Sheffield Street Paper

Communities Uniting Against Austerity

Tuesday 14th May at 5.30 at Quaker Meeting House

All Welcome

• Monday 9th April, Riverside pub. Informal/Social G A, 6.30pm
• Monday 16th April, Central United Reform Church, Norfolk Street, Corner of Chapel Walk, 6.30pm
• Monday 23rd April, Quaker Meeting House, 6.30pm

For more information about what Occupy Sheffield is doing please see the Occupy Sheffield Wiki as this is updated more often than this site.

OCCUPICNIC!

Meet 2pm Devonshire Green – bring something to share; food, thoughts, conversation, ideas, most importantly yourself!

A group of us will be meeting at 1pm (beforehand) at the bottom of the moor to scatter seeds and discuss guerrilla (gorilla!) gardening tactics. Bring seeds and/or yourself.

Later we will reconvene in Sharrow for the lantern parade, gardening (and gorillaing) as we go.

Please spread the word, hope to see you all there with a big ray of sunshine.

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.

Although Occupy Sheffield regret that the Cathedral has decided to take this very expensive legal route, the group is pleased that the Judge did not grant the possession order the Cathedral were seeking today. Instead it was decided that a full 2 day hearing should take place to give consideration to the wider implications of the protest. A proper proportionality review has been scheduled for the 21st February, giving both sides time to marshal their arguments.

Prior to today’s hearing, Occupy Sheffield offered to move the camp no later than 7 days before the Cathedral required the land for building works.  This offer was declined by the Cathedral.
 
Occupy Sheffield did not choose its location in order to enter into conflict with the staff and management of the Cathedral.  The Occupy movement worldwide is a people’s movement for social and economic justice and a prolonged dispute of this nature is an unwelcome distraction from our primary purpose.
 
The invitation to the Dean and Chapter to join the Occupiers in the marquee in order that there can be substantive face to face discussions about the future of the camp remains open.
 
Occupy Sheffield

Follow us: on Facebook and @OccupySheffield on Twitter

As with the case of the City of London Corporation v Occupy London, this case is being heard by a High Court Judge, namely Mr Justice Foskett. Unlike in Occupy London case, Sheffield Cathedral are seeking costs which already amount to over £8000 and have chosen to name 14 individuals (& “Persons Unknown”) in the court documents. Through fundraising efforts Occupy Sheffield has managed to raise enough funds to be represented by Barrister Michael Paget who also represented Occupy London in the St Pauls case.
This week the camp offered to leave the Cathedral forecourt seven days before the land was required for planned building works. This was the latest offer from Occupy which the Cathedral found unacceptable.

Occupy Sheffield feels strongly that all legal costs could have been avoided if a substantive discussion had been entered into at an earlier stage (and not 24 hours before a court case, a belated offer which we could only decline as the subject of our proposed eviction was not to be discussed!).

Occupy Sheffield believe that for the Cathedral to name individuals is unwarranted, and they should be removed. But this should not be a distraction from the fact that by naming ‘Persons Unknown’ the Cathedral are indicting working people, disabled people, Christians, homelesss people, unemployed people, young people and pensioners. ‘Persons Unknown’ are the 99 per cent.

If you are poor, take heed. If you are unemployed, take heed. If you are disabled and losing funding, or young without a job, or sick but made to work, take heed. If you are a worker who sees your wages stay the same, your conditions of employment ever weakened while the Chief Executive of your company walks away with more and more, take heed. Objecting to this situation may cost you dearly. Occupy Sheffield will soon find out if there is a price on the head of protest and protestors, and implore the court to determine that access to basic democratic freedoms is not contingent on access to funds.

We know already that the influence of finance on democracy is corrosive at the highest level. We await to see if access to funds will be determined a necessary entry point to democracy at the grass roots, and hope that the Judge will see that it is in the service of democracy to allow sustained and peaceful protest to take it’s course. We passionately believe that access to democracy is a basic right not contingent on wealth, and it is now clear that at the heart of our peaceful fight for economic and social justice is the struggle for democracy.

Occupy Sheffield

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.

With Sam Duckworth, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, at 7:30pm and Roy Bailey. Other acts to be confirmed!

Saturday 21st January – 7pm – 11pm

Free on the door but donations are welcome, 3 buckets for donations for the artists, Occupy and The Archer Project.

The Dove and Rainbow, Hartshead Square (just down the hill from the camp, map).

YT and Seize the Day were lined up but are unfortunatly not going to be doing sessions after all.