Occupy London responds to Corporation of London proposal

OccupyLSX -

The General Assembly of Occupy London has this morning communicated the following to the City of London Corporation via its lawyer Paul Ridge of Bindmans.

Occupy London would like to emphasise that, as part of the global movement for real democracy challenging social and econonomic injustice, its interests are broader than matters pertaining to the City of London Corporation, as per the initial statement of the Occupy London Stock Exchange General Assembly. This was collectively agreed on Sunday 16th October, the second day of the occupation, at the camp based at St Paul’s Courtyard.

It is the hope of Occupy London that, in the spirit of openness and inclusivity that the Occupy movement embraces and advocates, representatives of the City of London Corporation will attend one of its General Assemblies at the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp to discuss these and other issues in a non-hierarchical democratic forum.

Response of Occupy London

We reject the proposal, as the terms are unreasonable and they serve only to establish the ground work for the City of London Corporation to bring proceedings against the Occupy London Stock Exchange occupation based at St Paul’s Churchyard.

The City of London Corporation is an undemocratic authority which is more accountable to corporations than the public. We cannot negotiate with such an institution without undermining our sister occupations across the globe, who are being violently oppressed by authorities with the same interests as the City of London Corporation.

We propose that if the following terms are met, we will wish to continue dialogue. We call on the City of London Corporation to do the following:

1. Publish full, year-by-year breakdowns of the City Cash account, future and historic.
2. Make the entirety of its activities subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
3. Detail all advocacy undertaken on behalf of the banking and finance industries, since the 2008 financial crash.

We have been working, and will continue to work, with the fire service as well as the health and safety executive to ensure the occupation remains a safe environment for ourselves and our neighbours.

We have also posted the minutes of Thursday and Wednesday’s 7pm General Assemblies, which were devoted to this subject.