We do not occupy in isolation. Yet while spiritual-mystical-historical connections to other popular movements are evident, it is not always welcome to make them publically. Witness the BBC reaction to Darkus Howe’s claim, much replayed on Youtube, that the riots in London were part of a world-wide spirit of “insurrection […]
Yesterday somebody called me a “wonderful person”. Over the past week I’ve also been told I’m “naïve”, “a breath of fresh air”, “self-indulgent” and “exactly the sort of person this country needs”. I’m on the verge of an identity crisis. This barrage of adjectives was delivered by passers-by at the […]
One of the biggest internal issues facing OccupyLSX at the moment is organisation and co-ordination. The progress in setting up the camp over the last month has been phenomenal. The camp now has a well established kitchen, on-site security, a media team, cleaners and groups working on welfare, policy, the […]
To anyone visiting the St Pauls site of Occupy London, it would be painfully obvious that even if you did manage to convince yourself to brave the wind and join the occupation, there simply was no more room in the inn. Fire regulations and sheer popularity meant that tents were […]
At Occupy LSX we have been involved in a continuous process of negotiation with the Metropolitan Police. We maintain a constructive relationship in order to ensure the safety and security of our protest and do not seek confrontation. However, as activists, we need to ask ourselves about the role of […]
The idiosyncrasy of voices within the camp, has been, thus far, one of the characterising features of the occupy movement. Our difference, have made us strong, avoiding to be pigeon holed whilst leaving passers-by and media pundits baffled at the high levels of organisation and social cohesion within the camp. […]
Recently returned to London after a week in New York, Stefan Simanowitz explores the similarities between the London occupation and Occupy Wall Street. “I’ve had enough” says Tim Saunders. “Enough of this grotesque greed and fraud on a massive scale. Enough of spiralling education costs and watching my mother scrapping […]
A Christian camper writes… Poor old Church of England. They were hoping to get away with another 100 years of not saying anything at all about anything at all, then OccupyLSX comes and lands on their doorstep. What a pickle they’re in. What’s that they’re moaning about? Injustice? Theft? Something […]
POST-MATERIALIST YOUTH TRYING TO REDISCOVER THE SIGNIFICANT’ (Home-made sign from the TUC ‘March For The Alternative‘ 26th March, 2011) In 1968, social scientists and politicians alike lamented the ‘end of ideology’, and a declining public interest in politics. Likewise at the end of the 20th century, immediately before the rise of the […]
“The struggle of humanity against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” – Milan Kundera Our lives are based on forgetting. We forget the misery of low-wage work in the UK when we casually spend more than the cashier’s hourly wages on a sandwich and a coffee then get angry […]