It’s early February. There’s snowfall on the tarpaulins of the St. Paul’s camp, and chill winds force down the temperatures in the City. An unusual sight – normally, white powder in central London only marks the bankers’ bonus season.
We are days away from a Court of Appeal hearing on the St. Paul’s camp. Offers from the Cathedral for a symbolic, long-term presence at the site look increasingly unlikely. The demonstrated tenacity of the occupiers has long outlived the offers of dialogue that were half-heartedly voiced by the Church and the City before Christmas. One wonders whether the hesitant embrace of a truce prior to the High Court’s ruling was ever more than an attempt to squeeze and suffocate the protests. Former Cathedral canon chancellor Giles Fraser, writing recently in The Guardian, raised concerns about that missed opportunity for the church: ‘With a few tents and shedloads of determination, those who have huddled outside the cathedral in the freezing cold have acted as sentinels for an idea of social justice that can be found on almost every page of the Bible but which the church has too often lost sight of.’ Love thy neighbour, except when she camps outside.
When the first camps were pitched at St. Paul’s almost four months ago, mainstream media and party politics were largely dismissive: wasn’t it crazy to think that a ragtag group of protesters could become the spark for change? Today, we can say: the only crazy idea is the unshaken belief in the status quo. Occupy began as a reaction to the nightmare of social inequality, economic injustice, environmental looting and political alienation. And as long as no answers have been found, as long as the future is filled with precariousness and disillusion, Occupy will continue to beat the drum of reform and the drum of revolution (depending on whom you ask). As long as we can set our own beat, we don’t have to march to the beat of others.
Today, even the guardians of the status quo cannot deny that our lone rhythm resonates with many. Of the major European countries, only Great Britain remains opposed to the idea of a financial transaction tax. The logic of austerity has been questioned by new governments in Athens and Rome as well as by the European Central Bank. Members of all major parties acknowledge that declining voter participation is a problem. If they are confused about the causes, an afternoon of “democracy 101” at Tent City University might provide a few pointers. Since October, an increasing number of public officials, academics and media outlets have voiced sympathy for Occupy – sometimes sheepishly, sometimes contritely. While they have dismissed the rhetoric of the 99 percent, they have felt the groundswell rise from below.
Yet at the same time, the answers they have provided seem laughably insufficient. Stripping Fred Goodwin of his knighthood is like clipping the toe-nail of someone with gangrene and hoping that the rest of the body has escaped infection. Speaking of “ethical capitalism” while defending the prerogatives of the City of London turns our Prime Minister into a viable contender for the honors of being inducted into the Hall of Hypocrisy. David Miliband seeks guidance in the past, and wants to return the country to 1997, when the events that ultimately culminated in the current financial and debt crisis began to accelerate. Policymakers seem to just be going through the motions. They act on reflex instead of reflection. Why? Because the consensus worldview they all shared has collapsed around them. They are lost, yet they continue to storm ahead into the fog.
Where is the paradigm shift? Where is the impetus to think creatively about the economic, social and political problems we face? It is certainly not to be found in Whitehall, in the City if London, or in the Houses of Parliament.
The curtain may fall on the St. Paul’s camp, but it cannot stop or silence the movement. As long as groups of people gather to discuss, debate and demonstrate, the idea behind Occupy cannot be evicted. If this freezing cold is any measure of the will of the movement, there would seem to be plenty to go around.
