{"id":9645,"date":"2011-02-28T14:28:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T21:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/?p=9645"},"modified":"2013-02-04T21:13:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T04:13:26","slug":"reclaiming-banks-activists-turn-british-banks-into-creches-classrooms-and-launderettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/reclaiming-banks-activists-turn-british-banks-into-creches-classrooms-and-launderettes\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming the banks: Activists turn British banks into creches, classrooms and launderettes in protest over public service cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more-->Activists stormed more than 40 banks across Britain in protest over executive bonuses and public service cuts &#8211;  and turned them into a variety of ad hoc walk-in centres.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>UK Uncut said demonstrators set up creches, laundries, school classrooms, libraries, homeless shelters, drama clubs, walk-in clinics, youth centres, job centres and leisure centres at branches of RBS, NatWest and Lloyds.<\/p>\n<p>At 10am in Camden, north London, demonstrators invaded a NatWest and set up a creche where children played, practiced musical instruments while parents caught up.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Reclaiming the Banks\" src=\"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reclaiming-the-banks.jpg\" alt=\"Children play while parents catch up in bank converted to playcenter\" width=\"634\" height=\"354\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Playcentre: In Camden, north London, demonstrators invaded a NatWest and set up a creche where children played, practiced musical instruments while parents caught up<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in nearby Islington 50 activists set up a laundry in an RBS branch in reaction to alleged council moves to cut services to the elderly, including a much-needed laundry service.<\/p>\n<p>They set up washing lines, clothes horses, buckets for handwashing and a team of window cleaners on the outside. The protest was attended by over 15 pensioners and local Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n<p>Banks were transformed into &#8216;hospitals&#8217; in Liverpool and Redhill, a classroom in Cardiff, a leisure centre in Eastleigh, a job centre in Birmingham. Twenty people took tents and sleeping bags into NatWest in Brixton to create a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reclaiming-the-banks-laundry.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9649\" title=\"UK Uncut activists turned the Islington branch of RBS into a laundrette at 11am in response to Islington Council's threatening stance to axe dozens of vital services in a \u00a352 million budget reduction. London, UK, 26\/02\/2011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/reclaiming-the-banks-laundry.jpg\" alt=\"UK Uncut activists turned the Islington branch of RBS into a laundrette at 11am in response to Islington Council's threatening stance to axe dozens of vital services in a \u00a352 million budget reduction. London, UK, 26\/02\/2011\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aisha Atkins, 32, said: &#8216;There are alternatives to the cuts, for example, making the banks pay for a crisis they created or by stopping tax-dodging by big business and the super rich.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But the Government is making a political choice to reduce the deficit by making ordinary people pay with job losses and savaged services.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8216;We are transforming the banks into schools, leisure centres, laundry services and homeless shelters to show that it&#8217;s our society that&#8217;s too big to fail, not a broken banking system.&#8217;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>An RBS spokeswoman said: &#8216;We fully respect the right to peaceful protest. Minimising disruption to our customers is our priority.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-1360925\/Activists-turn-40-British-bank-branches-creches-classrooms-shelters-job-centres-protest-bonuses-cuts.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">Mail Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[391,195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}