The first and highest profile site of the London Occupation movement, a courtyard right between St Paul’s Cathedral, London’s famous landmark and scene of the wedding between Prince Charles and Diana, and Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange, has been the scenario for the most extraordinary and creative form of protest. About 200 tents housed a variable number of protesters who together with daytime visitors organised Assemblies – as an on going experiment in Real Democracy – lectures, meditation, first aid, legal advice and a myriad of discussion groups, all at the service of the 99% of the population that suffers the oppression of the 1%.
The other Occupations: a square, a disused Bank and an empty Court have been developing other parts of the project with more lectures and workshops, a Community Centre and symbolic trials of those responsible for the mess the present system finds itself in. Ruthless banking practices and non payment of taxes by big Corporations with government complicity have been denounced and explained. The secretive relationships between the Financial System and those wielding political power has been dissected and brought into daylight. In fact it has been revealed – no surprises here – that the Financial Sector is the highest contributor to the Conservative Party, now in power. The lie, repeated ad nauseum “this system may not be perfect but it’s the only one we’ve got” has been debunked by presentations of alternatives for political, economic and social forms of organization. Nonviolence has been the methodology and objective, at its most coherent self.
The Judge presiding over the eviction case congratulated the Occupiers side for their good behaviour. Was this so unexpected? Is the world so scared of change that it presumes all those involved in trying to bring it about to be part of “a feral underclass?”
It is possible that an appeal may prolong the Occupation, but in any case the process that began on October 15th 2011 may well turn out to be the dawn of a better time for humanity. It is true that neither the Arab Spring nor the Indignados, and their cousins the Occupiers are yet making big inroads into the violent and dehumanising system they are rebelling against, but a moment of inspiration, in historical terms, is gathering momentum.
