IF YOU want to understand why the November 17 "Out of the Park and Into the Streets" demonstration called by Occupy Wall Street and major unions is going to be big--really big--start with the small table in the thicket of tents that crowd Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.

Visible only because it is attached to a flagpole of sorts with several construction workers' safety helmets hanging like banners, the table is intended to attract building trades workers who have been regularly visiting the encampment for weeks.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon last weekend, the park was jammed as activists savored a warm-weather break between a freak fall snowstorm and the coming winter chill. A construction worker in his late 50s stood, arms folded, next to the table, where a sign-in sheet for union members lay alongside a copy of the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, a book now popular among New Age practitioners.