A new chapter is beginning – the Global Spring.
As the Government today announces a tax cut for the one per cent, social and economic justice campaigners in London have occupied a new site – Occupy Limehouse in Tower Hamlets – in preparation for Occupy London’s next big event: Occupy May. The new site was taken in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street as it marked its six month anniversary a few days ago by retaking Zuccotti Park.
In the shadow of Canary Wharf - at corner of Branch Road and Horseferry Road (E14) - set along the path of workers from the local financial services industry, Occupy Limehouse has been chosen as an ideal location from which to carry on the Occupy movement’s critique of global capital. It is the first of a number of new autonomous tented sites expected to pop up around the capital in the coming months, in addition to Occupy London’s existing site at Finsbury Square – in operation since 22 October 2011.
“As the temperature rises and the seasons are renewed, this is the next step in reclaiming our capital from corruption,” commented Anthony Clinton, local resident of Limehouse and an Occupy London supporter.
“Our new location in Limehouse, still in the initial stages of development, promises to take the movement’s message to a whole new audience over the coming months as Occupy begins to reclaim the commons. Workers have already been stopping to chat and to congratulate protestors on their continued occupation of the city.”
Occupy Limehouse is located in Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest boroughs in London with some of the highest levels of overcrowding in the capital. Thanks to the politics of austerity, it is boroughs like Tower Hamlets that are paying for the bankers’ crisis – doubly ironic for a community like Limehouse, which has London’s second financial centre, Canary Wharf, on its doorstep.
Anthony added: “By locating ourselves in a position between absolute wealth and absolute deprivation, Occupy London’s ongoing peaceful protest will challenge the alarming levels of corruption within the current economic system and highlight inequalities – and also reach out to local residents in order to involve them in a discourse from which they have previously been excluded.”
“Whilst the present government seeks the privatisation of everything – from the NHS to education, even our road networks – in contrast, the Occupy movement seeks the public repossession of space and the expansion of civic society – everywhere. The time has come for a more democratic and just society for all, not just the privileged.”
City of London Corporation strikes again
While the City of London Corporation uses its undemocratic power structure to preserve the ancient civic institutions of the City as an administration for the banks, in Tower Hamlets it is using its authority to strip the Billingsgate Market porters of their ancient civic status – which predates the Norman conquest – opening up their roles to cheap casual labour. [1] Occupy London looks forward to engaging with the City of London Corporation on this issue now that it is in the neighbourhood.
The new location will also give Occupy London the opportunity to shed light to a number of other local issues, as well as global ones. The new residents look forward to working with local community groups – all are invited – from youth groups to faiths groups to get in touch. Upcoming events will be announced shortly.
OccupyLSX at St Paul’s was just the beginning.
Notes
[1] Background on Billingsgate Marter porters v City of London Corporation:
Porters picket as Billingsgate dispute rumbles on
http://www.wharf.co.uk/2011/04/porters-picket-as-billingsgate.html /
The Battle For Billingsgate Market’s Porters
http://www.thefirstpint.co.uk/2011/06/08/the-battle-for-billingsgate-markets-porters/ /
Historic Billingsgate market protests at reform plan
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/08/03/uk-britain-fish-idUKTRE6721VZ20100803 /
Billingsgate Fish Market porters protest over licences
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10849882
here comes the summer
Why not pitch up on the green in Canary Wharf, the center of Capitalist injustice? Or perhaps outside City Hall where corrupt politicians are making these ill-thought-out fiscal policies?
Who said we won’t
We cant camp on the Canary Wharf grounds, its private property and the owners already have an injunction preventing us from camping there.
There are plenty of other locations we can occupy, rather than move into an affluent area where we will get resistance, we should look at less affluent locations where our presence will be welcomed and in turn allow us to gather more support.
You’re not reclaiming the commons, they already belong to the people. You’re claiming them for yourselves, for your ends. It’s wrong, you’re wrong. I also don’t trust you with my email.
At the moment the commons are being taken and privatised for the use of corporates, not people. Suggest focus your anger on them. Do pop in and speak with the people at the camp
Hi guys,
“At the moment the commons are being taken and privatised for the use of corporates, not people.” ~ Press
That is the fundamental truth of the matter, and lets attract more people to this truth through our reclaiming and all the creative protest and community building that Occupy May will bring. Lets steward a new world, May and beyond.
I am working at thefutureofoccupy.org magazine and our next issue will be called “Occupying the Commons” … will include reports, highlights, videos from the OWS forum on the Commons in February including essays, photostreams and poetry. It’s going to be a blockbuster of a mag! : )
keep up the reclaiming and join us when we publish the issue later this week/weekend. Lets collaborate on ways we can bring the radical discourse of the commons into the mainstream 99%. To start with our magazine will have a new website with groups, forums, wikis etc for use by those collaborating for the future of occupy. Setting up a group for collaborating on reclaiming and co-creating the commons could be a good way to work with the content our now international collective have been lovingly putting together. In Solidarity, mark at the Future of Occupy.
How many of you are on benefits? As foreign national, I’m paying taxes which I’ll never get to see, but it’s good to know it pays for some nice tents. Maybe the graffi there will stop going up while you’re there. I do hope you realise that in many countries people would just see this as loafing about achieving nothing, when really you could actually be helping your cause by actively working for a council, charity, or goverment social agency
The sad fact is that there are more and more people having to resort to drawing benefits, which incidently, they are not only entitled to but have in the past contributed to through deductions from their wages. You seem to be under some illusion that all occupiers are out of work and living off the State, I take it you havent yet been to any Occupy camp and actually spoken to anyone. As for working for a council, that my friend is exactly what I do, for how long though is anyones guess given the current climate of austerity and cuts to public services. Something Occupy is attempting to draw people’s attention to. Regarding your vague comments about graffitti, is that what you meant, graffitti? then I’m afraid graffitti has been around a very long time, in fact it goes back as far as man has been able to express himself in an artistic manner and so your attempts at laying the blame for any graffitti on the Occupy movement hardly stand up. I am however quite certain that no member of Occupy would deface any public space through permanent graffitti as has been proven at all Occupy sites so far. As for you not seeing any of your taxes in action, well actually if you watch your t.v. screen even closer than you currently do I’m sure you will see evidence of how your taxes are spent in the form of weaponry and our armed forces waging war around the globe. You will see much less I hasten to add of the evidence of your taxes being spent on hospitals, schools libraries etc, but on behalf of all your fellow tax payers I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your much needed contributions.
They ARE entitled to that should read
No, not a Freudian slip
How about a mass invasion of the Canary Wharf area by thousands of people. Let them try to stop ten thousand determind anti-capitalists from occupying Canary Wharf!
I am a little concerned about some of the language used by the Occupy Movement: “By locating ourselves in a position between absolute wealth and absolute deprivation” – I live on the council estate side of Limehouse (north of Commercial Road) – is this what you are describing as “absolute deprivation”? Some of my neighbours have issues with poverty but some of us just work in the voluntary/public sector and this is the best we can afford in London. I find it a bit insulting that you consider this “absolute deprivation”. Likewise, I work close to the St Paul’s camp and noticed a sign up which went along the lines of “Let the Eton educated cabinet/bankers move to a council estate” – as if this is the worst possible fate for them! I do think you do a great job of highlighting important socioeconomic issues but please be careful about adding to the common media misconceptions about working class areas and, in particular, council estates. With many thanks, Claire
Well said Sir, that was a clumsy phrase and thank you for pointing it out. Some concil estates in London have the strongest sense of community Ive ever encountered… I used to do alot of youth work around Hackney esp.Clapton, . Its incredibly inspring to see for instance the wealth of window boxes on estates and the amount of voluntary organising that people make time for. We intended to talk about the extreme deprivation in terms of the homeless, the decimation of the health services,the lack of government funded provision for community and youth groups, the commandeering by private developers of previously held common ground. I hope the pop up temporary camps we are planning this summer help highlight REAL poverty and the rapid scalng back of resources our cmmunities are being subjected to to pay for the banks crisis. The Limehouse campers said clearly from the outset that if there was sufficient local resistance to their presence they would move on. I was there several times and the locals were intrigued, very friendly by and large with only 2 exceptions who were listened to with courtesy and noted. We have moved on to highlight the issues in other areas. The Limehouse experience was for me an overwhelmingly positive one.
That’s a really clever answer, well done.
It’s one thing to occupy the City, but Occupy Limehouse!? Limehouse is a residential area and nothing to do with what your ‘protest’ is about. It’s an act of opportunism by selfish, self-entitled people and nothing more.
Our protest is largely about the decimation of public services required by the government to pay for the bankers crisis ; a crisis that came about through an unregulated and corrupt industry that represents only its own interests and has nothing to do, and very little to contribute to the welfare of the general population. Are you seriously suggesting that one of the poorest boroughs in the country is unaffected by the cuts
http://www.demotix.com/news/617245/tower-hamlets-council-leaves-residents-cold …
corporation are made up of people (fathers, mothers, brothers, sons, daughters… ) corporations aren’t faceless. As a resident who enjoy the use of green space, I would like to ask you to stop occupying the our limited bit of natural area. Please go protest in front of parliament and campaign politicians and let everyday citizens live in peace. thank you.
We hear you… the tents have gone . The bulldozers are expected any day . We were told in court on Friday that we had to leave this weekend as the private developers were moving in on Monday. Did you know your lovely piece of common ground – that we took up less than 20% of is earmarked for destruction to provide more luxury accomodation that few locals could ever afford.
When you say pop in and speak to us, you may have noticed that lots of us work, to pay taxes at a substantially higher rate than the protestors, we might be too busy making money for the state to subsidize people , some of whom dont want to work, but instead like to play video games, drink and loaf around, or complain that no-one is helping them! your quote ….”Thanks to the politics of austerity, it is boroughs like Tower Hamlets that are paying for the bankers’ crisis” the people who benefit for not having to work are being subsidized by the employees of Banks…they contribute to the state, there’s always this undertone to these stories of baseless banker bashing. One man/woman = one vote, if you want to change things then I suggest you get elected in our democracy, but that would involve you working and contributing to the state.
I work full time AND pay taxes, I’m also an active member of Occupy. But I do like your ‘baseless banker bashing’ line, very good, very droll.
Why not pitch up on the green in Canary Wharf, the center of Capitalist injustice? THEY ARE TOO SCARED OF THE SECURITY THERE, so they pitch their tents on a bit of grass that fdogs use to shit on
As has already been pointed out, its private land and an injunction has already been obtained to block any occupation. I doubt very much if fear of the privatised security has anything to do with the Limehouse occupation.
“…private land…”?? Who made it? When?
I am asking about the piece of London—more valuable than gold—on which the buildings stand. Occupiers have to *learn* to look a bit deeper than the smear of legally justified theft of common property covering economic realities. There are some free university courses—in critical thinking and economic literacy—which could help with radical analysis as an antidote to the verbal deceptions responsible for the intellectual damming down of most occupiers.
Janos, you appear to be trying way too hard to be ‘intellectual’.
What on earth do you mean by ‘damming down’? Do you perhaps mean ‘dumbing down’?
Hello 2Jags
Thanks for the correct spelling, I did mean “dumbing”. But I am not trying to be intellectual, just think and understand underlying issues and speak about them.
What do you think about the rest of the comment?
Don’t you think that we, occupiers are “dispossessed” from some birthrights we do not even know about (talking about being ‘dumbed down’).
By the way, are you aware of the worldwide movement for basic income for everyone?
I live in Limehouse. I am not a wealthy banker. I am upset by the graffiti on the wooden fence on Branch Road – is that something you condone?
Not something Occupy would condone at all
“All are welcome, as long as they HELP”. In other words, you’ve clearly claimed the park for yourselves not the ’99%’ who surround you and no longer have access. The sad (for you) truth is nobody wants to be championed by squatters and vagrants. You simply represent the polar opposite 1% (in equal measures as self-serving and lacking in contribution to societal advancement as to the selfishness and corruption of bankers), not the 98% in the middle.
As a resident in ‘poor’ Limehouse, it is clear all you are doing is camping in the city; there’s no mission, statement or purpose to your presence in the fenced off area other than to highlight how fail your mission has been. You are nowhere near the main flow of humanity between Canary Wharf (a full 2 km away) and their homes, so you’re exposing yourself (with no portapotty, I assume literally) only to the few who would just like their little square of green back. The only comments I’ve heard locally is on how sad and pathetic it all is. The brave and righteous would have set up on the green smack in the middle of Canary Wharf; sad lazy cowards hoping for a few weeks camp holiday would pick your spot.
All I’ve seen is guys smoking pot, digging up holes to bury who knows what, and playing sad hippy music as a pretense to actually making a difference. Oh, and I especially like the “Intelligent Design = Future of Mankind” statement your group spray-painted in black along the brickwork (certainly wasn’t there before you arrived).
Not that I expect this comment to see the light of day, but at least between the two of us we can share this sad little bit of truth about who and what you really are.
I think your comment has indeed seen the light of day.
The sign is indeed miseading – it meant – all welcome to eat, stay and garden with us – not all welcome to a public space … that goes without saying . As previously stated , the bulldozers are on their way to mash up the little idyllic patch of green for the developers. We hired and paid for a port a potty! We planted and we had several hundred copies of the mission statement to hand out which we did . If you visited the site how could you miss the information table with our newspaper etc… …
Respects are due to the webmasters here for allowing comments to be aired that are clearly critical. This is part of transparency..
Id just like to point out that Limeouse was always intended to be temporary. The graffitti was not done by Occupiers and very few if any of us are signing on, as Occupying takes a great deal of time , hence we are not available for work. You may well, as is your right, disagree with our methods of protest but youd be hard pushed to call us liars and hypocritics like our ‘elected’ representatives. We are against waste- we survive on the generosity of those that support us, we grow food, we ask shops for past the sell by date donations- we live on very little like the majority of the worlds population. We through a community picnic on saturday 31st to say goodbye … many locals came . It was TEE-TOTAL . Anyone arriving ( Occupiers were forewarned not to bring it) with alcohol was asked to consume it elsewhere and they happily complied. We provided food for 100 people …It was a beautiful peaceful evening. We neither disturbed nor upset ANYONE and were quiet by half nine when the children went home .
I can understand finsbury square as its on a main road,but what do you hope to achieve by sitting on the front lawn of a tower block holding hands,it’s not a main route and I only noticed it after walking past when I had parked up
moderator – want to keep taking the posts down?
Well it dont matter – you guys have leave so very very soon. When the bailiffs come you will notice me at the side on a seat with a large bowl of popcorn watch you guys getting kicked to the curb.
Now – will the last person to go roll up the tents.
We have left , quietly peacefully and cleanly… Take your popcorn, enjoy watching the bulldozers come in and destroy one of the last pieces of commonly held ground on the Limehouse Basin… see the luxury flats go up and remain empty whilst residents loose their homes and council flats are sold off and then tell me that raising the local populations awareness that their tiny bit of parkland was secretly marked for destruction was a meaningless activity …
There haven’t been any ‘bulldozers’ yet and I doubt there will be. This may no longer be ‘public land’ but for a long time the private owners were comfortable with the public using it…. That has all changed since ‘Occupy’ turned up. Now we have lost this discretionary use of the land and the fences will be up for goodness knows how long… All down to Occupy – so very very sad for the local residents!
I don’t get it. Aside from setting up your tents in a residential area and depriving hard working locals of the use of that space, what exactly are you doing? There seem to be some very vague and poorly considered statements on this website, mostly about what you say you will be doing at some point in future but are not actually doing just yet.
Camping in Limehouse is not ‘highlighing inequalities’ or in fact highlighting anything, it is just creating an unwanted eyesore to be endured by locals.
“There are plenty of other locations we can occupy, rather than move into an affluent area where we will get resistance, we should look at less affluent locations where our presence will be welcomed and in turn allow us to gather more support.”
What a laughable comment – you have just frankly admitted that you want to move to where there is no ‘resistance’, effectively you want a quiet life. You won’t go to Canary Wharf because they have an injunction. What sort of protesters go out of their way to avoid resistance, affluent areas (where the people you apparently object to live) and any kind of legal issue. What happened to getting noticed? What happened to standing up for what you believe despite the consequences? What happened to drawing attention to your cause?
You are the absolute antithesis of protestors, acheiving nothing whatsoever and ensuring a lack of support because no one wants to be associated with a bunch of incompetents. And you will not gain any support from locals by camping on their doorstep and inviting them to come and visit you, you gain support by articulating your cause and convincing people that you are actually working hard to achieve something.
So, remind me, what are you actually doing at your site in limehouse?
Limehouse was specifically chosen as a POLITICAL site as it was a previously held piece of COMMON GROUND owned by the Land and Communities agency =Council (i.e belonging to the local residents ) …Tower Hamlets sold it off to private developers to create more luxury flats … so the community has lost its green space , the dogs their pooh palace, the space around a massively built up area and didnt fight for it . We have gone . The bulldozers are due in today …
You guys really are ‘sticking it to the man’ by camping in Limehouse. Those bankers and politicians must know you really know business now.
Having been at Limehouse for a bit, I take on-board the criticisms. We have not engaged to the best of our abilities, and have failed in our outreach to meet all the concerns of all local residents.
However . . .
I have (my own experience) had a chance to chat to some people who would never had come to speak to occupiers before, perhaps I haven’t changed minds on the big economic issues. That would be asking a bit too much for twenty minutes passing the shoe around (you had to be there to get that).
I was glad to see the chalk on the fence go down and had a hand in washing it off. I had a chance to talk to one of the most vociferous of our opponents whilst doing so and he turned out to be a very polite and reasonable person in a one-to-one situation, however prickly and confrontational he had been previously.
We have to change hearts and minds here if we want to change anything at all, plus we have to take this feedback on board before the Borough Walk.
Thank you for all the support we have had from the local community (we have more food than we can eat). We did not want to stop you using the green space in your community. The invite is still there, come and talk with us, come play frisbee with us, come and pitch your tent for a day or two.
Chill out, drop out, you can always go back to the rat race on Monday.
XX
Chris
Chris,
Many thanks for helping me clean off the graffiti and it was great to talk to you. As we discussed at the time – you will never gain support from people if you occupy residential areas. There are hundreds of flats that overlooked the occupation – most of them are homes to young families. People will always protect their families, and therefore, their neighbourhood.
My first experience with the occupation was with a Gentleman called Anthony. Now when you guys first arrived I wanted to know who you were, why you were in Limehouse and what you hoped to achieve. I went and spoke to you straight away. Anthony was, at the time, standing behind the table you had set up so I approached him first.
Anthony seemed to have some very strange logic. He seemed to feel that we, the residents, were the intruders. He felt that the occupation had every right to be there and that it was up to the residents to accept this change. He would not let me finish a single word without jumping in and told me I should be welcoming to him and his cause. He was very aggressive towards me when I disagreed. I felt at certain times he was trying to make me feel intimidated. In fact I lost my temper with him when he waved his finger in an elderly women’s face because she was against the occupation. Intimidating elderly locals will not win you any support anywhere on this planet.
He actually scoffed at me when I asked him “why not ask the residents if you can occupy this area first and gain support – rather than take some land and then try and force your movement on them”. A simple democratic idea that could give you a permanent base.
My first meeting with him left me feeling like our neighbourhood had been invaded. I was not the only one who spoke to him that day. In fact there were a small group that had felt intimidated by him who all shared their experiences. We all joined together, as neighbours do, and between us we made every effort to have the occupation removed. Perhaps we helped the process along, although, I have found out there were 10s of these little groups all doing their own little bit to have you removed.
From then on I have met many of you and must say you are mostly very respectful people. You all seem to have a very different opinion on exactly what I am doing wrong and how I can change it. Many of you wanted to share their life story. Some wanted to sell me a global single currency. Some wanted me to leave my job and pitch up my tent. Some wanted me to stop bothering them. Some wanted to end general corruption (right then….). Whatever the view you all seemed to be passionate to talk about it at length. Perhaps next time you could do more and talk less once you have established a single direction.
Just please make sure whoever is “front of house” has the common sense to respect the people they are going to directly affect. Perhaps my own experience with the occupation would have been very different if I had spoken to you on the first day. I would have still wanted you gone, but, maybe I wouldn’t have been so active in assisting with your removal. First impressions are important.
When members of the occupation told me about the kids activities they were going to set up, the flower beds they were going to plant and all the wonderful ideas they had for the area I found myself thinking “If they do all these things then maybe the residents will support them”. Unfortunately none of these plans came to be. No one attempted to reach out to the youth clubs and residential groups. Perhaps you guys should spend more time working at the occupation than sitting around a fire pit. You will never change the world unless you work very hard non-stop.
Now that you have gone the green space is now going to be fenced off so that residents have one less green space to use. That is such a shame for all those who will be living there long after the graffiti has faded and the occupation is forgotten about. Please remember that you have caused this. We can’t change the past, but, when you decide to occupy a future area please consider the consequences for the residents who are left when you have been removed.
Chris the plumber – Thanks for helping to clean the fence – you are a real gentleman and I wish you all the luck in the future. I hope you achieve whatever it is you have set out to achieve. It was good speaking to you and I am glad we all parted on a friendly note!
Dave (the vociferous resident)
PS – Mile end park is residential.
Thanks for the feedback Dave,
Have you ever heard of turkeys voting for Christmas?
I remember our meetings very differently; you came over full of aggression shouting at peaceful people and accusing us of being drug addicts and it’s a pattern you continued during your visits, when you came over screaming “who lives here! who lives here!” and how happy you were that a fence would be put up around the site my response to you was not at all aggressive. I just thanked you for the info and asked you to be peaceful and enjoy the rest of your evening.
In saying that, I do own up to making a fair few mistakes. The most regrettable being interrupting you and other occupiers while talking with Rae Hoffenberg, everyone was excited and in my eagerness I came across poorly and didn’t even manage to get my point across. I cringed then and still do now. You seem like a nice enough guy and despite your attempts at character assassination I’m glad you had an opportunity to spread your wings as a local figure, I’m glad we gave it a shot and enjoyed the time spent at the Limehouse site. I also regret not being in a position to commit more time to the project.. The plan was always about engaging local residents in Local democratic processes and discussion about issues they may otherwise not have got involved in.
I’ll just ignore the rest of your misleading slander and move on with what I personally hoped to achieve on that site.
- As you may now know, The Limehouse site is not in fact a public space. The Homes and Communities Agency was a public body responsible for the disposal of public land. They did this by putting it on the market for sale but also through community-led approaches where local residents like you and I could work together using something called a community right to reclaim. As of the first of April all HCA asset (including the Limehouse site) where transferred over to a private company whose role is the disposal of public land… So, selling off of public land is an issue I have been raising within Occupy for some time and plan to do the same in communities around London.
- Individuals who get involved with Occupy London come from many different backgrounds and have a spectrum of different views. Unfortunately some of us are homeless and have been forced to sleep in doorways, been attacked, forced to eat food from rubbish bins and have feared for their life on several occasions. When seeking support from government agencies they are told that as a person who does not fall into a priority need category they are not entitled to any support. Right to adequate housing is supposed to be a Human Right according to ‘Article 25.1 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights’ & ‘Article 11 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ but like the people’s right to protest HUMAN RIGHTS ARE BEING IGNORED. Many of the Limehouse Occupiers fall into this bracket and finding temporary safety and security there was unfortunately an immediate necessity. Direct occupation is also the only opportunity available to engage everyday people and open up a discussion about issues like basic Human Rights.
For the record none of the Limehouse Occupiers had issues with drugs or alcohol, most of them are protesting while seeking a sustainable way of life where they can live without being depended on an evidently flawed financial system. We always knew that that particular site was only ever going to be a temporary stop, I personally would not have wanted to move in so quickly but as I said earlier this was a necessity for some of us. If we had had more time to engage with residents we would have been able to showcase possible ways of using that site for the benefit of local residents by getting things like educational activities for local youth, urban food farming, local cinema etc.
Did you know that Tower Hamlets has child poverty rate of 52%? I just feel like it is an obscene suggestion that in a civilised society a minor inconvenience caused to a minority of members of the public should be put above basic human needs of others. Thankfully the response we had from the vast majority of people was actually very positive, it was a positive experience for Occupiers and in your own words “I’m happy there will be a fence put up”… So everybody is a winner.. right?
What I would like to see happen NEXT is a Public Request to Order Disposal on that site. This would permanently stop attempts to sell it off by reclaiming that piece of land as a green space that actually belongs to local residents like you and I.
Peace and Love
Ant
Dear Dave the resident … when I finished work in a local primary school on thursday 21st March I hurried to the site to sit at the Information point.. I heard about your visit from several people who repeated your line ‘ I let my dog piss up against your tents this morning ‘ You approached and left that first meeting seething with aggression and righteous indignation. I hear you later returned on your way to a residents meeting where our views were respectfully heard and responded to in kind.I thus conclude that your account is disgracefully misleading. Its a great shame that you chose not to join us for our farewell community picnic where we were joined by several locals who brought cakes, joined in the campfire sing-song and wished us well. We left the site immaculate – planted a heart shaped flower garden and were only sorry that the Mayors office rushed our eviction through the courts before we had a real chance to begin the Easter holiday workshops we had planned for the local young people who seemed to have so little to do over the holidays .We planned a kayak making group with donated materials , a community choir event ( thats my job! ) and gardening sessions … had you really encountered the level of aggression you speak of why did later return several times in a much more open minded way to engage with us ?
Lots of negative but reasonable comments here. Are we loosing people-support?
Occupying physical spaces is a tactic for raising awareness and should not turn into an end in itself. It has limited effect on the institutions that need to change.
It is time to occupy ideological spaces where, for example, ignoring the problem of homelessness is justified. Homelessness is a problem for society at large.
Pretending that occupy can solve such a problem is a disingenuous easy option. It lets us avoid working at the really hard task of effectively pressuring politicians and decision makers—who, by the way, could command the needed resources—to shoulder that responsibility.
I hope to receive some comments on my call to occupy “thinking spaces”.
Occupy neo-liberal think tanks. That is where stories hat justify the decrepit status quo are invented and propagated from.
Janos,
You won’t win over anyone to your way of thinking when you insist on using such absurd language which ensures no-one other than intellectual try-hards can even be bothered to try to understand what you are saying. Cut out the flannel and write clearly
My thoughts exactly !
On my way to work this morning I saw no tents or marquee. Have you given up?
No of course not! Afger 4.5 months through the freezing winter( a tad too long in my estimation! ) being inundated by crazies and drunks and rampant bankers to say nothing of the Bells the bells! we dont quit that easily but … wewere served an eviction notice which to have appealed would have cost the tax payer money.The Mayors office speeded up the process … we moved on and sprang up elsewhere. We will continue to do so until we feel that the crucial issue of cuts to desperately needed public services to fund the bankers crisis are looked at by our elected representatives and some kind of financial justice is genuinely on the table.
why did they leave so soon?
Good news the ‘protesters’ have moved on. It struck me that the camp was set up on the ‘good’ side of Limehouse, rather than the edgier side north of Commercial Road, which is awash with gangs and drug dealers. Not that brave then.
Hey! I’m all for occupying parks earmarked for demolition, but as far as I am aware Mile End park is not one of these! I am a local resident who walks through this park on my way home every day and I love it – I love walking through it on my way to and from work. I’m sure you’ll have an answer for this, but I hope you have consulted with Tower Hamlets on the care of the park. The dead wood (that you are all camping next to) is really important to the ecosystem – please don’t disturb it!
I’m not sure I agree with what you are doing in Mile End Park in particular, but, hey, I’m all for letting you say what you want to say. I do have to agree with the post above, however, and ask that you please don’t make sweeping statements about us being poor and use that as leverage for your cause. I really don’t think it’s fair.
And please respect our ecosystem and the dead wood!! Mile End Park is my back garden.