#occupy London....

[AKA pseudonym]

fair play to naffy.. she is speaking well

 

[AKA pseudonym]

so much for a peaceful eviction......

 

[AKA pseudonym]

Occupy London

‎"officially coming to an end?" no.....the media need to grasp that occupy is an idea, you can evict the camp....but it doesn't change people's views if anything enforces them more, you lift up the corners of democracy and see the elements of facism beneath

 

[AKA pseudonym]

all those tents and equipment.. just being chucked into a garbage truck... have they no shame... we asked that they would evict at a reasonable time so we could get professional services down to assist the vulnerable that #occupy housed, supported n fed...
Welcome to olympicland...

 

[peterkro]

Jesus Christ the beeb reporters and especially the idiot woman who's the anchor are slavering,reactionary bastards.

 

[AKA pseudonym]

There was also an eviction of an Occupy campaign site, which campaigners say is a legally occupied squat, at Featherstone Street in Islington, north London.....

 

[bezzer]

round two... x

 

[AKA pseudonym]

Praying Christians who have come to show support being dragged off by the police.
http://yfrog.com/jtldkxz

If you witness any arrests, please take notes and speak to a legal observer or call GBC Legal - 07946 541511 be careful tho as police have cordoned off the area.....

Check this page for live updates on the eviction.
www.occupylondonsos.org

Arrests have been made......


General Assembly to be held at Finsbury Square tomorrow at 1pm. Everyone welcome! GA's to be held in the future at St Paul's.

 

[peterkro]

School of ideas OK apparently.(on getting up it appears the papers are reporting they were evicted,they were tweeting last night it was wrong,who knows?)

 

[audiotech]

Let's hope the naive "free hugs" for police stage is over now. The state doesn't like dissent. Once people get their heads around that important point then the protests can move onto more realistic assessments and activity. ​

 

[editor]

Video footage of the evictions:

 

[treelover]

Some cock called "Dave" on the BBC at the moment going on about how everybody will be sorry when their children are microchipped in ten years' time. They would of course pick the worst.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the children of the poor were, and I'm no tin foiler...

 

[Brixton Hatter]

all solidarity to those who were evicted last night - and fairplay for their resistance. Total overrreaction again in terms of numbers of riot police and bailiff heavies. Steps of St Paul's evicted, even though the court order didn't cover the steps.

Also, unconfirmed reports on Twitter that BlackBerry messenger was down locally for about three hours between 12am and 3am - anyone else heard anything about this?

 

[8ball]

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the children of the poor were, and I'm no tin foiler...

It's more likely to be the children of the rich, and the rich will pay handsomely for it.

The children of the poor will just have ankle tags loaded with Rf-activated explosives

 

[quimcunx]

Finsbury sq looking fuller of tents than last time I passed.

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Nice to see St Pauls looking nice, clean and tidy, with commuters & office workers pleased that the 'eyesore' has been removed.....and replaced with massive fences all over the place blocking the square

 

[AKA pseudonym]

20 arrests?

 

[maldwyn]

How's the church going to get over authorising the cops to drag a group of praying christians from its cathedral steps, another massive PR fail.

 

[8ball]

Christians love being oppressed - it's an S&M religion.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Christians love being oppressed - it's an S&M religion.

The Police missed a trick there. They could have set hungry lions on the protestors.

 

[AKA pseudonym]

Amazing twist in the St Paul's Occupy tale - occupiers cite King Charles' Royal Charter of 1638 decreeing that the land around St Paul's officially belongs to the people... and get a homeless man who's been living on the steps of St Paul's for ten years to claim this land as his own. And so the battle continues:

 

[AKA pseudonym]

Here are the new General Assembly times:

Tues 1pm – Finsbury Square – Finance GA

Tues 7pm – Finsbury Square – Working Group GA
...
Fri 7pm – Meet at 5pm St Pauls Steps – Roving GA

Sat 2pm – St Pauls – GA

As always these are open to everyone to attend and participate in!

 

[Kizmet]

Amazing twist in the St Paul's Occupy tale - occupiers cite King Charles' Royal Charter of 1638 decreeing that the land around St Paul's officially belongs to the people... and get a homeless man who's been living on the steps of St Paul's for ten years to claim this land as his own. And so the battle continues:

If it's who I think it is... he's a Scouser. Not content with hubcaps... they're nicking cathedrals too!

 

[AKA pseudonym]

Tomorrow Wednesday (14 March) as thousands of students take part in a national day of walk-outs, Occupy London will join the NUS, NCAFC, ULU and many others, in solidarity.

Noon - Tent City University 'teach out' at Torrington Square just off Malet Street
Prior to joining the planned student march leaving Malet Street at 2pm, Occupy London's Tent City University - with its motto "anyone can teac...h, everyone can learn" - will hold a 'teach out' debate and discussion focusing on 'Higher Education: Where next? Where are we now?'. Starting at noon all are invited to join in - look out for the Occupy London banner at Torrington Square (just off Malet Street, by SOAS and Birbeck).

With invited speakers David Graeber (Goldsmiths / Occupy Wall Street), Polly Toynbee (The Guardian), Ivette Hernandez (Institute of Education - focusing on Chilean student movement), Aaron Kiely (NUS Black Students' Campaign), Ragnhild Freng Dale (Occupy London/UCL), Bernard Stiegler (Golsdsmiths), and more, there will be breakout sessions to focus on specific questions, with feedback live-tweeted on @occupylondon.

"Since the first assemblies at Occupy London in October, we've stood strong in solidarity with students fighting against the commodification of knowledge that is happening to our education system under the guise of unnecessary austerity cuts," commented Arun Mistry, Occupy London supporter.

"Learning should be free for all and that opportunity should carry on throughout life. Instead, many young are finding themselves excluded from education through unfair cuts, which are not necessary if fairer taxation and control of the banks and restraints on tax evasion were put in place. Young people are being made to pay for the casino banking of the 1% and they are being made to pay by having their opportunities for a decent, safe, and engaging life taken away from them.

2012 promises to be a year of struggle for many people in Britain and around the world, with all these struggles are connected. The current system is unsustainable, unjust and undemocratic - the time to talk and initiate change is coming. Spring is coming and Occupy London welcomes your involvement in helping us all find those alternatives. News coming soon - get ready for Occupy May.

Further upcoming Occupy London events this week:
6pm Thursday 15 March - Sixth Free University discussion with Tent City University Working Group at Royal Festival Hall
7pm Friday 16 March - Roving General Assembly at a venue TBC in central London. See website and social media for details.
2pm Saturday 17 March - General Assembly by St Paul's focusing on the upcoming objectives of Occupy London

 

[AKA pseudonym]

From 5pm - 10pm Sunday 22 April, Occupy London Finsbury Square invites all to celebrate as it marks the six month anniversary of the occupation.

 

[ymu]

Good article in the Guardian:

The emergence of an international protest movement without a coherent program is therefore not an accident: it reflects a deeper crisis, one without an obvious solution. The situation is like that of psychoanalysis, where the patient knows the answer (his symptoms sare such answers) but doesn't know to what they are answers, and the analyst has to formulate a question. Only through such a patient work a program will emerge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...24/occupy-wall-street-what-is-to-be-done-next

 

[ska invita]

Good article in the Guardian:

The emergence of an international protest movement without a coherent program is therefore not an accident: it reflects a deeper crisis, one without an obvious solution.

Except that Occupy Wall Street came up pretty quickly with a very clear program/set of 20 reformist demands that got posted on their website:

1. Complete bans on federal political contributions, replaced by public campaign financing.
2. Reversal of the “Citizens United v. FEC” Supreme Court decision.
3. Combating Washington’s “revolving door.”
4. Bans on gifts to federal officials.
5. Tax reform – eliminating special carve-outs and increasing progressiveness.
6. Single-payer health care.
7. Increased environmental regulation.
8. Reduction of the national debt through a progressive income tax and elimination of corporate handouts.
9. Federal job-training programs.
10. Student loan debt forgiveness.
11. Immigration policy, including amnesty for illegals.
12. Recalling the U.S. military globally.
13. Education mandates and teacher pay.
14. Massive expansion of public works projects.
15. Spurring China to end currency manipulation.
16. Reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act.
17. Refinance all underwater mortgages at 1% interest rate.
18. One-year freeze on all foreclosures.
19. Free air time for all political candidates who gather sufficient signatures.
20. Immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

...which brought a much broader group of people on board than a Communist Manifesto would've. Its a popular movement (99% etc), and so populist reforms are a pretty natural way for it to go - especially so in the States.

The people who claim Occupy had no demands tend to be committed to trad-Marxist vanguardist options I find, and are deliberately trying to undermine horizontal movements ,and shepherd people back behind the old beards. (and usually often anti-reformist too, as its not revolutionary enuf). Definitely the traditional socialist groupings are not that happy about the lack of new converts arising from the amount of global protest/insurrectionary activity going on around the world...

 

[ymu]

I have no idea what abstract boxes to fit people into before working out if it is permissible to sneer or cheer. Zizek always seemed OK to me. I dunno if you read the whole article, but he doesn't seem to be trying to do anything like that.

 

[ska invita]

I have no idea what abstract boxes to fit people into before working out if it is permissible to sneer or cheer. Zizek always seemed OK to me. I dunno if you read the whole article, but he doesn't seem to be trying to do anything like that.

the attacks against occupy strucutrelessness from certain people on the left are often hidden (not explicitly making the case for vanguardism), but not always. Im not sure if Zizek has ever come out explicitly in favour for a particular strategy, but he's pretty oldschool marxist from what little i know of him. The quote he kicks off with: ""They are asking us what is our program. We have no program. We are here to have a good time." is pretty insulting i think, and seems like deliberate spin and smear.

Nothing abstract about this, theres a battle going on out there between party vanguardists and the horizontal masses who are rejecting them en masse around the world, from northern africa to southern europe to wall street. Not 100% certain zizek is part of this, but it does look like it. What do you think he's getting at with that piece? What should occupy be doing/have done according to his analysis?

And im not sneering or cheering, im just saying its a misrepresentation of what happened. they had a program. I think it even got printed in the NYT on a full page ad (i forget now tbh - sieve brained). and the plan was to build a broad based horizontal movement outside of organised parties to rally behind the demands.

Occupy LSX had a series of demands too at different points

 

[ymu]

I don't think he's sneering at anything - he's identifying the traps a broad-based movement can easily fall into, whilst cheering on that movement, as far as I can see. You could read it as a commie vanguardist trying to do a Clinton, I suppose.