http://vimeo.com/35150718
Activists from the ‘Occupy Belfast’ encampment outside St Anne’s Cathedral took control of the vacant Bank of Ireland building on Royal Avenue on Monday.
Members of the group appear to have entered through the front door of the building, where there is now broken glass on an outside step. Posted beside each of the entrances to the former bank building are white, type-written legal notices of the occupiers’ right to be on the premises, and warning anyone against unauthorized entrance.
There are about dozen protestors inside the building. According to a statement on Occupy Belfast’s Facebook page, they are repossessing the building “in opposition to soaring homelessness, lack of affordable social housing and home repossessions.”
Occupy Belfast is part of the global ‘Occupy’ movement. The most prominent of these are the original ‘Occupy Wall Street’ in New York City, and Occupy London. There have been scores of ‘Occupy’ protests – and police and government crackdowns – across the world. Some have taken direct action to occupy offending financial and government institutions – with varying success – while others are focusing on occupying public space. Now, it seems, Occupy Belfast is attempting to do both.
The protesters declined to provide a spokesperson on camera, however we’ll bring you more as the story unfolds.
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