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#SpringIsComing: The Evictions of Occupy London Show the Authorities are Scared

Posted: 29/02/2012 23:00

As the bell tolled for midnight the bailiffs came. Backed by around 400 police and riot officers they encircled the occupation of St. Paul's. Christians kneeled down on the steps of St. Paul's in prayer would be thrown to the ground on the orders of the cathedral itself, and I would see the absolute compassion and anguish on the face of Canon Giles Fraser as the police prevented him from comforting those for whom his resignation from St. Paul's had so inspired.

As the bells rang again I received a text - Occupy London's School of Ideas was also being evicted, this one with questionable legality. When I arrived at the school around 6am, the surrounding streets were already blocked off and bulldozers were on the scene. By 8am, they had completely demolished a school.

Throughout the night the occupation at Finsbury Square had a Section 30 placed around it, granting the police stop and search powers on every individual coming or going to the site, powers deemed illegal b the European Court of Human Rights.

The City of London police have carried out illegal evictions before in a futile attempt to stem the Occupy movement, but the sinister pre-dawn demolition of the school building shows the government getting more desperate to end the extra-parliamentary movements against forced austerity and wealth re-distribution from the 99% to the 1%. The order itself for the eviction was signed by Kenneth Clarke QC MP. Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

It is not simply the spaces the state wants to evict. It is the idea the spaces embody. The idea that people will take the decisions that effect their lives and their communities into their own hands. The idea that it is unnecessary to elect an easily bought off representative to speak for you when your voice is loud enough. The idea that we can say "No." And most frightening to them, that we are saying "No."

The Boycott Workfare campaign by Right to Work and others is succeeding. Workfare is a forced labour scheme, forcing people to work 30 hours a week, unpaid, for corporations like McDonalds. It's eerily similar to China's "internship" program forcing workers to work for free at Apple's supplier Foxconn plant. As the Boycott campaign becomes more successful (both Tesco and Burger King pulled out of the scheme last week) the government has begun to panic. The Tories have ordered police to halt workfare demos. That's just the beginning of the government's attempts at "Beijinging London" before the Olympics.

Interior Minister Theresa May in late January urged Olympics organisers to ban tents to prevent "occupy-style" protests. It's a futile attempt. On Tuesday, the same day as the evictions, Len McClusky, head of Britain's largest union, Unite, stated "The attacks that are being launched on public sector workers at the moment are so deep and ideological that the idea the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything is nice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable." He went on to call for all forms of civil disobedience and strikes to stop the cuts, and pointed out that the Olympics were a perfect venue.

The weather is warming. The government is preparing for a summer of pomp and circumstance. Occupy and others are preparing for resistance. We need to unite. For we realise the state is scared now, but imagine their fear when we march side by side. As the character "V" said in the story that inspired so many Guy Fawkes wearing activists "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

May looks like a good month. Spring is coming. And so are we.

 

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00:13 on 03/03/2012
I'm afraid that Adam is hyperbolising the truth about what happened at the School of Ideas. I live directly opposite the site which was occupied, which belongs, by the way, to a housing association. There were no "bulldozers" at all. I was up and watching events unfold from 5:45am that morning. There was one excavator and it didn't begin the demolition until around 8:15. I have photographs to prove this and posted several on my twitter fed at the time. In fact parts of the school remain intact, it has yet to be "flattened" as you suggest. OK, these may be trivial corrections but exaggerating the truth? Isn't that what politicians and bankers do? Occupy continue to claim that the eviction of the School of Ideas was illegal but have yet to explain why it was. Southern Housing Group, the housing association who own the site, obtained a possession order, which yes, was signed by Ken Clarke. Having done so they were perfectly entitled under law to repossess their property which Occupy had squatted since February 1. If Occupy is to win hearts and minds they have to be better than the the people they oppose.
16:45 on 02/03/2012
Where's the democracy in this? Where's the mandate for what they are doing? The policies they suggest will never be hi-jacked by the mainstream political parties so, if they want action, they are going to have to form a distinct political party. They must set out their programme in a manifesto and get a popular vote. Graft, graft graft.
Then again - I suspect they don't want to move into the mainstream political process because, apart from being a lot more work than invoking riots, they will find out just how little support they do have in the country at large.
19:39 on 01/03/2012
Good article. Good luck to the Olympian Occupiers.
14:41 on 01/03/2012
Britain is a society of the 'Haves' and 'Have Nots'. It is time the huge inequalities and exploitation in Britain were tackled. It is unacceptable that some people are considered to be worth a salary of 10 Million Pound a Year and others have to live on peanuts - working hard all week just to pay the bills and having no quality of life. Good luck to this protest and I hope the British people make it clear to Parliament that they are fed up with the cost of essential services in Britain and it is time the greedy in Britain shared some of their wealth so that everyone can afford to e.g. go to a restaurant and the theatre now and again. Millions of working people are 'excluded' and despite working hard all their lives have no money left when all the bills are paid to have a nice day out. It is like a slave labour existence, with only money for food. Whilst the greedy capitalists, celebrities and politicians are living in luxury every day of their lives. Life is short. Everyone deserves a decent quality of life. Everyone in Britain should make the effort to support this protest.
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00:30 on 02/03/2012
This is the "we are ALL in it together Big Society", but as you so wisely point out in reality the only one's living a LIFE worth living are the greedy top 1/%, who think it is their GOD given right to exploit the rest of the population who aren't born with a silver spoon in their mouth or given a Knighthood. As proven by their disgusting GREED, it is the trash with cash who are ALL in it together SANCTIONS for the rest of the British population?
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13:45 on 01/03/2012
“the bell tolled”
As Donne observed, and Dave now succinctly amplifies. The suggestions of Len McClusky are completely out of proportion to the problem. If people want to protest their condition they are free to camp on the forecourt of Saint Paul’s, and… Oh. Maybe not.
12:54 on 01/03/2012
Scared of the Occupy crowd? If the Occupiers are guilty of anything, surely it's overestimating their own importance.
10:19 on 01/03/2012
Great post. I've not been so excited about the Olympics bring in London since I realised it is an amazing opportunity to amplify our messages by using civil disobedience where they can't turn the cameras off.
What an ever increasing number of people are realising is, there is no multi-party system in the UK. We have a single party system, run by the neo-liberal party. They value nothing, commodify everything and use the taxpayer as a slush fund for corporate ventures. There are enough of us to strat making a dent in them now, and every day more people hear whats happening and break out of their x-factor induced slumber.

More exciting is the global nature of the occupy movement. If there was this scale of neo-nazi movement, the TVs would be full of it...we would all be saying 'oh my god, there is a resurgent neo-nazi moevement!', 'They;re everywhere, they have camps set up in 900 cities in 90 countries all over the world!'.

However, when it is people seeking solidarity and community with eachother to discuss the greatest challenge of our age.........'nothing to see here folks...just some crusty hippies'.

Bring on the spring, bring on the olympics, bring on the greatest acts of civil disobedience of our time.
16:59 on 02/03/2012
... and there are enough of us decent, sensible people who put a value on life, property and the right to live in a society free of rioting, intimidation and disorder, to oppose 'the greatest acts of civil obedience of our time' as well, sunshine. Bring it on.
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23:20 on 29/02/2012
looks like an attempt to self-convince...