Occupy Edinburgh was a protest against economic and
social inequality
Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
as part of the global
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
. The "occupation" began with the erection of a number of tents in
St. Andrew Square on 14 October 2011.
On 24 November 2011,
Edinburgh City Council
The City of Edinburgh Council is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is Subdivisions of Scotland#Council areas, the second most populo ...
became the first governmental body in the world to grant both the Occupy Edinburgh and the worldwide Occupy Movement official recognition.
In January 2012 the protesters were urged to leave their site by
Essential Edinburgh, the business group that manages the square they were occupying, and the
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, so that it can be used by the public again. The Chamber's deputy chief executive, Graham Birse, said: "We did not spend all that public money for St Andrew Square to become a campsite for those with nowhere else to go."
At the end of January 2012 the protesters relocated to
The Meadows, a park within Edinburgh, and then left this site a couple of weeks later ahead of a legal bid to have them evicted by the City Council.
See also
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15 October 2011 global protests
The 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring, the Icelandic protests, the Portuguese "Geração à Rasca", the Spanish "Indignants", the Greek protests, and the Occupy movement. The protes ...
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List of global Occupy movement protest locations
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"Occupy" protests
The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed prim ...
*
Timeline of Occupy Wall Street
The following is a timeline of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), a protest which began on September 17, 2011 on Wall Street, the financial district of New York City and included the occupation of Zuccotti Park, where protesters established a permane ...
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We are the 99%
We are the 99% is a political slogan widely used and coined during the 2011 Occupy movement. The phrase directly refers to the income and wealth inequality in the United States, with a concentration of wealth among the top-earning 1%. It r ...
References
External links
Occupy Edinburgh
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2011 in Scotland
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
Protests in Scotland
Squatting in Scotland