Occupy Re-emerges in London

Now Including a Retort by the Whitechapel Anarchist Group/Black Rose

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

After receiving a complaint about the above article from The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, a charity which looks after the land the Nomads have been occupying, we agreed to publish this counter article written by the Whitechapel Anarchist Group/Black Rose.

Mile End Occupy Nomads are continuing to come into Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park (THCP) and damage the carefully managed woodland and meadow habitats. Even after several weeks of park users, volunteers, staff, and local community action groups continuously asking them to stop.

People have been demanding that the nomads stop wood from THCP for a fire they’re not legally allowed to have. We have been on the Occupy London Boroughs FB page, and visited them at “their” campsite. Park users and staff have confronted them in THCP, and in community centres where they visit, where they have been asked to stop. However they patronise The Friends and the Park, and claim that they are causing no harm to the biodiversity of the park.

Our main concerns came about when we found them breaking young living trees for a fire wind-shield, and removing wood from invertebrate log piles to be used for their fire in Mile End Park. They claim they have given permission from one of the local residents.  This person is the old caretaker of THCP from 25years ago and has no role in THCP.  The resident has since apologised and said he was wrong, but they continue to use him as an excuse. Further ridiculous claims that Sycamore trees are non native, parasite plants, and they should be able to remove them from THCP – who gave them the contract to manage THCP and dictate management aims?  They also claim burning wood from THCP, (intended as an educational tool, and to increase the invertebrate biodiversity of THCP), is better than burning pallet wood – because burning pallet wood is bad for the environment. Both options are bad from my point of view.

The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park (FoTHCP) a local charity, was created by local residents 22 years ago, with local Council support to protect THCP. The FoTHCP’s aims are to encourage greater use of this inner urban green space as a sanctuary for people and a place of biodiversity, in the massively impoverished London borough. 19 years ago the charity Setpoint London East joined the FoTHCP in the Soanes Centre to help deliver the environmental education to local schools of Tower Hamlets. 10 years ago the FoTHCP were able to employ its first, and only paid member of staff, Kenneth Greenway, the Parks Liaison Officer.
Lead by the expertise of Terry Lyle (Terry is retired from work, a full-time volunteer, and Chair of the Trustees) one of the original founders of the FoTHCP, THCP has grown into the Green Jewel of East London that it is today. THCP is now the most wooded area so close to the City of London, a designated Local Nature Reserve, and a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. The 33 acre woodland site also holds clay and chalk wildflower meadows, and species rich wetland habitats. Arguably THCP is the most biodiverse area in central London.

The two small charities working out of THCP, are providing free educational workshops to over 8000 Tower Hamlets school children a year.  3000 volunteers a year come to help manage our Local Nature Reserve. We also host weekly events in the park, from green wood working courses, food-for-free walks, bat and moth night walks, teacher training days, A-level field work course activities, BTCV events, Ecotherapy, youth  and adult offender opportunities,  East London History Society Events, weekend kids clubs and many more free events. This is all run by two full time staff, a part-time staff member, and the thousands of volunteers.   This is an overwhelming 130 public events, offered free of charge each and every year.

The Mile End Nomads never asked us about taking wood, but initially we turned a blind eye. Then two weeks ago we realised they were not respecting the park and carelessly damaging the park with their action, so we asked them to stop. To this date the Nomads are completely ignoring the wishes of the FoTHCP (the charity contracted to care for and manage the Park). Their flippant attitude to the park is the most disturbing element to the Nomads actions. They have claimed that we do not know how to manage the park properly, “cause it looks like a shithole” and “they could do it better”.  They also make wildly bizarre claims such as that we are oppressing the old caretaker with our “new management” (even though the FoTHCP have been managing the park for 22 years). They also claim that we NIMBYLIST (Not In My Back Yard), which is outrageous as everything thing the FoTHCP do is to better their community, by providing a safe, welcoming, enjoyable green space that offers unparalleled opportunities for wildlife, people, heritage and education.

We have never experienced such mindless and selfish destruction in the park since it became a designated Local Nature Reserve in May 2001. The needless and selfish destruction carried out by people that claim to be trying to end global social injustices, is mind blowing. One of the latest comments made about THCP on the Occupy London Boroughs, Nomads FB site is:

“A pity that certain people have to kowtow and do the bidding of corporations and banks like Barclays and RBS.”

If they knew anything about the area that they are camping in, they would realise that Canary Wharf multinationals have been green-washing in Tower Hamlets for many years. For some of our schools, museums, art galleries they are their major funder, therefore a necessary evil. If THCP didn’t take their money (even though we do may fund raisers) we would not be able to provide the 100’s of free events that we put on. We would love our money only to come from the taxpayer/council, but in these times those funding streams are being cut at an extraordinary rate. We do not, however, get dictated to or told what to do by these companies and do not ever brand our work.

Ironically the Nomads sing a song prior to their ‘circle council’ meetings; ‘thank you for the grass, thank you for the bees, thank you for the veggies, thank you for the bees…”. And then damage THCP during one the most important season for flowering plants, nesting birds, and invertebrate life cycles, spring..