Vis-à-vis the occupy protest, the happiest souls are the hedge fund managers, investment bankers, traders in derivatives and credit default swaps. Thus far, no glove has been laid on the London Stock Exchange, and the City of London Corporation, undemocratic and unaccountable as it is, sits in the Guildhall relatively untroubled. That’s as much a loss for the protestors as it has been for St Paul’s.
It’s true that ‘the City’ has other things to worry about. The dramatic theatre of the St Paul’s protest should not distract us from the ongoing continuing process of economic implosion. Presumably, regardless of the fact that it increases the chance for a disorderly Greek default, the protestors would affirm the idea of a Greek referendum on its bailout, which is a mix of default (you might call this debt forgiveness on the part of banks) and even greater austerity. The vast majority of people, who are it is true very angry about the egregious excesses, distortions and injustices of global capitalism, might be less sanguine of the prospects of even deeper economic crisis in the Eurozone. The phrase, ‘we are the 99%’ is, to put it kindly, an act of prophetic imagination.
This leads us to the obvious point that the protestors are not very clear on what they want. At best they vaguely diagnose some of the problems, but proffer no solutions. As commentators like Luke Bretherton, Paul Vallely and John Milbank have pointed out, that’s not the only or necessarily the most significant facet of the protest, but it is nonetheless important. A new world might be possible, as the tape stuck to the pavements surrounding the camp observe, but the protestors have not described it or the journey thereto.
This is clearly very bad PR territory all round, though the situation has been mitigated by the suspension by St Paul’s of legal action to remove protestors (not that this action by itself makes the path ahead clear). Forced eviction would have finally aligned ‘the church’ with the institutions of state and capital. It would fit the story which the churches’ malcontents have pushed as much as anyone. They would conveniently forget everything churches – not least Benedict XVI’s Caritas In Veritate - do on both the level of the constructive contribution to public debate, the shaping of their own thinking and practices, and indeed in a practical way for the vulnerable and marginalised. If anything, the church could be a little more ‘front foot’ in observing that while it may have something to learn about the art of protest, especially sitting near the symbolic heart of global capitalism, the protesters might also have something to learn about intellectual engagement with nearly hopelessly complex challenges confronting us, and the prophetic nature of actually helping those at the margins.
There is not a shadow of a doubt that this episode has been a communications debacle. They have nevertheless been unable to deal with the level of scrutiny, or get any purchase on a story when the narrative has become about a struggle between the authorities of the church and the protestors. But if the Chapter have been unable to turn this protest to their advantage, should we really be so disturbed? I’m not sure cynical situation management is really part of a Cathedral’s USP.
The Cathedral can’t have a mission against the City. It can have a mission for, to and in the City. A critical mission, a mission which ask the toughest of questions – but protestors have the luxury of talking in expansive terms about a system needing change while the Cathedral, to coin a phrase, has to be a place of prayer for all nations and not a staging post of anti-capitalist protests. Its position is necessarily ambivalent, and it must find a path by its own lights.
Paul Bickley is the Senior Researcher at Theos
