Thursday 29 March 2012

Occupy Bath - Forthcoming Action

That's right - back in December when we packed up our lovely little camp in Queen Square, we said, and I quote, "This is only the beginning." Always true to our word, we have a few things lined up.

This Saturday we will be bringing some light-hearted costumed street theatre outside the non-ethical banks in Bath - we're talking about the ones that messed up our economy and are involved in the arms trade and fossil fuels. The full press release is below:

"As grass re-grows on Queen Square, Bath, left immaculate when the Occupy Bath encampment voluntarily vacated on December 10th, the movement is springing back into public view in central Bath.

On Saturday 31st March, at noon, veterans of Occupy Bath will begin a bank-crawl, visiting the pavements outside Bath’s Big Banks with street theatre urging customers and passers-by to “Move Your Money!”


Living money bags will bounce to jolly money music while Occupy Veterans distribute fliers with a serious message. These remind readers that the financial crisis since 2008 is the result of out-of-control banking, and that three years later, practically nothing has been done to change the system.


Lin Patterson said, “These banks speculate on food prices, avoid tax through tax havens, invest in arms, oil, nuclear and polluting industries while paying themselves absurd bonuses. Yet we are not helpless--we can vote with our feet and move to real alternatives now, such as the Bristol Credit Union which covers Bath and offers a current account, savings and loans, among others like the Cooperative Bank or Bath Building Society. Today is about taking the first step in exploring how you can move your money. See the ‘Move Your Money’ website for starters. ”


The Occupy Bath Veterans also support the B&NES Council - Move Your Money Petition , an e-Petition which anyone who lives, works or studies in the area can sign on the B&NES website, calling for the council to move its money from NatWest, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, to a more ethical bank, better representing the needs of the public, as other councils have done.


The Street Theatre begins in front of NatWest Bank on High Street at noon, before moving on to other Milsom Street banks."


But that's not all. Since we packed up camp, various Bath Occupiers have been very busy. Back in January we had a reunion in Queen Square, covered here. Occupiers have also been partaking in organised debates and talks on the Occupy Movement, and one of us recently attended the Occupy South West conference in Newton Abbott last weekend - see here for the statement on this conference. Many of us have continued attending the Bath People's Assembly meetings (which since its inception has been open to all people of Bath to discuss the matters they want to, and is not specifically for Occupiers and Occupy supporters) and Occupy Bath has endorsed the petition calling for the council to move their money from Nat West to an ethical bank like the Co-op or Triodos


Occupy Bath have confirmed that they will join the growing number of forward thinking organisations and campaigns at the Visions for Change event in Bath on Saturday 28th April, organised by the Bath People's Assembly. More on this in a future post, and more details can be found on the events tab on the Bath People's Assembly website.


Standing Stone has also written an article on the Occupy Movement for the U-Know Section of the website of the forward-thinking musician, antiquarian and author Julian Cope - read it here:


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