupy Wall Street. You know, the first day, my wife -- who writes for The Nation, Allison Kilkenny -- a couple other journalists and, you know, you started doing it, and that was it. CNN mocked them, right? CNN said that they were a bunch of bongo-playing hippies. If that's the case, that means what happened this morning is a bunch of pot-smoking, bongo-playing hippies defeated a billionaire mayor and the entire NYPD. That's incredibly exciting, and just as moving as that clip you played from Milan.
OLBERMANN: Yep. What do we know about Occupy Times Square? Where are we going to occupy?
KILSTEIN: I don't know where we're going to occupy.
OLBERMANN: Know anything about this?
KILSTEIN: I'm showing up.
OLBERMANN: Because first off -- it's going to be too crowded with the tourists to really get anything done, isn't it?
KILSTEIN: That's what's going to be so interesting because, you know - my wife and I, we went down to -- the day Occupy Wall Street had all the unions come together, we went down, and that was the first time I saw Occupy Wall Street really collide with everyday people. And I didn't see what I thought I would see. I didn't see bankers heckling us. What I saw was people on tourist buses raising their fists. I saw shop owners outside, nodding, giving the peace symbol, and now -- we're going to just the middle of it. We're going to absolutely, you know, the biggest place that you can't ignore. You can't -- Erin Burnett can't ignore it. All those people, they can't ignore it anymore, and I think --
OLBERMANN: Poor Erin Burnett. Sorry. I know.
KILSTEIN: Part of it was timing. When I saw the commercial on CNN, and it was like, "straight from Wall Street." I was like, "CNN, are you looking outside? Do you know what's happening?"
OLBERMANN: Do you know what's even worse? Have you noticed how many times -- I was down there once. The largest visible ad from Zuccotti Park is an ad for her show. That's like, "Boy, just blew that money right there. That's not going over well." The people in Wall Street are the ones in Times Square tomorrow maybe just saying, "Oh, these are the noisiest mimes we've ever seen."
KILSTEIN: Yeah, exactly. "Where's the naked cowboy? I'm confused."
OLBERMANN: End result of this -- a statue from Mike Bloomberg as the unsung, unexpected and certainly undesirable or undesired hero in this?
KILSTEIN: Yeah, I think if -- if you're going to pay tribute to Michael Bloomberg, if you're going to build a statue for him --as long as it takes over where all the offices that have pillaged our country on Wall Street are -- I will happily help pay for that monument.
OLBERMANN: I'm glad you do -- you're willing to do that -- because I think it ought to be, like, probably three of four stories tall. Like -- "This is the man who just kept doing the wrong thing and publicizing." They almost got away with a nice kumbaya moment this morning, didn't they?
KILSTEIN: I know. I know. I know.
OLBERMANN: He was like, "All right, no, you're right. We're being too tough and just go on -- have a nice time. Protest your little hearts out in the rain."
KILSTEIN: I would have followed him to dinner last night and then started protesting. I was like, "All right, man. Like, your move."
OLBERMANN: Yeah. Well, and now he's going to have to do -- again, he has to do that same move again.
KILSTEIN: You're not going to be able to kick him out. I mean, you're not at this point. There's so much support. You're not going to be able to do it.
OLBERMANN: And the attention will quadruple.
KILSTEIN: Yep.
OLBERMANN: And they might even get Erin Burnett down there, although --
KILSTEIN: That would be amazing.
OLBERMANN: With a Sherpa guide and, like, a couple of Saint Bernards to help her out because otherwise she'll --
KILSTEIN: Yeah. There's a tie-dye shirt. It's Erin Burnett's Hippie Hour. Wow, changed her tune.
OLBERMANN: I don't know what happened. Nice woman. I don't know what happened. Nice woman, good journalist. I don't know what happened.
KILSTEIN: It's a business.
OLBERMANN: Activist and comedian Jamie Kilstein, great thanks. Appreciate it.
KILSTEIN: Thank you so much.
