NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street activists Monday called for supporters to skip work on May 1 to protest what they’re calling police brutality during 73 arrests in New York during the weekend.

Several dozen activists joined members of New York’s City Council for a news conference in Zuccotti Park to complain about police tactics. On Saturday, police started detaining people after hundreds of Occupy supporters gathered in the park to mark six months since the start of the movement.

Occupy organizers across the country have been mobilizing for months toward a one-day general strike in May.

They’re encouraging people to stay out of work and school, and to refrain from spending money. In New York, a coalition of unions and worker justice groups are planning a solidarity march through the city.

It’s hardly the first time Occupy protesters and police have faced off. More than 700 protesters were arrested in October after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge. Later the same month in Oakland, an Iraq War veteran suffered a skull fracture from a police projectile.

On Nov. 15, two months after Occupy protesters set up their Zuccotti Park encampment, New York police in riot gear cracked down and began removing them, arresting hundreds of people.