Reminiscent of ad hoc Occupy actions last fall, the march in Manhattan blocked streets and confused police attempting erratic, aggressive arrests. It was, however, just a small nod to the action taking place in Montreal. There, up to 500,000 people took to the streets on Tuesday in what's being called the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, marking the 100th day of a powerful student strike.

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I wrote here last week, following up on a Rolling Stone piece by Rick Perlstein, about the proliferation of FBI entrapment schemes aimed at activists and anarchists in the past decade. Following the arrest of five individuals in Chicago over the weekend who now face terrorism charges, the question of entrapment perpetrated by law enforcement seems more important than ever.

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Using some recent examples, Perlstein paints a startling picture. He notes the arrest this month of a small group of self-identified anarchists, participating in Occupy Cleveland, who -- strung along in an FBI sting -- planned to blow up a large Ohio bridge. The target was suggested and (fake) C-4 explosives were provided by an FBI infiltrator. As Perlstein put it, the episode was one among numerous law enforcement schemes since 2001 in which "the alleged terrorist masterminds end up seeming, when the full story comes out, unable to terrorize their way out of a paper bag without law enforcement tutelage."

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Eight people were arrested Monday during a protest at Obama's 2012 campaign headquarters. The rally, organized by social justice and anti-war group Catholic Workers, was the first organized demonstration -- and the first instance of arrests -- relating to the NATO counter-protests. It was small (just over two dozen participants assailed security and stormed the campaign headquarters and read a statement inside) but set a tone for actions later this week in asserting that the president and Democratic Party are protest targets alongside NATO generals and corporations like Boeing, who receive large government defense contracts.

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According to a report from the Guardian's Adam Gabbatt, in recent months the Chicago police have spent over $1 million on riot equipment, and are preparing to use a controversial LRAD (long-range acoustic device) -- a sound cannon designed to cause extreme pain to those in its path.

The Chicago Police Department is pitching the LRAD largely as a means to communicate with large crowds:

"This is simply a risk management tool, as the public will receive clear information regarding public safety messages and any orders provided by police," Chicago Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton told the Guardian.

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It's beyond the purview of these paragraphs to explain the many reasons someone might take to the streets and shout "fuck the police!" However, as a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union confirms, the consistently racist practices of the NYPD should make fierce anti-police sentiments understandable, even for those who find such an attitude unpalatable.

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When a New York judge ruled in April that Harris did not have the standing to fight the subpoena (arguing that his tweets actually belonged to Twitter) and that there were no privacy grounds on which the individual user could refute the demand for his Twitter records, this seemed to suggest something worrying: that we have little jurisdiction over our online identities and can't even fight for our online speech in court.

Harris' lawyer, Martin Stolar, told me at the time that he planned to file another motion against the judge's decision -- to re-argue that his client indeed has a standing in fighting the order, and there are strong privacy grounds to resisting the authorities obtaining records of someone's accumulated Twitter activities (including deleted messages) without a warrant. But now it seems Stolar doesn't need to file this motion; Twitter has stepped in.

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As mentions of “Occupy Wall Street” or “Occupy movement” waned in early 2012, so too have mentions of “income inequality” and, to an even greater extent, “corporate greed.” The trend is true for four leading papers (New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times), news programs on the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), cable (MSNBC, CNN, Fox News) and NPR, according to searches of the Nexis news media database. Google Trends data also indicates that from January to March, the phrases “income inequality” and “corporate greed” declined in volume of both news stories and searches.

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You might expect a journalist-cum-supporter of Occupy like myself to cover the day's action blow-by-blow, tweet-for-tweet, having written with enthusiasm about the calls for a May Day general strike for months now. But May Day is not just a planned day of action; the idea -- although amorphous -- is general strike. It is not a union-led general strike. The meaning of "strike"  is complicated in this economy of financialization, information, service, effective and precarious labor. But on May 1, Occupy organizers and allies have invited us to think about what striking out, generally, might mean to us -- and for me, this means no reporting or live tweeting. I will approach the day as a striker, and not as a story chaser trying to frame a narrative of every lived experience.

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I have written here at some length against judging this May Day by standards of traditional general strikes -- not seen in the U.S. since the 1940s -- or contemporary mass strikes in Europe, where unions have not been politically pummeled into weakness, as they have in this country. And although pundits are looking at May Day as a referendum on Occupy's relevance, it's unclear what success in this case means or would look like. Marches (both permitted and un-permitted), free meals, teach-ins, college student and high-school walkouts and roving dance parties have been scheduled in 115 cities around the country. Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and other well-known musicians will be joining a "guitarmy" -- 1,000 guitarists marching (and strumming) from New York City's midtown to Union Square. Clearly, the general strike organizers in New York are less interested in affirming the strength or relevance of a movement than they are in experimenting with new tactics. Still, there's a feeling that somehow, and in some bold way, it's got to be big.

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The episode features a televised debate between candidates for the city of Pawnee's council, among them, Leslie Knope and Bobby Newport, the dimwitted son of a local candy tycoon, hilariously portrayed by Paul Rudd. Newport's character riffs lightly on George W. Bush, the incompetent son of privilege given easy entry into the political arena. He is also Mr. 1 Percent, symbolizing the influence of corporate money in (even local) politics -- most notably during Thursday's episode, he aims to gain leverage over voters with the threat of moving his job-providing candy factory overseas if he loses the election. So the Pawnee council debate reflects the state of national politics, where corporate interests determine policymaking and policymakers. Luckily for Pawnee, there's Leslie Knope -- the too-kind-to-be true politician, who takes a stand against her opponent's threats.

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On Monday, a Manhattan judge ruled that writer, Occupy Wall Street participant and prankster (and, for the purpose of full disclosure, my good friend) Malcolm Harris will not be able to block a subpoena on his Twitter account, including "any and all user information including email addresses" tied to it because, according to the judge, our tweets are not ours at all.

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On Tuesday, in one of what organizers across the country hope to be a string of shareholder meeting disruptions, Occupy participants, union members, housing justice advocates and individuals hurt by foreclosures descended on the Wells Fargo annual summit in San Francisco. According to reports, 15 people were arrested inside the meeting of 300 shareholders (where standing room only meant that many individuals with a stake in the banking giant or their proxies could not enter the venue). The disrupters had bought stock in Wells Fargo in order to gain access; they shouted out that the bank should pay its fair share of corporate taxes and vociferously decried investments in private prisons, according to reports. Over the course of the day there were 24 arrests, as police in riot gear flanked the Merchants Exchange Building, which was surrounded by nearly 2,000 demonstrators and one giant inflatable rat.

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"Dear New York City. We the students of public education are here to inform you of the injustice that is taking place in our school system," he begins, surrounded by members of the school's student leadership, some staring defiantly into the camera with arms crossed. After listing student grievances including the privatization of the public school system, budget cuts, school closures against community wishes and over-policing in schools, the young man announces the May Day walkout to nearby Fort Greene park in Brooklyn.

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I was reminded this weekend that it's still unclear what exactly Occupy Wall Street is -- or, more precisely, what does or does not count as part of "Occupy." Events in New York once again brought this to the fore for those organizing and agitating under the movement banner.

On Saturday, following the annual Anarchist Book Fair, a crowd gathered in New York City's Washington Square Park for an anti-police march. They took to the streets with numbers nearing 100 and little police accompaniment, at first. They wound through the East Village, leaving some minor property damage in their wake. By the end of the night, there had been three arrests, carrying hefty charges including assault on a police officer and inciting to riot.

I followed the march -- it was rowdy, energetic and fast. Barricades and trash cans were dragged into the street to stop traffic and impede the police cars that eventually arrived on the scene. At one point, two young women watching the surge of people winding through stalled traffic asked me whether this was an "Occupy thing." I answered "yes." But, as I soon appreciated, it's more complicated than that.

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It’s unsurprising then that some media reports described it as Occupy’s new tactic; and although numerous individuals involved in Occupy are taking part in the spring trainings, an Occupy Wall Street initiative this is not. The 99 Percent Spring is spearheaded by MoveOn.org and supported by around 60 progressive nonprofits and major unions, including the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, Greenpeace, the Working Families Party and Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream organization.

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According to supporters of the occupation, the property -- owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco -- had sat vacant for five years. The owners told the San Francisco Chronicle that it had only been empty for 18 months. Marchers who entered the building Sunday were greeted by a number of people waiting inside with literature hailing the opening of the "San Francisco Commune" and explaining how various rooms would be used for providing food, medical care and spaces to meet, organize and sleep.

Around 100 people stayed in the building overnight before the archdiocese signed a citizens arrest for trespassing and graffiti. Cops then blockaded the street around the building and moved in. The squatters were ousted by mid-afternoon.

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That's where the Precarious and Service Workers Assemblies come in. These groups have been popping up around the country to try to forge links between unorganized laborers with tenuous employment. Last  month, the first such meeting in New York drew 60 some people from an odd mix of professions -- writers, adjunct professors, bar backs, dog walkers, baristas, sex workers, movers and designers. Despite their very different backgrounds, they discussed the one thing they all shared: a precarious earning situation. This was more than just an occasion to share their fears. It was, as the event invitation noted,  an organizing platform to "engage together in upcoming actions like the May Day General Strike."

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