[OccupySheffieldNews] [OccupySheffield] Sheffield Cathedral vs. the 99%

[Occupy Sheffield]

 -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Sheffield Cathedral vs. the 99%
 Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:47:15 +0000
 From: Occupy Sheffield <info at occupysheffield.org.uk>
 To:

 At 10.30am on Thursday 26th January 2012, Occupy Sheffield will attend 
 a trespass hearing in Sheffield District Registry Court.

 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 Sheffield 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

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 www.occupysheffield.org.uk
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