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#occupy London....

Occupy was right – all the church could say was 'go home'

When the protest began exactly one year ago, the Church of England should also have been angry about the financial crisis
occupy-008.jpg

Members of the Occupy movement on the steps of St Paul's, on the anniversary of the start of last year's protests. Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA
Tragedy, Nietzsche theorised, has two elements, two gods that direct the drama: Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus is the god of chaos and disorder, sometimes even the god of drunkenness and violence. Apollo is the god of order, calm, clarity and beauty. "These two very different tendencies walk side by side, usually in violent opposition to one another, inciting one another to ever more powerful births." Thus, says Nietzsche, all great art is generated.

Dionysus and Apollo – or, for my purposes, Occupy and St Paul's. Their chance meeting a year ago has been characterised by misunderstanding and opposition. Occupy with its earthy populism and Dionysian disdain for formal structures, St Paul's with its elite Apollonian worship of cold marble and ethereal song – they were destined never to get along. And yesterday's contretemps in the cathedral was a predictable revisiting of the conflict.
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rest of article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...eguardian/commentisfree/rss+(Comment+is+free)
 
Collective Action analyses the experience and draws lessons from the Occupy movement almost a year after the establishment of the first Occupy camps in the UK.
Introduction
The global Occupy movement (often referred to as #Occupy) has been popularly presented as the beginnings of an organised, popular resistance to austerity. Although all but dissolved in organisational terms in the UK, the rhetoric of the “99%” still retains strong resonance within both corporate and social media as representative of the conditions of proletarianised workers, students and sections of the middle strata faced with the increasingly brutal logics of capitalist accumulation and the social disparity between themselves and the “1%” (more controversially largely represented as the CEOs and big financial firms continuing to benefit from the crisis). While for our counterparts in the US, Occupy still appears to have some mobilising potential, in spite of continuing contradictions of the organisational model (at least that is our perception as outsiders), in the UK Occupy was a largely geographically and temporally fixed phenomenon – being largely represented in a few cities over a time-scale of approximately late 2011 to early 2012.
In spite of this, the experience of Occupy UK illustrates a number of critical concerns for British anti-capitalists. Strategic conclusions can be drawn from analysis of the camps themselves, there are questions left open by the general lack of a sustained anarchist presence (and the subsequent drift of already quite politically plural camps into wholly liberal reformist positions) or whether it is possible to “camp” popular opposition to austerity (all of which are addressed below). Occupy UK, or to put it more concretely the failure to actualise of the popular anti-austerity movement that Occupy UK was premised upon, also raises a broader concern for us – what, if any, will the shape of popular resistance to capitalism take in the UK in the 21st Century? Occupy UK indicates a two-fold failure in this respect – failure to mobilise a popular movement around anti-austerity positions (and win a broader public debate concerning austerity) by Occupy itself and a failure of anti-capitalist intervention to expunge anti-austerity positions of the illusions of liberal reformism or to offer meaningful analysis and orientation of the barriers experienced in building that movement (in terms of a class-based approach to social change).
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http://libcom.org/blog/obituary-movement-yet-be-occupy-uk-one-year-19102012
 
http://bp-or-not-bp.org/news/much-ado-about-bp-sponsorship-as-west-end-play-hit-by-protest/
Tonight, members of the Reclaim Shakespeare Company jumped on stage at the Noël Coward theatre to deliver another surprise anti-BP performance. Just before the second half of a BP-sponsored Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) performance of Much Ado About Nothing was due to begin, the three actor-vists performed a short Shakespeare-inspired piece. They challenged the RSC over its decision to accept sponsorship from BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster, the company’s decision to start extracting highly polluting and destructive tar sands oil in Canada, and its enormous contribution towards climate change. Yesterday it was announced that BP has entered a partnership with Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in order to exploit the hazardous and vulnerable Arctic.

This was the eighth intervention by the Reclaim Shakespeare Company, the most recent taking place at Stratford-upon-Avon last month. In the two-minute sketch, ‘BP’, sporting a huge logo as a ruff, sidles up to ‘RSC’, and offers ‘a thousand ducats’ for her help in ‘seeming virtuous’ . They shake hands on the deal as ‘BP’ proclaims ‘By your reputation, I shall mine own mend’. ‘RSC’ eventually recognises the error of her ways, bellowing ‘I want not your dirty ducats’ and asking ‘Did’st not Formula One live on without tobacco sponsorship?’ before ripping the BP logo from her chest. The audience responded with laughter and applause, and one RSC actor applauded and offered her support afterwards. The full script can be found below.
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Bank of England official: Occupy Movement right about global recession

Andrew Haldane said protestors were correct to focus on inequality as the chief reason for 2008 economic crash
Andrew-Haldane-Bank-of-En-009.jpg

Occupy's voice had been 'loud and persuasive' said Andrew Haldane. Photograph: Rex Features

The Occupy Movement has found an unlikely ally in a senior Bank of England official, Andrew Haldane, who has praised protesters for their role in triggering an overhaul of the financial services sector.
Haldane, who oversees the City for the central bank, said Occupy acted as a lever on policymakers despite criticism that its aims were too vague. He said the protest movement was right to focus on inequality as the chief reason for the 2008 crash, following studies that showed the accumulation of huge wealth funded by debt was directly responsible for the domino-like collapse of the banking sector in 2008.
Speaking at a debate held by the Occupy Movement in central London, Haldane said regulations limiting credit use would undermine attempts by individuals to accumulate huge property and financial wealth at the expense of other members of society. Allowing banks to lend on a massive scale also drained funding from other industries, adding to the negative impact that unregulated banks had on the economy, he said.
The hard-hitting speech is unlikely to find a warm welcome in the Square Mile, which is keen for bank lending to recover to its heady pre-crisis levels and bring accompanying profits and commissions. Lending to individuals and corporations in the UK has fallen to a fraction of the levels seen in 2007 when few banks checked the income status of individual borrowers or the risks being taken by corporate customers before offering a loan. The Bank of England will impose stricter lending rules on banks next year when it takes over regulation of the industry from the Financial Services Authority.
Haldane said Occupy's voice had been "loud and persuasive" and that "policymakers have listened and are acting in ways which will close those fault-lines" with a "reformation of finance that Occupy has helped stir". He said inequality was fuelled by bank lending for speculation on property and other assets that enriched some in society at the expense of others.
"The asset-rich, in particular the owner-occupying rich, became a lot richer. Meanwhile, the asset-less and indebted fell further behind. In other words, the pre-crisis asset price bubble acted like a regressive tax," he said.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201...d-occupy-movement?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
 
Haldane said Occupy's voice had been "loud and persuasive" and that "policymakers have listened and are acting in ways which will close those fault-lines" with a "reformation of finance that Occupy has helped stir".
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well done Occupy, the saviours of western capitalism!
 
Still trying to work out what Haldane's (or the Bank's) motivation for accepting that invitation - for giving the talk there - might be.

He could have said the same in Basel or Mansion House or Chatham House and it'd just have been policy musings...

Within the bankers' own world, it does rather seem to be sending the message "Earth to banks: we're not accepting (all) your excuses any more".
 
laptop said:
Still trying to work out what Haldane's (or the Bank's) motivation for accepting that invitation - for giving the talk there - might be.

He could have said the same in Basel or Mansion House or Chatham House and it'd just have been policy musings...

Within the bankers' own world, it does rather seem to be sending the message "Earth to banks: we're not accepting (all) your excuses any more".
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At worst he's being indisengenuous....spinning it in favour of the BOE, postive press style. There's an aire of condescention too, 'Yes, you guys are intecllectually and morally right, now run along and leave us to sort it out'.

The speech/publication must have been given the go ahead by the BoE too. :hmm:

The words are not enough, action, evidence is needed!
 
Rutita1 said:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201...d-occupy-movement?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
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Of all the thing to concentrate on!

How about his acknowledgement that the banks are subsidised by 10s of billion a year if people are after making an easy bank related polemical point:

All in, this support to the financial sector amounted to perhaps as much as two-thirds of annual GDP in the UK and US, somewhat less (but still rising) in the euro-area. Those government transfers were not shared equally even across the financial sector, with a strong skew towards institutions deemed too-big-to-fail. This protected species status meant large institutions benefitted – indeed, continue to benefit - from an implicit
subsidy from the state.

This subsidy is big. For the global banking system, it may currently amount to as much as several hundreds of billions of dollars each year. By comparison, that is multiples of the global aid budget. For UK banks, the subsidy amounts to tens of billions of pound each year. That too is multiples of the overseas development budget. These are extraordinarily large, and peculiarly-directed, government transfers to one sector.
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Full thing here (pdf)
 
Last night, as part of the New Putney Debates, senior Bank official Andy Haldane said Occupy is "right" about the economic crisis. What kind of friend is he?


Fitting, that we met last night in the main hall of the Friends' Meeting House, Euston. After all, it was Quakers that founded the largest and oldest banks in Britain, Lloyds and Barclays, and would have rallied behind a talk on ‘socially useful banking’ that might re-awaken in those institutions the principles of the founding fathers. Who were ‘we’? A motley crew of five hundred or so citizens, activists, financiers, small businesswomen and men, environmentalists, and many of a title that has proliferated in the last four years: that of the 'amateur economist.' This was the third New Putney Debate, part of a series of public debates organised by Occupy London and running over the next two weeks.

Not much in way of comparison, at first glance, between last night and the original 1647 Putney Debates, where members from all ranks of Cromwell’s New Model Army debated the future of England’s constitution in the aftermath of the Civil War and defeat of King Charles I. But the spirit of the Levellers is in Occupy, and in evidence last night. The political movement that brought about those public debates 365 years ago made a popular claim for democracy and the rights of the common man to which Occupy is an inheritor. “The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he”. Then it was the wealthy property-owners that were the oppressors, the 1% to the 99. Now it’s… well… the key speaker last night was there in part to tell us that it wasn’t ‘the bankers’.

This was the Executive Director for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane. Billed as a public debate, last night was really, disappointingly, a speech by Haldane followed by a long Q&A: a power balance that made the ‘audience’ or ‘public’ more, not less, fractious. But before the unruly masses, what did Haldane have to say?

He came with his headline prepared: Occupy is right about the economic crisis (duly picked up by the Beeb, the Guardian, the Indie, the Mail – although, importantly, they switched it to the past tense). "Occupy's voice has been loud and persuasive and policy makers like me have listened and acted," Haldane said. "They've been successful because they've been right"… and here was the sucker punch: they've been right both "morally" and "analytically". You might have expected a sharp intake of breath from the room – here was a powerful cog in the machine (Haldane has served at the Bank for more than 20 years), appearing to say not only that the movement had “touched a moral nerve”, but that it was correct in it’s analysis. Occupy was right. Didn't that mean the Bank of England was… wrong?

The surprising thing, perhaps, was that it came as no surprise. For Haldane is no cog. Increasingly known as a different kind of policy expert, he has lambasted the narrowing of the economics discipline, admitted the culpability of the central banks in the crash, stressed history, and urged his sector to “listen as often as they speak”. We had turned out - hundreds of us - on a rainy dark Tuesday night, just after the winter clock change, to let him speak, and make him listen. He was on Occupy territory, or at least in annexed space. His very presence was the news story.
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More here:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/niki-seth-smith/occupy-and-its-ally-in-bank-of-england
 
A selection of responses to Haldane's speech:

Occupy Economics Debate – Occupiers Respond

November 1, 2012 Category: An Occupier's Perspective, News No Comments
The New Putney Debate’s session on social banking and Andy Haldane’s speech in particular have ignited intense discussions amongst Occupy supporters. Here are a selection of voices and opinions responding to ideas provoked by the debate…


“We need a day of action against debt and for real democracy in my opinion. Something that works nationally and crucially Europe-wide but also that could go global. [...] Cancel the debts, tax the banks and bring in a new (and democratic) economic and political system.”

“There’s a lot that one could quibble about here – Occupy as poster child for reformism? Financial reformation presented as radical change? Morality as the core of the problem? But considering the origin of these quotes (Bank of England), this is absolutely [expletive] awesome.”

“This still feels like Bank of England PR – with him suggesting Lloyds and Barclays are going to return to their Quaker roots and what, all of a sudden become ethical banks again? Still, not bad PR for us. At least now we can affirmatively respond to anyone who asks what it is that we have actually achieved, that we are credited by a BoE director as stirring the reform of finance.”

“Challenge them to do more then hang themselves from us. The first follow-up now would surely be, What section of which statement will they be tackling first? Is it the one about people before profit, the one calling for democracy? Make them stand by their words, or show them for the liars they would appear to be.”

“Paraphrase to: ‘Bank of England says anti-capitalism morally and intellectually right.’ I’m rather liking the Telegraph’s insistence and persistence in calling Occupy anti-capitalist in this context, despite all attempts to dissuade them from doing so… it makes this headline so much sweeter. (Of course, it’s all flannel; like greenwash, only Occupy-wash, but it’s still sweet.)”

“This week on a weekday, an action I would love to see is a news stand with Occupy Was Right says Bank of England on the sandwich board. Complete with megaphone toting vendor, “READ ALL ABOUT IT”, and a stand with copies of the Little Book of Ideas, loads of initial statement leaflets and the OT. And of course the Occupy banner. We need alternatives, this is where we work towards them.”

“The crowd seemed confident. Hands were up all the time. It’s a funny dynamic, them using us to push vacuous reforms, us using them to challenge the nature of the institutions pushing the reforms. It’s worth thinking about how to promote our critique of the system through this event. What is our message?”

“What I got out of it. People in the panel and the big and diverse audience saying:”Occupy you were right, but the forces that will oppose change are so strong so please keep on fighting! We need you!” Let’s be conscious about the support we have, understand the resources we can work from…and focus on what are our strengths and potentials in creating this change. Very proud of Occupy tonight, but even more conscious of what powers we are up against, and a bit suspicious about all this positive media and attention.”

“What was significant about Haldane’s speech tonight was not his remarks on bank reform. Mood music-wise, his emphasis was more optimistic (“complacent”) than previous speeches – i.e. he didn’t this time pointedly suggest the ring-fence was insufficient (but it doesn’t matter, he has lots of other times), nor say how we need to break up the banks to a fifteenth of their current size (but again, he’s already done that).
What was significant was in linking inequality to the debt crisis – not only as effect but cause. That macro-context is something he can less directly have an impact upon in his role as regulator. But it was a significant statement, given his authority in saying it, and in linking it explicitly to our own themes and arguments.”

“What remedial action is coming? Bankers and execs to face prison terms? The banking Corporations to be banned from partaking in the market because of their abuse? A lift on the pay freeze for public sector workers? A re-instatement of jobs that were cut to pay for the criminal activity? Sacking government? Re-instating the benefit system? What’s the fella offering? Just wondered. A ban on high frequency trading and re-pontification of debt, credit and assets? Just wondered.”

“It doesn’t mean its all over because they have acknowledged we were right. Think all along, people have been looking for answers and we have been saying we are the platform. Wouldn’t it be great if we actually publicly provided the platform to the pros with some proper ”solution-type” alternatives, seeing as they have opened dialogue – actually give concrete proposals, which were democratically selected – or which people understood? Or have a real say in the new regulating bodies which have been created in place of the FSA?
When Enron collapsed, the regulators said it was because of the current system and greedy executives and their bonuses….then they created the new model – IFRS – which we know now to have been the same system in disguise?”

“It is up to us; the 99% as a WHOLE!, that needs to change things! That was what I felt as he was saying it but when the questions started, yes a lot of them were crap, but some made him visibly squirm. Spoke to him after the though. Genuine, down to earth bloke that I think will listen and engage with conversation. However, will he have any support or job in his industry.”

“Having done the ‘yeah, he said we’re right!’ victory dance, remember that we knew all along that we’re right; we don’t need validating by the very Establishment responsible for the mess we’re in… Don’t be charmed! Charm and smarm is what they’re good at. They’ll use Occupy, they’ll suffocate us in a huge bearhug. Let’s not be conned into thinking they love us, they will squeeze us to death then stuff us and put Occupy on the mantlepiece as a colourful trophy.
Watch their actions, not their words.
Some of us may’ve turned up at St Paul’s hoping to help the bankers reform banking a little bit. Most of us wanted to change a whole lot more than that.”

“Reminds me of the positive noises that emanated from the hallowed arches of st Pauls and look how they stuffed us in court… All he’s really said is ‘yeah you’re right unequal access to resources results in inequality…”

“Pretty certain that despite the rejoicing at rare favourable press – none of us is stupid enough to imagine that this is anything other than a marker on our road – still a long way to go. Smiling at a headline does make a glorious change though.”

Although he’s undoubtedly a reformist, my impression from reading some of his previous speeches, hearing the speech last night, judging the WAY he responded to questions, and also listening in on the one-to-one questioning after the event finished, is that he really wants to stir things up in the financial system, but is probably coming up against immense resistance from the Bank of England, the Banks themselves, and the politicians, and so is trying to use Occupy as a lever to help him overcome some of that resistance. By getting ‘people power’ moving he has more hope of instigating change. At the same time he can’t overplay his hand, as if he goes too far he’ll simply get the sack. He’s in a very delicate position, but I definitely think he’s ‘on’ side with Occupy.
Also don’t forget, he was under no obligation to accept our invitation, he was under no obligation to praise us, but in doing so has pushed Occupy right back up into the public consciousness, and not just as a bunch of protesters, but as people with a very serious political message. He’s done us immense benefit.

“Is Haldane is going to be the moderate, whilst we are painted the radicals? The gods forbid. We will have to up the ante. I propose that we use the rest of the Occupy London funds to build a guillotine in front of the Royal Exchange.”
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More here:
http://occupylondon.org.uk/archives/17800
 
Life Imitating Art on Bonfire Night Outside Parliament

As David Cameron is away on a mission to sell weapons to his mates in the Middle East that create a deadly firework display of their own. Thousands of people in V for Vendetta masks created their own display outside the houses of Parliament to mark Guido Fawkes night. The action inspired by the famous scene in V for Vendetta where the public rise up against the entrenched regime.
At the front of the procession were people living with disability. “The Government have admitted that 11,000 people forced on to work-related activity after assessments have died before getting work.” (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/atos-scandal-benefits-bosses-admit-1344278) Already the unacceptable cost of the banking fraud and government complicity is being paid in lives. As sad it is to say, predicted.
This winter those on poor wages, benefits and the elderly may suffer further as the result of the deadly disaster capitalism agenda. The reality of the decisions that people have to make between food and heating will continue the cull. For what? This happening when billions of pounds of corporate tax is let off. This happening when people that have benefited from the system evade contributing their share by depositing their digital wealth into tax havens?
On the live-stream channel (http://www.livestream.com/occupylsx) Anonymous delivered a message stating the reasons for the action and offered for all to join them in fighting for justice and the corruption that is in full view of this supposed beacon of democracy.
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http://occupynewsnetwork.co.uk/life-imitating-art-on-bonfire-night-outside-parliament/
 
Putney Debates: Saturday 10 November
Venue: Oasis Centre, 75 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HS
11-12.30pm - Food and democracy

how do we ensure people have access to nutritious, sustainable and good food?
with Helena Paul, Econexus; Dominika Jarosz, Head of Campaigns for Pig Business, and Biofuelwatch

1.30-3pm - Energy and democracy
with Jeremy Leggett, Solarcentury; Fuel Poverty Action Group, and Danny Chivers.
3.15–4.45pm - Law, environment and democracy

with Polly Higgins, Eradicating Ecocide, and Melanie Strickland, speaking on the Community Bill of Rights, from the Occupy Law working group, and Halina Ward; Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development.

Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/114672452021499/

Sunday 11 November
10am - 1pm Reclaiming the Commons: practical steps and galvanising action.
Venue: Room 3E, third floor, University of London Union (ULU), Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

10 am - 1 pm Reclaiming the Commons: practical steps and galvanizing action.

2 pm - A new Agreement of the People for 2012
Venue: Rooms 7, 8 & 9 Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ

New Putney Debates Environment Day
Today at 10:30 at Venue: Oasis Centre, 75 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HS
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New Lord Mayor of London's question for Occupy: Did you have to make such a mess?

Roger Gifford warns would-be campers off at 800-year old swearing-in ceremony
The new Lord Mayor of London has risked reheating last year's Occupy row by describing the St Paul’s camp as “dreadful” - accusing protesters of allowing the site to become a rat-infested obstruction to local business.

Roger Gifford, who was sworn in to the ceremonial role today and will carry out his first major duty tomorrow, leading the Lord Mayor’s Show through the streets of central London, said that anti-capitalism protesters had sparked “an important discussion”, but criticised the “terrible mess” created by their protest camp, which stood outside St Paul’s Cathedral for four months before it was dismantled by bailiffs in February.

“We were emphatically not against the protest,” the Lord Mayor told The Independent. “They weren’t very eloquent at the time at putting over their points, but what they were basically saying was: ‘We don’t like capitalism as it looks today, we want another system’. The response to that was: ‘Interesting, thank you for confirming that we should take a look at how capitalism works and how we can take it forward. That is a very important discussion.’ But the camp was dreadful. We did not like the camp and we would resist having any campers come back again. They made a terrible mess and they really affected businesses in the area.”
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Rest of article here.

I wonder what this ex oil exec thinks about, oh I don't know erm....the mess caused by fracking, deforestation and other examples of capitalism negatively changing the environment/having a negative impact on others?

One rule for them...as ever! :facepalm:
 
The guerrilla library: As cuts close 8 libraries per month, we visit one that rose again

Walk into Friern Barnet Library in North London and you would think you were standing in a model public library.
More than 1,000 fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles are stacked neatly on shelves.
There are comfy armchairs, three computer terminals linked up to the internet and friendly librarians making helpful recommendations.
There’s a DVD and CD section and a kids’ area. Pilates and children’s singing groups abound.
It’s warm, and the carpets and toilets are spotless.
Tonight, author Will Self is doing a reading from his book Umbrella, nominated for the Man Booker prize.
“You’d want to congratulate the local council on a brilliant service,” says a pensioner on her way to use the free internet facilities.
“Only it’s not the council who are running it. It’s the people.”
Friern Barnet Library was closed down earlier this year by Barnet Council, a Conservative-run London borough with a fierce cuts policy.
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/friern-barnet-library-as-cuts-close-1434695
 
In this interview one year into the Occupy movement I discuss with Michael Albert issues around organising for a better society, strategy, people and politics.

Michael Albert is an American activist, economist, speaker, and writer.

During the 1960s, he was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, and was active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. He is co-editor of ZNet, and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles.
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http://www.mixcloud.com/markweaver5015/occupy-strategy-interview-with-michael-albert/
 
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