Occupy London: Olympics is 'Topic of Interest'

You have to look carefully for signs that there was an international protest movement living in a sizeable encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral, but they are there.

The odd poster stuck to a wall, a discarded leaflet being thrown about by gusts in the church foreground, whispers from passers-by about how different the place looks now.

But while the cathedral may have successfully purged itself of the tents and their dwellers, some of them the most vulnerable people in society, the Occupy London activists who were forced to move on by the courts insist that their eviction is merely the end of the beginning.

There are whispers of big plans by the protesters for the London 2012 Olympic Games, when the world's media will home in on Britain's capital city.

Nafeesa Shamsuddin, one of the activists who lived at the St Paul's camp, told the London Evening Standard it was a "great opportunity" for the Occupy movement to take action.

Another, Josh Virasami, warned that the group was going to do "some iconic things this summer".

A statement from the Occupy London press team has added to the speculation.

"Be assured that plans are already afoot: plans of some ambition, employing a diversity of tactics and delivered with the aplomb you would expect from us," it said.

There would be no disruptive action, Ronan McNern, spokesman for Occupy London, told International Business Times UK, but London was definitely a "topic of interest".

"Theresa May and Boris Johnson would love for Occupy London to say it was about to obstruct the Olympics," he said.

"If Occupy London was to engage it would have to be in a smart, inviting manner. It would not be obstructive. It would be provocative and challenging, but it would be engaging."

Occupy London has outlined its next set of occupations with an emphasis on abandoned public buildings.

"Public buildings are now going to be repossessed by Occupy," said Peter Phoenix, an Occupy London activist who was recently evicted from an abandoned primary school in Islington that the group had taken over.

"Schools, community centres, hospitals, youth spaces, old age people's homes - anything that has been a public community space that has been closed down during the cuts is going to get occupied and opened up for the community."

McNern said there would be "pop-up occupations" lasting a few days but the priority would be on campaigning for the time being.

Occupy London is also working on several community-focused projects. There is the Occupy Citizenship programme, which sees some of the activists go into schools, under the citizenship umbrella on the national curriculum, to get children to "think critically".

McNern said they had been inundated with requests from schools asking them to visit.