May Day protests are crucial test for Occupy

(Reuters) - Occupy Wall Street vows a day of demonstrations in New York and across the United States on Tuesday, in a crucial test of its staying power some eight months after emerging as a movement against corporate greed and economic inequality.

The "99 Percent" populist movement, which began as a 24-hour encampment in lower Manhattan last fall and spread to cities across the country, will join organized labor for a day of May 1 protests, in what it has called a "day without the 99 percent."

Dozens of actions are planned across the country, though there is some skepticism over how many people will turn out and whether it will spell Occupy's resurgence. The event was first billed as a "General Strike," but organized labor declined to sign on to that call.

Inspired by the pro-democracy Arab Spring, the Wall Street protesters last year targeted U.S. financial policies they blamed for the yawning income gap between rich and poor - between what they called the 1 percent and the 99 percent. Read More