OCCUPY Democracy protesters left Parliament Square with their heads held high yesterday after completing their planned 10-day occupation despite constant police harassment.

The closing weekend of sessions at the occupation included talks by Labour MP Michael Meacher and comedian Jolyon Rubinstein.

Occupier John Sinha told the Star that the camp was a big success.

“In the face of a surreal and repressive policing operation we have demonstrated broad civil society support for the idea that our democracy is in crisis and that it needs urgent, radical reform so that it works for the 99 per cent,” he said.

According to the recently published Democracy Audit over 70 per cent of people agree that “politics is dominated by self-seeking politicians protecting the interests of the already rich and powerful.”

Numbers in the square grew by the day, even after the Metropolitan Police forcefully evicted people from the green and arrested up to 40.

Evening assemblies saw almost 500 people gather at the square to discuss Westminster’s lack of accountability.

Campaigner George Barda highlighted the key points that have made the camp a success: “First we need a real democracy, rather than the sham politics of powerful undemocratic economic interests that fund all the major parties.”

“Second, there is an alternative — we need a massive ecological investment programme that revitalises local economies and restores vibrant communities.

“This will only happen if more of us remember our power as citizens, and organise to transform the national conversation, so we can elect real representatives that could offer real alternatives to the gush-up of money and political power and an unstable unsustainable economy built on bubbles.”

A series of talks has been planned to take place across London in the spirit of Occupy Democracy.

A final organising meeting took place on Sunday evening to co-ordinate action after Parliament Square occupation.

Caroline Lucas MP showed her solidarity with the movement for better democracy, saying: “The fact that serious issues like the climate crisis or alternatives to austerity aren’t being debated over there (in Parliament) I think is a shame on the whole political system.

“We have an electoral system that is precisely designed to keep out alternative voices and to make sure that essentially the big parties have a cartel and a monopoly over poltical debate.

“We need a fairer voting system and a genuine system of recall for MPs.”

joanaramiro@peoples-press.com