NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The Occupy Wall Street movement took protests to the New York homes of super-wealthy executives on Tuesday as rallies against economic inequality were planned this week for over 50 U.S. college campuses and in several cities around the world.
Protesters began marching through Manhattan's upscale Upper East Side on a "Billionaire's Tour" to take their grievances to the homes of global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and other wealthy bankers.
Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein canceled a talk at New York's Barnard College, and though the company -- which received and repaid a big federal bailout during the financial crisis -- said a scheduling conflict would keep him away, students from nearby Columbia University were planning to protest his appearance, according the university newspaper.
A city police contingent followed more than 450 protesters as they chanted "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out" and "Hey you billionaires, pay your fair share."
Mustafa Ibrahim, 23, an engineer, was marching in the "Billionaire's Tour" while visiting New York from Cairo, where he said he was arrested during a popular uprising earlier this year which toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak
"It's pretty much the same thing as Egypt," he said. "The protests are international in raising awareness because we all have the same issues with the rich."
But his friend Bethany Gayda, 23, a student from Pittsburgh, expressed some doubt about the anti-Wall Street protests: "I am not sure how this will help. Change comes from voting, not standing around with a sign."
The movement will build further on Thursday as college students plan solidarity protests on at least 56 campuses around the United States and rallies against economic inequality pop up elsewhere on Saturday around the United States and elsewhere in the world.
BILLIONAIRE'S TOUR
Hundreds of people have camped in a park near Wall Street since September 17, sparking the other rallies against what participants see as corporate greed. More than 700 people have been arrested during marches in New York where some police used pepper spray.
Police arrested 129 protesters earlier on Tuesday in Boston after the group expanded its camp.
"Civil disobedience will not be tolerated," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told the local Fox News channel.
In Washington, six people were arrested during a protest involving about 100 people in a U.S. Senate office building on Tuesday, police and participants said.
Also on the "Billionaire's Tour" in New York were the homes of David Koch, co-founder of energy firm Koch Industries, and hedge fund manager John Paulson.
"Join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives that don't pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy ... all while giving themselves record-setting bonuses," said NYC Communities for Change, one of several groups organizing the protest.
It said protesters are marching from house to house "demanding accountability for Wall Street crimes and an extension of the Millionaire's Tax," a New York state tax that is due to expire at the end of the year.
Protesters object to corporate chiefs' huge pay packages, the billions of dollars in bank bailouts during the financial crisis, and loopholes companies use to avoid paying what the average worker sees as a fair share in federal taxes.
Average chief executive remuneration in the United States is 142 times that of employees, according to Thomson Reuters ASSET4 data. British chief executives pull in 69 times more than their workforces while egalitarian Sweden has an average differential of only 34 times.
"Don't look at the Arab spring, look here because things are going to boil over," said protester Charles Evans, 62, as he marched on the tour.
CELEBRITY SUPPORT
On Wednesday the Service Employees International Union will march on New York's financial district for good jobs.
Celebrities such as rapper Kanye West, actress Susan Sarandon, filmmaker Michael Moore, hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, actor Tim Robbins and rights activist Al Sharpton have all visited the Occupy Wall Street camp, and on Tuesday former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who is vying to become the Republican presidential candidate, was due to drop in.
In a statement, Roemer expressed his support for protesters, but Republican presidential candidate rival Herman Cain has described the protests as "anti-American.
After Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week likened the growth of the protest movement to the grass-roots Tea Party, the conservative group on Tuesday sought to distance itself from the protesters.
The Tea Party Patriots said in a statement that its supporters were "not lawbreakers, they don't hate the police, they don't even litter."
(Additional reporting by Paula Rogo and Lauren LaCapra in New York, Andy Sullivan and Tom Ferraro in Washington, Ros Krasny in Boston; Editing by Philip Barbara and Bill Trott)
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