UK Newswire Archive
Occupy Nottingham Common Statement
28-02-2012 14:55
This initial statement was collectively agreed by over 500 people on the steps of St Paul's on 16th October 2011. Point 8 was added by the Occupy London General Assembly on 19th November 2011. After ammending point 6, Occupy Nottingham collectively agreed to fully adopt the entire 'common statement', at the General Assembly on 25th January 2012.
- The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this where we work towards them.
- We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.
- We refuse to pay for the banks crisis.
- We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and to our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.
- We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.
- We support the strikes and student actions, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.
- We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world's resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.
- The present economic system pollutes land, sea and air, is causing massive loss of natural species and environments, and is accelerating humanity towards irreversible climate change. We call for a positive sustainable economic system that benefits present and future generations.
- We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.
- This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!
Statement 28/02/12
28-02-2012 12:55
Occupy Nottingham were served yesterday with notice to leave within 7 days, before eviction papers are served.
There is no valid need nor reason at all for the council to evict Occupy Notingham, a deal had been mutually agreed upon provisionally by representatives of both parties, & actions were being taken to set it that in motion & to show good faith.
The deal which would be a staged withdrawal of the camp from the 'square', by first compacting the camp & replacing the barriers, then moving to an alternative camp location within the city, leaving a public discussion & info stand in residence on the square. The finer points were still being negotiated, but the essence of the deal which would ultimately have seen the camp removed from the square to an alternative location at no cost to the council & with no need to spend Nottingham's revenue on expensive court costs, had been made & would have happened with the public's consent.
There is no valid need nor reason at all for the council to evict us.
Since Oct 15th 2011, we have been asking for spokepeople from us to meet with members of the council for a discussion, this had been consistantly denied, despite regular liason meetings, & in January 2012 the council stopped all talks, no more they said... it seems we may have been asking too many questions.
However a month later, council representatives approached us to begin talks once more, following which a proposal in response to our requests of the council was drawn up & agreed upon between an Occupyy Notts & Nottm council spokespeople, this was then presented to the relevant parties & begun to be acted upon.
In short the deal was that if we compacted the camp which would remove the unused areas from within the camp, creating less of an area to maintain, more space for public seating outside the front to make up for that lost through our camp, & replace the external barrier with council security fencing, we would get the assistance of a council team to help clear up, have a two page centre spread piece about us in the Nottm Arrow, along with a private Q&A session with councilors, in which we would present them with the response they had previously asked of us as to where & what we thought the council could do better, or should prioritise through our dicussions with the public of Nottm so far.
Following that we were negotiating an alternate camp location in the city centre, with an info stand remaining on the square, once we moved camp, the council had agreed to recognise us as an organisation working to help create a better society for all, to liaise with us regarding our outreach work to relay information & start actioning solutions, hold a press statement with us announcing what we were in agreement on, & we would host a public debate in the council house.
Some finer details were still in negotiation such as; the provision on the square of drinking water, electricity hook up, portaloo & emptying, rubbish & recycling collection, fencing of a practical height, & all of this continuing at the new site the location still undecided. Any of which not covered by the councils provision to Nottm citizens, or our own council tax payments, would be paid for by us. Also approval of the Arrow article before print, specific type of coordination with our outreach, rather than the offered paste table on a Saturday, we were thinking of a covered info stannd which would provide sheleter with external seating & tables, of our choice of type, size, & location any day of the year during the hours of daylight, so long as we continued to coordinate with the council regarding events held on the square, & to host a regular monthly debate in the council house on a subject of our choice.
All of this we wanted confirmed in writing, & prior to making a final decision, we wanted to ask the public's opinion, & we would go with the majority concensus, as we believe the choice should be there's to make, not based on a few individuals preference & business interests. As the point the council still seem to fail to realise is that this is about them listening to us from now on, we have had enough of listening to their dictations that affect our lives, they are our elected representatives & its high time they began representing us not their own interests, as we have found our own voice!
Apart from the negotiating the finer points the deal had initially been accepted by both parties, which would in the end mean the moving of the camp from the square without any expensive court costs, so why have the council opted to waste Nottinghams resources when there is no necessity to do so?
In the camp after an initial delay due to snow, cold weather & lack of willing manpower, we have since had been busy clearing out camp of anything unwanted or broken, making space for compacting, & to show willing we pulled the info point back initially by approx 15ft.
We were going to compact the camp further in good faith the weekend just gone, but due to the councils backtrack from the deal, & new intention to just evict us we have decided we will not now compact the camp, nor move off the square unless forced, we will continue to occupy wherever we can, & we will maintain a presence on the square indefinately no matter what occurs, until the council listens to us, we revoke any deal until such time as the council cancel their intention to evict us, stop trying to push us around, & begin to listen to us.
This shows a distinct lack of sincerity from the councilors, & also leads us to believe they cannot be trusted to keep their word, or relyed upon to listen to peoples needs, & certainly not to act in their best interests,. This we find very sad, as we were so close to showing & achieving, another path between the digging in of heels, & of forced confrontation, by reaching a mutually agreeable decision acceptable to all, & in turn that would have shown us that the council did have the citizens of Nottingham's interests at heart & were willing to listen to & help them , but instead they fall tell us we must do as they say, well hello we are your people, & we want you the council to listen to us & do as we ask for a change!
We were told that the deal is now only still on the table if we leave the square within 7 days & do not occupy anywhere else. We pointed out that occupying is the essence of occupy in case they had missed that, & that we will not be pushed around anymore by beaurocracy that refuses to listen to its people!
Rich people "more likely to lie, cheat, and break the law"
28-02-2012 12:38
What we always knew has been proven scientifically - rich people are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law.Please Attend!!and help stop yet another Mcplop!
28-02-2012 11:59
Please attend Public MeetingOccupyLSX and School of Ideas Evicted
28-02-2012 10:55
A promise from Occupy London: this is only the beginning
The last thing to go were the kitchen shelves. Around a dozen occupiers peacefully resisted to the last; a short distance away a vigil continued on the Cathedral steps as others observed, supported, prayed and remembered.
The police cordons made the groups seem further apart than they actually were.
On the steps, a mini GA discussed events as they were happening around it – and in particular the collusion of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in the eviction they had previously said that they did not want to see. At around 2am in the morning, the floodlights which illuminate the neoclassical edifice of that great building were turned off. When the lights returned, four policemen could be clearly seen on the balcony, in silhouette.
Not long afterwards, police were given leave to clear the steps themselves, the site of former Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser’s famous intervention of 16 October, when he asked the police to leave and recognised our right to assemble. Giles Fraser, who is so much a part of this story, was prevented from crossing the police lines to reach the Occupy London Stock Exchange site tonight. We would have liked to see him there.
This morning, the City of London Corporation and St Paul’s Cathedral have dismantled a camp and displaced a small community, but they will not derail a movement. The attention given to the final hours of the Occupy London Stock Exchange site is testament to that. We would like to thank all those who got the word out on social and traditional media overnight. We are deeply appreciative of the sustained attention we have received; it’s all the more precious at absurd hours of the morning.
The natural question to rush to in these moments is “what next?” In the short term, there will be a GA at 7pm on Tuesday by the steps of St Paul’s. In the medium term, it is only right that people will need time to rest, reflect and recharge, to take stock and learn the lessons of the past four and a half months. But be assured that plans are already afoot: plans of some ambition, employing a diversity of tactics and delivered with the aplomb you would expect from us. All will be revealed in time. May is one of our favourite months.
This morning also saw the eviction of the Occupy London School of Ideas in Islington in, to say the least, somewhat unorthodox circumstances, while their case was still progressing through the court system. We trust that occupiers will be able to fully retrieve their belongings before what sounds like a hastily brought forward demolition is enacted. What happens to Southern Housing Group’s planning application this week deserves careful examination, as do the views of local people living near Bunhill Row.
We’ll miss Occupy London Stock Exchange but not because of the tents, or even the kitchen shelves: it was a makeshift, loosely cooperative, occasionally quarrelling and fiercely idealistic group of people who came together to achieve something extraordinary. The relationships forged during these strange and beautiful four and a half months still have much further to run. This is only the beginning.
http://occupylsx.org/?p=3786
Film night - The glory of the DDR film industry
28-02-2012 09:11
At Rebel Dog we will be showing a copy of "The Sons of Great Bear" a magnificent film. It was the first of a series of successful Westerns from the GDR DEFA Studios, featuring Native Americans as the heroes, rather than white settlers as in American Westerns.Friday 2nd March 7pm
Rebel Dog
3a Evering Road, London, N16 7QA
Riot cops evict Occupy London camp
28-02-2012 07:18
BRITISH authorities moved in to evict the Occupy London tent city outside St Paul's Cathedral over Monday night.
There were reports of people being arrested and dragged off by riot police, shouting: "Long live #occupy !"
Purchasing Prisoners, Creating Criminals & How Occupy Could be Next
28-02-2012 06:31
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), owner of the largest private prison system in the United States, recently sent a letter to 48 states offering up to $250 million to manage government-owned detention centers. The letter lists the criteria of eligible purchases, which include an assurance that state corrections agencies “have sufficient inmate population to maintain a minimum 90 percent occupancy over the term of the contract.”
This guarantee isn’t difficult to rationalize when considering it from CCA’s point of view. They are paid by the government for each prisoner they house, so they want to house as many prisoners as possible in order to maximize their revenue.
But what if there aren’t enough prisoners to fill CCA’s quota? Private prisons have faced this dilemma before, and they’ve responded by buying prisoners through legislation, government infiltration and old-fashioned bribery. And in the not too distant future, these conditions may mean that the mass arrests of Occupy protesters could become a windfall for investors.
‘Shame-Faced’ Tony Ball forced to Flee Council Awards by angry protesters
28-02-2012 06:07
Nominated for the award of ‘Council Leader of the Year’ by the Local Government Information Unit [1], Tony Ball was confronted by 50 vocal Dale Farm supporters when he attempted to leave the Westminster City Hall. He was hounded back into the building by the protesters, who invaded the lobby shouting ‘scum’ and ’83 families homeless’, and was ultimately forced to leave under police guard via a back exit.
Indymedia Radio Activist Shot in Kenya
28-02-2012 04:41
Greece and Australia's Pack Dog Capitalists
28-02-2012 03:23
As Greece struggles some minor western nations are offering so called "help". But this help is only a ruse so that Greece may be further demoralisedReaction to Proud & Prejudiced documentary on Channel 4
28-02-2012 00:55
BBC: Occupy London protest camp eviction under way
28-02-2012 00:30
Now on BBC, breaking news.Reclaim the Fields Gathering, Wilderness Centre, Forest of Dean, Glos!
27-02-2012 16:21
Reclaim the Fields Spring Gathering@ The Wilderness Centre, Mitcheldean, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, GL17 0HA
