OT18 Preview

The eighteenth edition of The Occupied Times comes out this Monday, 365 days after the occupation at St Paul’s began. The one year anniversary gives us a chance to look back at those days when we dared to dream in public; to assess what progress has been made and to analyse where the movement needs to go if it is to help bring change.

The OT’s Michael Richmond examines the progress made by Occupy Wall Street and what kind of strategy is needed to genuinely threaten the status quo, while Tina Bakolitsa calls for Occupy in London to address issues of political expression, organisational mechanisms and cohesion in the absence of camps, arguing that the movement has become disconnected from the social forces crucial to its progression.

OT editor Mark Kauri – currently travelling around the States, spending time with activists in many cities – provides a critique of community activism taking place there.

This month’s centre spread is a pull-out poster of the St Paul’s occupation in its heyday by our house illustrator Alex Charnley. Preoccupying returns in an exclusive interview with writer and anarchist Alan Moore, who tackles issues of power, control and indoctrination while still finding time to wax lyrical on his most famous medium: the comic book.

We have a number of announcements relevant to activists this month, including information about the Anarchist Bookfair, at which the OT will have a table, and Up The Anti – Reclaim the Future, an event we’re co-organising with other radical groups and publications including the New Left Project, Anticapitalist Initiative and Pluto Books.

Our “How Do You Build A Movement?’’ feature makes another appearance, this time with contributions from Joseph Kay of the Solidarity Federation and Steve Maclean, one of our founding editors.

In the international section we look to Greece, where journalist Smarayda Christoforou asks local people what impact the severe austerity measures are having on their livelihoods and lifestyles, while David Ferreira’s latest piece provides a wider context for the troubled continent.

We also take a look at alternative communities: Dale Farm one year after eviction; Friern Barnet Library, where locals and activists are working together to liberate their community hub from cuts; Denmark’s Christiania, which is also celebrating an anniversary; and the squatting community, currently being affected by changes in the law.

And, of course, you can expect the usual lulz from our back pages as one of our reporters covers the conference season with a dispatch from the alternative reality where they took place. Don’t forget to check the usual horoscopes to see what your future holds, especially you bankers!

Copies of OT18 will be distributed at events and within communities throughout October. Look out for us on O20 when our editors will be distributing copies throughout the day of action. You can also find your copy from the shelves of independent businesses across the capital, including Housmans, Black Gull Books, Ray’s Jazz Cafe, Banner Repeater, 56a, The Cockpit and the London Review Bookshop. The full list of stockists can be found on the OT Stockists Map on our website.

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