In New York City, Occupy Wall Street protesters endured a weekend of freezing, wet weather as their ongoing occupation of a Financial District plaza entered its sixth week. Combating the elements was made all the more difficult after the New York City Fire Department confiscated the encampment’s gas power generators late last week.

Donald Afflick, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unions for New York City: “The spirit is not going to die. This is just the start of the movement. The movement is going to keep going. Winter, rain, shine or cold, we’re going to be out here to make sure this works, because 99 percent of the people deserve a better—deserve a better condition in this country, and if we don’t march now, when?”

Protester: “I think it’s going to actually grow. Already I’m noticing people are handing out hand warmers, socks, ponchos, blankets, and this is just the start. And I think the more there’s tactics that are being used to try and take away the warmth, like taking away the generators, you know, supposedly for our safety, the more people are going to react to that, and they’re going to just provide more things. We’re going to find ways to make it work.”

The weekend began for Occupy Wall Street activists with a march on the offices of major banks in midtown Manhattan. At the headquarters of JPMorgan Chase, office workers filled the windows, taking pictures of the demonstrators down below.

Protester: “I think the people up there are workers and middle-class America, for the most part, just like everybody that’s here today. It’s the people on the top floor that need to hear the message, and I think the message is trickling up.”