We arrived at the Peoples café (FKA Forrest café), Edinburgh at approximately 11pm to the sounds of a local folk band. The venue was a former community café that was closed due to lack of funding and then left empty for years before being reoccupied. We introduced ourselves and were shown around the building including the location of our luxury room (luxury compared to a tent!) for the weekend. We unloaded the car and started to investigate the building which was populated by a variety of different people from different groups and backgrounds – some had never protested before whilst others had made protesting a way of life and others who were somewhere in the middle. The atmosphere was positive and the walls (and floors) were covered in writing.

The conference started on Saturday with Jack from Newcastle making a vat of porridge and calling delegates for breakfast by banging a saucepan. Some of the people staying in the building were not there for the conference and complained about the early call for breakfast but the rest of us were there for a reason and appreciated the substantial breakfast.

Saturday was mostly spent sharing experiences and looking for ways we could work together to improve co-ordination between the camps and start to address the bigger issues that affect us all. We had all gone through challenging times during the formation of our camps and appreciated the opportunity to discuss some of the bigger issues whilst refleecting on our shared experiences.

The camp at St Andrews hosted a comedy show on Saturday afternoon for citizens of Edinburgh and any conference delegates who were in need of some comic relief after some intense discussions.

Following the comedy show a GA was held in the Bell Tent, a semi-permanent structure that provided shelter from the elements although it was a bit cramped as you can see from the images below!

We were then served St. Andrews Stew before continuing with the GA and then heading back to the People’s Cafe for further discussions which went on until the early hours.

Sunday, despite a late start, involved more focused discussions about how we could use our shared knowledge to help push the movement forward. Suggestions included a unified statement of aims, new occupy handbook, a national Occupy website, actively promoting a safer spaces policy, a women’s group amongst others.

The final overall aim was below however we all recognised that there was a lot of hard work still to be done.

We seek a more egalitarian and fair society, an open and peaceful environment for discussion and inclusiveness for people of all backgrounds. We seek a twenty-first century Enlightenment

We decided to stay over on Sunday night to give the techies a chance to finish working on ideas and give a lift to one of London’s head techies, Sam, who offered to come and assist in Sheffield. Sam ended up staying longer than intended, putting Sheffield before his new girlfriend, to help set-up some much needed technical infrastructure. This infrastructure will provide both opportunities and challenges – having the technology on site provides an opportunity for instant communication but also, unfortunately, an opportunity to thief’s!

We need to give us much time as we can to support the Occupy Sheffield permanent residents and make the camp a thriving community.

Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year