Real Democracy Now Brighton – Press Release

The Assembly has agreed to lift up the Camp during Sunday 12th June, but the revolution does not end here!

At the General Assembly of the 8th of June 2011, the people that compromise the stronghold of the movement decided to lift up the Camp located for almost three weeks at Old Steine. We thereby inform of our decision and opinion on the issue at hand.

We can partly take blame for not providing a coherent message across to the wider community, therefore we clarify that even though many of us were inspired by Revolutions that have taken place in Northern Africa, Iceland and currently Spain; our Camp was not established exclusively in support of such movements. We are aware of a global situation whereby citizens, regardless of their ideological background, have been disenfranchised by our current political and economical system. Thus the retaking of a public space by citizens of all sorts was an exercise to explore wider perspectives on the current global crisis, and aims at creating citizen assemblies for democratic dialogue. Manchester, London and Bristol amongst others have also organised similar movements

At the Camp we aimed to create an open space of debate and discussion; where people could share their opinion and be informed in the meantime. This has been an exercise of inclusiveness, since we aimed to call for citizens to join us regardless of their ideological perspective. It has also been an exercise of inclusive and participatory democracy, because our procedure was based upon the notions of minimal consensus and everyone’s opinion was voiced and taken into account. With this in mind, every single person that has participated has benefited from an important learning experience that will never be forgotten. All in all, and regardless of our backgrounds, we seek to reach a consensus on how what needs to be done by and for the people to deal with the current global crisis; whether we find ourselves in the UK, Iceland or Greece.
The Assembly would therefore like to inform of the following:
·         Taking public squares, which is happening across Europe and the UK in this day and age, is just a symbolic exercise of popular will and expression. Despite lifting up the Camp, the decision to keep mobilising citizens to push for a democratic renewal has been unanimous.
·         Under the democratic right to peaceful protest, we will have regular gatherings at Old Steine which will be notified soon. We also note that at some point in the future, and under more favourable conditions, the Camp may be set up once again if citizens decide to do so.
·         Finally we wanted to thank all of those that have showed support in any way during the last three weeks as well as the patience and understanding of the Council and Police. We would like to emphasise the support and understanding of local businesses, citizens who freely shared their knowledge with the wider community and all those who donated valuable resources to the Camp. The latter will be soon informed of how to get back these resources that were kindly shared with all of us.
·         We will have a minute of silence on Sunday 12th of June at 8pm at the current location of the Camp (Old Steine). In loving memory of all those human beings that have risked their lives in Northern Africa for the sake of achieving the Democracy they wanted, and also in solidarity with other Revolution that are taking place such as in Spain, Iceland and our fellow Assemblies that have been created across Europe and the UK. Everyone is once again welcome to join us.