Celebrities Show Support For Wall Street Occupiers

The Wall Street protestors, who have been occupying several blocks of the New York financial district, will take all the support they can get in their protest about politicians’ lack of corporate regulations and the gap between the rich and poor in America. Though they’re carrying signs that say, “We are the 99 percent” and “Greed Kills,” they are welcoming the support of celebrities who help amplify their voice.

“I’m so impressed by what I’m seeing here,” Bowling for Columbine filmmaker Michael Moore said as he stood with the rally. Rapper Immortal Technique also supports the crowd, as does 82-year-old philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky. “Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street — financial institutions generally — has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world),” Chomsky stated. “And should also know that it has been doing so increasingly for over 30 years, as their power in the economy has radically increased, and with it their political power.”

Tim Robbins also showed up for the events, as did ex-Susan Sarandon, who was herself arrested in 1999 at a New York protest against the shooting of Amadou Diallo, and offered not only support to the dissenters but even advice. “I’m just here to learn,” she initially said, before encouraging the crowd to focus. “Your weakness is that there are so many issues. You’re gonna be easy to be dismissed if you don’t concentrate on a single cause,” she advised, reports The Village Voice. “You don’t want the face of your movement to look like discontented people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Comedian Roseanne Barr has also emerged to lend her voice, according to The Huffington Post, declaring that the status quo should not be taken from “bloated talk radio hosts” and “that goddamned Ayn Rand book,” referring to Atlas Shrugged, which has been interpreted as a defense of free-market capitalism. Mark Ruffalo has been regularly weighing in on the issue on Twitter, recently writing that “the corporate world with record profits could stand to be reigned in a little bit. After all we did bail their asses out.”