On September 17th a group of protesters became inspired by the occupations of Tahrir Square in Eygpt, the Spanish acampadas, and occupied Wall Street in New York City. On 15th October this became a world wide movement with 1000s of city's around the world being occupied with the aims of:
"giving the power to the people. For a direct democracy in a local and global level...and once we get into the streets organize assemblies and start talking to each other and deciding how we want to do it. Let's build movements where each normal citizen has a voice. Let's just sit and talk and decide in which world we want to live, and how are we going to do it."
In Birmingham the occupation began at 10am in Victoria Square and by noon had built up to about 50 people. At one point the police harassed and escorted some people wearing V for Vendetta masks to train stations and forced them to leave the city centre. Other than this incident the police have had a very minimal presence so far.
On the newswire: Occupy Birmingham on 15th October | Gathering at Victoria Square on international protest day 15th October | Occupy Birmingham Protest | Occupy Birmingham: a camp has started | Occupy Victoria Square – Day 4 | Occupy Birmingham at the Fifth day
Related Features: Occupy! Manchester - 2nd October Tory Party Conference | As the Occupations go Global, Seven are Ongoing in the UK | Nottingham Occupation Continues | Occupy Bristol (Updated) | Occupy London, Global Day of Action #15Oct
Links: Occupy Birmingham | Twitter | Facebook
Over the course of the week the occupation has steadily grown with new tents arriving every day. The council has approved an extension of the area of the occupation in Victoria Square and has approved a second location. Wednesday saw the first people's assembly which discussed the possibility of moving location for a more long term occupation. A second assembly is due to be held on Saturday 22nd at 12pm. What's encouraging about this occupation is that it's not just the same old faces, for a lot of the people this is the first protest they have ever been on. They are there because of their anger over the banks, governments and the inequality of the system.