We are deeply moved to hear that Giles Fraser has resigned. He is man of great personal integrity and our thoughts are with him.

From the moment, Occupy London arrived at St. Paul’s Churchyard he respected our right to protest and defended it.

For that we are very grateful, as he ensured that St Paul’s could be a sanctuary for us and that no violence could take place against peaceful protesters with a legitimate cause – challenging and tackling social and economic injustice in London, the UK and beyond.

OccupyLSX was surprised to hear The Telegraph and others reporting this morning that 90% of our tents are empty overnight. This is simply not the case. We try to keep vacancy to a minimum and operate a sign in/sign out system to help ensure this happens.  When someone knows they will not be staying overnight, they offer their tent to someone else.

We are ordinary people with jobs and families.  We are occupying in order to register our objection to being shut out of the political process. The fact that we are camping out here shows how seriously we take our right to participate and be heard.  We are part of the 99%.

It’s certainly interesting to hear that the Corporation of London are wasting many thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in monitoring our numbers by helicopter. But what about the “thermal imaging cameras”?  We might be in a public space, but these tents are our homes – at least some of the time – and everyone has a right to privacy.

Being woken up in the middle of the night by a journalist with a camera is an unpleasant experience, and even more so for a female sleeping in a tent alone.  The Press Team is happy to facilitate interviews at all hours of the night (we had Radio 5 Live broadcasting from 1am to 5am the other day), but we do ask that such requests go through us on this number 0845 299 6175.  Our volunteers will do their best to help.

A “nine out of ten tents are empty” statistic is completely unfounded. Finally, these are the facts of what happened on the night of Monday, 24 October.

The journalist in question was found by our Tranquility Team (night-time volunteers who look after the peace of the camp and who keep it ship shape in the twilight hours), shaking the tents of occupiers, who initially thought they were police and understandably approached them to enquire what was happening.  The journalist explained that he was investigating a claim that tents were empty at night, and argued that it was correct to check this claim.  Our team asked if he planned to approach every tent in this manner (as people were asleep) and invited him to select 5 tents and they would facilitate this approach.  The journalist refused.  And now it seems to be a story.

In keeping with our statement, we stand in solidarity with occupations across the world.  As we have seen in Melbourne and Sydney recently, occupations, no matter how peaceful and serene – as ours is – are constantly vulnerable to harassment and intimidation.  Occupy London (LSX) is a peaceful place, with an open door to visitors and passersby who wish to engage in the politics of the camp.  We are now occupying in two locations.  We’re here 24 hours and we’re here for serious reasons. We appreciate the warmth and support we experience daily, from tourists, from local businesses and city workers, who agree with us, that we have an unsustainable financial system and that we need change.

Please direct any further enquiries to the Press Team on 0845 299 6175 or press@occupylsx.org

Campers at Occupy London and activists from direct action group UK Uncut joined forces to descend upon the head office of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on Monday afternoon to demand the resignation of HMRC boss Dave Hartnett.

Protesters were outraged at Hartnett’s role in approving secret sweetheart deals to let mega-rich corporations off billions in tax. They were prevented from reaching Hartnett’s office by a heavy police presence. Minor scuffles ensued as police lined the main entrance to the building. The protest continued outside the offices with chants of “Hey Ho Hartnett has got to go!.” Later, protestors attempted to gain access to the offices by a side entrance but were again blockaded by police.

Business Secretary Vince Cable happened to walk past the protest. He was chased to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with protesters demanding the sacking of Hartnett.

Goldman Sachs was recently let off paying £10m to HRMC while Hartnett allowed Vodafone to dodge £6bn in tax late last year. Hartnett is Whitehall’s most “wined and dined’ cicil servant, meeting with corporations 107 times last year.

Occupy London supporter Kyshia Davey said: “HMRC has just announced it will be going after 146,000 pensioners to demand hundreds of pounds from them following a tax code cock-up. Meanwhile, its boss is striking secret deals with opulent corporations to let them off billions of pounds in tax. Hartnett is fatally undermining public confidence in the UK’s tax system at a time of austerity and he must resign immediately.”

The Occupy London faith outreach working group have recieved a message of support from Christian groups.

If you or your group wish to give support, please email christianoutreach@hotmail.co.uk
or leave your details below.

Christian solidarity with the ‘Occupy London’ movement 

As Christians, we stand alongside people of all religions and none who are resisting economic injustice with active nonviolence. We offer our greetings to people engaged in occupations of financial centres throughout the world.

We seek to witness to the love and justice of God, proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he had come to “set free the oppressed”. His gospel is good news for all people. It is a challenge to all structures, systems, practices and attitudes that lead people to exploit and oppress their fellow human beings.

The global economic system divides people one from another and separates humanity from creation. It perpetuates the wealth of the few at the expense of the many. It fuels violence and environmental destruction. It is based on idolatrous subservience to markets. We cannot worship both God and money.

We are inspired by Jesus, who protested against exploitative traders and moneychangers in the Jerusalem Temple. Christianity began as a grassroots protest movement. Nonviolent direct action can play an important and ethical role in resisting injustice and achieving change.

We stand in solidarity with the ‘Occupy London’ movement and regret that they have not been able to make their protest closer to the London Stock Exchange. We applaud their commitment to co-operating with St Paul’s Cathedral and to ensuring that their camp is safe for everyone in the vicinity. We were pleased by the cathedral’s initial welcome to the camp and hope that difficulties between the occupiers and the cathedral can be speedily resolved, keeping the focus on the need to challenge the financial injustices perpetuated by the City of London.

Signed by:

Ekklesia
Fellowship of Reconciliation (Europe)
London Catholic Workers
Society of Sacramental Socialists
Speak network
Third Way

 Molly Shapes History

  Tent City Uni teach-in outside Bank of England

  Voices from the Occupation

  A Movement in Slow Motion

11am – Egyptian activist Nawal el Saadawi brings greetings from Tahrir Square.

11am – Meet the Movement – An opportunity to meet those involved with Occupy London Stock Exchange across the different working involved in creating the tent city with the City – including our kitchen, outreach, international, arts and events, recycling, legal, tent university, and library groups. You’ll get the chance to see the camp, find out more about what is happening, aims, ethos and plans for the future ·

1pm – Public Assembly – You are invited to join a special assembly, during which there will be updates from occupiers around the world, as well as personal testimonies from those involved in OccupyLSX explaining why they’ve become involved in the camp. All are welcome, whether you wish to speak about your own personal experiences relating to the social and economic injustices happening here in the UK and beyond, or just to listen.

2pm - State of the Nation Roundtable Discussion – Facilitated by OccupyLSX’s Tent City University, there will be a roundtable discussion looking at the current economic state of the nation discussing pragmatic ways of bringing about systemic, real change. Panellists from across the political spectrum include members of OccupyLSX, Polly Toynbee (The Guardian), Jonathan Portes (National Institute of Economic and Social Research), John Christiansen (Tax Justice Network) and James Meadway (New Economics Foundation).

3.30pm - Tour of Corporate Greed – a magical mystery tour visiting some notable locations in the Square Mile. Try not to be late – we’ll leave promptly!

At today’s assembly of over 500 people on the steps of St Paul’s, #occupylsx collectively agreed the initial statement below. Please note, like all forms of direct democracy, the statement will always be a work in progress.

1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on the 30^th November and the student action on the 9^th November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!

#occupylsx has woken up to a beautiful, sunny morning. The Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s came out to welcome us – he said we could stay, but told the police to leave. Amen to that!

There will be a people’s assembly at midday today, where we’ll discuss the future of #occupylsx – this is what real democracy looks like. Come down and make your voice heard.

#occupylsx needs food, shelter, anything warm and more people with positive energy. If you’ve got any of those things, please make yourselves known via:

Email: general@occupylsx.org
Twitter: twitter.com/OccupyLSX
Facebook: www.facebook.com/occupylondon

Or better still, just turn up!