Our stand against excessive greed and corruption of our democracy continues. Since November 5th, thousands of people have come to show their support for the camp in many ways. Thank you Sheffield. Occupy is a global movement, manifesting itself in the heart of this city with a occupied space that has been a mission for fairness, a sentry point for justice and an outpost for compassion. But we are more than the sum of our parts; more than tents and sleeping bags. We will continue this process with events, and build on discussions with peaceful direct action.

To mark the beginning of a new phase for Occupy Sheffield, people are invited to a Moving Forward Parade starting at the camp at 3pm this Saturday 11th February 2012, and finishing with a free Impromptu Cabaret/Poetry/Open Mic event at the Citadel of Hope on Cross Burgess Street (near the Peace Gardens, map) at 5:30pm.

Occupy Sheffield will continue to have daily meetings. Public General Assemblies (GA’s) are Mon/Wed/Fri at 6:30pm, 3pm on Saturdays and are open to all. Meetings will start from the Citadel of Hope on Monday, with plans for meetings back on the streets in the Spring. Follow @OccupySheffield and @Citadel_of_Hope for the latest.”

Occupy Sheffield

There is a PDF of the flyer on the wiki for downloading and printing.

A voice for the voiceless – A Rally of the 99% to raise awareness of the issues of people without a voice.

The rally will be introduced by Richard Brown and the following people will be speaking:

• Tom Redfearn (occupy Sheffield)
• Jillian Creasy (Green party) to speak up for Surestart
• a speaker for Defend Council Housing (yet TBC)
• Colin Hampton (Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centre)
• Tom Whittaker (Speaking Up for Advocacy) SUFA, on the volunteer sector
• Dawn Hunt (Socialist party) speaking up for people with additional needs
• Alan Thorpe (entrepreneur with a visual impairment)
• Barry Biddulph (trade unionist)
• Maxine Bowler (Sheffield Anti-cuts Alliance)
• Alistair Tice (Socialist party) on a Socialist alternative
• Julia O’Dwyer on the threat of extradition to the USA faced by her son, see her website and follow @jrodwyer on twitter

This will be followed by a open mic space for as long as people appear interested to contribute.

We are pleased to have been able to engage the proprietor constructively in a progressive and forward looking manner and that the time and energy of costly legal wrangles has been averted and our energies can be more effectively focused.

It is worth noting that the council have an active ‘temporary use’ strategy in this part of the city, and we certainly hope that the use of the Citadel by Occupy Sheffield would be supported by Sheffield City Council.

Occupy Sheffield is also engaged with Sheffield Cathedral in another legal action due in Court on 26th January. We would like to be able to engage with the Cathedral in a similarly progressive and open manner, and save all parties the considerable time and energy of a prolonged dispute. Therefore our invitation to the Dean Peter Bradley to visit the camp remains: We would love him to engage with us directly, and experience some of the love, enthusiasm and generosity of spirit which has marked the Occupy camp. In recent radio interviews, Mr Bradley has raised his concerns over attending the camp, and has cited his fear that he would be subject to ‘the anger of 30 people’. We would like to reassure Mr Bradley that this will not be the case. We certainly do not see him as a Daniel and ask him not to see us as Lions!

Occupy Sheffield

The New Year has been a great time for us to take stock of how far we have grown during more than two months of Occupation. We established ourselves on Church St to challenge the local symbols of a global economy that is serving the interests of the few rather than the many: high street banks, tax avoiding retailers and the nearby international operations of a major financial organisation. We feel the sheer amount of public engagement and media coverage we have received vindicates our decision to be here representing those in Sheffield who do not have a voice, who know that the power they have vested in politicians and corporations has been abused and turned against them. Unlike many other establishments in the city we extend a warm, hospitable welcome to all people who seek to challenge the way our world works, who wish to reject the misinformation and disinformation of media controlled by the wealthiest 1%, and the rhetoric of politicians. We are a truly open forum where everyone can engage in intelligent and informed debate free from the influence of self-interested local and international corporate establishments, where everyone can propose and contribute to solutions for the problems facing our age.

In the wider world of the early twenty first century, responsibilities are shirked and the burden of reparation is shifted to those who did not cause the crises we are facing. Occupy Sheffield have rejected this endemic thinking; instead we have established a community that works towards self-responsibility and reliance within a supportive environment of holistic and collective responsibility, enabling each other to reach our potential with dignity and respect. We believe that by living in such a co-operative and compassionate way we are setting an example of how our society can work and flourish when the needs of the many are met and surpassed.

We are defining a positive message of hope, an alternative to the shadow of fear most of the world is living under, a message that is reaching the city and the world. Over 2000 Sheffield people have signed a petition supporting us; a counter petition received 4 signatures. In December 2011, Sheffield City Council approved a motion supporting our right to continued peaceful protest. We continue to receive the support of many other groups and individuals including The Sheffield Green Party , Sheffield Quakers, members of the congregation from Sheffield Cathedral, Positive Money, all trade unions in Sheffield, UK Uncut Sheffield, Women’s Institute of Peace and Freedom, Billy Bragg, Sheffield Live, Now Then Magazine, Sheffield Indy Media, Alt-Sheff.org, Broomhill Labour Party, Heeley Ward Labour Party, Justice for All, Heeley City Farm, Paul Bloomfield MP, and people visiting and walking by the camp every day who agree with what we’re doing and offer support, many of whom work for major banks and corporations. Whilst we use existing, open and accountable avenues of bringing the concerns of the many to account, we believe those avenues are few and reveal the true limit of what is often mistaken for ‘democracy’ around our world. That’s why we are using more direct actions to reach those who need to have their voice heard. By doing so we seek not only to inform and educate people about the problems facing our world but also to reveal the many solutions that stand up for equal rights and justice, against exploitation, corruption and corporate greed.

In January 2012 Sheffield’s Citadel of Hope will be welcoming people from around the UK to the national Occupy conference; we believe this will be a pivotal moment in the fight for a fairer world, a world where currently those in whom we entrust our power are using the social disaster, the economic crisis they’ve created to shock and awe us into accepting actions that go against our better nature and conscience. If they bring anything to us it will be misery and fear for our futures. They can only treat us like this whilst we let them; how much more we endure is up to us. We will not tolerate them ignoring us in favour of greed, arrogance and corruption. We can stand up to them as a city, as a nation and as a world, and show them that we are the real power for change.

Here are the links for the files for people to download versions of the logo:

• Colour png file
• Black and white png file
• Photoshop vector format file

The recent correspondence and threats from the Cathedral have brought our future into focus, and it was decided this evening at GA (6th January GA notes) that an extended discussion of the future of Occupy Sheffield would be a good idea. Given that we can’t get everyone to the same meeting as people have outside commitments, and that this will be a very wide-ranging and extended conversation, we decided that it would be best to have this discussion over a period of a week, as part of the general assemblies.

For the next week, strategy will be at the start of every GA agenda. There is no defined end date for this conversation, as we may come to a quick consensus, or it may take a long time to thrash out what we want to achieve. At the start of every meeting, someone will relay the state of the conversation from the end of the previous meeting, and at the end, someone will be nominated to do the same for the following meeting.

If you would like to influence the future of Occupy Sheffield, and have a say in where we go from here, then please make a special effort to come to general assemblies over the next week.

For clarity, although this decision was prompted by the most recent letter from the Cathedral, the feeling at tonight’s GA was that we need to discuss this anyway.

As always, we invite the Cathedral, other faith groups, charities, trades unions and individuals to join us in the world’s biggest think tank, to work out what the future should look like, and how we get there, together.

In solidarity, Occupy Sheffield.

6th January 2012

Happy New Year! We have big plans for 2012 and so do you. We hope that those plans can co-exist peacefully. There have been and continue to be headwinds, both natural and man-made, but we believe that the issues we are attempting to highlight are still a very real problem in our society. We continue to be actively engaged in the cause and feel it would send the wrong message if we were to pack up and go at this point.

The situation remains the same; we will continue protesting as long as the financial structures which caused this economic crisis remain. We cannot relent while the corporations continue to exert undue influence on politicians and while a tiny minority of the global population wields a frankly hideous proportion of wealth. It is not a love of camping which causes us to occupy your forecourt in the depth of winter. We are here because the scale and depth of this crisis demands that we make a stand!

It has always been important to us to be good and responsive neighbours – and although on some matters we have agreed to disagree, we are proud that in the last 2 months, there have been no on-camp incidents with any serious negative consequences. However, once the current storms have passed, it is our intention to rearrange the camp and create a more open and welcoming environment for the general public. This will involve reducing the number of smaller tents and rearranging the larger marquee to create a more public area.

As you will be aware, we are hosting the 3rd National Occupy Conference on 21st/22nd January, and it is our intention to use the Citadel of Hope as the main conference space. There may be a small increase in the number of tents on this weekend as we will be accommodating some of the conference delegates at the camp. Please be in no doubt that safety of all our visitors, and yours, has been and remains paramount.

The original Occupy Sheffield encampment outside Sheffield Cathedral will remain in situ. ‘The Citadel of Hope’ will not be an open residential occupation, but will be crewed at all times. People wishing to join the residential encampment at Sheffield Cathedral should continue to do so. Until such time as the building has been made safe, Occupy Sheffield will make all decisions relating to the building through the General Assembly meeting held daily at 6.30pm on the Cathedral forecourt. All are welcome.

The Citadel of Hope will operate the same ‘Safer Spaces’ policy [2] that is in place at the main encampment – among other things, the Citadel will be alcohol and drug free, and those who transgress this policy will be asked to leave.

In addition to facilitating community groups suffering at the hands of government cuts, The Citadel of Hope will provide a further platform the Occupy movement in Britain to campaign for economic justice, and will be host to the National Occupy Conference on the 21st and 22nd of January 2012.

Occupy Sheffield would like to make clear that it is protesting against the casino capitalism that has laid the real economy low; it is protesting that those who created this crisis have so far got away without legal sanction and continue to do so; it is protesting that this same tiny minority (‘the 1%’) are continuing to enrich themselves while the rest of the population (‘the 99%’) are made to suffer their failures [3]. Occupy Sheffield would like to make clear, that it is not protesting against any Church or Church group.

We believe that there is an alternative to the tired mantras of Thatcherism, and that the evidence for the need to change is playing out in front of our eyes.

The Citadel of Hope is a place where you can come and be informed, be inspired and be involved in a global movement [4] which is advocating for a more just society, run for the benefit of all.

Occupy Sheffield is a transparent, non-hierarchical, volunteer organisation which is made possible by people giving their time and energy in support of a cause in which they believe. Most people have jobs, and most people are not able to be involved all the time.

If you believe that it is time to articulate an alternative to this destructive turbo-charged capitalism then The Citadel of Hope needs you.

Occupy Sheffield / The Citadel of Hope

[1] A section 6 notice governs the legal status and civil proceedings that an unoccupied building is subject to. These are civil matters. No act of criminality has occurred in possessing this building.

[2] Safer spaces policy https://occupywiki.org.uk/wiki/Sheffield/Safer_Spaces_Policy

[3] http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2011/12/child-poverty-to-increase-following-autumn-statement-warns-ifs/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117

[4] http://www.occupybritain.co.uk/ | http://www.occupytogether.org/ | http://www.occupylsx.org/ | http://www.occupywallstreet.org/

• www.occupysheffield.org
• www.facebook.com/OccupySheffield
• www.twitter.com/OccupySheffield
• www.twitter.com/Citadel_Of_Hope
• www.facebook.com/pages/Citadel-of-Hope/265723403482084