"The Occupiers", Chloe Ruthven, 2016.Nearly five years ago, on a balmy late summer’s day in October, I cycled down from north London to the London Stock Exchange. I wanted to take a half-look at, and join in half-protest with, a gathering that had been advertised widely on various Facebook posts.
The demonstration was being held in solidarity with a similar protest around Wall Street, and was aimed at the greed of the financial institutions in the wake of the economic crisis. I was not a seasoned activist. But I had become increasingly angry with what I was seeing and hearing in the news. I also worked in schools, and hated the growing inequality that I had seen since my own London primary school days.
I arrived to a party atmosphere. Hundreds, it could have been thousands, of people were milling around the steps of St Paul’s, and the entrance to Paternoster Square – which was, by the time I arrived, barricaded by the police. Everyone was joyful, happy, focused.
