OT15 Preview

The July edition of The Occupied Times comes out next Sunday, with the Olympics featuring prominently.

Potential Protest Customers® are invited to take part in the only Official ProtestTM of the 2012 Olympic GamesTM by activist group Space Hijackers – The Official ProtestersTM of the Olympic GamesTM – and journalist Brian Whelan tells us how he went from believing the Games would do “more good than bad” to protesting against them, after surface-to-air missiles were stationed on the roof of his tower block.

Wail Qasim looks at the erosion of communities and social housing in the run-up to the Games and what the legacy will likely be, while further contributions include Kojo Kyerewaa’s considerations on how the 1984 LA games may have sown the seeds for the Rodney King riots, and how this relates to the riots in London last year, along with Steve Dowding from Games Monitor on the ‘aftermath’ that has already affected large swathes of the city.

Our regular Money Talks feature brings us some controversial views this time around, as we sit down with Libertarian ‘minarcist’ professor Tibor Machan and talk ideology and bailouts, but Preoccupying with John Holloway provides an interesting exchange more in-keeping with the ethos of the Occupy movement.

As usual, the OT is focussed as much on what is happening in Europe and beyond as with here in the UK, with dispatches from Occupy Bilderberg in the US, Greece, where Rachel Newton tells us about her meeting with Alexis Tsipras, and Spain, with Sergio Casesmeiro reporting from the frontline of austerity. As well as that, we take a first look at Portugal, where activists had turned a derelict school into a community centre and we learn that the public aren’t as passive as the lack of coverage on the resistance there might have us believe. Finally, Ashlee Christoffersen provides some much needed insight on the unique problems facing gay and queer-identified people by the cuts and resistance movements.

With so much political content, we’ve added another light-hearted feature to the back pages of the OT. General Assembly is a militant activist on the front-line of the fightback, and he’s looking for recruits. The GA readies the troops for an ideological corporate invasion, enforcing non-hierarchical, autonomous organisation – whether you like it or not! We also have the latest installment of ‘Tales from the Grind’, where readers share their horror stories from the world of working life, as well as the OT horoscope and crossword.

Copies of OT15 will be distributed at events and within communities throughout July, as well as from the shelves of independent businesses across the capital. OT Stockists include: Housmans, Black Gull Books, Ray’s Jazz Cafe, Banner Repeater, 56a, The Cockpit and the London Review Bookshop

Follow the OT on Twitter at @OccupiedTimes, Facebook at “The Occupied Times”, or visit our newly redesigned website at TheOccupiedTimes.co.uk.