Occupy London: a fading fad?

Outside St Paul's Cathedral

When the Occupy London movement pitched its tents in the churchyard of St Paul’s Cathedral in London last October it sent shockwaves through the suit-clad City workers to the whole country. Building on the momentum from other protest camps worldwide, such as Occupy Wall Street, the protesters outside St Paul’s denounced the capitalist system and the ensuing inequality. Commentators were keen to interpret the resurgence of protest movements as a portent of an imminent sea change in western society, perhaps fuelled by nostalgia for the social ferment of the 1960s. These predictions proved to be unfounded, or in any case premature. The excitement aroused by the camp soon died down as legal proceedings with the City of London Corporation got under way to ultimately result in the eviction of the protesters on 28 February. The Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park in New York had already been evicted back in December and Occupy Bath cleared the tents in Queen Square the same month. As Laurie Penny from the New Statesman wrote, “the political establishment is making its message clear, in the manner of a hostess trying gently to expel the last unwelcome guests at the end of a party: stretching, ostentatiously tidying up and talking loudly about how cold it is outside”. The question now is, what have these movements achieved? And will they be remembered?

To look for a concrete achievement one must first start from the objectives, and these were rather like a crème brulée: seemingly sturdy on the outside only to reveal themselves soft after you dig a little. Occupy London sought to fight corporate greed and “make [their] voices heard against the crisis which the banks have created”. Some very lofty aims indeed. But fighting corporate greed is not as clear cut as it seems, whilst making one’s voice heard need not take 5 months. Joan Smith, a human rights campaigner, believes that “once you’ve met your aims, it’s crucial to take your cause forward and I’m not sure continuing to stay outside St Paul’s Cathedral takes these protesters’ political objectives any further”.

Perhaps, then, we are wrong to look for concrete aims in the Occupy London protesters and even the movement worldwide. Michael Chessum, one of the leaders of the student protests, believes that developing concrete demands now would be premature. One must not interpret “fighting corporate greed” as an insular objective, for it is connected to a deeper societal malaise with the capitalist paradigm that has dominated western society for three decades. It would also be wrong to focus excessively on the “we are the 99%” mantra, for whilst the protesters do call for an end to the expanding schism between the super rich and the rest of society, they feel that the system has failed them as a whole, of which social inequality is simply one aspect. The Occupy London movement has thus been a “standing reminder that the force of capitalism may not be what its champions say it is”, raising awareness of the failings of capitalism simply through their presence and stimulating more public debate on the issue.

Awareness and debate may die down, however. Occupy London’s eviction did not elicit the same interest as its inception. Taken alone, the movement has neatly blended into the plethora of groups that make up our civil society, and its “anti-capitalist discourse has not disappeared so much as soaked in, like a stain into a carpet”. Yet context is key; the resurgence in social tumult over the past year signals that people are prepared to stand together and denounce what they perceive as an unfair system. This perception is strong enough to instigate protest camps and is unlikely to fade away simply because the tents have come down. Occupy London has not been an agent of change, but it has highlighted the extent of popular resentment with capitalism, whether founded or not, and is a prelude of more to come. We may not be in an interregnum between the crisis and a new system, but the discontent is there and clearly discernible. Meanwhile, life in St Paul’s churchyard will return to business as usual, replete with tourists and City acolytes.