October 2016 – WHY OCCUPY

Tina B.

I formed strong bonds of friendship, respect and loyalty with many individuals at St Paul’s. Many of these bonds were based on mutual similarities, others not. It was the people who were most different to me that triggered changes in my identity (my beliefs and value systems), changes that are ongoing.Read more

Kris

Folk from all backgrounds shared skills, information, confidence, equipment, expertise, netwoks, and changed together, to new folk, but not all the same. Folk were encouraged to hone undiscovered skills, things that once realised changed folk deep inside. I’m far from the person I once was.Read more

Tina Louise

How would you define Occupy ? A place of undoing … where people gathered because aspects of life were so clearly going wrong and the solutions on offer, were not going to help. The heart of the City of London – the financial capital was where we came to stop and it felt like weRead more

Peter D.

The financial crisis itself proved we’d all been living a lie, or at least living on debt. Like many people I was initially bemused by what had gone wrong, and wasn’t even sure how we could change things for the better anyway. The levers of power seemed to be firmly in the hands of career-politicians, and there wasn’t a whole lot any of us could do about it. Then came Occupy, and it seemed there was a chance to make things better.

Occupy offered to me a glimpse of how an alternative, fully engaged and informed society could become a reality. I was overwhelmed by the determination of a group of people to camp out over winter, through the snow and the storms, to make a political point. It made me less depressed about the state of the world, because it showed me what was possible when people worked together.

My heart was with Occupy from beginning to end. It was a context in which I grew stronger in the best of who I am.Read more

Andria

It made me despair more, laugh more, cry more, CARE MORE, and I learnt to live-stream there which means it was like a school to me

TALK TO ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE U MEET ABOUT DANGERS OF FRACKING, THE POWER HOLD OF THE CORPS AND BANKS AND ESTABLISH LOCAL GROUPS THAT CAN TAKE STEP-BY-STEP PROCESSES TO EXPOSE THIS STUFF AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.Read more

Reverend Danny

It is important to bear in mind that Occupy was prefigurative as much as proactive. We were living in tents on the concrete, trying to maintain cohesion amidst the jetsam of late capitalism, in preparation for a day when everything collapses. It was a practice run, and it is no bad thing to make mistakes when practicing.

We are at least going to hell more slowly than we would have been without Occupy. Lip service is paid to parts of our agenda even by right wing politicians. The ground has been ploughed, some seeds sown, but not enough have germinated yet.

As long as people feel a degree of comfort and they are getting some sort of a deal so they can get on with their lives there will not be a desire for systemic change. People will put up with what Capitalism deigns to give them. British people are naturally conservative and default to a feudal version of society given half a chance. When they are up against it they will pull together.

Whilst participating I was made to feel validated, respected and useful. That was pretty wonderful. I was pushed to my limits by some events- exhausted, wrung out and frustrated by others- that’s okay – I felt more alive in those few months than I had for the years preceding them.

I think it’s strength lay in the visibility of the protest and the provision of things like Tent City University, and the vibrancy of the General Assemblies in the first 2 months. I think the weaknesses lay in our inability to creatively reconcile differences.

Occupy transformed my world view which had already shifted markedly over the previous 15 years. Together, humanity can solve our problems.More than anything, Occupy created Critical Thinking which taught me that wisdom and understanding comes from collaborative co-creation among diverse groups and individuals; some of the most significant information has come via the most unlikely sources. It was the inclusiveness of Occupy which spawned this. Everyone has a part to play in changing the world, if we can dislodge the yoke of servitude in the struggle for survival.

I learned how hard it is to conduct a democratic experiment which is open to all in the context of a society which produces so much destitution and desperation. I learned how the privileges education and class – including my own – can lead us to unwittingly reproduce the power structures which prevail in the wider society. But also that the careful design of processes and institutions are the most effective protection against this.

It took the shine off ‘consensus’ as a core ideology. In the main, it was a catalyst for me to learn, and apply strategically, more analyses of economics and finance.

Life changing, problematic, system tackling, painful, exhilarating, exhausting, empowering, disastrous,perfect, challenging, educational,the best, the worst, strong, COLD,

I thought it would be an opportunity to experience first-hand how large numbers of people could coordinate activities in an emergent manner, without having to fall back on conventional methods of organising. I had experienced a fair amount of that in online settings, and was curious how networked structures might play out on the ground. I didn’t consider myself much of a political activist at the time, however wanted to be there as a supporter. I felt Occupy was a timely and much-needed expression of a public political sentiment.

I think that nothing can have prepared you for an experience like it and when it had gone, there was no way of knowing how to pick up the pieces and move on. In fact, you can’t move on. That was the point… The hope was real.

A social movement for democratic people’s control over our local and global economy.Read more

Inka

Occupy gave an underlying wide spread credibility to all financial and tax reform initiatives. We had scores of academics and unionists support our protest through peer reviewed articles, books, films and in their ‘appearances’ and lectures. We have shifted the starting point for all campaigns on financial reform. This is a huge achievement. It gives all current and future campaigns an incredible boost by freeing them to be more creative when strategizing their campaigns. Legitimizing the issue is not as necessary. 🙂

Inspiring, chaotic, fun, social, challenging, educative, powerful, eye-opening, feared, paranoid, criticised, naive, self-destructive, insular, and ultimately obsessed with adherence to a single tactic (occupation), not developing demands coupled with a model for social change.

I was curious about politics and thought that I knew alot about it from the BBc. I never realised that my knowledge was grossly incomplete and I was a political idiot. I found a community of people who wanted to change the world for the better and it was seen as a pipe dream.

It helped me to rethink how the left and social movements should organise politically, whether in terms of consensus decision-making in small groups or on bigger, national and international levels. I also met a lot of great people with inspiring stories who had a lot of energy and ideas about alternative futures.

Occupy hits issues head on, Occupy is anarchic, un-cosy and challenging, it made you have to think “How can I define my idea so it works for everyone?” Because if you did not the people they don’t work for reject them and you have to think again until you do.

I learned that it is hard in our current system for people to think in ways that are different from the ways that the system instills in us. I learned that the current system is much more fragile than I ever thought and that most people think.

It drew attention to social and financial injustice.
It served as a focal point for the exchange of ideas and a melting pot for like-minded people to find each other and work together towards shared goals.

It has altered the terms of the debate. It hasn’t yet altered the economic situation, but we can see many of the criticism of the economic status quo which Occupy was making are now being taken up by politicians like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn.

Occupy helped me to find the courage and support to do what I feel is right. I learned that we humans are connected in a special way, I found surprising coincidences in occupations across the globe, it was like we were following one single heart.

Our job should just be to help create the new structures to allow for structural change, but in a very human and organic way

Get active, and do something you love! It’s incredibly important to do activism that you find personally rewarding and enjoyable, otherwise you won’t be a sustainable activist. Find a group that you enjoy working with and get involved!

I have a hatred of capitalism running through my DNA and occupy represented the first sign in my lifetime that people were actually prepared to take the fight to the heart of the beast and to address the most important issues head on. It was the first time that my politics were represented in the manner appropriate to the urgency of our times.

The impact of Occupy on my life will forever be treasured for the amazing people I met, the incredible learning that happened, as well as the knowledge that there are people who are prepared to stand up for what is right and put themselves into the line of fire to do so. It was also pretty devastating. […] the more involved I got the more I despaired of ever seeing any change in the system.

The kind of awareness and consciousness needed for a better world needs a broader worldview than black and white but one that can be spacious enough for opposing points of view.

Occupy altered the course of my life entirely. I moved cities, I changed my job, I made a new set of friends. Occupy was a whirlwind political education.

The crisis will continue to deepen, and there is a rather final date on climate change fast approaching. But I believe people committed to long, tedious organising can absolutely bring about the changes they desire. I don’t think it is easy, but it’s more than possible.

I became more aware of and committed to fighting a variety injustices. I became more aware of how class, privilege, mental health, disability and education affect people’s interactions with the world and with each other – including my own. I became simultaneously more hopeful and more despairing of ‘human nature’, if there is such a thing.

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In 2011, the Occupy movement brought together people from all walks of life in an unprecedented way.

For several months, occupations around the world protested the status quo and struggled to come up with more equitable ways of living.

Five years on, for the anniversary of Occupy London, we are looking to explore the effects of this movement on its participants, reflect on the impact of these experiences and how they are shaping our visions of the future. - A project by Tina and Vica with tech support from Aleksi