I joined Occupy to oppose the unjust economic system which caused the financial crisis of 2008, and the wider neoliberal consensus which allowed it to manifest.
I arrived at St Paul’s on the 15th of October ready to make personal sacrifices, to stand up to oppressive policing if necessary, camp out, work hard, and generally do whatever I could to offer some sort of opposition to this pernicious government in the absence of any parliamentary representation of the left.
As well as being angry about the economic crisis and punishing austerity measures, I’m passionate about environmental issues and, especially, homelessness. I didn’t, however, come to Occupy to set up an eco-village or to home rough sleepers.
On one level you could say I did come for those reasons: I would like to see a society free of homelessness in harmony with the environment, but to have any chance of achieving these mammoth goals I believe we must address the root causes of them. We can’t just plug holes in the dam, we need to change the course of the river.
What I certainly did not join Occupy for was to turn a blind eye to the abuse of fellow activists, abuse I’m afraid to say I have witnessed both at St Paul’s and now Finsbury Square.
I am fully aware that individuals with substance abuse and mental health problems have become entwined with Occupy – or the camps at least, if not so much the politics – and I have huge sympathy for those people. But I do not think we are doing them any great favours, or ourselves, by pretending Occupy can, or should, help them.
If Finsbury Square is to survive, let’s call it what it now is: an eco-village and homeless shelter, and run it as such with that specific remit. Rather than it being an Occupy London site, let it be independent, liberated from the burden of having to fight for economic justice and freed to do some tangible, achievable good with the support of the Occupy movement. If people are passionate about homelessness, environmental issues or camping out, then they can be part of the Finsbury project, but people who came to Occupy London with a macro perspective or to protest over economic injustice ought not to be bound to the site.
Physical occupations are a tactic, one that worked superbly for the first few months in providing a platform for outreach and grabbing media attention to help push issues onto the political agenda. But once a tactic ceases to be useful, we should cease to use it until a time when it becomes useful again. Other tactics are available. Occupation is just the beginning, and should never be seen as the end.
I think the writer needs to remember that the movement is not about his/her personal manifesto but the accumulation of the wishes of the camp through consensus. It is typical of the issues we have with our world right now that the writer seeks to suggest jettisoning the incovenience of people with issues. There is something dangerously Darwinian in this article. No writer, YOU may not have come to set up an Eco village & support the homeless, but Occupy is a leaderless movement based on consensus decisions at General Assembly. It is not for anyone other than from within a camp to say it is Occupy or not.
You talk about symptoms and cause. Neoliberal social & economic policy derives from and propogates a social attitude epitomised by your article. We’re too busy trying to succeed: in economic, political & military terms that it is not only ok, but NECESSARY to step over those who dont fit. The old, sick, vulnerable, disabled…even the introverted and especially the addicted. Your argument here is no different. I suggest you take time to reflect on your views. You don’t change the world without changing yourself first. Demanding social and economic justice whilst failing to honour these ideas yourself will lead you nowhere.
Do not fall into the trap of becoming Napoleon of Animal Farm.
Can I just clarify – this is a statement by the so called Occupy London excuse for a collective? which are made up of BOI and the LSX?
The Occupy London statement admits indirectly that the FS has deteriorated SINCE the influx of BOI and LSX and yet it has the temerity .. the brass gonads to request that FS formally disclaim association with Occupy London.
At first of all my initial reaction was laughter.
Secondly it was disbelief
Then thirdly simmering anger
and lastly I was back to rolling around on the floor
So here we are with this laughable situation where Occupy London is throwing its rattle out of the pram – and asking FS to disassociate.
Then I say do it.
If the phrase “Occupy London” in your blinkered political co-opted perspective represents YOUR view of what Occupy in London means then do it.
Disassociate with this pointless media vehicle called “Occupy London” that we all know is headed by Naomi and Ronan and reassociate with the idea of Occupy.
You are so transparent – I can read you like a traffic light
Some clearly don’t want to engage with some of the issues that OCCUPY is rallying against, globally.
Whilst LSX existed as a camp a great job was done convincing the media that there was compassion, empathy and things being done to address the ways that social dis-ease manifests amongst the 99%.
Now that LSX has gone, and with it the media frontline, that compassion has disappeared, the work to be done is now up to ‘them’ over there at LFS.
Super, smashing, great.
good Kharma keeps the wheel turning…