After the EC Meeting on
After the EC Meeting on Saturday two of us went to St Pauls to see how the general assemblies there work. While waiting we got into a discussion with a couple of supporters of Henry George’s plan for a single tax on land values. Immediately a few other people gathered round to listen. It’s like that there.There were about 300 or so people seated on the steps of St Pauls. The meeting was opened by a “facilitator” who explained the hand signals involved in “consensus decision-making” and introduced someone to report on the attempted march on parliament (which didn’t seem to have been all that satisfactory). He then called on someone to introduce the topic for discussion, which turned out to be the not all that interesting one of how to welcome visitors to the camp. The participants then formed into groups of 20 or so to discuss the topic and make suggestions (the two of us had to sit on the ground to take part/follow the discussion). After 20 minutes the spokespersons for the groups reported from the podium, addressing those present as “Fellow Occupiers”. No conclusion was drawn so no decision was made on this occasion. Reports from various working groups (environment, future vision, cleaning, etc) follow. Then anybody who wanted to could speak for a minute and a dozen or so did announcing various events.The whole thing was run democratically, though I’m still not sure what happens in the event of a consensus not been able to reached, as must happen, surely? In any event, a temporary forum for democratic debate has been opened up in the centre of London and seems to have been the conscious aim of some of the original organisers.The embarrassing “What Would Jesus Do?” banner has been taken down and replaced by “Real Democracy Now”. There were a few SWPers there who had been on the march to parliament still carrying their placards saying “He [Cameron] Has To Go”. Pathetic for people who see themselves as a “vanguard”. Actually they’re more a rearguard. Most, maybe all, the “occupiers” are way ahead of them realising that a change of prime minister would make no difference whatsoever. In fact, is there anyone who thinks it would?