Protesters plan to 'occupy' London Stock Exchange

[jefferson_dem]

Source: Guardian

After four weeks of focus on Wall Street, the fast-moving campaign against the global banking industry is coming to the UK this weekend, with the biggest event aiming to "occupy" the London Stock Exchange.

Organised by Facebook and Twitter pages which between them have picked up more than 15,000 followers, campaigners are to gather outside St Paul's Cathedral at midday on Saturday before marching the short distance to Paternoster Square, the business development housing the London Stock Exchange, as well as the UK HQ of investment bank Goldman Sachs.

It is one of a series of planned events around the UK, which are in turn part of a wider global day of action spanning a thus far promised 800-plus protests.

It remains to be seen how many of the online supporters will turn up in London, with estimates ranging from a few hundred to a couple of thousand. It is also unclear whether City police, the small force which operates in London's financial district, will permit activists to mimic the Wall Street protests by pitching their tents.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/14/protesters-london-stock-exchange

[leveymg]

1. Who's running this show? They need to do it on a trading day, not a weekend.

[dipsydoodle]

4. They would have difficulty gaining access on a weekday

Paternoster Square is only about 1600 sq metres enclosed on all sides by buildings and St Paul's Church Yard.

[leveymg]

5. And they won't on a weekend? Hmmm?

[dipsydoodle]

8. At the weekend

there is very little road traffic and none of the 300,000 who work in the City are there - just some of the 10,000 or so who live in the "Square Mile". The place is more or less empty apart from tourists wanting to visit St Pauls - second largest church in the world to St Peter's.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. So once they Occupy that area, they are in effect blocking people during the week?

Interesting.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Given its only 1600 sq metres

they may be blocking themselves. :)

Its a symbolic venue rather than practical.

btw - in that area its even illegal to put a chair or table without a permit on a paved area - Highways Act from about 20 years ago to prevent street trading without a licence.

[leveymg]

10. That was my impression, as well.

Sounds like it will not be a difficult area to clear. Just start at one end, push forward, and funnel the demonstrators out the other into cow chutes leading into waiting police vans. No thank you, not for an Occupation - nowhere to run or maneuver.

[dipsydoodle]

11. The organisers

had previously mentioned they might eventually move to another location. Assuming they mean within The City I've no idea where they might have in mind - very little green space in that area if any.

To see where it is : google Paternoster Square or St Paul's Cathederal London and then hit satellite image. The Square is immediately north of St Paul's Churchyard. If you then pan out you'll see the issues with finding anything really practical within the Square Mile aka The City.

[leveymg]

12. Thnx. I'll get back if there seems to be a better alternative. It all depends upon the point of

the demonstration: if it's civil disobedience and getting as many people arrested and processed as quickly as possible, this seems as good a spot as any. If, however, one wants to seriously disrupt the operations and movement of trading personnel, maybe another spot on another day.

But, hey, it's your show over there. Good luck!

[Ghost Dog]

14. Off the top of my head I could suggest:

The street area outside the entrance to Liverpool St. Station; the concourse below the NatWest Tower; The street in front of the Bank of England; Tower Bridge and the grounds of Tower of London.

[dipsydoodle]

18. Oddly enough

the grass outside the Tower was the only green I could of. However - that's not City of London.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Duplicate LBN from 9th October

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=5020832

[glowing]

3. October 15th is a big kick off day... The planning in London is for this

to be their first "occupation' day. I think they are staying Occupied after this. We'll see how they react over there.. after this summer and the looting, they may be wary of letting things get beyond peaceful.

[dipsydoodle]

7. It may not be the police they need to worry about.

Some of our traders have an odd reputation for extreme violence.

[Amonester]

13. Same in Canada. First occupation day.

Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal stock exchange buildings. (And elsewhere, if I am correct.)

[seafan]

15. Occupy Wall Street Going To Europe This Weekend

Source: Forbes

The Occupy Wall Street movement might be going global and this weekend’s planned protests in Europe is likely to be its debut.

Social movements in Europe, upset over the recent round of austerity measures that cut into public spending, are scheduled to protest in countries across the continent on Saturday. Kalle Lasn, one of the brains behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, said from the office of his magazine, Adbusters, that the U.S. movement could join forces with other European protests scheduled for the weekend.

.....

Then on Oct. 29th, social movements are planning a protest ahead of the G20 meeting in Paris. Lasn said many Occupy Wall Street movement adherents are going to push Western governments to apply a 1% Robin Hood tax on financial transactions, mainly the transactions of financial derivatives such as options and futures contracts.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/10/14/occupy-wall-street-going-to-europe-this-weekend/

---

Finally, the world is uniting against the true enemy of The People.


And we won't be stopped.

[tama]

16. Actually

OWS took after the orginizing model and inspiration of Arab spring and 15th May mainly in South Europe. To my knowledge 15th october was planned action day long before OWS started in USA.

And what ever, nobody owns this. What is important that this is a global movement of we the 99,999...%

[totodeinhere]

19. Nobody owns this yet everybody owns this. It's about time that the people of the world got together.

It will be a long hard battle but at least the battle has finally begun. It started with one man burning himself to death in Tunisia. We are all witnessing history.

[Auggie]

17. Global -- YES!

[bitchkitty]

20. Yeah England! n/t

[WillyT]

21. K & R !!!

:kick: