#OccupyLSX - Day Three Report + 53 QuikPix
Dateline: The London Occupation, West Courtyard, St Paul's Cathedral, London, UK, Mon 17 Oct 2011, 17:00-18:30 - Since even the mainstream media have been full of reports all weekend about the global ubiquity and huge scale of the #OccupyTogether uprisings, I really didn't need much of a push to carry me back to the site of Saturday's successful #OccupyLondon General Assembly (see '#OccupyLSX - Day One Report + 75 QuikPix'). So when the call came in for some serious speech amplification, I charged up, labelled up, and delivered my 70Wrms street sound system to the newly erected Media/Tech hub in their Big Blue Tunnel, the better to facilitate communication and consensus decision-making during General Assemblies (which role it fulfilled so well on during Saturday's Occupation creation events). From an amorphous and homogenous sea of citizens two days ago, the London Occupation has transformed itself into a well-structured intentional community encampment, as you can see for yourself in the following photographs.
WITH “GOD” ON OUR SIDE
As a militant atheist (and part-time worshipper of the One True Trinity of the Aten, Ceiling Cat, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster ;-), I fully failed to anticipate how fortuitously world-changing events can gain the benefit of having God on our side. Since the panicked revocation of public access to the pubic space of Paternoster Square, where resides the much loathed London Stock Exchange (target of the London Occupation), we citizens choose instead to hold our General Assembly next door, on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. One of twelve the working groups our people's assembly decided to create was tasked with liaison with the folk of the Cathedral, and boy has that paid off big time: on Sunday morning, the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Dr Giles Fraser, spoke to the citizens of the London Occupation.
“People have a right to protest and it's been very good natured. Church went down well this morning. There were no problems. We had no problems getting people in. People were very helpful. I haven’t seen any trouble. I understood there might have been some, but I haven’t seen any trouble. The police were trying to protect the building for us, which was very good of them. Earlier this morning I asked them if they’d leave, because I didn’t feel that it needed that sort of protection. We'll see how it goes. We're taking one day at a time, and it's really good to see it's all worked out well for us today.”
~ Dr Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral
VOX POPULI
“The reverend came out this morning and asked the police to leave the steps of the cathedral, and said he didn't mind protesters being here, that he supported the democratic right to protest. He said there was no issue and that people were treating the site respectfully, and he was happy for it to carry on. He was asked if the services would still be carrying on and he said yes, they would carry on as if there was no problem happening. The response from protesters was very positive - everybody likes to feel that the community around us are helping out.”
~ Ben Doran, 21, music student from the Midlands
“I’m here today because I can’t see why you wouldn’t be, and I feel that this is one of the few moments in history where it’s not a protest, it’s an actual movement that’s taken root. We’re trying to challenge this myth that there are not enough resources to go around.”
~ Lorena Fentes, 27, charity worker, hailing from Vancouver, Canada
“We want as many occupations as possible, to spread the message that we can make a change. We’re peaceful and very organised.”
~ Tarek Von Bergmann, 36, German chef, Swindon
“I’m sick of talking about the state of the country, so I thought I’d do something about it.”
~ John Dean, 21, chef, Milton Keynes
“I was made redundant two months ago. I’ve come to show my anger at the Government about bank bailouts and not helping the people.”
~ Tristan Woodwards, 28, ex-IT support worker, Basingstoke, Hampshire
“Inflation is growing, prices are going up, but my income is not only frozen but going down. There’s a minority causing these problems for the majority.”
~ Virginia Lopez Calvo, 30, women’s rights worker, from Hackney, East London
“I lost my job in April because of the cuts. But now I’ve got the best view in England from my tent. I could stay here for ever.”
~ Carl Buckland, 51, social worker, Hastings, East Sussex
GRATITUDE DUE, FOR FRIENDLY FESTIVAL ATMOSPHERE
We're very grateful to Dr Giles Fraser and the folk of the Cathedral for their amicable pro-democracy intervention. By dismissing the intimidatory police presence as unnecessary, they’ve help to ensure that the atmosphere of the London Occupation is dramatically improved, now resembling that of joyful free festival of music, poetry, revolutionary ideas, and world-changing direct democracy. Now that we're no longer hemmed in by a gang of armed-&-armoured thugs in uniform, in the pay of the 1% plutocrats, interfering with our fundamental human right to Freedom of Assembly, we 99% citizens of the Occupation and our visitors can move around freely, free from the obstructive intimidation of the rozzers.
Do please come on down to the London Occupation, for just an hour, or a day, or a week, or as long as it takes. You can discover for yourself how powerful it feels to begin giving up illusions in bourgeois representative democracy, while starting to exercise your political power DIRECTLY, in concert with other citizens of the Occupation. Once we've re-discovered how to govern ourselves - through the direct democracy of our General Assemblies - we'll be able to withdraw our consent from the corrupt and corrupting Parliament, by which the 1% capitalist plutocrats lord it over us, and enjoy the spectacle of the Palace of Westminster collapsing like a house of cards in a direct democracy earthquake.
Before visiting or joining the London Occupation, please take a look at its collective needs and wants, and see if there are practical and material ways in which you could deliver your support too:
• Donations webpage at Occupy London
» http://occupylsx.org/?page_id=192
LINKS
• Occupy London
» Website - http://occupylondon.org.uk
» Facebook - http://facebook.com/occupylondon
» Twitter - http://twitter.com/occupylsx
• Hashtag - #occupylsx
• Occupy Together
» Website - http://www.occupytogether.org
• Hashtag - #occupytogether
• United for #globalchange
» Website - http://15october.net
• Hashtag - #occupytogether
• Occupy London, Global Day of Action #15Oct - further coverage
» Indymedia London Aggregate Article - http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10420
Share-&-Enjoy,
Up the Revolution,
Tim Dalinian Jones
PS: For the sake of topicality (and coz my beloved MacBook Pro is still away at the menders) I'm uploading these photos as soon as possible, without the photo-editing and captioning that normally characterises my Indymedia Action Reports.
Footnotes
All these photos are 'CopyLeft' This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos you find here, under the following license:
• Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
» Human-readable summary -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
» Attribution: tim.dalinian.jones@gmail.com
NB: The pix above are auto-downsized versions for onscreen webpage display. If you would like the free, unedited, full-sized versions (up to 3072x2304px, 7.1Mpx, typically c. 3 MB) just click on an image: bingo! You can also right-click on an image and choose ‘Open Link in New Tab' (or similar) to open a full-sized version alongside the report webpage. If you'd like to take a copy of the full-sized image version, right-click on it and choose ‘Save Image As...' (or similar). Share and Enjoy!
Original article on IMC London:
