* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Emma Fordham is a reporter for the Occupied Times of London newspaper. She was living at the Occupy London site at St Paul's Cathedral, which was set up near the London Stock Exchange to protest corporate greed on October 15, 2011, until she was evicted with other protesters on February 27-28, 2011. The opinions expressed are her own.
Shortly before midnight a flurry of tweets, texts, emails and bicycle couriered word-of-mouth messages announced: “...police are massing at London Wall - police vans, riot gear, eviction imminent!”
A few minutes of uncertainty and confusion were resolved when a phalanx of policemen and women and a couple of dozen bailiffs wearing fluorescent orange waistcoats swarmed into view.
The police arrived on foot and in a convoy of vans.
Bailiffs brought bin lorries to seize and chew up our homes.
On being told that anyone remaining in the area of the encampment would be arrested, many occupiers chose to pack and move to the cathedral steps, where it was initially believed that people and possessions would be safe.
The Church had, after all, said that it would provide sanctuary... hadn't it? In the absence of protector Rev. Giles Fraser who had resigned as canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in October – now stuck on the wrong side of a hastily erected police cordon between St Paul's and the rest of the world – no one seemed quite sure.
As the police threw up their barriers, protected (but from what?) by shields and helmets, protesters wearing pumps and cardigans built a barricade using what was left of the camp kitchen – a sturdy set of shelves, chairs, tables and pallets.
Meanwhile, some rushed to save tents and cooking equipment from the bailiffs and others filmed, observed or prayed.
As homes were systematically destroyed, Occupiers remained peaceful but for the first time in months a gender imbalance became evident.
A number of men leapt onto the heaped remnants of the kitchen to wave flags and chair legs, to chant and yell at the bailiffs, to symbolically resist the destruction of their community.
These men were the ones in the media lens. They drew the attention of onlookers, journalists, police and court enforcers.
Meanwhile, women worked, largely unnoticed, in a myriad roles learned during their four months in the Occupy camp.
Nafeesa overcame nerves, technical difficulties and police demands to move on.
With tireless dedication she live-streamed the eviction so that those watching on screens around the world could follow the course of events. When she took a break from recording she was interviewed by the BBC.
As a designated legal observer J kept an eagle eye on proceedings, making note of interactions between police and protesters, while Kai took photographs, uploaded them and communicated with the outside world via Twitter.
Only when the men atop the teetering kitchen shelves refused to descend was there any real sense of confrontation.
Police moved media, observers and supporters away while bailiffs demolished the 'fort' beneath the occupiers, pulled them to the ground, arrested them for obstruction and took them away to the cells.
In front of the cathedral Tammy was determinedly maintaining her calm and holding a candlelit, flower-strewn vigil when police suddenly made a move on those gathered on the steps.
Belongings were scattered as protesters and supporters were forced away from St Paul's. A cry went out to 'sit down!' but most were too bewildered by the unnecessary and unexpected change in attitude to do so.
Those who heeded the call – and those who were already sitting down, some reciting the Lord's Prayer – were dragged down the cathedral steps and dumped on the cobbles of the churchyard below then herded onto the street.
The last of the occupiers chained himself to a tree. It took over an hour to remove him. A last stand had been made but justice had not, in the eyes of many, been done.
The Church, by either instructing or allowing police to remove peaceful worshippers from a supposed sanctuary, had done itself no favours.
Occupiers, however, were not down-hearted. “You can't evict an idea” has been joined by a new catchphrase - “this is only the end of the beginning”.
While the kitchen shelf clamberers were the heroes of the moment, both women and men are the heroes of the movement.
Tammy, Kai, Nafeesa and many other less visible women will use the skills learned in the OLSX (Occupy London Stock Exchange) encampment and honed during the long night of eviction to continue their fight for social, economic and environmental justice into the future, whatever incarnation Occupy takes next.
