page_title: Occupy London
section_title: October
hierarchical_section_title: Occupy London / Chronology / 2011 events / October
caption_attribution_description: English: foto by Lee Hassl
context_page_description: Occupy London was a movement for social justice and real democracy in London, England, and part of the international Occupy movement. While some media described it as an "anti-capitalist" movement, in the statement written and endorsed by consensus by the Occupy assembly in the first two days of the occupation, occupiers defined themselves as a movement working to create alternatives to an "unjust and undemocratic" system. A second statement endorsed the following day called for "real global democracy". Due to a pre-emptive injunction, the protesters were prevented from their original aim to camp outside the London Stock Exchange. Instead, a camp was set up nearby next to St Paul's Cathedral. On 18 January 2012, Mr Justice Lindblom granted an injunction against continuation of the protest but the protesters remained in place pending an appeal. The appeal was refused on 22 February, and just past midnight on 28 February bailiffs supported by City of London police began to remove the tents.
context_section_description: On 10 October 2011, a campaign was launched on Facebook for protests to take place at the London Stock Exchange on 15 October in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and with multiple other protests planned worldwide for that day.
  The London Stock Exchange in Paternoster Square was the initial target for the protesters on 15 October. However, the police blocked access to the square, enforcing a High Court injunction against public access. 2,500–3,000 people gathered nearby outside St Paul's Cathedral, with around 250 camping overnight. During the afternoon of 15 October Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, gave an impromptu speech to the protesters on the topic of anonymity after he was challenged by police for wearing a mask as he walked to the protest. On the Sunday morning the canon of St. Paul's, Reverend Giles Fraser, asked the police to leave the cathedral steps, saying he was happy for people to "exercise their right to protest peacefully" outside the cathedral.
  On 16 October, a gathering of over 500 Occupy London protesters collectively agreed upon and issued the following 'Initial Statement':
  The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.
  We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.
  We refuse to pay for the banks' crisis.
  We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.
  We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.
  We support the strike on 30 November and the student action on 9 November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.
  We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world's resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.
  The present economic system pollutes land, sea and air, is causing massive loss of natural species and environments, and is accelerating humanity towards irreversible climate change. We call for a positive, sustainable economic system that benefits present and future generations.
  We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.
  — occupylsx (Occupy London), Statement issued from the assembly on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, reported in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph
  By 17 October, an encampment of around 150 tents together with makeshift tarpaulin shelters was clustered around the west side of St Paul's Cathedral.
  On 21 October, the Dean of St Paul's announced that the cathedral would be closing until further notice as a result of the Occupy London camp pitched outside, and asked the protesters to leave the vicinity of the building "so that the cathedral can reopen as soon as possible". On the evening of the 21st it was reported that the protesters had decided that they would remain in their encampment outside the cathedral, and that they believed that they could not be lawfully removed from the site without a court order.
  On 22 October, the protesters established a second camp in Finsbury Square, just north of the City of London in the London Borough of Islington.
  On 26 October it was reported that the Dean of St Paul's had decided that the cathedral would reopen on 28 October, following the resolution of all health and safety concerns. The move was described as an "embarrassing U-turn" by the British national newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
  On 27 October, Dr Giles Fraser resigned as Canon Chancellor of St Paul's over disagreements on the handling of the demonstrators, saying "I resigned because I believe that the chapter has set on a course of action that could mean there will be violence in the name of the church."
  On 28 October, the movement's first set of demands, "Dem
caption: Solidarity poster referencing the We are the 99% slogan.
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