Statement from John Timberlake
Whatever the immediate outcome of the parliamentary horsetrading on Thursday 9th December, the political situation has converged with a social and cultural moment that has taken on an Evental dimension. Henceforth, there will always be a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. Marx’s ‘old mole’ of the European revolution has pushed up once more. That breakthrough leaves us all moved, and a little speechless. Many have predicted sell-outs by professional politicians, but this is more than that. Parliament is being sidelined by the real politics on the streets, in the colleges, and in the workplaces. Not only have the political promises of six months ago been exposed as lies, but the political lexicon itself is being overturned and emptied out – witness, for example, the phrase ‘liberal democrat’. Yet the imagination, resolve and clarity of your voices, epitomized by your 4/12/10 statement, fills that momentary void with direction and purpose. Political crises will come and go in the coming months, but this struggle will continue. There will be temporary victories, and there will be temporary defeats. There will be sneers and cynical misrepresentation from the media and politicians. Nevertheless, we must keep faith with the statement of you the occupiers. The wave across Europe is a transcendent moment in which all participating – occupiers, protestors, strikers – have started to imagine something far better than the world as it is. Here in Britain, you have shown the way.
John Timberlake, artist
