October 15th marked the day of Global Revolution. Marches, demonstrations and occasional clashes changed the face of almost a thousand cities across the world. Following the occupation of Wall Street in New York, where hundreds if not thousands of protestors have now camped in the streets surrounding the New York Stock Exchange for a month, a more global initiative has begun the world over to communicate the unique inequalities that each cities’ people endure.
Key protestors address the crowds on the steps of St. Paul's.
In Rome, clashes between protestors and police culminated with arrests, tear gas and water cannons. But in London, the mood was pacifistic. Early in the day, several hundred people attempted to enter the privately-owned Paternoster Square, the site of the London Stock Exchange, but were obstructed by police. The group then turned to St Paul’s Cathedral. They settled on the steps and in the square at the foot of the cathedral to occupy a space where the congregation could play music, display banners and address the crowds.
While sat amongst the seated protestors listening to the ‘facilitators’ urge for organisation and preparation for a long-term stand against corporate greed, I had a sense that for most this was a chance for reprieve from a perceived enslavement to the state; an opportunity to create a miniature society governed by the principles of their idealisms. Indeed, one banner read: ‘People Assembly: no leader, no hierarchy’. This assembly referred to the large group of protestors that occupied the steps of St Paul’s. This assembly consisted of a resolute group of individuals whose one certain unifying characteristic was their drive to arrive early and be the first members to stand on the cathedral’s steps. But of course, this drive suggests a second unifying characteristic in that they all shared a patent appetite for change. Beyond that, their causes and ambitions for the protest varied starkly, from a stop to the financial cuts, to an objection to the NHS reforms, the welfare reforms, and to other discontents including environmental issues, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to student fees increases.
Groups discuss plans for the protest
The ‘facilitators’, who organised the occupation took a number of small groups aside to discuss issues such as communications, in and out of the protest’s boundaries; facilities, including toilets, food and water; and legal matters, i.e. what to do if you are arrested. These facilitators chaired small meetings between protestors, each group tackling a different issue. The method is effective not just because it gave the chance for seasoned protestors, who have learned much from previous occupations across the world, to convey their opinion on strategies to keep the protest alive- amongst the groups that I listened in on, I heard advice given from voices that had been present in Tahrir Square, the site of the Egyptian revolution earlier this year, Madrid and the United States. But the method is also effective because it allows for a style of democracy that each protestor craved for; a democracy that allowed individuals to speak on an issue and possibly directly affect strategy.
If a member of the group’s contribution was met by approval there rose a sense of empowerment in the group because while many protests around the world end just as they begin, because of an impatience to convey a message before the platform has been created, there was a sense of optimism that this demonstration could go the distance. As well as this empowerment of the group, the approved contributions sparked an even greater empowerment of the individual. These people grinned satisfied smiles because they were a part of a movement, a miniature society that not only listened but recognised their opinion as valid. When the time came to report to the seated crowds the agreed plans for each of the issues, one speaker yelled his message through a megaphone: ‘David Cameron, you wished for a big society – be careful what you wish for’.
The challenge of the occupation of London’s square mile is to mediate the splinter groups that occupy the same space. At times it was like a soap opera- the facilitators attempting to restore order and implement procedure while the anarchists of the assembly looked askance, some screaming above the p.a. system that the peaceful crowds were naïve to expect change from such order. All the time, beyond this battle for the linguistic floor, a battle for the actual floor was being won by the police, who gently encroached onto the protestors’ space, forming a wall of officers who prevented further activists from entering the space between them and the cathedral. As I left this evening, multitudes were also leaving the arena. The spectacle, and advertised thus through an internet campaign that has lasted two weeks, attracted tourists who merely wanted to witness the soap opera or who wanted a slice of history in their cameras and in their scrapbooks. I expect tonight that there will be around 500 people within the police cordon, despite claims from Occupy LSX that there are 4-5,000 in attendance. Many of course remain on the outside.
In New York recently, Slavoj Zizek visited Wall Street and spoke to the crowds. He reiterated over and over that ‘all we need is patience. I am afraid that we will someday just go home and then meet once a year, drinking beer, and nostalgically remembering what a nice time we had here’.
If the demonstration in London remains peaceful, then there resides a platform for voices to be heard and in that a possibility for change, but just as the dissenting anarchists in attendance struggled to convey, the power of that change might only be modest and incremental despite the lofty and dangerous rhetoric of beginning the occupation on a day of ‘global revolution’.
Tents erected in preparation for an occupation that could last weeks
Woman writes the number of the official protest solicitor in case of arrest
Photos by Aeron O’Connor.
Read more on some of the ideologies that are indications of the protests – read our series on the False Consciousness that a capitalist society achieves in its people, and an excerpt on the functions of money.
