Peter Marshall | >Re-PHOTO

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane – 2014

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane: 1st November 2014 was apparently World Vegan Day and PETA celebrated the event, highlighting the 255 animals killed for food in the UK every second by a similar number of people lying near naked or nearly naked and smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin in Trafalgar Square. A few yards away the 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran. I walked onto Westminster Bridge to photograph the distant banner with the message ‘REVOLUTION’ held by ‘Anonymous‘ protesters, some in Guy Fawkes masks, on Waterloo Bridge – and later they brought it to Trafalgar Square where I was covering a rally supporting the Kurds defending Kobane, the capital of Rojava in northern Syria.

PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest

Trafalgar Square

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane - 2014

In 1994 Louise Wallis, then Chair of the UK Vegan Society which was celebrating its 50th anniversary, declared November 1st to be World Vegan Day and since then it has been adopted by vegans around the world. It comes at the start of World Vegan Month – which is November.

PETA believe “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way“. They state than in the UK 255 animals are killed for food and they held a protest to dramatise this in Trafalgar Square with a similar number of near naked or nearly naked people smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin.

Most of those taking part in the protest were women and a few held large posters with the message:

‘1 BILLION ANIMALS
KILLED
FOR FLESH
EACH YEAR
PETA’

Others held posters ‘CHOOSE LIFE: CHOSE VEGAN’. It was certainly a protest which attracted the interest of tourists and photographers.

I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan and I commented back in 2014:

“Nature isn’t vegetarian, and certainly not vegan, though of course some species are herbivores. But others are carnivorous or omnivores, and I can see no problem in our own species eating meat or fish though I would like to see all of the current cruel practices involved in producing food for us outlawed. Eating foie gras should definitely be made a crime!”

More pictures on My London Diary at PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women

Trafalgar Square

The 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested in Trafalgar Square against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran.

Attacks by gangs encouraged by the regime to enforce strict Islamic rules have left many women scarred and blinded.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women.

‘Anonymous’ Revolution Banner

Waterloo Bridge and Trafalgar Square

‘Anonymous’ protesters had brought a banner to hold up on Waterloo Bridge, with the message REVOLUTION but it was too small to really make an impact even using the longest lens I own and was rather dwarfed by the City backdrop.

Intended to publicise the Nov 5th ‘March Against Government Corruption’ in London it was rather more effective when they brought it to Trafalgar Square where a protest supporting Kobane was taking place.

Revolution Banner Drop

Global Solidarity With Kobane

Trafalgar Square

*Women with Kurdish Workers Party flags*

During the Syrian Revolution the government forces had abandoned Kobane to the Kurish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in July 2012 and it had became a centre of part of the autonomous Kurdish-led region of Rojava in north Syria.

From September 2014 to January 2015 Kobane was under siege by ISIS who managed to occupy much of the city. With the help of US air support and US forcing Turkey to allow Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan to come to join the fight, Kobane was finally freed from ISIS in January 2015.

November 1st was also World Kobane Day, and thousands had come to Trafalgar Square on a Global day of solidarity calling for aid for the Kurdish fighters in the YPG (People’s Defence Units), the women of the YPJ and refugees from Kobane.

*A woman talks with Mark Thomas and Peter Tatchell*

They had also come to support Rojava, which many see as an important democratic development with its constitution which enshrines equality, pluralism, democratic participation and protection of fundamental human rights and liberties.

Many were critical of Turkey which was supporting ISIS and financing its fighting by allowing it to export its oil through Turkey as well as preventing Turkish Kurds from joining in the fight while allowing fighters across its border to join ISIS.

Turkey has long suppressed the Kurds and had tried to suppress the Kurdish language and culture, and the protesters called of the release of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, kidnapped in Kenya in 1999 and held in a Turkish jail since then. Protesters also called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK to be removed from the list of proscribed organisations here and elsewhere.

On My London Diary you can read more about the rally and the speakers and there are many more pictures at Global Solidarity With Kobane.

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March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest – 2017

March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest: On Tuesday 31st October 2017 I photographed a lunchtime protest in Whitehall by campaign group Pregnant Not Screwed against unfair sacking of women who become pregnant. In late afternoon I went to South Kensington whhere United Voices of the World were protesting outside a luxury car dealer after the its cleaners had been told they could either promise not to strike against their poverty wages or lose their jobs.

Pregnant Then Screwed March of the Mummies

Westminster

March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest - 2017

A march by Pregnant Then Screwed mothers, many wrapped in bandages as ‘mummies’ and pushing buggies or carrying young children called for action over pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

Over a year ago a report commissioned by the government had reported that around 54,000 women, 1 in 9 of those who get pregnant each year had been sacked. That figure had almost doubled in the previous decade and it has been almost impossible for the victims to access justice – fewer than 1% had made a tribunal claim. The government had failed to take any action on the report.

Pregnant Then Screwed called on the time limit for making employment claims to be increased from three months to six for pregnant and postpartum women.

They said companies should be required to report annually how many claims for flexible working had been made by their employees and how many were granted.

They also asked for fathers to be entitled to six weeks paternity leave at 90% salary, for subsidised childcare from six months and for the self-employed to have statutory shared parental pay.

After some speeched in Trafalgar Square they marched down Whitehall to deliver a petition and protest outside Downing St. They then continued to Parliament Square where after posing for photographs they held a rally.

More pictures on My London Diary at Pregnant Then Screwed March of the Mummies.

Halloween Protest for Living Wage at H R Owen

South Kensington

*Protesters, including Jane Nicholl, stop a car attempting to drive through their road block outside H R Owen*

The two cleaners who clean the H R Owen Ferrari showrooms had asked the contractor who employs them for them to be paid the London Living Wage. Contractor Templewood turned down their request and they had then both voted for strike action.

In response Templewood suspended them without pay and H R Owen then banned them from working at their showrooms which they have cleaned for 12 years.

On 30th September their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), had held a protest demanding the two cleaners be reinstated.

At a five hour grievance and disciplinary hearing on 30th October cleaners Angelica Valencia and Freddy Lopez were given a choice – either promise not to strike at Ferrari and accept your poverty wage, or find work elsewhere. The UVW responded by calling this emergency protest with a Halloween theme and despite only 24 hours notice union members and supporters came to take part.

I met them outside South Kensington Station and walked with them down to the showroom, where some rushed towards the door to try to enter. But they had been spotted coming down the street and the doors were locked.

They began a noisy protest on the pavement and street outside, drumming and dancing and were soon blocking the street to traffic. Most drivers turned around and found other routes, but one tried to drive through the protest but was soon halted as more protesters came to stand in the way of his car. Another car was blocked by people holding a banner in front of it.

Eventually a handful of police officers turned up and began to argue with the protesters, telling them they must move off the road.

After a few minutes and some more speeches the UVW decided to march away along the road to protest outside the Royal College of Music whose cleaners are also involved in a dispute, but I had to go home.

Both this and September’s protest had caused considerable disruption in the area, but had also attracted much support from those walking past who had taken the UVW leaflets or listened to the speeches by Angelica and Freddy and others from the UVW. Some were clearly disgusted that people working in the showroom of a company making high profits from selling expensive luxury cars in of the richest areas of London were paid so badly.

Shortly after these protests H R Owen decided it was better to talk with the UVW and a further planned protest was cancelled as a satisfactory settlement meeting the cleaners demands was reached. I found it hard to understand why the company had acted earlier as it, spending large amounts on increased security against the protests – it seemed like the knee-jerk reaction of a company that had no regard for its employees. The extra pay the cleaners had asked for was minuscule compared to the company’s profits and the dispute had damaged their reputation.

More pictures on My London Diary at Halloween protest for living wage at HR Owen.

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Police Killing, No Borders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead – 2010

Police Killing, NoBorders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead: Saturday 30th October 2010 I went to the annual protest by United Friends and Families against deaths in custody, then a march by No Borders against surveillance and border control. At the Malaysian High Commission I photographed a protest against torture and other human rights abuses before finally going to photograph zombies in a Halloween Dance of the Dead Street Parade in Hoxton.

United Friends & Families March

Trafalgar Square to Downing St

Police Killing, No Borders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead - 2010 — *Marcia Rigg-Samuel, sister of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton, tries to deliver a letter at Downing St*

The annual march by United Friends and Families of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prisons and secure mental institutions went in a slow, silent funeral march down Whitehall to Downing St, where they held a noisy rally.

Police refused to allow them entry to the street to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister, David Cameron and would not take it. Apparently nobody from No 10 was prepared to come and receive it.

This march has taken place every year since 1999 and in most years police have stood back and let it happen, even facilitating it by stopping traffic. This year they had decided to try to stop people marching on the road down Whitehall, but the protesters simply stood in the road blocking it and refusing to move and were eventually allowed to proceed.

On My London Diary you can read more about a few of the several thousands of deaths in police custody, often clearly at the hands of officers.

Among speakers at the rally were Stephanie, the twin sister of Leon Patterson, Rupert Sylvester, the father of Roger Sylvester, Ricky Bishop’s sister Rhonda and mother Doreen, Samantha, sister of Jason McPherson and his grandmother, Susan Alexander, the mother of Azelle Rodney, and finally the two sisters of Sean Rigg.

There were noisy scenes at the gates to Downing Street as the protesters tried to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister calling for justice, with police at the gate even refusing to accept the letter addressed to him. Eventually a few of the group were allowed to sellotape the flowers, a photo of Sean Rigg and the letter to the gates.

Much more at United Friends & Families March.

Life Is Too Short To Be Controlled

Piccadilly Circus, London

*Juliet speaks at Piccadilly Circus before the march*

London NoBorders had organised a march from the pavement above the London main CCTV control room at Piccadilly Circus to the UK border at St Pancras International, protesting about the obsession with surveillance and border control.

Westminster Council CCTV HQ, which controls many of London’s 10,000 CCTV cameras, able to follow our movement on almost every street in the capital was an obvious starting point for the second ‘Life is Too Short to Be Controlled’ protest organised by London NoBorders.

They point out that despite CCTV everywhere on our streets it had not been possible to show a link between it and crimes being sold and say the real purpose of spying on our every movement is its potential to control dissent.

The protesters also called out the deliberate racism inherent in the term “illegal imigrants“. No immigrants on reaching this country are illegal; they simply do not have the particular documents that give them the right to live here and only became illegal once their case to stay here has been turned down.

Until recently the free movement of people – like the free movement of money, goods and capital – was seen as normal and beneficial.Our immigration rules are explicitly racist and NoBorders say anyone should be able to move and live where they please.

The march was delayed and I had to leave for another event before it reached St Pancras International, where those taking the Eurostar enter of leave the country. The station has detention facilities run by the UK Border Agency.

I returned later to hear that they had briefly occupied the ‘border’ area there before being escorted out by police. One person had been arrested and apparently charged with aggravated trespass, but I was told he was shortly to be released by the Transport Police.

Life Is Too Short

Stop Torture in Malaysia

Belgrave Square

2010 was the 50th anniversary of the Malaysian Internal Security Act, ISA, under which more than 10,000 people have been detained without trial for up to two years – and this can then then renewed making it effectively indefinite.

Detainees can be held incommunicado in detention for up to 60 days, during which they are often tortured, mistreated and placed under severe psychological stress while being denied access to legal process.

In June 2010 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Malaysia and they called for the ISA to be immediately repealed, and the UK chapter of the Malaysian Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) was protesting outside the Malaysian High Commission.

The protest in October marked 23 years since ‘Operation Weed Out’ (Operasi Lalang) when the ISA was used to arrest over 100 Chinese educationalists, civil rights lawyers, opposition politicians and others.

More on My London Diary at Stop Torture in Malaysia.

Halloween In London & Dance of the Dead

West End & Hoxton Square

I’d met a few zombies stumbling around as I walked through the West End – and some of them had come to be photographed with the NoBorders ‘Life is too Short’ banner. But I went photograph the the Halloween Dance of the Dead Street Parade which started from Hoxton Square and was going on to end at a party in Gillett Square, Dalston.

Hoxton Square had by 2010 become a trendy area with art galleries such as White Cube moving in an area some years after furniture and other local trades had declined and it had been squatted or rented as cheap studios for artists since the 1980s or so. Below is what I wrote in 2010 about the parade.

“By 7pm, there were several hundred people ready for the procession to start, including a group of dancers, the ‘Corpse de Ballet’ and a group from Strangeworks with some very well designed costumes, along with many others dressed up for the occasion.”

“A samba band, led by a giant skeleton came along from Coronet Street and led the large group of revellers, many carrying bottles, around Hoxton Square and then on to Old Street. By this time I’d been out taking pictures for around 8 hours and was feeling tired and hungry, so I jumped on a bus to begin my journey home, leaving the procession, organised by StrangeWorks Theatre collective and [then} in its fifth year, to head on its way to a dance in Gillett Square.”

More pictures at Halloween In London.

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Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs – 2006

Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs: On Sunday 29th October 2006 I went to the start of a National Union of Students march against university tuition fees, first introduced by New Labour under Tony Blair in 1998. University education had been free across the UK since 1945, with local authorities meeting the bill rather than students. In 2004, these fees, initially £1,000 a year, were increased to £3,000. In 2025 fees are now £9.535 a year and a major reform is expected later which will probably result in University education becoming even more expensive.

From there I left to cover a demonstration in Parliament Square where people were intending to set up a 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ peace camp protesting about the battles fought largely by US Marines against the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April and November 2004.

In the November battle US troops used white phosphorus, stopped military age males from leaving the city and treated all the inhabitants as combatants. The levelled thousands of buildings, denied Red Crescent access and according to the UN used “hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population“. Their use of depleted uranium shells led after the fighting to a high level of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality in the city.

This protest was illegal under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had required any demonstration within one kilometre of Parliament Square (excluding those in Trafalgar Square) to give written notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days in advance.

It was as a way to prevent embarrassment to politicians by seeing or hearing protests taking place, and to remove the permanent Peace Camp by Brian Haw which had been in Parliament Square since 2001, but it failed to do so, though it did lend to increased harassment of him by police and more shadowy figures. In 2011 these sections of the Act were repealed and the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 imposed different and in some ways more draconian restrictions on the right to protest.

Below is the text I wrote about these events in 2006.

NUS – Scrap Tuition Fees March

Malet St

I arrived in Malet Street early for the start of the NUS march against tuition fees, but there were already plenty of students there, including many Scottish students who had come down to show solidarity.

My father had left school at 14, at the end of his elementary education and never managed to complete the part-time studies which he had once dreamt would lead to qualifications. I came from the first generation of my family who could go to university, thanks to the 1944 Education Act that opened up secondary education and also the free tuition and student grants that were available. Without that support I would never have gone to university.

Both my sons were also fortunate to be able to study without having to pay tuition fees, [and to get maintenance grants] and were able to leave university with a degree and no debts.

Things are rather different for most of today’s students, with tuition fees now at £3000 a year, and costs of accommodation increasing all the time.

The NUS is campaigning for free education, but also calling for a cap on fees, as some universities call to be able to raise them without limits. Already the current level of fees seems to have led to a drop in the numbers of students entering universities.

more pictures on My London Diary

No More Fallujahs: Peace Camp

Parliament Square

I left shortly before the march started to get to Parliament Square, where the 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ Peace Camp, ‘No More Fallujahs’, was about to start. Potestors formed a circle and joined Maya Evans and Milan Rai in reading the names of Iraqis who have died as a result of the occupation.

*Milan Ray and Maya Evans read the names; Maya sounds a bell after each name*

A year ago, the two were arrested in Whitehall for a similar reading. In december 2005 Maya was the first person to be convicted for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, and in April 2006, Milan was convicted for organising the demonstration.

Maya is appealing against her conviction and fine, but was risking a prison sentence as arrest for this action would break the terms of her 12-month conditional discharge. Milan has refused to pay the fine of £350 with £150 costs imposed on him, and is also appealing to a higher court.

The demonstrators formed a circle in Parliament Square and began reading the names at one minute intervals, each marked by a bell. Various volunteers joined Maya and Milan in reading names from the list.

The police simply stood and watched for around half and hour, then at 12.30 began to circulate and hand out a notice to everyone that they were a part of an illegal demonstration. Where people refused to take one, they left a copy at their feet.

The officers concerned were extremely patient and polite, and were attended by a police photographer filming everything they did. Rather to my surprise one officer insisted I have a copy, despite my assurances that I was press, so I took it, while being recorded for yet another 15 seconds of so of video by the photographer, pointing out that I always complied with police directions.

It isn’t as if I’m unknown to the police. Earlier in the day in Malet Street, as I walked past two officers, one turned to the other and said “looks who’s here then.” I turned and gave them a smile.

After that, the protestors decided it was time to pitch their tents, and soon the square was covered with small tents, mainly blue. For a while nothing much seemed to be happening, and I went away for an hour or two.

When I returned, the news was that police had taken four people away. they had been approaching individuals involved in the demonstration and asking them to give their name and address.

They were told that they could then later expect a summons for taking part in an illegal demonstration. People were informed that if they did not give their details, they would be taken to the police station and arrested for taking part in the event.

While I was there several other people were questioned and one was taken away when he refused to give his details. Those who gave their names and addresses seemed to be allowed to continue to take part in the demonstration. While I was present, everything was conducted civilly and without any violent handling of those concerned, although I was told there had been a little rough handling of at least one person.

The demonstrators held an open meeting in the centre of the square to discuss what to do in the event of a more concerted approach by the police, while on the corner by Churchill’s statue, Brian Haw was making use of his megaphone to hold his weekly service. Its a sermon I’ve heard many times and I felt it was time to go home.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing – 2016

Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing; On Friday 28th October 2016, Housing For All activists from Focus E15, two dressed as cockroaches, went together with residents from the Boundary House hostel in Welwyn Garden City to the offices of Theori Housing Management in a Halloween-themed protest at the terrible living conditions for residents in their hostel.

The main statutory housing duty of local authorities is to provide temporary accommodation for those who are homeless, eligible, have a priority need and are not intentionally homeless. Priority can include living with a child, being pregnant, domestic abuse or emergencies such as flood and fire. Most of those who qualify have suffered some fairly traumatic experiences and deserve suitably careful treatment and adequate accomodation, but many do not get it.

Council make use of hostels run by companies such as Theori Housing Management who run hostels providing temporary accommodation such as Boundary House which provides temporary housing for residents from London boroughs including Waltham Forest and Newham for these vulnerable people for months or even years.

Those living in Boundary House say that rooms there have leaking roofs and mould on the walls, are infested with cockroaches, have upper floor windows that children could easily fall out of and dangerous faulty appliances. Several of them had come to the protest but most others were either scared to do so or could not afford the £15 off-peak rail fare into London. This also makes it impossible for those moved to the hostel to continue with any work they had in London as well visits to their doctors or clinics and for children to attend their former schools.

As I wrote in 2016, “Residents who make complaints are hung up on, placed on hold for hours and called liars, ignored, insulted and patronised.” So the campaign had come to bring their complaints to Theori.

Campaigners from Haringey Housing Action Group who were also at the protest “also have experience of poor hostel accommodation, provided by Haringey Council, and we know how hard it is try to go about your daily activities – going to work, taking kids to school – when you are living in cramped conditions, with little or no cooking facilities.“

Residents who have complained to their local authority housing departments complain they are not listened to and no action is taken. The campaigners call on boroughs to stop using companies like Theori who provide sub-standard housing and fail to keep it in good order, and say councils should house Londoners in London where they have schools, friends and jobs.

Focus E15 come from Newham, where Mayor Robin Wales has said that those who can’t afford it should not be living in the borough, where vast luxury housing developments are welcome, but social housing is hardly on the agenda.

They point out that Newham, a Labour stronghold, has hundreds of empty properties in what was a popular estate, the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford. These homes had then been empty and boarded up for more than ten years while the council has been trying to sell off the whole area for various development schemes. They also point out that Newham has taken out ill-advised loans which have resulted in incredible repayments of interest.

The campaigners tried to enter the Theori offices, pushing against the doors which were held by men inside, and Theori called the police. The two officers who arrived were obviously rather amused at having to talk to a cockroach. The protesters stepped away from the door to that one of the police could enter the office while the protest continued on the pavement outside.

They then held a Halloween party on the pavement outside the office before finally lining up for photographs.

More at Cockroaches at Theori Housing Management.

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Clock House to Olympic Site – 2005

Clock House to Olympic Site: Thursday October 27 2005 was a fine late autumn day and I decided to go for a bike ride, putting my folding bike on a couple of trains to my start point, Clock House station. This is in south east London, halfway between Penge and Beckenham and just inside the London Borough of Bromley.

The Chaffinch Brook runs close by and joins with the River Beck to form the River Pool (aka Pool River) a mile or so north and a footpath going north from there is now part of a national cycle route. Parts of the Pool River which were once culverted have now been restored to an open stream, which will help prevent flooding downstream. The river’s main claim to fame is that four years after my ride then London Mayor Boris Johnson fell into it on an official visit to encourage volunteers who were cleaning the river up.

The Pool River is a tributary of the River Ravensborne and I had planned to continue along this as closely as I could to Deptford Creek where it joins the Thames. But I ran out of time, so took the Docklands Light Railway at Lewisham rather than Greenwich to cross the river to Canning Town.

My ride then continued with a loop around Bow Creek and over the Lower Lea Crossing back through Canning Town and on to Stratford Marsh where work was then just beginning to turn this whole area into the Olympic site.

It wasn’t a long ride – probably around ten miles in all, perhaps a little longer with all the small diversions I took. All the pictures here were taken on this ride and there are more on My London Diary, along with the account below that I wrote back in 2005. As usual I’ve made a few small corrections.

*Pool River and Ravensbourne (left) join*

The Brompton folding bike is really an ideal form of transport for London, an essential tool for the urban photographer. It’s short wheelbase is great in slow-moving crowded traffic, and it can be folded in 15s to travel by tube, rail, taxi or even bus. [I’ve never put mine in a taxi.] The only problem is that they are highly prized by cycle thieves. [They are fairly expensive and slip easily into a car boot.]

*Bridges over Bow Creek, River Lea, Canning Town, London*

The weather forecast was for a fine summery day, so I took the opportunity to check up on a few things and fill in some little gaps, where I’d not quite managed to photograph things before. First I wanted to go along the footpath at Bell Green, next to Sainsbury’s, so I decided to make a slightly longer trip of it by starting at Clock House Station. There is a good, almost traffic-free route north from there along the Pool River, then the River Ravensbourne, at times surprisingly rural.

Taking photographs slows you down, as does stopping to sit in the sun and eat sandwiches, so at Lewisham I decided to get on the DLR with the bike to travel to Canning Town.

*DLR extension, Millenium Dome and Canary Wharf from Silvertown Way.*

Perhaps one day the riverside walkway by Bow Creek from the station will open [it did, but only to go across a new bridge to City Island – the route south still comes to a dead end], but it seems unlikely to be in our lifetime. I went round the creek, over the Lower Lea Crossing and on to Silvertown Way to see how the new stretch of DLR was progressing. [It opened north of the river at the end of 2005.]

Then I cycled up to Stratford to take a look at Stratford Marsh again before work starts in earnest to demolish the existing businesses and create the Olympic waste. It was getting later and noticeably darker by the time I was there, although the day felt like summer, it gets dark rather earlier at the end of October.

*The Greenway goes under the railway line on Stratford Marsh.*

What really makes no sense at all is to put our clocks back to make it even darker still, as we were going to do in a couple of days time. If I were in charge, we’d move to the same time as France and the rest of our neighbours across the channel. I don’t like dark mornings, but it would be much better than having it get dark in the middle of the afternoon in winter. Orcadians or even Scots would be welcome to have their own time zone if they really must, but its about time they stopped imposing it on the rest of us. The sun set around 5.30, and next week that means it will be 4.30pm.

More pictures start here on My London Diary.

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Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis – 2013

Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis: On Saturday 26th October I went to the annual procession to Downing Street by the United Families and Friends Campaign in memory of all those who have died in the custody of police or prison officers, in immigration detention or psychiatric hospitals. Sitting opposite Downing Street were Gurkhas on hunger strike demanding justice. I rushed away to join the IWGB protesting inside John Lewis’s flagship store in Oxford St demanding that the workers that clean John Lewis stores be paid a living wage and share in the benefits and profits enjoyed by other workers in the stores.

United Families & Friends Remember the Killed

Whitehall

Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis - 2013

Many from the families of people who have died in police custody, prisons, immigration detention or psychiatric hospitals had gathered in Trafalgar Square along with supporters for the annual procession calling for justice.

Although there have been several thousand who have died in the last twenty or thirty years, some clearly killed by police and others in highly suspicious circumstances, inquests and other investigations have failed to provide any justice. Instead there has been a long history of lies, failures to properly investigate, cover-ups, and perjury.

On My London Diary I quoted the description by the UFFC:

The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who are killed in immigration detention and secure psychiatric hospitals. It includes the families of Roger Sylvester, Leon Patterson, Rocky Bennett, Alton Manning, Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Aseta Simms, Ricky Bishop, Paul Jemmott, Harry Stanley, Glenn Howard, Mikey Powell, Jason McPherson, Lloyd Butler, Azelle Rodney, Sean Rigg, Habib Ullah, Olaseni Lewis, David Emmanuel (aka Smiley Culture), Kingsley Burrell, Demetre Fraser, Mark Duggan and Anthony Grainger to name but a few. Together we have built a network for collective action to end deaths in custody.

Among those holding the main banner as the march went at a funereal pace down Whitehall were Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennet, twin sister of Leon Patterson, murdered by Manchester police in 1992, Marcia Rigg, one of the sisters of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton in 2008 and Carole Duggan, the aunt of Mark Duggan whose shooting by police sparked riots in August 2011.

At the rally opposite Downing Street many family members spoke in turn in a shameful exposition of injustice perpetrated by police, prison officers and mental health workers. You can read more and see most of them in the captions and pictures on My London Dairy at United Families & Friends Remember Killed.

Gurkhas Hunger Strike for Justice

Downing St

Gurkhas were sitting opposite Downing Stree on a serial hunger strike after failing to receive any action from Prime Minister David Cameron to their petition calling for fair treatment for elderly Gurkha veterans who are living in extreme poverty.

On 24th October 2013 they had begun a programme of nonviolent resistance (Satyagraha) with hunger strikes, at first with a “13 days relay hunger strike in the name of the 13 Ghurka VCs followed by a fast-unto-death.“

Gurkhas Hunger Strike for Justice

Cleaners Invade John Lewis Oxford Street

I met the cleaners and their supporters in the café on the top floor of John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street for a protest by their union, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB.)

*Organiser Alberto Durango and IWGB Secretary Chris Ford lead the protesters*

All the other people who work for John Lewis in their stores are directly employed by the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) and are ‘partners’ in the business with good conditions of service and decent pay, including an annual share in the company’s profits, which can amount to as much as an extra two months pay.

But JLP outsources the cleaning of its stores to a sub-contractor, who were paying them ‘poverty wages’, only around 80% of the London Living Wage, and employ them under far worse conditions of sickness, holidays and pensions than JLP staff.

By hiving off the cleaners to another company, JLP can still claim it is a ‘different sort of company’ with a strong ethical basis, but leave its cleaners – a vital part of its workforce – in poverty with minimal conditions of service.

*They stop and let everyone know why they were protesting. The security staff watch but don’t interfere*

In 2013, the cleaning contractor was a part of the Compass Group which had recently declared pre-tax profits for the year of £575 million. And JLP had made £50 million profit from its department stores. Despite their huge profits both were happy to shaft the cleaners.

*A short rally inside the main entrance to the store*

The cleaners were demanding to become employed by JLP, the owners of their workplace, and also to be paid the London Living Wage. JLP told them that this was not appropriate.

*Raph Ashley, a JLP ‘partner’ sacked for supported the cleaners*

Among those taking part in the protest were members of the RMT and PCS trade unions and former John Lewis ‘partner’ Raph Ashley, who like many other partners had supported the cleaners’ claim. He was sacked after he gave a newspaper interview raising concerns about the ethnic diversity at John Lewis and was told that ‘partners’ discussing pay and urging them to join a trade union was a disciplinary offence. The protest also demanded justice for Raph.

*A manager asks the protesters to leave – and they slowly went out*

In the café the protesters got out banners, flags, flyers, drums, horns, whistles and a megaphone and walked noisily around the fifth floor before going down the escalator. At each floor they had to walk around to reach the down escalator, and stopped on the way to explain to the shoppers why they were protesting. Many customers took their leaflets and expressed their support for the cleaners, with some applauding the protest.

They continued down to the basement and then came back up to the ground floor where they held a short rally just inside the main entrance with short speeches from RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, IWGB Secretary Chris Ford and Chris Baugh, Assistant General Secretary of PCS.

*The protest continues on Oxford Street in front of the store*

By then the police had arrived and they told the JLP managers to o ask the protesters to leave the store, and they did so, continuing their protest on the crowded street outside for another half hour.

More about the protest and many more pictures on My London Diary at Cleaners Invade John Lewis Oxford Street.

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Global Human Rights Torch Relay – 2007

Global Human Rights Torch Relay: Thursday 25th October 2007 I photographed this rally in Trafalgar Square and the torchlit march which followed to a protest at the Chinese Embassy.

The 2008 Summer Olympics was to be held in Beijing, China from 8th to 24th August 2008 and the official Summer Olympics Torch Relay – which had been a feature of the Olympics since the 1936 Berlin games – was announced in April 2007, though it was to take place from March 24 until August 8, 2008. This travelled the world in a very roundabout 129-day route from Athens to Beijing and was met with protests in many cities including San Francisco, London and Paris.

The Coalition to Investigate Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) organised a series of torch relays in cities around the world beginning in April 2007 to raise awareness about human rights violations, particularly in China and countries surrounding area and in particular the persecution of crimes including torture and the harvesting of human organs of Falun Gong practitioners.

The policing of the event and the intervention of Westminster Council officials showed that there was huge political pressure in London against protests against China and against the Olympics as London was preparing for the 2012 Olympics here. We saw it again when the official torch relay came to London in April 2008.

Here I’ll post – with minor corrections – my account of the event from 2007 with a few of the pictures – many more on My London Diary.

Global Human Rights Torch Relay – 2007

Trafalgar Square to Chinese Embassy

Thursday was a miserable day, with persistent drizzle or light rain, and Trafalgar Square was clogged up with some computer games fair, so that there was little space left for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay on the North Terrace. Organised by the ‘Coalition To Investigate The Persecution Of The Falun Gong‘ this also highlighted other human rights abuses in China, as well as some in countries within the Chinese sphere of influence, notably Burma (Myanmar.)

This relay had started in Athens in August, with events in several European countries, and it is going on to Australia and North and South America before ending in Asia next year.

The relay points out that the these human rights abuses are at odds with the ideals of the Olympic Movement and calls for the Beijing Games to be moved to one of the previous Olympic venues unless there are dramatic improvements in human rights in China. Among the speakers were a couple of Lords and several ex-Olympic competitors.

Westminster Council officials arrived after an hour or so and tried to stop the event, which thanks to the gaming festival, was indeed blocking the pavement. They made the protestors form a narrow line against the back wall. Then they and the police ruled out the use of the sound system, declaring it was a hazard in the wet conditions. Speakers had to make use of a battery operated megaphone.

Despite this harassment, the protest continued, with a ‘Greek Goddess’ bringing the flame to light the torches of figures representing England, Scotland , Wales and Ireland, and perhaps a couple of hundred marched through the West End to the Chinese Embassy for a candle-lit protest.

Here photographers met with deliberate antagonism from the police. Officers are standing in a line around 2 metres into the road in front of the protest. The area between the police and the demonstration is completely clear, absolutely safe, and it is where we need to be to take pictures or film the protest. Much to our disgust, we are ordered out when we attempt to get on with our work.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at global human rights torch relay.

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Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest – 2017

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest: On Tuesday 24th October 2017 Safe Passage held a rally outside Parliament on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’ calling for help for the hundreds of refugees still sleeping rough in Calais. Later I photographed a rally by Guardians of the Forest, indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn calling for the rights of indigenous peoples living in forests to be acknowledged and for an end to the destruction of these vital natural resources by mining and cash-crop cultivation.

Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest - 2017

Safe Passage held a rally before going in to lobby MPs on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’.

Although they praised the government for bringing some child refugees here from France they called for them to provide safe routes here for those still in Calais who have family here and to fill the remaining places allocated under the Dubs amendment.

Eighteen months after the Dubs amendment was passed by Parliament there were still refugee children in Calais who were entitled to come here to be reunited with their families and Safe Passage urged the Home Office to station an official there to help to transfer them and work with the French to provide safe accommodation for all refugee children.

The Dubs amendment had originally proposed that the UK offer a home to 3,000 unaccompanied children but as passed it allowed the government to set a number in consultation with local authorities. Shamefully when the scheme closed in 2020 the government stated it had met its commitment with the transfer of only 480 children.

They were given a special status to stay for for five years with the right to study, work, and to access public funds and healthcare, and to apply after this to settle permanently without paying a fee.

More pictures on My London Diary at Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Guardians of the Forest – COP 23

Parliament Square

Indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa held a rally in Parliament Square commemorating those who have lost their lives defending the forests against mining, the cutting down of forests for palm oil and other crops and other threats to the forests and those who live in them.

The Guardians of the Forest held up photographs of a few of the many who have been murdered for the profits of unscrupulous companies including many listed on the London stock exchange. Whole tribes have been forced from their homes and forests where they have lived for many generations, their ancestral rights to their lands ignored and dismissed by governments and occupiers.

They demanded their rights be recognised and for the destruction of the forests they have maintained in a renewable fashion for hundreds or thousands of years to be stopped. These forests have a vital role in removing carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen and play a vital role in opposing climate change and preserving biodiversity. As well as reducing emissions we also need to increase rather than reduce forests and other natural habitats that remove carbon dioxide.

*People spoke in their native languages and were interpreted into English*

The Guardians were on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn to argue that the continuing maintenance of the forests by their indigenous inhabitants is vital in the fight against climate change, and that the clearance and devastation has to be stopped. But they face a difficult task against the huge numbers of well-funded lobbyists and powerful governments who dominate these events and have so far prevented the world taking the actions needed for long-term survival.

More on My London Diary – Guardians of the Forest – COP23.

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March Against Cuts & Bloomsbury Festival – 2010

March Against Cuts & Bloomsbury Festival: On Saturday 23rd October 2010 striking London firefighters led a march with other trade unionists against government cuts on spending on public services announced a few days earlier. After photographing the march I walked around Bloomsbury where Bloomsbury Festival was taking place over a week or so.

Trade Union March Against Cuts

Euston Rd to Bedford Square

March Against Cuts & Bloomsbury Festival - 2010

London’s firefighters were taking part in an 8-hour strike from 10am, called after the London Fire Brigade had in August begun firing 5,600 of them to bully them into agreeing a new contract. 79% of firefighters had voted in a ballot over strike action with 79% supporting the strike.

The Fire Brigade Union had been negotiating with the LFB over a new contract, but say that the Conservative chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority had pushed the LFB to adopt a more aggressive stance, firing the workers and then offering re-employment on a less favourable contract imposed without negotiation. Birmingham City Council were also attempting this for their 26,000 workers and Sheffield had also sent similar letters to their employees.

Many of us were astonished that any reputable employer could even consider this ‘fire and rehire’ approach, and doubted its legality. Surely every worker treated in this way must have a cast-iron case for unfair dismissal – or certainly should have. Though as usual the main thrust of our laws is to protect the interests of the rich and powerful against the rest of us, so perhaps they could get away with it despite the clear injustice.

If they could do it for firefighters, councils and other employers could do it for other workers and many other trade unionists had come out in support of the FBU, with the London march being called by the RMT, FBU, NUT, PCS and the National Shop Stewards Network.

The cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne in the previous Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending Review had been anticipated but still shocked. We – the country’s workers – were being made to pay for the greed of the wealthy bankers who had caused the crisis but were being given handouts. The London march and rally was just one of others across the country including in Cardiff, Manchester, Bristol, Lincoln and Wigan.

At the rally in a corner of Bedford Square there were calls for a much more positive approach from the TUC, and a demand that they bring forword the national demonstration which was planned for Spring 2011 but the TUC kept to its planned date of March 26th.

Some of those taking part in the march and rally went on to a TUC organised rally against the cuts in the nearby TUC HQ Congress House, organised by the South-East Region TUC, but I left to take a walk around the Bloomsbury Festival.

More pictures at Trade Union March Against Cuts.

Bloomsbury Festival

*Modern cloth strips at the Foundling Museum, where ‘Threads of Feeling’ was showing.*

The annual Bloomsbury Festival began in 2006, but this was the first year I had noticed it, and although there had been some events earlier in the week that sounded interesting I hadn’t had time to attend them.

*Paper birds in Russell Square where the main stage and stalls were*

On Saturday there were free events taking place across the area, in museums and galleries, parks and gardens, as well as various dance and film performances, exhibitions, walks and tours and workshops. I walked through the area, visiting most of the squares and parks in which there were artworks as well as some of the museums and exhibitions.

But much of what interested me on my walk were things I saw or found in the area itself, with some of the ‘found art‘ rather more interesting than the actual festival pieces. I was pleased to be able to go into the the charming private garden in Malet St – and the trees, leaves and the grass roller excited me considerably more than the work of photographic art strapped to a couple of trees.

It was good to go into the Foundling Museum for my first visit there, both to see its permanent exhibition with its incredibly moving special display the pieces of 18th century cloth, textile tokens left by mothers with the babies taken to the Foundling Hospital in the hope they could later be identified and reclaimed, along with a show Threads of Feeling, based on this.

More pictures at Bloomsbury Festival.

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