#occupylsx

We went up to see the encampment on Sunday. It was getting cold and I really do wonder how the few that stay here overnight will manage as the winter cold sets in. For the moment all is well – the tents are neatly aligned, there is a library, a university, a kitchen and store and a perfect amphitheater in the form of the steps of St Pauls.

The mainstream media characterise them as anti-capitalists – akin to anarchists, Marxists, or worse…is there worse? Any lack of policy suggestions is treated with the same derision as any suggestions. They have however made an Initial Statement – here it is:

• The current system is unsustainable
• We stand together with occupations all over the world
• We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis
• We do not accept cuts as necessary or inevitable
• We want regulators to be independent of the industries they regulate
• We support the strike on 30th November and student action of 9th November
• We want structural change towards global equality
• We stand in solidarity with the globally oppressed

I can’t really argue with that!