Cycling protestors descend on Hackney as Occupy London tackles sites of ‘social injustice’

pic: Occupy Hackney

This afternoon the ‘Occupy the World’ movement will go local, as Hackney neighbourhoods join the long list of London’s occupied spaces.

Between two and five pm today, Critical Mass, a cycling protest group, will tour Hackney’s sites of “social and economic injustice” as well as visiting local landmarks that celebrate “people power and popular resistance”. All destinations are secret and will not be revealed until this afternoon.

The group will then gather at St. Augustine’s Tower in Hackney Central and host a general assembly with public speakers from the Occupy London stock exchange and Finsbury Square camps. The mission statement reads: “Join us in celebrating Hackney’s place in the 99 per cent, and strengthening our community to work together saying, ‘We won’t pay for their crisis’”.

Hackney is no stranger to occupation, as the abandoned UBS offices on Sun Street were seized by campaigners in November extending Occupy London to a third site. The 400-room squat, dubbed the Bank of Ideas, continues to be used for community and social projects.

Occupy Hackney held a banner-making workshop on Tuesday afternoon at the Bank of Ideas in preparation for this afternoon.

It is unknown how today’s events will culminate, though early discussions on Facebook speculate that it could involve “turning banks into crèches and care homes, occupying job centres, general assemblies in the streets, and occupying colleges by people excluded from education by EMA cuts.”

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