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

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

Whilst we are raising queries with our legal advisors, Occupy Sheffield strongly believe that the solution to this situation is not legal action. Such an option would not be in keeping with the shared values of the Church and the Occupation. We continue to extend our invitation to Peter Bradley and the Cathedral Chapter to work with the Occupation to find a well reasoned and mutually acceptable resolution. The words of Canon Giles Fraser (who resigned over similar proceedings being brought by the City of London Corporation against Occupy LSX) are relevant here: “One has to be very, very careful that we distinguish between the needs of a building and the Church as an organisation that spreads the gospel…Now there are times when the two things are in tension…you have to ask yourself about extraordinary compromises and balances”. Examples of such compromise and balance have already been evidenced. We would urge Peter Bradley and the Chapter to adopt the stance of other Anglican leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Emeritus, Archbishop of Cape Town, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, The Bishop of Wales, and The Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral.

Peter Bradley and the Chapter of Sheffield Cathedral should be in no doubt that by taking legal action to forcibly evict the Occupation could result in them being the first British church in recent times to condone violence by enforcement bodies against members of their own church. They would also be condoning the use of force against vulnerable pensioners, disabled and homeless people, such as users of the Cathedral Archer project. All of these vulnerable groups are regularly represented at the Occupy Camp.

Occupy Sheffield believe that compromise can only be reached by keeping open our lines of reasoned communication. All parties must dig deep and consider that if Peter Bradley, The Chapter and Occupy Sheffield embark on a long and costly legal battle it will ultimately reveal a collective lack of wisdom that this was allowed to happen at all. Occupy Sheffield are disappointed that Peter Bradley has never visited the camp to talk to us. We do not enjoy the vested ecumenical power of Peter Bradley or the Chapter; we believe they are vulnerable to abuse such power and make uninformed decisions about people who do not enjoy this advantage, and with whom they have had very little engagement.

Occupy Sheffield has taken a stand on Church St because we believe our world has become dominated by a competitive, “dog eat dog” mentality. We will become perilously close to our darkest of days if this attitude is not tempered by the duty to see each other as valuable human beings and act with the respect that we all deserve.

Our appeal is for all parties to see the humanity in each other, to seek compromise over conflict, and peace over violence.

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.

Firstly, we are pleased to have had the opportunity to talk to the Dean.

This is only the second time Occupy Sheffield has spoken with the Dean, the first being at the ecumenical meeting at the URC. It is unfortunate however that the Dean seemed to have been given a different frame of reference for the radio appearance than we were. This meant that the subjects covered were broader and we were unable to tackle our issues about the letter, as originally intended.

We therefore think it is in the interests of clarity to outline our concerns with the letter itself. Irrespective of what the Dean may have intended the letter brought out a number of points.

Firstly the letter suggests that many of the neighbouring businesses are being inconvenienced by the protest. We are not aware of any such problems.

We were actually informed of this letters existence by some of those local businesses, disturbed that in the first paragraph the Dean states that he is doing all he can to end the protest.

If the Dean has any specific complaints from local businesses we would be more than happy to address them, but he has not let us know of any as yet.

Our second concern with the letter is that it suggests the Dean’s gratitude to the Banks seems to override any concerns over their conduct.

He may have received a positive experience from these institutions but many many people have been poorly served by them.

If we choose to gloss over their role in creating the banking crisis in 2008 we would still have concerns.

Barclays, RBS and HSBC have been identified as being in the top 20 ‘Climate Killer’ banks for investing Billions in the coal sector, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.

Bob Diamond the CEO of Barclays made £27M selling his bank shares in 2009, just one year after the banking crisis.

He was also amongst the bank chiefs that tried to derail the banking reforms.

HSBC meanwhile have just been ordered to pay a record £40M in fines (10.3M) and compensation (29.3M) for the misselling of investment bonds to 3,000 vulnerable elderly customers (Average age 83) and has set aside £270M to compensate customers missold PPI.

Lloyds TSB has had to set aside £3.2Bn to cover similar claims.

Lloyds TSB are also part of a syndicate that has invested $2BN in Lockheed Martin, manufacturers of cluster bombs, and this is after it was bailed out by the taxpayer.

So yes we have questions about the banks.

We have no axe to grind with the Cutlers Company. From the beginning our hopes for being opposite the Cutlers Hall have been that, as a meeting place for the great and the good of Sheffield business, they might find time to come to Occupy Sheffield to discuss and understand our protest, which is often wrongly portrayed as being anti-capitalist.

So far we’ve seen a boy scouts reunion and the internet company Plusnet who came across to talk but it’s early days.

Finally we are concerned that the last paragraph appears, and I hope we are wrong in this, to be an attempt to generate support for the removal of Occupy Sheffield by any means short of eviction.

WE ARE.

Disappointed that this letter was sent out after such a positive ecumenical meeting, where so many of the city’s religious representatives were so positive, and when we’ve had positive responses from across the spectrum of faiths in the city.

Sad that our interaction with the Cathedral is being portrayed by parts of the media as a battle between Occupy Sheffield and the Cathedral when we are trying our best to avoid this. Together we would be so much more effective in campaigning for change

Encouraged that so many of the cathedrals congregation have expressed their support, as have very many other ordinary people of Sheffield. The petition we presented to the council on Wednesday had collected 600 signatures in just a week.

Nigel Slack.

Occupy Sheffield.

What we believe we are seeing in this letter is a manager, with many stakeholders, attempting to maintain good relationships with those stakeholders, in challenging circumstances – a situation which will be familiar to many people and is not unusual. We do not find fault with this.

It is not, and never has been the intention of Occupy Sheffield to take on a battle with Sheffield Cathedral. The camp is set up – literally – if not figuratively – with the Cathedral at our back, and facing towards the banks.

What saddens us is that having been very close to the great work that the Cathedral do with the Archer project, and with the small window on the experience of homelessness that our time in the camp has allowed us, we are saddened that it is necessary for him to have to go cap-in-hand to the very people who have promulgated this crisis, which will see many more people in poverty, and many more people lose their homes.

Occupy Sheffield is there to have the conversation ‘how can we do things differently’, and we invite Peter Bradley to further continue the discussions that were started last
week.

Transcript of Letter

5 December 2011

Dear neighbour

I am writing to thank you for your forbearance. We understand that many of our partners locally are being inconvenienced by the protest currently taking place on the Cathedral forecourt. I want to assure you that we are doing all we can to bring the protest to a peaceful conclusion.

The Cathedral deeply values its long-term partnerships with many companies, banks and other agencies in the city. I hope you will be reassured to know that on the very first day of the protest I publicly thanked our major commercial partners, including Barclays Bank, HSBC and the Cutlers Company. Whatever questions the protesters may be drawing to our attention, our experience of these and similar institutions has been of their consistent professionalism and committed support of our work.

If there are any issues arising out of the protest that concern you particularly, do please get in touch with me.

With all good wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Peter Bradley

As part of our continuing activities to draw attention to global inequality and the corrupting power of big money on our democracy, this week marks one month of protest, discussion and occupation on the city streets.

Following a trying week, with disagreements with the Cathedral unfortunately played out in local media, Occupy Sheffield protesters received backing from the Council, to have a fresh mandate for constructive discussions with Cathedral management, and for continuing our vital work as part of the global Movement.

We look forward to further meetings with the Dean and the Cathedral management team to ensure that the Archer Project can continue its vital work with the disadvantaged. We reiterate that we are willing to temporarily reconfigure the camp to ensure that we do not impair the financial activities of the Archer Project or the Cathedral. We intend to seek clarification from the Cathedral as to whether it’s primary activities are financial or social.

Although Occupy Sheffield welcomes most of the sentiments expressed in the council resolution, we think they need to act in a way more befitting of adults acting with the entrusted power of their electorate and it’s no surprise that we’re in the position we’re in if the juvenile culture which prevailed yesterday is the norm for decision making in this country. The Green Party motion was amended by means of deleting the whole of it and inserting a thoroughly partisan piece of politicking by the ruling Labour group which gives the illusion of supporting Occupy Sheffield whilst actually hijacking the occasion with the assumption that Labour must be our movement’s party of choice. In order to pass this less than illustrious motion, the council had to suspend their own constitution! Occupy Sheffield firmly believes that the need for an alternative approach to decision making at the local level is a key component in redefining the relationship between the individual, corporations and the state.

We are also disappointed the council seemed to give weight to the Dean’s unsubstantiated comments at part f of the council’s statement; neither the Dean, Peter Bradley, nor any other representative from the Cathedral attended this full council meeting. In contrast, at least a dozen supporters of the movement did. It is therefore difficult to see why the Peter Bradley’s word carries more weight than ours, when the council leader herself admitted she could not verify his comments, and that matters between the Cathedral and the camp were exactly that; they do not involve the council.

As always, we welcome all interested members of the public to our daily General Assemblies at 6.30pm or our new weekly Public Assemblies, Saturday’s at midday. Furthermore, we also urge members of the public to attend a council meeting such as the one yesterday, so that they can be in a position of full knowledge as to the degree to which point-scoring and back-biting taint their local politics.

There is no rule which says that a democratic system be one of trench warfare between intransigent and implacable foes. This is to all our detriment and allows those interests which would act without societal conscience to flourish.

Our system of consensual democracy is both productive and fair: we believe that this is more what 21st century democracy should look like, than an ongoing bunfight. Come and join us, to tell us what change you would like to see, and become part of making a better, fairer world.

Council Statement in Full

That this Council:

(a) Notes that the Occupy Movement both in Britain and internationally raise important issues around the way that our economic system is not working for the majority of people;

(b) Further notes that the presence outside Sheffield Cathedral replicates that at St Paul’s in London and hundreds of similar demonstrations in cities across the world;

(c) Believes that we need a more responsible economy and that the legitimate concerns raised by Occupy enter the debate about how to achieve this;

(d) Further believes that the methods of Occupy will not receive universal support, however acknowledges their right to protest peacefully; and

(e) Fully supports the important work of Sheffield Cathedral and, in light of recent comments by the Dean of the Cathedral indicating that it is now his wish for the protesters to leave the Cathedral, hopes that the church and Occupy will work together to reach a mutually agreeable solution.

(f) Whilst supporting Occupy Sheffield’s right to protest, notes the concerns of the Dean of Sheffield and urges the Occupy Sheffield Group to respect the wishes of the Cathedral and the Archer Project.

Representatives of Occupy Sheffield and clergy from the city centre churches, including the Cathedral and the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Steven Croft, held a positive and mutually respectful meeting at the Central United Reformed Church.

The Occupy Sheffield representatives were invited to share with the group their reasons for the camp; these centred on their concerns and anger about the increasing inequality between those who have and those who have not across the world.

There followed a very constructive discussion during which the church representatives affirmed their understanding of many of the issues raised by the Occupy movement, and their commitment to continue keeping channels of communication open.