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Daily View: Should the Occupy London protests continue?

Clare Spencer | 09:38 UK time, Monday, 24 October 2011

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Protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral

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As anti-capitalist protesters continue to camp outside St Paul's Cathedral commentators ask if they have a point or should move on.

that the protesters should clear up and go home because their demands are unfocused:


"Plenty of things need fixing, but protests have lost their focus. The Jarrow marchers, Aldermaston CND, Vietnam protesters and Greenham women all had clear demands, and it was obvious to everyone what would have appeased them. Even the student protesters against fees were reasonably well-focused: it was a limited policy they were hoping to reverse. The trouble with UK Uncut and the idealistic, self-righteous campers of Occupy London is that it is impossible to think of any clear, feasible action by an elected government that would satisfy and shift them."

This criticism that the goals are unclear is taken up by two of the protesters in the Guardian. :


"Not having a set programme for people to 'buy into' is deliberate - we're choosing a different way of going about things. Our response to systemic failure is not to propose a new system, but to start making one. We're in the business of defining process, and specific demands will evolve from this in time...
"What is it we want? We have common concerns about the relationship between government and the financial system. But, in a way, the core message of OccupyLSX (and the Occupy movement in general) is about the way we, as individuals, understand democracy."

that the protests don't signify a legitimate grievance but instead show a "profound moral discombobulation" in general society:


"Accordingly, what the 'Occupy' protests across the world tell us is that - just as some of us have been warning for years -the erosion of democratic legitimacy and the steady disintegration of moral authority across the board will inevitably give rise to the fracturing of social order.
"From the windows smashed by anti-globalisation protesters to the torched city neighbourhoods of Britain to the occupation of the approach to St Paul's, we are witnessing the rise of mob rule by the spoiled children of the very society they are so determined to destroy."

Others focus on the role of St Paul's Cathedral in the protests. of St Paul's Cathedral shutting its doors this weekend:


"The protesters outside St Paul's are demanding an end to the reign of naked greed over our lives. It is a proposal in which one would expect Christians of conviction to play an active part. By turning them away, St Paul's has indicated that, whatever the church's spiritual message, for those who run the place its fabric is more important. That's a bureaucratic way of saying, yes, God is dead."

Meanwhile the that the cause of anti-capitalism will require the protesters to bed in outside the cathedral for a long time:


"It is by no means clear, however, that the capitalist system is capable of reformation over any short time-frame. The journey from the gold standard to the recent banking crisis is an epic one... the capitalist system, being both highly interconnected and motivated by profit, seems bound to display inertia in the face of attempted reform.
"Nevertheless, the international character of the present movement may help it to galvanise action. But it seems probable that the London protesters, if they decide to hold on until they see reform, had better get in some warm clothes and look forward to enjoying the bells of St Paul's for a long time."

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