John Headstrong

(taken from Occupy Belfast facebook feed)

In recent days our liberation of the former Bank of Ireland building in the city centre has been subjected to a campaign by elements of the media and local politicians to demonise and criminalise our occupation, in an attempt to discredit and isolate us from the wider public.

While we are not surprised by this backlash as the mainstream media is controlled by those who have a vested interest in maintaining the rotten status-quo, we would like to clarify a few issues which have come to our attention. Firstly, this occupation is now a civil matter between us and the owner and therefore we are technically not breaking any law.

Occupy Belfast is an open diverse campaign representing all shades of our community. Our role is to provide a space and forum to campaign on issues from workers rights, housing, homelessness, police harassment to anti-militarism and to build a society in the interests of the many and not the few. In the long term we aim to open a social centre which will cater for everyone in our city and those who have been left behind and discarded in the so-called new era.

However, if we want to win, we need to recognise that being right and limiting our tactics to what the state deems as legal or illegal protest isn’t enough. Unfortunately, our society is not a debating chamber where everyone is given an equal voice, and the decisions that affect our lives are not taken on moral grounds. Our rulers, the 1%, don’t care about doing right by us. What they care about is power and wealth, and supporting the interests they represent. If we want to change the world, we will have to empower ourselves through direct action in every aspect of our daily lives.

Premises, just like this one, will be left vacant until market forces and speculators decide that a sufficient profit can be made. This cannot be allowed to happen and through our actions we have proved this. These very buildings were built by our parents and grandparents who still had work to go to. We are left with no other choice but to take these buildings back as part of building resistance in every community and workplace against cuts to services and attacks on our standard of living such as cuts to housing and slave labour workfare schemes.

In response to this social crisis our local politicians have proven themselves to be unprepared, unwilling, incapable or all of the above. Housing executive houses lie empty as people are evicted daily. There is no other option but to take action ourselves and encourage others to do so. By our actions we have transformed this space from a private milch cow into a community resource. We have also provided a small glimpse of what is possible if we use mass direct action and solidarity because fighting together we are stronger.

Lastly we would like to thank the wider public for your continuing support and solidarity. If you would like to help out and find out more please come along to our general assembly’s which take place every Thursday at 7pm inside the building.

I currently work for the local community project and have done for many years. The project has done well over the years, we have a building in the centre of town and a few projects have been done. When we started we had the assistance of a council employee and that is the cuckoo.

You see, Cuckoo is really the only term for it. At first it looked like the cuckoo was going to help the organisation implement its goals and its goals where set by 3 community consultations, where we asked the community what is was that they wanted us to do. But that has not happened. In fact we have not implemented any of the things the community asked us to do. We tried, the organisation (with the assistance of the cuckoo, of course) started a employment program with future job fund backing to train local youth with a trade, in this case woodworking, chainsaws/ strimmers woodland management sort of thing, indeed a great project. Unfortunately none of the youth came from the town, 12 positions in total, 6 months training. this was pointed out at the board meeting and I was assured that “next time effort will be made”  but none of the 12 woodland and 2 climate worker where from the town. All 14 positions help the council reach their targets. Employing people is a important thing, something all organisations need to do, therefore HR is a skill that many people need to learn, ideally all directors need to have some skills in this and at the very least a good knowledge of employment law, but somehow the cuckoo does all that.  The cuckoo somehow writes the job descriptions, posts the jobs and interviews all staff, directors that want to learn HR are barred somehow. The cuckoo does not work with any other community groups, in fact she has changed jobs but it still involved with the project although it is no longer her job.

I have tried to work out why the cuckoos advise is taken and acted upon but other advice is not even looked at. I get advice from someone that is a experienced director, in fact he has just completed ISO9001, has years of HR experience and general ‘best practice’ advice. The cuckoo has none of these, indeed she has never been a director, has no HR qualifications that I know of but the chairman slavishly does what ever she says, it all looks a bit weird.

Also, add to the fact that many of the directors have more experience in many matters than the cuckoo but they are never consulted in decisions.

The organisation, while on paper is a charity and limited company, it is not ran by its directors, indeed some directors have tried for the past year to get answers from the chairman and his “adviser” but many questions go unanswered and some are even answered with untruths.

and I have not even started to talk about how one of the directors has sabotaged the ONLY community based project the organisation was asked to help with, but that is for another post.

First they came for the travellers, and I didn’t speak up ‘cos they is pikie and stuff.

Then they came for the climate camp, and I didn’t speak up ‘cos they is smelly and into all that green shit dat they go on wiv.

They came for the students and didn’t say nuffing, shit man, day are marching and shit, thousands of then, the government are gona have to listen, but fuck it, I can’t afford to be a student.

They came for the squatters and homeless and I kept stum, well, I have a house and stuff, and that is a shame man ‘cos deem squatters do ace parties!

Then they came for the anti-war protesters, I didn’t speak up ‘cos, like,  I got a mate dat was in army and all that, but he only got the one leg now and shit, I didn’t wanta like disrespect him.

Then I looked around and realised, fuck Dis shit, I am well in their list, we are next bro!

(there are so many more verses, this work is unfinished)

Can you imagine working for a company that only has a little more than 635 employees, but, has the following employee statistics:

‎29 have been accused of spouse abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
9 have been accused of writing bad cheques
17 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year
and collectively, this year alone, they have cost the British tax payer £92,993,748 in expenses!

Which organisation is this?

It’s the 635 members of the House of Commons.

live-updating timeline for 26march

This is the piece which led to the Fitwatch website being suspended – please circulate spartacus style

The remarkable and brilliant student action at Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.
There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .
This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.
DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.
DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.
DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.
DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.
DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.
DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.
DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.
DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.
DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal. Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.

This post is also available on google at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qv4goBQOpDYJ:www.fitwatch.org.uk/+fitwatch&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a