OCCUPY EVERYWHERE

In the last few days approximately 1,000 cities across the world have joined in the #Occupy movement sparked off by Occupy Wall Street (SchNEWS 792). As the Occupy Wall Street protests neared their second month camped up next to the Mamon of world finance, movements all around the world have copied the OWS model – with “Occupy” protest camps springing up in city centres all over the world. United by common tactics and the common slogan, “We are the 99%”, people are taking the fight against capitalism to the belly of the beast.

Saturday 15th October saw occupations take place all over the UK. The biggest and most headline-grabbing is, of course, “Occupy The Stock Exchange”– still going strong with several hundred people camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral. But it’s by no means the only one, and at the moment there are at least nine UK cities where the “Occupy” movement has successfully taken and held city centres.

This is a movement of all of us! And it needs all of us to help if it’s going to win. If you are willing and able to camp out – come along to your closest occupation. If you can’t, they still need your help. They need tents, kitchen equipment, general protest tat (ie- rope and gaffa tape) food, and especially warm clothing, blankets and sleeping bags- it’s getting colder and they don’t plan to leave anytime soon.

For more information on occupations follow the links on the back. For up to the minute updates, follow @SchNEWS on Twitter, where we’re tweeting and re-tweeting info about the UK and world occupations.

More Occupations are planned, and there may be others that we’ve missed, so over is not necessarily the complete list. Please email/tweet/phone us with updates.

In London, Occupy The Stock Exchange has been doing well with hundreds of people attending every day. Thanks to some unexpected charity from the Church, the protesters have been able to camp up relatively unmolested on the steps of St Pauls Cathedral. The police have maintained a thin blue line across the entrance to Paternoster Square (i.e. the Stock Exchange) – it’s as if they expect trouble there. The occupiers are well stocked with food, some of it donated by sheepish bankers that work “in the heart of darkness” (their words).

After last weekend’s heavy handedness, the police presence has been (so far) relatively relaxed. Some FIT are lurking around, but they havent been routinely filming people. There has been a mixed response from City workers- ranging from the interested, the bemused, and the boring (who would have thought that some people would shout “get a job” at the protesters?!)

The camp is full of positive people organising workshops and meetings about how to overthrow the system and what to replace it with.  For a list of some of the current demands see www.occupylsx.org - if you don’t like ‘em get out there and argue for something else...

* See below for details of UK Occupations