What next for the St Paul's protestors?

It is a battle that has triggered the resignation of churchmen and pitted protestors against the City. (See James Macintyre's piece on his night at tent city in January's Prospect). Now, as representatives from the Occupy London site at St Paul’s make one final appeal against eviction, many in the camp are already thinking about life beyond the churchyard.

In the Tent City University on Friday night, volunteers are folding copies of The Occupied Times, a newspaper published at a reduced rate by a sympathetic anarchist press. The editor, Steve Maclean, hopes to keep producing the paper in the event of an eviction, but knows that it will depend on people continuing to make donations. In any case, he tells me: “I’ve only ever thought one issue ahead.”

Others say that the ruling on St Paul’s is almost irrelevant. Sara Cameron became involved with Occupy soon after the camp was established in October. Although she says she will be “distraught” to see the protestors evicted, she expects that they will quickly find a new home. “There are lots of empty buildings here left without use. We’ll probably think about other places to go.”

For Jack Dean, her boyfriend, the Occupy movement has changed everything. “This is what I’ve been waiting for my entire life. I’d seen Occupy Wall Street, I’d seen the indignados—I knew this was part of a big picture.”

He believes that an eviction is inevitable, but says that a new infrastructure is in place. There is now a regular timetable for the meetings—“the central nervous system”—and the protestors have already established an online presence with forums for discussion. At the moment they are working on a nationwide umbrella website.

“People constantly conflate the camps and the movement. They are linked, but the camps are completely unnecessary to the movement. The movement doesn’t need physical sanctuary anymore.”