Monday, January 23, 2012

Poach

Today is the 100th Day Anniversary of the London-based Occupy movement, the longest running in the world since Mayor Bloomberg had NYC protesters evicted from Liberty Square in that surreal scenario reminiscent of Ray Bradbury.  Other metropolitan mayors followed suit, with some OWS factions since reclaiming portions of the park during (perceptible) daylight, for one, the steel gritted librarians of the Occupy Wall Street Library.

In the OccupyTVNY video below, George Bardat - a British activist with Occupy the London Stock Exchange (a.k.a. LSX - the formal name for the London Occupy Movement) - and a member of the encampment since October 15th - raps about POACH, an acronym for the Principal Of Anticipated Co-optation and Hollowing out. 

This is what television comedian Steve Colbert spoofed and also (sort of) discussed with OWS activists Ketchup and Justin Wedes (with part 2 here).  Ketchup is the individual Chris Hedges symbolically immortalized in his analysis as to why the elites are in so much trouble.  With co-optation a concern for the occupation since its inception, the Big Q - how does a grassroots global movement anticipate and address poaching. 




In London, TNT reports:
The protesters marked the [100th Anniversary] occasion by taking over Roman House in the Barbican in the early hours of Saturday morning, but left soon afterwards when those working as building contractors on the empty building were threatened with the sack.
The group offered a statement about the occupation on their website occupylsx.org "Occupy London was contacted by individual workers employed by Berkeley Homes who were concerned for their job security as it transpired they were recently employed to help renovate the building.
"In light of these discussions, yesterday evening it was decided to leave the building. We trust that Berkeley Homes will ensure that their redevelopment of the site will make adequate provision for affordable housing."
Berkley Homes, who own the Barbican-based site said "It is not safe for public use, there are holes in the floors and we are in the early stages of asbestos removal"
According to BBC, Roman House was the fifth property LSX had confiscated, previously planning to open the building to the public today.  Events coincided with City of London Corporation's "legal success" in obtaining a court decision to have occupiers evicted from Saint Paul's Cathedral churchyard.  From the Guardian:




Appeal since dropped, crows Bloomberg Business Week, with the January 25th eviction scheduled to proceed, andno update yet at the LSX site on these developments.

A teach-out is announced for today in London on the City's secret finances and lobbying activities.  LSX states at its website:
In the past 24 hours, the occupation of Roman House in the Barbican in the City of London focused attention, once again, on the refusal of the City ofLondonCorporation to open its accounts to full public scrutiny, a basic duty accepted by every other public authority in the country.
Response from local residents was tremendous with some coming up to occupiers to wish them support and find out more.
[...]
As such, we have decided to hold our promised teach out at 11am on Monday in the open areas of the Barbican centre itself, reinvigorating that public space and enabling residents – who are outvoted by corporations in their own local council – to join in the debate about how they are governed.
The City of London Corporation maintains that its City Cash account is private so we aren’t entitled to know much about it. This assertion sits oddly with the Corporation’s public duties as as local authority – not to mention the explicit wishes of some of those who bequested some of those funds to City in the first place. [3]
This part public, part private nature of the City of London Corporation is not a harmless anachronism. It is symptomatic of a fundamental conflict of interest combined with a lack of democratic accountability.
We look forwards to exploring these, and related, issues on Monday at 11am. We will be announcing our teach-out panel shortly.
Courtesy of theguardian
Photographer: Sang Tan/AP
Occupy London tents outside
Saint Paul's Cathdral, November 2, 2011

More on developments in London, prior to the reported decision not to appeal, here at the guardian.

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