I went to Occupy LSX outside St. Paul’s today after delivering a speech at a conference on how the banks had taken over and grossly abused in their own self-interest the control of the money supply. It is critical to our economy and the future of the British State, yet it has never been discussed in the media and it has never been debated in Parliament. In the tent village outside the cathedral however its iniquities and injustices are all too virally felt and expressed, even if the technicalities are not fully understood. But where else is this cry of pain being raised, and why is it not being listened to?
It is extraordinary, given the immensity of the injustice being perpetrated on the British people by the insatiable greed of the bankers and their unbridled market system, that so much attention has been given to everything else about Occupy LSX except their actual message, the one thing they stand for. The police debate whether to get them on a public order offence or because some local shopkeepers are complaining they are losing trade. The press, with typical irrelevant mischief, claim their thermal imaging equipment shows that most occupants of the tents go home at night, a nit-picking derogatory comment which the Guardian found was anyway untrue. The Bishop of London, known for his right-wing views which sit uncomfortably with the Christian message, offers to debate with the protesters, but only if they leave – showing that it is more a device to secure their departure than a genuine desire for dialogue. The political parties are almost universally silent. On all sides it’s everything except engage with what ther protest is really about.
It is equally extraordinary how disconnected our whole society has become. The 1% are now a world apart from the 99%, and almost unbelievably drawing further apart ever more rapidly, with the earnings of the average FTSE-100 directors up a staggering 49% over the last year. Parliament is ever more tightly insulated in its Westminster bubble. The Establishment is far more focused on preserving control of the streets than attending to burgeoning poverty. The police are far more obsessed with infiltrating and cracking down on innocent and peaceful protest than with dealing with the causes of the protests. The fundamental values of our society are being atomised as communities are withered by scorched-earth economics and the unrelenting forces of the market.
Occupy LSX is a voice crying in the wilderness. It is also a voice that will not be extinguished, whatever Dale Farm tactics the City of London authorities, the police and the Church may have in mind.
Great piece, Michael. I too find it extraordinary, and am disgusted by the diversionary tactics of much of the media, especially right-wing papers such as The Express, Mail, Telegraph and Times. Their coverage has frankly been a disgrace.
I am also sick and tired of the way the BBC constantly introduces the protests as anti-capitalist. This is inaccurate – it is possible to oppose neo-liberalism, unfettered free-markets etc without wishing to overthrow capitalism itself. The Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley put that quite well on BBC Radio 4 ‘Sunday’ this morning.
For what it’s worth, I have written four articles about the protests, which are accessible here:- http://bit.ly/pfrJvy … http://bit.ly/ookFwL … http://bit.ly/ogpZzT … http://bit.ly/or1hGo ….
One could sum up the key issues are follows:-
• the financial system is corrupt, perhaps a giant skimming machine, yet it continues to wield huge political power and essentially hold governments to ransom.
• markets are rigged in favour of the rich and powerful. Abuses are often ignored.
• inequalities have been worsening as corporates have blindly focused on ‘shareholder value’ rather than giving any thought to the other stakeholder groups including employees (a legacy of the Chicago School and Milton Friedman). It was precisely this myopia that caused scandals like Enron and the global financial crisis of 2008-
• government and the media appear to have been “bought”, to such an extent that democracy has been superseded by ‘corporatocracy’ (particularly in the US).
These are issues must be addressed. I thought that Baroness Kennedy put it quite well on the Andrew Marr show a week or two ago when she said she was surprised that the Sunday papers coverage was all about corporate sponsors of Andrew Werritty being angry Liam Fox’s best man had spent their money on a lavish lifestyle for himself.
This, Kennedy pointed out was to slightly miss the point – the papers ought to have been focusing not on the fact Werritty has spent sponsors’ money unwisely, but that his corporate sponsors been able to sponsor someone like Werritty – and essentially create a surrogate foreign policy – at all!!