A Washington offshoot of Occupy Wall Street has won a green light to keep occupying until February 28, officials said Thursday, so long as it shares its space with a conservative group. Occupy Washington DC in Freedom Plaza, which grew out of an anti-war protest in early October, had previously held a permit from the National Park Service - which owns the square near the White House - to remain until New Year's Eve.
"We will plan to go and speak to people and do actions, stuff like that," Sarah Hines of Occupation Washington DC told AFP, confirming the permit extension and the encampment's plans to widen the reach of its protests. But the tent city, housing several dozen activists, will be rubbing shoulders with the free-market National Centre for Public Policy Research, which has a permit for lunchtime rallies in Freedom Plaza from February 12.
"They have to share space, or make space, when others want to use Freedom Plaza," said National Park Service spokesman Bill Line, adding that Occupy Washington DC has done just that on previous occasions. Spokesmen for the conservative centre - which campaigns for "a strong national defence (and) free market solutions to today's public policy problems" - could not be reached for comment.
Washington's other open-ended protest, Occupy DC, pitched camp on October 1 in McPherson Square, in the heart of the K Street lobbying district, where by federal law no permit is needed for gatherings of fewer than 500 people. A third group, Occupy Congress, has meanwhile applied for a permit to demonstrate in conjunction with Occupy DC on the National Mall on January 17, the day Congress returns from its winter break.