On the Soapbox: Claude Melville says Finsbury Square Should Go it Alone

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.