While the hype is all for a Global Spring resurgence of Occupy and allied movements in May, a few hardy refugees from the St Paul’s camp have been quietly occupying in East London for the past month.
Nomadic Occupy broke away from the overcrowded and sometimes hostile environment of Finsbury Square one midnight in March. Pulling a hand-built handcart laden with tents, kitchen gear, solar panels and a 12-volt battery, they were stopped by police in the wee hours somewhere along their four mile route. Having inspected the wiring and rear lights, the police waved them on their way and they continued to a little patch of grass near Limehouse Station. Here they pitched tents, introduced themselves to the locals, engaged walkers and cyclists on the adjacent heavily-used footpath and cycleway, and built their nomadic community. They stayed at Limehouse for two weeks.
On their last day at the Limehouse site the Nomads hosted a Teetotal Tea Party (of the Alice in Wonderland rather than American right wing variety). Visitors to the camp were impressed, one commenting that “This community feels like a family. The camp members protect each other.” After the tea party and overnight, in the hours before they were due to be evicted, the Nomads packed up their encampment, loaded up the handcart, and moved to Mile End, a place of considerable historical significance, and a very appropriate location for an Occupy camp.
In 1381 a Peasants’ Revolt was underway. The uprising was triggered by taxes deemed unfair by the peasants. Led by men with names still familiar today – Jack Straw and Wat Tyler – the rebels marched on London. On 12 June, 60,000 rebels camped at Mile End. Two days later the king capitulated and signed their charter. As one Occupy Nomad said: “If only we had 60,000 activists camping now…”.
Unfortunately, the subsequent behaviour of the rebels was used by the king to have the leaders and many rebels executed. Fortunately, having learned lessons at the St Paul’s camp and Finsbury Square, the Nomads of Occupy require all campers to adhere to a code of behaviour that excludes intoxication and aggression. Decisions are made at a ‘morning council’, a less formal variation of the General Assemblies held at larger Occupy camps. A ‘talking stick’ and an ‘answering feather’ are sometimes employed to ensure discussions happen in a measured and respectful fashion; the Nomads say they are experimenting with traditional Native American practices.
Travellers have long been distrusted, and only time will tell whether Nomadic Occupy can carve itself a reputation for decency and come to be seen as a bonus when the tribe trundles into a neighbourhood. Relations between residents and Nomads at Shadwell in Wapping were less than satisfactory after a small group of occupiers set up camp in King Edward’s Memorial Park (KEMP) as a contingency measure, when the main site was under threat of imminent eviction under bylaws. They did not realise that a local campaign to save the park might be jeopardised by their presence.
The Nomads are quick on their feet, enjoy exploring new environments, and are keen to experiment with alternative modes of communal living. They are also big on linking up with local communities in order to listen to and learn from residents about neighbourhood concerns. The last thing they want is conflict and so, less than a week after it arrived, the Occupy camp was gone from Shadwell. On a positive note, what they found there was a strong community busy fighting for its rights on local issues, who might want to link up on something bigger one day. The protectors of KEMP weren’t anti-Occupy, in fact some of them had visited the camp at St Paul’s and were natural allies; they just didn’t want or need tents in their park.
At nearby Mile End, Nomadic Occupy recently negotiated a time-limited stay with the local authorities. Relations with nearby residents have been good, although not without hiccups. ‘Locals’ are not, of course, a homogeneous group, and while one gives permission for dead wood to be taken from a cemetery, another worries that doing so may jeopardise biodiversity. Similarly, the old caretaker of the Mile End park comments that self-seeded baby sycamores are weeds that should be pulled up; subsequently the new manager of the park is aghast to see the occupiers helpfully uprooting ‘live trees’. The old caretaker is happy that the nomads have offered to help him fix his windows. Others are suspicious and see the presence of an Occupy camp in the area as an imposition.
Despite inevitable wariness, the trajectory is looking good. Some of the Occupy Nomads are themselves underprivileged and homeless, but they are self-reliant, dynamic and politically motivated. One resident of the Mile End camp, Obi, explained that “We are becoming a stabilising factor in the area. We have stopped a few fights in the park and are gaining respect from local people. We have told some younger residents of the camp they must behave themselves, because we want this respect to grow.”
Nomadic Occupy is about gathering information as well as disseminating it. It’s about flagging up the big picture – the corporatisation of our world, global injustice, the horror of war on other continents, the accountability of the super-rich and their tax havens – and about discovering the details, finding out how world events filter through and affect everyday lives in the form of redundancies, child poverty, library closures and lack of community amenities. Those amazing conversations that happened all the time around St Paul’s, between campers, tourists and city workers, are happening on a smaller scale around the edges of the Nomad camps now. If the occasional passerby shouts “Get a job!”, occupiers use that as an opportunity to engage.
By Emma Fordham