Hackney’s political parties divided over ‘Bank of Ideas’ squatters
The Bank of Ideas: open for 'business'. Photograph: Julia Ross
Hackney’s political parties are split in their views over the Occupy London movement and its taking over of a UBS-owned building in Shoreditch last month.
Of the parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens were the most supportive of the occupation. By contrast, Hackney’s Labour leader, Mayor Jules Pipe, declined to take a position saying: “This is purely a matter for the building’s owners. The protest is a London-wide issue, not specific to Hackney”.
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “In a democracy we fully support the right to protest and we have a lot of sympathy with the concerns of the Occupy movement. They express, among other things, a non-specific but widespread unease about the present monetary system and the widening inequality in our society.”
Former Green Party councillor Mischa Boris said: “Occupy London highlights the wastefulness of the many empty office spaces in London. These should be used by Londoners for positive purposes.”
Conservative London Assembly Member and Hackney resident Andrew Boff said the occupiers needed to be more prescriptive: “The only criticism I’ve got of the occupy protesters is: what about having a point? … All they seem to be saying is that the bankers have done wrong.”
The occupation of the vacant four-storey building owned by the Swiss Bank began on 18 November, and the choice of building holds significance for the protesters.
Occupy spokesperson Jack Holburn said: “Whilst over 9,000 families were kicked out of their homes in the last three months for failing to keep up mortgage payments – mostly due to the recession caused by the banks – UBS and others financial giants are sitting on massive abandoned properties.”
The property was empty for several months before the occupation.
Related:
UBS squatters at ‘Bank of Ideas’ face eviction
Occupy London protestors open Bank of Ideas
This is the full text of the Hackney Lib Dems response:
This must be the first recession where people are taking over bank’s property rather than the other way round.
In a democracy we fully support the right to protest and we have a lot of sympathy with the concerns of the Occupy movement. They express, among other things, a non-specific but widespread unease about the present monetary system and the widening inequality in our society. We share that unease – promoting equality is central to our party and its constitution. However some of their demands, for example the New York protesters’ call for the compulsory unionisation of all workers, go beyond tackling that inequality, and as such we are unable to support the movement as a whole.
Irresponsible banking, exacerbated by Labour’s light touch regulation has wrecked our economy meaning that youth clubs are culled and sure start centres shut down while the current government tries to pay off the bills with higher taxes and public spending cuts. We think those with the broadest shoulders, ie the rich, should pay more in taxes and that the banks need to be radically reformed to stop them repeating the same mistakes all over again. We in the Liberal Democrats will do everything we can to rectify this injustice from our side of the Coalition in government.
In this particular case the protest also illustrates the folly and waste of holding empty property, sometimes for long periods. The Lib Dem policy of establishing a Land Value Tax would be a disincentive to this sort of antisocial behaviour. And we do not agree with a blanket criminalising of squatting.