So much has been said in the media about the Occupy Movement and OccupyLSX… and a lot of it is nonsense. I’ve been searching around for stories, articles, opinion pieces etc that reflect the truth as I’ve experienced it during my time at St Paul’s.
Here are a few extracts and links that express something close to the reality, or provide a background to what’s going on in the Occupy Movement. I’ll be adding to these over the next days and weeks.
oaktreegarden.wordpress.com – one blogger’s take on economics, ecology, non-violence and the Occupy Movement.
ianbone.wordpress.com – an anarchist’s outlook.
why-the-protesters-are-going-to-win – support from the New Economics Foundation.
Madeleine Bunting, in The Guardian, 30 Oct – ‘Occupy London is a Nursery for the Mind’:
“Over the last two weeks… Occupy London Stock Exchange [has] attracted an extraordinary amount of publicity – much of it hostile. Yet the derision… has not inhibited the campers’ striking degree of self-possession… In part, that comes from pride in what a couple of hundred people have managed to create from scratch in a few days… The level of organisation is remarkable… There is nothing chaotic about this experiment in community in which no one is turned away, and everyone has their say… In part, the self-possession comes from the steady flow of enagagement with sympathetic, curious passersby… There is a steady flow of donations of food and money… “I just wanted to say that I’d be with you if I wasn’t too old to camp and I didn’t have a full-time job,” I overheard one lady tell a protester. Everywhere there is the hum of strangers talking to each other about politics…” whole article
Guardian Editorial, 30 Oct – ‘The Rich and the Rest…’:
“In the Times this weekend one Tory columnist suggested the St Paul’s campers were on to something. In the pink pages of the Financial Times, the City’s own organ, a former investment banker called for moralised markets, while the FT’s brainbox-in-chief asked why the arrival of Occupy London Stock Exchange had taken so long…” whole article
Lucy Mangan, in The Guardian, 28 Oct – ‘St Paul’s, embrace your new flock’ :
Lucy takes a humorous slant on why St Paul’s and the Protesters should be on the same side. whole article
Andrew Rawnsley, in The Observer, 30 Oct – ‘The Protesters seem more Adult than the Politicians and Plutocrats’:
“With a few nylon tents and some amateurish banners, the Occupy movement has rattled the establishment… it is twisted knickers time amongst pundits, politicians and prelates…” whole article
Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie, in New Scientist, 22 Oct – ‘The Network that runs the World’: a Swiss study uses mathematical modelling and massive databases to show that a few interconnected trans-national companies control most of the world’s wealth… The New Scientist report claims that whether these companies team up to exert political power is an as yet unanswered question… (subscribe or buy NS magazine to read the full article)
Owen Jones, in New Statesman, 31 Oct – ‘The Revolutionary Moment’: an in-depth look at the historical, political and global context of the Occupy movement. whole article
Hazel Hedge 