Very different - though widely advertised, very few even of the J18 organisers knew where it would be. This made it a very effective day.

Also probably different (I'm not in London) is that there were a large number of people putting in a huge amount of preparation work to think through strategy and to make tactics work on the day. There have been other 'national actions' where people thought it was enough to advertise the event and it would happen OK...this is never the case.

Anyway, good luck on 15th.

PS it was not called the carnival against capitalism, but the carnival against capital - work out the differences yourself, I'm sure you can.

-The anti-capitalist movement at that time was clearly aimed at bringing down the system, not reforming it. Some elements in the 'Occupy' movement are content with reform.

-There was in J18, for the most part, a culture of 'diversity of tactics'; that those with different ideas about which tactics are useful or ethical should respect each others choices, and try not to tread on each others' toes, instead of condemning each other. The 'Occupy' movement has a long way to go with that; it still has lots of dogmatic pacifism (ie imposing pacifism on others).

-The 'Carnival against Capital' was clearly aiming to disrupt the financial district. According to the notes made here:
 http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10361#comment-2811
...OccupyLSX doesn't even have consensus that it wants to be disruptive! Presumably some people think it's enough to just be publicly visible, without disrupting or confronting anything.

To cut a long story short, OccupyLSX has some way to go before it can evolve (hopefully) into something as radical or militant as J18.

But all the more reason to go along and argue for more radical politics and more militant tactics, rather than just stay at home and grumble.