36.8% of registered voters voted for a "majority" Conservative government. They claim that they have a mandate to rule, but yesterday Britain said otherwise.
On Saturday morning, word reached Bath that a huge demonstration against the Conservative's cuts and for real democracy was about to take place. Activists and campaigners promptly took action and made their way to London to make their voices heard.
Starting at Tory HQ, the several-thousand strong demonstration peacefully marched to Downing Street, to Trafalgar Square and then back to Downing Street. Left-wing activists of all stripes - anarchist-communists, socialists, Green Party members, badger cull protestors and more united as one against the Conservatives.
Police claim that there was violence against them and criminal damage. The most violence our comrades on the demonstration witnessed was against peaceful demonstrators by aggressive riot police, while the real criminal sat in Downing Street plotting his assault on the British public. What the police failed to understand is that their livelihoods are now as under threat as everyone else's, and that plans to privatise the police force with hired security firms such as G4S will mean that pretty soon demonstrations will start to include ex-coppers too. With chants of "We are peaceful" and "Protect us, don't fight us" largely ignored, the police hit, grabbed, pushed and assaulted those acting in the best interest of the country.
Nobody at the demonstration was at all happy about "Fuck Tory Scum" being sprayed on a memorial to women in the second world war, and it is strongly suspected that this was the work of an agent provocateur, rather than a genuine protestor. What better way to discredit a movement than to desecrate one of the least controversial war memorials on VE Day? We need to be better than this - better than them.
Video of scenes from the demo
Police then kettled protestors for several hours. Spirits in the kettle were high, with demonstrators singing, dancing, playing instruments and holding an open mic session.
The feeling on the day was that this was Day 1, and a good effort. Already people reject their society and are coming together to create something better and to oppose those who intend to ruin much of what the disadvantaged in society and their allies have fought for over the centuries. Peace, solidarity, direct action, education and hope are the tools this emerging counter-culture is using. May this continue.
While people were understandably angry and a lot of insults were thrown against the Tories and Cameron in particular, many people we have spoken to during and since the demonstration are wanting to move on from this. We need to be the best we can be. We need to rise above hatred - that's their value, not ours. Focus our anger into creating something positive - because by hating, we are as bad as they are. Opposing and doing everything we can to stop them need not stem from hatred. It can also stem from our love for our fellow humans and our planet. They do not choose to use their ability to love. We can.
Nation March Against the Badger Cull, London, 1st June 2013
With the mounting criticism of the government's policy of culling badgers to
combat TB, it was only a matter of time before a huge demonstration
took place in London.
A large group of badger activists set off
from Bristol on a coach, stopping near Bath to collect members of Bath
Against the Badger Cull, and headed up to London for the day. The
atmosphere on the coach was vibrant as people got to know each other,
and a team set about painting people's faces with black and white
facepaint. Almost every was dressed appropriately for the day in black
and white, with many "Stop the Cull" t-shirts and badger masks on board.
Arriving at the start of the demonstration outside Tate Britain, we were
greeted warmly by a crowd of around 2000 people dressed as badgers. As
some one put it - "There's never been so many badgers in London!". A
range speakers from various organisations addressed the crowd, including
Queen guitarist Brian May. See the video below for some of these
speeches and footage of the march.
The march then set off with banners and placards raised, good spirits and lots of chanting, as well as sound system on wheels with a painted wooden badger on top.
The march was diverted at the end, and so we didn't go past parliament, due to a BNP demonstration taking place at the same time. Following the march, many headed to St James's Park for a picnic, while others, including Bath and Bristol activist, went on to picket the DEFRA office. On the way, we passed the pitifully small BNP demonstration, and some dressed as badgers chased a few of the fascists hanging around nearby.
One year on, Occupy Bath is coming back for one weekend. One year later, we are still facing the same problems - and some new ones. The banks are still out of control and are largely unregulated. Unemployment is still rampant. Tuition fees have increased. Huge corporations such as Vodafone and Starbucks are still not paying their taxes. The cost of living is going up, but wages are staying the same. The NHS is effectively being privatised.
The 99% are not being prioritised. Corporations and extremely wealthy individuals are still raking in the cash, at the expense of us little people. Our democracy is still a shambles, highlighted by the overwhelming public opposition AND a majority in the House of Commons to a badger cull that is still planned to go ahead next year.
One year on, Occupy Bath is still campaigning for financial equality and a fairer and more democratic society. Since packing up camp last year, Occupy Bath founded the Bath People's Assembly, which is still going today (and put on the Visions for Change event back in April), and has undertaken several actions, including a Move Your Money campaign and offering free hot food in the centre of Bath. Many occupiers have also become involved in other activist and campaign groups. Elsewhere, the Occupy Movement is still alive and well, most signficantly in America, where occupiers are distributing food and aid to those affected by Hurricane Sandy, and in London, where many meetings, discussions and actions have taken place over the last year.
While a weekend camp won't change the world, it will provide a platform for people to discuss the issues affecting us and to voice the views to people who will listen. Amongst these discussions, time will be devoted to looking at how Occupy Bath can move forward. There will also be an action on Saturday afternoon, to be decided upon on Friday night. Plus, since the end of the camps, the Occupy Movement has been largely out of the eye of the media. This camp, which will not outstay its welcome, hopes to bring these issues under the spotlight once more and look for solutions.
The schedule for the weekend:
Friday 6pm - Meet at Green Park Station. We will then move to the occupation site and set up camp. Please bring some food. 8pm - General Assembly - the main focus will be Saturday's action
Saturday 12-2pm - Talks and discussions 2-3pm - ACTION (To be confirmed - we have some ideas, but someone may have a better one) 3-4pm - Speaker's Corner - an idea that has been kicking around for some time - we thought we'd give it a go!
5-6pm - Community Meal - please bring a vegetable (or two!) for the
pot, and a plate if you can. All welcome! Veggie/vegan friendly food! 8pm - General Assembly - the main focus will be where Occupy Bath can go from here 9pm - Jam session - bring an instrument if you have one, if not just bring yourselves and enjoy!
Things to bring: Tent Sleeping bag/blankets Some food Waterproofs (just in case) Torch
The press release regarding the camp:
"From Friday November 16th until Sunday November 18th, Occupy Bath will
be re-occupying in the city. The Occupy Movement worldwide may have been
out of the media lately, but the issues which brought it about are as
urgent as ever. The current coalition government are slashing social and
public services, left right and centre. From education to housing, from
unemployment to healthcare, policies are being enacted which will have a
profound and long-lasting impact on our city, our country, and our
planet. Occupy Bath, as was the case when we occupied Queen’s Square
last year, seek to create a platform for protesting these policies, and
for having an open discussion about what direction our society should
take.
We are re-occupying, a year since we last occupied, as we
believe it is important that these issues remain front and centre in
the public consciousness, and to remind the people of Bath that, whilst
we may not be occupying constantly, we are still very active in the form
of the Bath People’s Assembly"
Standing Stone's Blog will be reporting on the events of the weekend.
Occupy LSX, outside St Paul's cathedral, has been evicted. With most of the camps gone, it might appear to some that the Occupy Movement has lost. Nonsense. Occupy is an idea, and the people involved haven't gone away. We're all still talking, and Phase 2 is taking off quite nicely. That's not to say that the loss of the St Paul's isn't a tragedy - as a friend of mine put it "why do things always have to end with a fence and bastards in hi-vis?".
Occupy LSX
Back in the mid-90s, occupying physical spaces was an almost as widespread form of direct action as in the last 6 months. Back then, the target was the government road schemes. Some occupations of the land made the national headlines - in particular the protests at Solsbury Hill, Twyford, the A30 and, of course, the Newbury Bypass. Their dedication to holding onto those physical spaces was much more than those trying to hold onto Occupy camps, for good reason - the woodlands and other important habitats were under threat. The pavement outside St Paul's and the land at Queen Square and College Green are not under threat, and not home to rare wildlife. It didn't matter so much where the camps were. The Newbury Bypass protest, and many of the other road protests, failed to achieve their primary objectives - protect the natural habitats faced with imminent destruction. But although those battles were lost, the protests scored some big wins in the long-term. The road protests caught the attention of the media in a big way, and turned a large proportion of the public onto the issues. By the end of the Newbury Bypass protest, scores of camps were set up along the route and many thousands of people had participated in some way in opposing the bypass. It's one of the biggest regrets I have, that I wasn't one of them. It was one of the most important battles fought in my lifetime. I visited Snelsmore Common (the site of several of the encampments) recently and was horrified by what I saw. The legacy of the road protests is that hundreds of proposed road schemes never happened, and that environment and wildlife laws are now enforced much more strictly at the planning and development stages. Another scheme like the Newbury Bypass would have a lot more difficulty getting off the ground today with the current planning laws and demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of direct action. As Swampy put it when evicted from his tunnel at Fairmile:
"I think it's the only way to get a voice these days. I mean if I
had
written a letter to my MP, would I have achieved all this? Would you lot
be here now? I think not!"
The victories scored by those brave people who put their lives at risk deserve never to be forgotten, and their achievements need to be upheld and protected. The coalition government are now branding our wildlife laws as "red tape", are trying to make developments easier to get through planning and attempted to sell off our forests. They are eroding our right to occupy, with the squatting laws and enforced evictions. We need to stop them at all costs.
It's easy to overlook a one-day protest, but long-term high-profile
protests get the media interested and, despite some media sources
painting negative pictures, a chance to get the word out to the public. Occupy has started an international conversation. When we had the camps in Bristol and Bath, we were
constantly on the TV, radio and newspapers. We were given the
opportunity to get our message across to the general public and the
people in charge, and they were listening, even if only to dismiss us.
The camps were in central locations. We had so many people walk past,
shouting at us to have a bath and, then go to the pub, start talking
about why we were doing it and come back with questions. Already the politicians are speaking about "fairer capitalism". I'm not
convinced they completely mean it, but there have been some positive outcomes - the
government are now cracking down on tax avoidance by the banks, and the
Move Your Money campaign has seen many people move to more responsible
ethical banks and credit unions. People are now more aware than ever, thanks to the months of Occupiers using whatever means they can - from social media to newspapers, TV, leaflets, talks and tent city universities - to get the messages across.
But even though we're onto the next phase and few are still camping, I don't think it's the end of direct action. If things get worse, the protest side of things will heat up again. The UNITE union leader is calling for protests during the Olympics, and the 15th of May is a significant date for Occupiers (the Spanish Indignados - the pre-cursor to Occupy - started on this date last year). Both of these are opportunities to expand on showing the fat cats, the government and the rest of the world that we're not happy.
I see the Occupy Movement as the latest manifestation of an ongoing war against the corrupt wealthy elite of this world who are hell-bent on wrecking societies and the environment for the sake of profit. Newbury was part of this fight - some of the dialogue from the protestors in videos from the evictions could just have easily come from an Occupier - as were the war march, the G20 protests, the CND movement and countless other protests and movements. From my perspective, the way forward involves "joined-up thinking". We need to connect poverty, environmental degradation, wars, loss of public services, political oppression and human rights violations with corrupt corporations, bankers and governments. There are many organisations and individuals out there fighting different battles of the same war. We need to come together as one, and attack them on all fronts.
In other news, the Move Your Money campaign is gathering momentum - more info here: http://www.moveyourmoney.org.uk/. March is Move Your Money month - if you don't want the big banks to hold the power and want to support better alternatives, now is the time to do so. If you haven't signed it yet, the petition to get Bath and North East Somerset Council to move from NatWest to an ethical bank like the Co-operative is here.
With the Spanish Indignado movement and Occupy Wall Street in full swing and gathering widespread support from across the globe, it was inevitable that the protests would spread to other parts of the world. In September 2011 the date was set - on the 15th October, marking the 5 month anniversary of the start of the Indignado movement, similar protests would occur simultaneously in the major, and some not so major, financial centres across the world.
Social media websites, particularly sites such as Facebook and Twitter, were the major tools used in organising the global Occupy movement. Small groups often met prior to the occupations to decide on locations, which were then publicly announced via Facebook groups, or used the groups to collectively decide on locations. By the end of the 15th, approximately 950 protests did occur, with the majority of them setting up camp, intending to stay.
Occupations involving over 100,000 took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Rome and Valencia. People also turned out in their thousands in London, Lisbon, Brussels, Frankfurt, Santiago, Athens, Vancouver, Paris, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and many more major cities.
In the UK, London grabbed the headlines. Thousands of protestors marched on the London Stock Exchange, but were forced to move towards St Paul's Cathedral by police using controversial "kettlling" tactics. Julian Assange, the founder of the website Wikileaks (which publishes leaked documents from governments and corporations), was among them, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (from the movie "V for Vendetta", and also worn by the hacktivist group Anonymous, who have shown support for Wikileaks). Police removed his mask and shortly afterwards he gave a speech to the crowd.
Overwhelmed by the reports that demonstrations and occupations had erupted worldwide, on that day, my small role as a physical presence in this movement began.
I've been following the Occupy Movement since it began, and the misrepresentation of it in the mainstream press and the focus on the negative aspects of the movement has appalled me - so this blog, for the time being, aims to provide an independent perspective and my direct observations from being involved in it.
It is a movement that is still young, continually evolving and still finding its feet - but movements as big as this (at the time of writing there are over 2000 Occupy protest camps in over 80 countries) are seldom, and the importance of it cannot be understated. The movement is not confined to the camps - there are many who are actively involved in spreading the word on the internet also. Last weekend, Occupy Bath was set up in Queen's Square. It is not outside a bank or a local government building, but surrounded by hotels, a science institute and museums, things that are not necessarily the causes of the problems. Someone asked me "Why, of all places, did you choose Queen's Square?". Through these blogs I hope to present a decent case for this location and explain why this camp is here. I'll start from the very beginning.
Our governments and our financial system have failed us. For the last few years, every new day has brought with it fresh news reports proclaiming cuts to public services, recession, mass unemployment, rising living costs, increased university tuition fees, wars and environmental degradation. The democracy our governments and their media claim we live in isn't working. Somehow it is possible for people to run the country with less than 50% of public support, and even then they do not always keep their promises. There's good reason to be a little disillusioned with the world right now.
And then, 2011 happened. In the Middle East and North Africa, whole nations went to war on their corrupt leaders and ousted them. Riots broke out in London and other areas of the UK. The Greek economic crisis peaked, affecting the rest of the Eurozone and other economies around the world. But amongst all of this dark news are glimmers of hope.
Although perhaps the most commented on protest in the world right now and, in terms of impact quite possibly the most significant, Occupy Wall Street was not the first of its kind. It started in Spain.
In May 2011, Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid filled with tens of thousands of people disillusioned with their country's financial situation and their government. But this demonstration was different to the usual angry mob, this was a demonstration with much optimism. People set up camp and began to debate about the root causes of the problems and come up with solutions, using consensus decision making rather than a parliamentary system to come to decisions. The movement spread across Spain to other towns and cities. The roots for the Occupy Movement began here, with the Indignado Movement, which is still continuing to this date and still continues to inspire.
Police claim that there was violence against them and criminal damage. The most violence our comrades on the demonstration witnessed was against peaceful demonstrators by aggressive riot police, while the real criminal sat in Downing Street plotting his assault on the British public. What the police failed to understand is that their livelihoods are now as under threat as everyone else's, and that plans to privatise the police force with hired security firms such as G4S will mean that pretty soon demonstrations will start to include ex-coppers too. With chants of "We are peaceful" and "Protect us, don't fight us" largely ignored, the police hit, grabbed, pushed and assaulted those acting in the best interest of the country.
