Tuesday 28 February 2012

Is this the end of occupy London or just the start?

Last night riot police and bailiffs moved in out of the blue although the camp had been expecting them at some point to evict occupy London.

By the time last night had come there left around 40 tents and 100 activists the majority had left before clearance day fearing the end.

I was another one who was first sceptical of what the movement was all about as was not a traditional workers movement I thought it was some petti bourgeois adventure. But it turned out to grow in peoples consciousness and gain a lot of support from far and wide.

One of the things people have levelled at occupy is their failure to link up with the wider working class and link with workers struggles, but they did to a extent hosting debates with trade unionists, Jarrow marchers and actively supporting the sparks on their regular protests every week. So they tried but it was still a very early movement in its infancy.

I think many workers were sympathetic to the aims of the camp even if they were not sure where it was heading.

There was much criticism of occupy in its early days for not having any real demands. But this I think was answered by the fact that it was a chance to debate democratically what has gone wrong and what can be the solutions to the crisis.

In some ways the camp was very mixed with some reformists wishing for a nicer capitalism others green activists with climate change at the heart of their message and others there to learn off others.

All in all I think the whole 4 months covering some of the coldest temperatures we’ve seen for some time and all sorts of difficulties with the ST Pauls church and surrounding areas. But eventually I think they got their message through.

I think the strongest message to come out of it will be the idea of the 99% and the 1% starting to form an idea of class again and injustice in society again. Class has b even off the radar for sometime and I personally felt this was a good step forward to regaining this consciousness.

I listened to the eviction last night of occupy London with sadness really as these were people who protested peacefully not harming anyone. Despite the media’s claims it was not an inconvenience to the public or an eye sore. They opened up an avenue of debate actively bringing back capitalism to be talked about. I don’t think Ed Miliband and David Cameron would have been talking of an “ethical capitalism” if occupy hadn’t had an impact on peoples moods and anger out there.

Many activists say this is the end for the movement and the camp, in some way it is but I do think many lessons can be learned from this e experience and bedded in to peoples consciousness that occupy has a role to play in the future movement. Occupying an area or a building is a powerful symbol and puts into question the role of private property that it is the 1% who still do very much hold all the power in society. In other ways this is just the beginning for occupy as they look to regroup and re assess where they go from here.

Whatever happens it will be interesting to see where they go from here as they are right this crisis is not going away its only going to deepen as the year progresses

1 comment:

  1. If Occupy can get their target right then they will attract many more supporters, the target is not the banks but those that facilitate the banks and large corporates with financial favours, they are of course the "self serving political classes"
    Occupy should target Westminster not the Banks

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