Occupy plans new action and pilgrimage to Canterbury
Posted: 09 May 2012 @ 00:00
Just before the clear-out: the Occupy camp outside St Paul’s in February PA
Just before the clear-out: the Occupy camp outside St Paul’s in February PA
PROTESTERS from the Occupy movement are planning to meet outside St Paul’s Cathedral tomorrow for what they describe as a global day of action. The organisers have told their supporters: “Bring a tent.”
On 28 February, the protesters’ camp was removed (News, 2 March), after they lost an appeal against a High Court eviction order (News, 24 February).
A statement posted on the Occupy London website on Tuesday said that there would be a “teach-in” at 1 p.m. on Saturday at St Paul’s, “organised by Tent City University, the educational arm of Occupy London. It is aiming at promoting informed political action and exploring viable economic alternatives before we pay a visit to City institutions that caused and continue to profit by the [financial] crisis.”
It said that the global day of action would involve “citizens using peaceful, creative ways to deliver their own messages to the financial and corporate élite of the City”. The protesters would “continue to exercise our right to peacefully assemble in public spaces”.
A spokesman for St Paul’s was invited to comment on Wednesday morning, but no response had been received at the time of going to press.
Details of a new charity, Occupy Faith UK, were published this week. The group’s website, www.occupyfaith.org.uk, says that it is “an autonomous organisation that has an affinity with the global Occupy movement”.
There is already an Occupy Faith group in the United States, which was formed after Occupy protests in a number of cities.
Occupy Faith UK is organising a “pilgrimage for justice”, which will begin at St Paul’s Cathedral, on 7 June, and finish at Canterbury Cathedral on 19 June. It says that there will be “an interfaith service for peace, justice, and unity in the Chapter House” on 20 June, followed by a two-day conference “on economic, environmental, and social justice”.
The Occupy Faith UK website states: “The route will be set out in a sequence of discrete legs, with potential participants invited to join either for the full walk, or at whichever point they prefer, or simply for a particular leg of the journey.”
The group lists a number of “core needs”, including “locations for us to camp”, such as church buildings or land; “host communities to help feed the pilgrims”; and “tea and coffee”.
In November, Occupy London wrote to diocesan bishops to propose a “touring occupation” that would take the form of a “Winter Carnival, to roll through all of Britain from cathedral to cathedral” (News, 25 November).