This is the last issue of Occupied London, a journal that started in the political freeze-frame that was London in the mid 00s. In December 2008, at the continent’s other end, the frames started moving again; as they sped up, new movements, revolts, ripples of transformation appeared. We changed our shape to respond to this unfolding condition. For a few years, we focused on regular blog updates from the streets in Greece; then, taking a few steps back and a deep breath, we put a book together, trying to understand the state of the antagonist movement in Greece with our comrades.

And now? The frames have reached a dazzling speed; the consensus of democracy’s good ol’ times has broken and sheds its glass all over the continent, and beyond: the old world is in crisis, and along with it is its previously imposed global consensus on what counts as “progress”, “democracy” or “development”. Are these the creaks and sighs of a new global order settling, are they the early days of global economic fascism, or, could they be the cracks and moaning of its collapse?

The change in everything that we live through is dramatic — and the only way to respond to this new landscape is by changing the format through which we act, communicate, the way we do and spread our politics. If there is a lesson that we should have learned by now in this prolonged moment of crisis, it is that political action that isn’t versatile is doomed to be paralysed in a radical milieu that becomes rapidly outpaced, superseded by the anger of peoples the world over. What has it ever meant to be underground or radical? Whatever the answer, it had already mattered less and less so in, say, struggles over gender, race, or sexuality — now, with revolts becoming the (dis)order of the day, old identifications become obsolete in street politics, too.

And so, this issue is an end and a beginning. It is the end of Occupied London as it existed so far: as irregular journal issues and as a single blog. From now on, we want to be able to respond faster and more acutely to what is playing out around us. Over the coming months, we will be working on both an expanded version of our “From the Greek Streets” blog and on a web platform that will allow for in-depth analysis of our time of global revolt. And then, on much more… We will not reveal much more about the full future format of Occupied London; suffice to say, we will continue updating the blog while we work on the shape of things to come.

Around four years since our last print issue, we have decided to end this phase of the Occupied London project with one final tribute to our journal format. This, our last issue, features reflections from many recent sites of mass revolts from the past few years: it is reminiscent and eagerly awaiting the times to come…

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Download a PDF version of Occupied London #5 here.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

EDITORIAL
Occupied London

CRISIS, CITY AND DEMOCRACY
Ali B.

REPRESSIVE MEMORIES
Dawn Paley

A MOVEMENT OF ANTAGONISM IN THE CITY
Alessio Lunghi

HEROES OF THE STREET
Tucker Landesman

ONE MESSAGE LEADS TO ANOTHER
John Berger

ONE REVOLT LEADS TO ANOTHER
Occupied London

ON CONTOURS OF URBAN REVOLTS IN MARIBOR
Gal Kirn

STRATEGIC EMBELLISHMENT AND CIVIL WAR
Andy Merrifield

HELLO DR. STRANGELOVE
Dimitris Dalakoglou

MOMENTS OF CRISIS
Jacken Waters

STATEMENT ON THE ‘DISMANTLING’ OF GOLDEN DAWN
Occupied London

Illustrations kindly provided by the legendary Leandros from Greece and the incredible Painsugar Designworks from Indonesia.

Fonts: AmazingBasic, Straw Hat, old style smallcaps and Chapparal pro.

This journal exists because of Dawn, Andy, Gal, Alessio, Painsugar, Anna, Leandros, John, Dimitris, Hara, Ali, Tucker, Magpie, Jacken, Antonis, Smokey, Elena, Idris, Jaya, Matt, Ross and Krümel.

At the editors’ seat:
Antonis, Jaya and Dimitris.

At the designer’s seat:
Jaya.

The crew can be reached at: editorial@occupiedlondon.org