Impressions from the occupy #LSX at St Paul's Cathedral

Yesterday I spent an hour outside St Paul's Cathedral in London having a nose around the "Occupy #LSX" encampment.

Over the last week I've had a number of concerns about how this demonstration will continue, how it will end, and what it will achieve. I've been  particularly concerned by private reports that the sister demonstration in the US, "Occupy Wall Street", has developed some anti Semitic characteristics. Melanie Phillips and Labour MP John Mann  have given voice to this more sinister aspect of the "Occupy" movement in recent days. During my brief visit yesterday I saw and heard nothing to suggest a similar development outside St Paul's, but would not discount it as a possible mutation.

Why do I use the word "mutation"? Because I get a sense that this demonstration could go in several directions. Just walking around and seeing the various posters in the area shows that the demonstration has attracted every sort of campaigning group imaginable. Various types of Christianity were visible, especially those supportive of the poor, but there were plenty of other causes being promoted - veganism, various shades of the New Age, the Socialist Worker Party, greens, Kurdish independence, and even a plea to stop Scientologists getting tax breaks. Many of the posters ranged from the coherent to the down right looney. How far they represent those actually camping was difficult to say.

What didn't seem to be present was a coherent programme of ideas or a realistic manifesto to address the central reason for the demonstration,which I assume is the replacement of capitalism with something more stable, just and humane. But I may have somewhere got it wrong. Were they accepting capitalism but merely wanted it to be tweaked and managed differently?

Sadly I didn't have the time to dialogue with many actual demonstrators so when I returned home I interrogated the website Occupy London  especially the "Initial statement" . This I must admit didn't really help me any further.

Clearly there are some who believe that this demonstration is on a par to those which the CIA used to orchestrate  in former Soviet republics, you may remember the socalled orange and purple "revolutions". Others clearly thought this was a British version of Tahir Square, there's even a poster proclaiming  the area in front of St Pauls as such.

Let us be honest here. Those demonstrating during the "Arab spring" took far greater risks than those camped outside St Paul's in a country which normally respects the rule of law. We need to take care that in making the comparison we are not belittling those Arab demonstrators, particularly those who paid with their lives.  Incidentally those demonstrators succeeded because they had the support of a mass movement and had very specific demands. I'm not certain that these conditions currently exist in the UK, people are not gathering in their thousands to support the St Pauls demonstration.

Another Methodist blogger hit the nail on its head after his own visit. Peter Phillips said he felt it was a bit like the Christian festival Greenbelt. Sadly I suspect he may be right. People having a good time, lots of fun, and when consciences are clear, everyone going home back to the mundane. O doubt if that's how it felt in the real Tahir Square

So I'm back to where I started in politics. Over the next few days we shall see the farce of the Church of England trying to sort out its misfortune at having had this demonstration dumped on its doorstep - there were other sites in that area once Paternoster Square was closed but I suspect the front of the Cathedral was  chosen by the demonstrators as a soft option. If they couldn't confront capitalism they could make things difficult for a few hopeless clerics. And incidentally please don't assume that any other denomination, including us Methodists, would have acted differently if having a similar problem on our own doorstep.

Then there will be the farce of a forced eviction. A few people will get hurt, hopefully no one will get killed. I wouldn't rule out some dirty tricks such as the English Defence League turning up. I have seen with my own eyes a demonstration smashed up by apparently roving thugs. Certainly the coverage in the popular press has been unrelentingly hostile and on occasions scurrilous. And don't underestimate splits and arguments. Remember that several of the demonstrators will almost certainly be serving police officers. 

So we will face the prospect of a whole bunch of young people walking away, thoroughly disillusioned, convinced that little can be done to effect real change.

So I think back to the days when I was one of the few elected politicians who actually took on capitalis, and paid with my livelihood.. I opposed the Labour Party's re writing of our Clause IV. I still believe that a mixed economy with various forms of common ownership such as mutuals, co-ops and nationalised strategic industries are still the best way forward. These can only be achieved by arguing the politics, winning the argument and getting elected. Against such a long term strategy the occupy LSX is little more than a passing stunt. I just hope that it raises consciousness, not dulls it.