No matter what you think of the Occupy movement, the idea of cleaning up an old building that has been disused for seven years and turning into a free arts space, education and community centre is hard to fault.  Especially when that building happens to belong to a bank.

Last Friday some people from the Occupy London camps entered an old disused building through an open window that belongs to UBS.  What? I hear you exclaim, UBS who have been involved in massive tax evasion controversy in America?  The same UBS that allowed a rogue trader to slip through the net with an estimated $2 billion?  Not UBS who stung mortgage borrowers for up to 67% interest?  The alleged bank of choice for Mr Bin Laden?  Not the same UBS that many people say bank-rolled Saddam?  Shockingly, it’s the very same UBS.

What could be a more perfect antithesis of the government’s slash and burn policies, than to rehouse the projects for the people which are being desecrated inside a bank?

After a week of watching lefties run around like Challenge Anneka with dreadlocks, their achievements have been nothing short of brilliant.  I have seen people cleaning windows at 7am on a Sunday morning, I have sat in meetings in the dark until the electricity was officially registered then nothing was being stolen, I have seen (unionised) plumbers check the building to see which taps are safe for drinking water, I have seen a first aid rota being set up, I have seen a recycling scheme put in place that is more comprehensive than most councils.

And that is before you start looking at the building itself.  They have workshop rooms, a cinema, a film studio, an editorial room for the newspaper, a kitchen, a library, and inter-faith prayer room, an arts and crafts room; and they are trying to set up and clean and make safe at least one new room every day.

In one week they have a programme of lectures from university scholars through to city traders and MP’s, they have workshops from martial arts through to poetry writing, they have had performances from artists such as Mark Thomas and Billy Bragg and staged a top notch cabaret.  They have local youth clubs who have been crushed by the cuts using the rooms, pensioners who got slapped by UBS giving testimonials and visiting vicars proclaiming UBS leaving the building empty for so long is nothing short of wicked.  In the original sense.  The place is alive.

UBS’s own ethical policy states: “We behave with respect and integrity.” Let’s see if they honour their own manifesto.

This is what Big Society looks like Mr Cameron.  It will be interesting to see how quickly the banks try to evict the very idea that the government are trying to sell us as a solution.



If you want to see what is going on down there, check out their amazing programme of free events (which currently runs until February!): http://www.bankofideas.org.uk/events/

If you want to get involved and run a workshop, give a lecture or do a performance please fill out the form on their website: http://www.bankofideas.org.uk/events/

If you know of a community service that has been hit by the cuts and could use the space, they would love to hear from you: bankofideaslondon [at] gmail.com

If you want to tell UBS’s marketing department that they’d be wise to allow them to stay a while, contact them here: http://www.ubs.com/1/e/media_overview/media_emea/contactinformation.html

Follow them on Twitter @BankofIdeas #BankofIdeas

My photos of the bankofideas so far:
http://www.demotix.com/news/930220/occupy-london-repossess-derelict-ubs-building-city
http://www.demotix.com/news/930657/look-inside-ubs-building-squatted-occupy-london
http://www.demotix.com/news/931497/occupy-londons-bank-ideas-opening-ceremony
http://www.demotix.com/news/933489/occupy-london-bank-ideas-community-centre
http://www.demotix.com/news/933491/inside-bank-ideas-occupy-londons-space-old-ubs-building



References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/5329469/Shared-appreciation-mortgages-cheap-money-backfires-on-borrowers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2935936/UBS-help-for-Iran-broke-US-sanctions.html
http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/code_of_conduct.html