OCCUPY LONDON protesters have pledged to launch new anti-capitalist demonstrations near Downing Street and outside Buckingham Palace following their eviction from the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in an early-morning police operation yesterday.
Up to 20 protesters were arrested in the operation, which began at 1am. Claiming it had been “very patient”, the City of London Corporation said it had spent up to £600,000 on legal costs, while clean-up and repair costs could bring the bill to £1 million.
Some of the protesters gathered again last evening for a “general assembly” on the steps of the cathedral, which they had partially surrounded for the last four months, but no attempt was made to set up a new permanent camp.
“We’ll miss Occupy London Stock Exchange but not because of the tents, or even the kitchen shelves: it was a makeshift, loosely co-operative, occasionally quarrelling and fiercely idealistic group of people who came together to achieve something extraordinary.
“The relationships forged during these strange and beautiful 4½ months still have much further to run. This is only the beginning,” the group said last night, promising a new wave of occupations.
The Occupy London group was refused permission by the Court of Appeal last week to challenge the evictions order to remove the camps, though some of them were bitter towards the Church of England as they were removed.
St Paul’s Cathedral, which saw two senior clerics resign during the occupation, said the Occupy London action had made it “re-examine important issues about social and economic justice and the role the cathedral can play”.
Former canon chancellor of St Paul’s, Giles Fraser, who quit last October over attempts by the Church of England to remove the protesters, was present during the early morning eviction, but police did not let him pass a cordon.
