Protesters will 'Occupy Tampa' during downtown rally today

In a throwback to protests nearly a half-century ago, demonstrators will gather downtown today for a day-long assembly touting peace and understanding and bemoaning greed, social injustice and war.

Occupy Tampa is organizing the event at Lykes Gaslight Square, beginning at 9 a.m. and lasting until 6:30 p.m. They expect as many as 1,000 people, though not quite 400 have confirmed their attendance on the group's Facebook page.

Throughout the day, demonstrators will take part in workshops focused on becoming better organized.

The event coincides with an anti-war rally in Washington. It also is loosely connected to the continuing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City. Local protesters will march in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street group at 3 p.m. and at 5:15 p.m. today.

Occupy Tampa organizers, who staged a similar rally Saturday, echoed the views of Occupy Wall Street.

"We've had enough corruption and cronyism," the group's website says. "We've had enough of corporate dollars flowing, hidden, into the coffers of politicians who let those corporations walk all over We The People."

Attendees are urged to bring food to feed the homeless who gather in the park.

"We will be doing a mix-and-mingle thing" in the morning, said Blake Westlake, spokesman for Occupy Tampa. "Then, we'll be breaking up into workshops so people can get an idea about what they can do to help out."

He said the protest has adopted the objectives of Occupy Wall Street: drawing attention to what the group perceives as corporate avarice, which they say resulted in the economic crisis three years ago that sent the nation into a recession.

"We are working with groups trying to address local issues," he said. "When you have this kind of momentum, go with it."

Michael Gibbons, associate professor of government at the University of South Florida, said the popularity of the Occupy Wall Street movement is a result of the government bailing out corporations and banks "that were responsible for the economic collapse of not just the United States, but counties like Ireland and so forth."