Above: James Macintyre reports from the camp
Everyone is welcome, and they come from across the country: the unemployed, students, ex-soldiers, social workers—even an elaborately dressed transvestite wearing a short, fluffy pink skirt who is normally seen on the streets of Clapham. “Tent City,” an encampment of over 100 tents which sprawls around the north side of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, has become as much a refuge for the destitute as a site for political protest.
Images of the camp have commanded the news since mid-October, although as Boris Johnson, the mayor of London has pointed out, it has so far toppled not a single banker but three clergymen. Giles Fraser, the canon chancellor, resigned over the prospect of forced eviction of the protesters. He was followed by Fraser Dyer, a chaplain who resigned because he felt “embarrassed by the position taken by the Dean,” Graeme Knowles, whose support for eviction led to his own downfall.
Yet an overall political message from the protesters remains unclear, dissipated by arguments about process and leadership. There seems more substance and clear purpose to the camp’s soup kitchens and the medical tents thrown up at the site to care for London’s needy than there is to its political mission.
All the same, the camp—one of many protests which have sprung up across the world this year—cannot be dismissed. Politicians wonder whether this demonstration will help one party or another—or whether it is a new kind of protest, detached from conventional politics, which they need to court or counter. Months after activists erected the first tents, the central questions remain. Who are the protesters? What do they want? What will come of the battle that rages around their presence on what the City of London insists is an illegally-occupied “public highway”?
On a night in late November in which St Paul’s cathedral spire was lost in fog, many who emerged from the shadows to talk were homeless. Some had been sleeping rough for years, others only more recently, although spokespeople for the camp maintain that the homeless are only “a handful” of the 100-140 people who stay. The campers, a multi-ethnic mix, are fed in the soup kitchen by volunteers, including several part-time chefs; they say they feed up to 1,500 people a day, most of whom are just around the camp during the day. The volunteers’ chief concerns are the need for more donations of vegetables, and the lack of storage facilities for meat, rather than the evils of global capitalism.
The camp is made up of pockets of people with different concerns. In the first aid tent, a 25-year-old mother of five, who teaches French and declined to give her name because she is in a custody battle for her children, gave skilled medical help around the clock. After midnight, she was tending to the bloodshot eyes of a middle-aged man who said he was dying of pancreatic cancer. She promised to help him further, including cutting his toenails, in the morning. She was there, she said, “because of the idea of a peaceful protest. We’ve accomplished that.” She acknowledged her fellow campers were “a bit of everything. We are attracting local hobos, which is understandable because of the free food.”
What of the reports, in what she and others there call “the right-wing press,” that the site is a health hazard, riddled with syringes and hard drugs? In early December, one 20-year-old activist quit, according to reports, citing disillusionment and warning that “someone’s going to overdose here.” “I have not seen a single needle,” the medical volunteer said without hesitation—nor did I. There are handwritten signs banning drugs and alcohol, and although a few drink cans of lager discreetly there is not a whiff of cannabis. Even the Portaloos are relatively clean. It has been widely reported that many protesters do not stay overnight, yet most of the tents are occupied; finding a place to rest for the night, as I discovered, is not easy.
The medical volunteer is right, too, about the peacefulness. The only incident that night prompting the nearby police to descend was when a homeless man refused to move away from the medical tent. There were sporadic rows over biscuits or cakes, and an argument about persistent drumming by a man who promised to stop at 11pm—but although he carried on, it came to nothing. Those donning sinister Guy Fawkes masks, inspired by the 2006 film V for Vendetta, are a nuisance: they appear out of nowhere, gripping onto those they address, while talking incomprehensibly from behind their headgear; others offer unwanted “free hugs.” There is widespread hostility towards representatives of the media, although some have practical reasons for withholding their names: not wanting their employers, course organisers and in some cases parents to know they are there. Some at the St Paul’s site say that wealthier protesters go to another camp at Finsbury Square.
But violence, crime and “feral children” of media reports were not evident: the youngest was a 17 year old who had fallen out with her mother. Staff at the nearby Marks & Spencer have been told not to talk to journalists, but one cashier insisted, off the record, that visitors from the camp have been peaceful—and have always paid.
There is a “library” of donated books, as there are at Occupy protests in the United States, and a large tent for meetings, where a group of 27 gathered in solidarity with the Dale Farm travellers evicted by Basildon Council. Jonnie Marbles, the anti-capitalist protester famous for slapping a plate of shaving foam in Rupert Murdoch’s face on 19th July, turned up at that meeting, later joining the queue for soup and bread, in good spirits and joking about being careful with mobile phone voicemails.
But if the social structure of the camp is organised, the message is not. Every evening at 7pm there is a “general assembly,” but it is strangled by process. The first time I visited, a gathering of around 30 people, billed as a discussion about Egypt, descended into an orgy of amendments, “blocks” and votes. “Tomorrow’s process group is to discuss what we mean by consensus,” declared one organiser. Several “working groups” were planned, including one specifically on “process,” but their air of protest was compromised by the venue—Starbucks. A “polling booth” has cropped up, but no one, including those at the information tent, seems to know what it’s for.
The organisers originally demanded that the City of London Corporation, the City’s municipal government, be made “accountable.” Six weeks later, on 28th November, they issued a detailed statement, calling for more scrutiny of business lobbying and for politicians to “abolish tax havens and complex tax avoidance schemes, and ensure corporations pay tax that accurately reflects their real profits.”
“The banks” feature in many protesters’ explanations of what they want. Iona Katherine Evans, 19, studying sculpture, who has been volunteering at the camp for a month, says that her motives are “simple—it’s the banks. I am not that educated but I know what’s right and wrong and [the behaviour of the banks] is wrong.” And yes, her mother knows she’s here and “supports the cause.” Stuart Clague, a 31-year-old night porter, says “I’m here for people in hard jobs: teachers, nurses. This is about capitalism and it is about greed. I am part of the 99 per cent. People come up to you here and make donations because they agree.”
However, the St Paul’s organisers are hard to identify, partly because the camp is meant to be leaderless, and that does nothing for the coherence of its message. Several people say they do not know who their leaders are, and among the ordinary volunteers, there is bitter laughter about the general assemblies and even some suspicion about the handling of the budget amassed from donations, which is said to be around £3,000. “The general assembly bores me to tears,” says one camper.
Naomi Colvin is a 31-year-old former literary agent who took voluntary redundancy to join the protest as a spokesperson, yet she too rejects the concept of organisers. “There aren’t any,” she says. “It doesn’t work like that. I am sorry if people feel cut off and I can understand that, but it’s partly because those of us who are helping co-ordinate the various protest sites are thinly spread.” She says she has nothing to do with the money, and does not “overnight” at the camp. She divides her time between lobbying at Westminster and visiting protest sites around the capital. Like other central figures, she uses Twitter to spread the word. Her Twitter name is OccupyLSX—the hashtag reference for the protest at London St Paul’s—and she has over 22,500 followers.
Another front-woman is Lucy Annson, widely quoted as “Lucy” in the press and a former spokesperson for UK Uncut, the austerity protest group. She appeared on Newsnight in March, defending the “March for the Alternative” against spending cuts in Hyde Park, which was attended by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. Anarchist elements at the march turned to violence, which Annson refused to condemn, saying: “I reject the premise of the question.”
On the first night I visited, activists in a “communications” tent (into which journalists are not allowed) held a late-night Skype conference with comrades at Occupy Wall Street, under threat of a more permanent eviction after they were kicked out of Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan, for a “clean-up” on 15th November. Occupy Wall Street has managed a clear mission statement, calling itself “a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colours, genders and political persuasions.” Its website, set up in June, adds that: “The one thing we all have in common is that the 99 per cent will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 per cent. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of non-violence to maximise the safety of all participants.”
At St Paul’s, it was only in the early hours of the morning, with the church bells tolling two and three o’clock, that political discussion really got heated. A few people crowded round to debate with an intensity that would have exhausted even the most interested and sympathetic observer.
But most at the camp either do not vote or say they won’t again. While Ed Miliband is criticised in Westminster for pandering to the protesters, here he is seen as a “sell-out.” These people are not “apathetic”—some are obsessed with politics and the media—but they are alienated from a political system they do not relate to or trust.
Whether the protest represents a political force, despite its lack of clear message, will depend on how much support it attracts from others. Unpublished private polls from YouGov, commissioned by the City of London and seen by Prospect, suggest that support is muted—and dropping.
YouGov conducted two polls, on 3rd-4th and 24th-28th November. During that time, support for the St Paul’s protest edged up from 20 to 22 per cent across Britain, while opposition remained the same at 40 per cent. In London, there was been no change: support at 20 per cent, opposition at 50 per cent. However, asked whether legal action should be taken to remove the protesters, opinion is solidifying slightly: across the country, those favouring eviction rose from 44 to 45 per cent and those opposing legal action from 38 to 39. The number in London who back legal action went from 48 to 51, while those opposing fell from 33 to 32.
At St Paul’s, men in suits, presumably City workers, occasionally walk through the camp and shout that those here should “get a job.” But one female banker who works in emerging markets and was on her way home from work explained that she has no problem with, and even some sympathy for, the protest, merely adding that “I work hard and earn my money.”
Relations with the cathedral, at least, appear to be thawing. The church has a private security guard when it closes after Evensong at 5pm, but there are channels of communication. One of the campers, who has become a “church liaison officer,” said to the general assembly: “The church is asking that during the day please can we not play music outside the chapter house. This seems reasonable. Whether we like them or not, whatever our personal views are, people do have a right to work.”
But if the church has performed a U-turn, now opposing the camp’s forced removal after the intervention by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the City of London Corporation has other ideas. Tony Halmos, the director of public relations for the City of London, tells Prospect that he is “confident” the camp will be removed by late January. He is careful to emphasise his objection to camping on a public highway, rather than to people’s right to protest. “We have gone to the high court seeking an injunction to remove campers from the public highway.”
Legal battles have pitched the Human Rights Act, wielded by the camp’s pro-bono lawyers, against the Public Highways Act used by the City’s lawyers. If courts support eviction, City advisers are braced for what they call “protest tourism,” and for clashes with police and bailiffs.
But even if the camp leaves the churchyard, others are likely to crop up elsewhere. This is a new type of protest whose power is in the range of those it attracts. The message may be incoherent, but the strength of feeling is as hard to sweep aside as the tents themselves.
Timeline: protests around the world
13th July Canadian-based magazine Adbusters, edited by Kalle Lasn, tells its 70,000-odd readers: “Are you ready for a Tahrir moment? On Sept 17 flood into Lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street.”
23rd August The Tumblr website “We are the 99 percent” is started and the slogan gains ground.
17th September More than 1,000 people gather to protest at Wall Street, with several hundred establishing a camp in Zuccotti Park nearby.
1st-10th October Occupy protests spring up in other US cities, including Seattle and Chicago.
15th October Answering a call for a day of action, protests began in cities including London, Sydney, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Paris and Berlin, many of which result in Occupy movements. ?Protests in Rome lead to riots and vandalism—causing over €1m of damage and 135 injuries.
25th October Egyptian activists in Tahrir Square announce support for the Occupy movement. In Oakland, California, police use teargas and baton rounds to evict occupiers.
27th October Giles Fraser, canon chancellor of St Paul’s, resigns over the threatened forced ?eviction of protesters at the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp outside the cathedral.
15th November Protests in New York are shut down by police and more than 200 are arrested. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Brookfield Properties, owners of Zuccotti Park, cite health and fire safety hazards as the reasons for the operation.
1st December Occupiers at St Paul’s are served with eviction notices by the Corporation of London.
Twitter: recommended reading
Prospect asked its Twitter followers to suggest books that James Macintyre should take to the camp’s library, “Starbooks”:
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ? @V__Vendetta V
In Defence of Global Capitalism by?Johan Nornberg ? @sibarnes2000
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes ? @docodin
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky? @sunny_hundal
The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg? @skintnick
Anti-Capitalism by Ezequiel Adamovsky? @justinthelibsoc
The Iron Heel & Martin Eden by Jack London, It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.? @VireoVideo
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel? @ms215
Follow Prospect on Twitter: @prospect_uk
Everyone is welcome, and they come from across the country: the unemployed, students, ex-soldiers, social workers—even an elaborately dressed transvestite wearing a short, fluffy pink skirt who is normally seen on the streets of Clapham. “Tent City,” an encampment of over 100 tents which sprawls around the north side of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, has become as much a refuge for the destitute as a site for political protest.
Images of the camp have commanded the news since mid-October, although as Boris Johnson, the mayor of London has pointed out, it has so far toppled not a single banker but three clergymen. Giles Fraser, the canon chancellor, resigned over the prospect of forced eviction of the protesters. He was followed by Fraser Dyer, a chaplain who resigned because he felt “embarrassed by the position taken by the Dean,” Graeme Knowles, whose support for eviction led to his own downfall.
Yet an overall political message from the protesters remains unclear, dissipated by arguments about process and leadership. There seems more substance and clear purpose to the camp’s soup kitchens and the medical tents thrown up at the site to care for London’s needy than there is to its political mission.
All the same, the camp—one of many protests which have sprung up across the world this year—cannot be dismissed. Politicians wonder whether this demonstration will help one party or another—or whether it is a new kind of protest, detached from conventional politics, which they need to court or counter. Months after activists erected the first tents, the central questions remain. Who are the protesters? What do they want? What will come of the battle that rages around their presence on what the City of London insists is an illegally-occupied “public highway”?
On a night in late November in which St Paul’s cathedral spire was lost in fog, many who emerged from the shadows to talk were homeless. Some had been sleeping rough for years, others only more recently, although spokespeople for the camp maintain that the homeless are only “a handful” of the 100-140 people who stay. The campers, a multi-ethnic mix, are fed in the soup kitchen by volunteers, including several part-time chefs; they say they feed up to 1,500 people a day, most of whom are just around the camp during the day. The volunteers’ chief concerns are the need for more donations of vegetables, and the lack of storage facilities for meat, rather than the evils of global capitalism.
The camp is made up of pockets of people with different concerns. In the first aid tent, a 25-year-old mother of five, who teaches French and declined to give her name because she is in a custody battle for her children, gave skilled medical help around the clock. After midnight, she was tending to the bloodshot eyes of a middle-aged man who said he was dying of pancreatic cancer. She promised to help him further, including cutting his toenails, in the morning. She was there, she said, “because of the idea of a peaceful protest. We’ve accomplished that.” She acknowledged her fellow campers were “a bit of everything. We are attracting local hobos, which is understandable because of the free food.”
What of the reports, in what she and others there call “the right-wing press,” that the site is a health hazard, riddled with syringes and hard drugs? In early December, one 20-year-old activist quit, according to reports, citing disillusionment and warning that “someone’s going to overdose here.” “I have not seen a single needle,” the medical volunteer said without hesitation—nor did I. There are handwritten signs banning drugs and alcohol, and although a few drink cans of lager discreetly there is not a whiff of cannabis. Even the Portaloos are relatively clean. It has been widely reported that many protesters do not stay overnight, yet most of the tents are occupied; finding a place to rest for the night, as I discovered, is not easy.
The medical volunteer is right, too, about the peacefulness. The only incident that night prompting the nearby police to descend was when a homeless man refused to move away from the medical tent. There were sporadic rows over biscuits or cakes, and an argument about persistent drumming by a man who promised to stop at 11pm—but although he carried on, it came to nothing. Those donning sinister Guy Fawkes masks, inspired by the 2006 film V for Vendetta, are a nuisance: they appear out of nowhere, gripping onto those they address, while talking incomprehensibly from behind their headgear; others offer unwanted “free hugs.” There is widespread hostility towards representatives of the media, although some have practical reasons for withholding their names: not wanting their employers, course organisers and in some cases parents to know they are there. Some at the St Paul’s site say that wealthier protesters go to another camp at Finsbury Square.
But violence, crime and “feral children” of media reports were not evident: the youngest was a 17 year old who had fallen out with her mother. Staff at the nearby Marks & Spencer have been told not to talk to journalists, but one cashier insisted, off the record, that visitors from the camp have been peaceful—and have always paid.
There is a “library” of donated books, as there are at Occupy protests in the United States, and a large tent for meetings, where a group of 27 gathered in solidarity with the Dale Farm travellers evicted by Basildon Council. Jonnie Marbles, the anti-capitalist protester famous for slapping a plate of shaving foam in Rupert Murdoch’s face on 19th July, turned up at that meeting, later joining the queue for soup and bread, in good spirits and joking about being careful with mobile phone voicemails.
But if the social structure of the camp is organised, the message is not. Every evening at 7pm there is a “general assembly,” but it is strangled by process. The first time I visited, a gathering of around 30 people, billed as a discussion about Egypt, descended into an orgy of amendments, “blocks” and votes. “Tomorrow’s process group is to discuss what we mean by consensus,” declared one organiser. Several “working groups” were planned, including one specifically on “process,” but their air of protest was compromised by the venue—Starbucks. A “polling booth” has cropped up, but no one, including those at the information tent, seems to know what it’s for.
The organisers originally demanded that the City of London Corporation, the City’s municipal government, be made “accountable.” Six weeks later, on 28th November, they issued a detailed statement, calling for more scrutiny of business lobbying and for politicians to “abolish tax havens and complex tax avoidance schemes, and ensure corporations pay tax that accurately reflects their real profits.”
“The banks” feature in many protesters’ explanations of what they want. Iona Katherine Evans, 19, studying sculpture, who has been volunteering at the camp for a month, says that her motives are “simple—it’s the banks. I am not that educated but I know what’s right and wrong and [the behaviour of the banks] is wrong.” And yes, her mother knows she’s here and “supports the cause.” Stuart Clague, a 31-year-old night porter, says “I’m here for people in hard jobs: teachers, nurses. This is about capitalism and it is about greed. I am part of the 99 per cent. People come up to you here and make donations because they agree.”
However, the St Paul’s organisers are hard to identify, partly because the camp is meant to be leaderless, and that does nothing for the coherence of its message. Several people say they do not know who their leaders are, and among the ordinary volunteers, there is bitter laughter about the general assemblies and even some suspicion about the handling of the budget amassed from donations, which is said to be around £3,000. “The general assembly bores me to tears,” says one camper.
Naomi Colvin is a 31-year-old former literary agent who took voluntary redundancy to join the protest as a spokesperson, yet she too rejects the concept of organisers. “There aren’t any,” she says. “It doesn’t work like that. I am sorry if people feel cut off and I can understand that, but it’s partly because those of us who are helping co-ordinate the various protest sites are thinly spread.” She says she has nothing to do with the money, and does not “overnight” at the camp. She divides her time between lobbying at Westminster and visiting protest sites around the capital. Like other central figures, she uses Twitter to spread the word. Her Twitter name is OccupyLSX—the hashtag reference for the protest at London St Paul’s—and she has over 22,500 followers.
Another front-woman is Lucy Annson, widely quoted as “Lucy” in the press and a former spokesperson for UK Uncut, the austerity protest group. She appeared on Newsnight in March, defending the “March for the Alternative” against spending cuts in Hyde Park, which was attended by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. Anarchist elements at the march turned to violence, which Annson refused to condemn, saying: “I reject the premise of the question.”
On the first night I visited, activists in a “communications” tent (into which journalists are not allowed) held a late-night Skype conference with comrades at Occupy Wall Street, under threat of a more permanent eviction after they were kicked out of Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan, for a “clean-up” on 15th November. Occupy Wall Street has managed a clear mission statement, calling itself “a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colours, genders and political persuasions.” Its website, set up in June, adds that: “The one thing we all have in common is that the 99 per cent will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 per cent. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of non-violence to maximise the safety of all participants.”
At St Paul’s, it was only in the early hours of the morning, with the church bells tolling two and three o’clock, that political discussion really got heated. A few people crowded round to debate with an intensity that would have exhausted even the most interested and sympathetic observer.
But most at the camp either do not vote or say they won’t again. While Ed Miliband is criticised in Westminster for pandering to the protesters, here he is seen as a “sell-out.” These people are not “apathetic”—some are obsessed with politics and the media—but they are alienated from a political system they do not relate to or trust.
Whether the protest represents a political force, despite its lack of clear message, will depend on how much support it attracts from others. Unpublished private polls from YouGov, commissioned by the City of London and seen by Prospect, suggest that support is muted—and dropping.
YouGov conducted two polls, on 3rd-4th and 24th-28th November. During that time, support for the St Paul’s protest edged up from 20 to 22 per cent across Britain, while opposition remained the same at 40 per cent. In London, there was been no change: support at 20 per cent, opposition at 50 per cent. However, asked whether legal action should be taken to remove the protesters, opinion is solidifying slightly: across the country, those favouring eviction rose from 44 to 45 per cent and those opposing legal action from 38 to 39. The number in London who back legal action went from 48 to 51, while those opposing fell from 33 to 32.
At St Paul’s, men in suits, presumably City workers, occasionally walk through the camp and shout that those here should “get a job.” But one female banker who works in emerging markets and was on her way home from work explained that she has no problem with, and even some sympathy for, the protest, merely adding that “I work hard and earn my money.”
Relations with the cathedral, at least, appear to be thawing. The church has a private security guard when it closes after Evensong at 5pm, but there are channels of communication. One of the campers, who has become a “church liaison officer,” said to the general assembly: “The church is asking that during the day please can we not play music outside the chapter house. This seems reasonable. Whether we like them or not, whatever our personal views are, people do have a right to work.”
But if the church has performed a U-turn, now opposing the camp’s forced removal after the intervention by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the City of London Corporation has other ideas. Tony Halmos, the director of public relations for the City of London, tells Prospect that he is “confident” the camp will be removed by late January. He is careful to emphasise his objection to camping on a public highway, rather than to people’s right to protest. “We have gone to the high court seeking an injunction to remove campers from the public highway.”
Legal battles have pitched the Human Rights Act, wielded by the camp’s pro-bono lawyers, against the Public Highways Act used by the City’s lawyers. If courts support eviction, City advisers are braced for what they call “protest tourism,” and for clashes with police and bailiffs.
But even if the camp leaves the churchyard, others are likely to crop up elsewhere. This is a new type of protest whose power is in the range of those it attracts. The message may be incoherent, but the strength of feeling is as hard to sweep aside as the tents themselves.
Timeline: protests around the world
13th July Canadian-based magazine Adbusters, edited by Kalle Lasn, tells its 70,000-odd readers: “Are you ready for a Tahrir moment? On Sept 17 flood into Lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street.”
23rd August The Tumblr website “We are the 99 percent” is started and the slogan gains ground.
17th September More than 1,000 people gather to protest at Wall Street, with several hundred establishing a camp in Zuccotti Park nearby.
1st-10th October Occupy protests spring up in other US cities, including Seattle and Chicago.
15th October Answering a call for a day of action, protests began in cities including London, Sydney, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Paris and Berlin, many of which result in Occupy movements. ?Protests in Rome lead to riots and vandalism—causing over €1m of damage and 135 injuries.
25th October Egyptian activists in Tahrir Square announce support for the Occupy movement. In Oakland, California, police use teargas and baton rounds to evict occupiers.
27th October Giles Fraser, canon chancellor of St Paul’s, resigns over the threatened forced ?eviction of protesters at the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp outside the cathedral.
15th November Protests in New York are shut down by police and more than 200 are arrested. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Brookfield Properties, owners of Zuccotti Park, cite health and fire safety hazards as the reasons for the operation.
1st December Occupiers at St Paul’s are served with eviction notices by the Corporation of London.
Twitter: recommended reading
Prospect asked its Twitter followers to suggest books that James Macintyre should take to the camp’s library, “Starbooks”:
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ? @V__Vendetta V
In Defence of Global Capitalism by?Johan Nornberg ? @sibarnes2000
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, A Theory of Justice by John Rawls, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes ? @docodin
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky? @sunny_hundal
The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg? @skintnick
Anti-Capitalism by Ezequiel Adamovsky? @justinthelibsoc
The Iron Heel & Martin Eden by Jack London, It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.? @VireoVideo
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel? @ms215
Follow Prospect on Twitter: @prospect_uk
