Thames Riverside – Erith: The Thames Path National Trail was only inaugurated on 24 July 1996 and then stopped at the Thames Barrier, but years before I had often walked along much of it in or near Greater London as well as much further east towards the Estuary.
It had taken a long time since 1947 when the towpath along the Thames was identified by the Hobhouse Committee on National Parks as one of six long distance and coastal recreational walking routes. Work began seriously in 1973 but there were many problems to be overcome, particularly in the upstream areas where much of the towpath had deteriorated, ferries closed and more.
The Thames Path still ends at Woolwich but it now joins the England Coast Path, but long before that it was possible to simply keep on walking beside the river – and I did along the south bank as far as Cliffe. Further on it became difficult to access using public transport.
These pictures come from Monday 1st August 1994 when I took a train to Erith as my starting point. I began by taking black and white pictures of buildings in the town centre, then walked east out of the town as far as the saltings and Erith Yacht Club. The town has changed considerably since my visit. The first industry developed on this side of town, but I think there is now a large supermarket with huge car park in the almost all the former industrial area. In the 1930s the area in my picture above, on Crescent Road or ManorRoad was a part of the British Fibrocement Works.
Erith Yacht Club, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-53
I turned around and came back through Erith to the Riverside Gardens close to the centre of Erith and then walked upstream beside the river to Belvedere before turning around and coming back to take a few more black and white pictures on the west side of Erith before taking the train home.
In the distance you can see the housing around Chandlers Drive, one of the first residential devolopmens on the river here, which had previously been highly industrial.
Riverside Path, River Thames, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-803-33
River Thames, Flats, Chandlers Drive, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-22
Jetty, River Thames, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-805-53
One of a number of jetties here, this more colourful than most, but I think no longer in use. On the opposite bank I think the hills are where rubbish has been brought out from London and tipped to build up what was previously marsh.
Jetty, River Thames, Erith Oil Works, Erith, Bexley, 1994, 94-801-13
The jetty of the Erith Oil Works, still in business. It was set up on Church Manorway in 1908 and is the the largest vegetable oil mill in the UK. My next post in this series will have more pictures of the Oil Works and other industry on the riverside, again mainly panoramas made with a swing lens camera.
All pictures here and more from this and other walks in 1994 are in my Flickr album 1994 London colour and you can view them larger by clicking on them in this post.
I’d first met the young mothers facing eviction from the Focus E15 hostel in Stratford around a month earlier when I had gone with them into the offices of East Thames Housing Association to occupy the show flat there and hold a party in protest against the threat of being evicted from their nearby hostel because Newham Council had decided to cut its funding.
Newham Council seemed clearly to be failing these mothers and children and were trying to move them away from Newham into private rented accommodation, sometimes hundreds of miles away from their friends, families, colleges, nurseries and support networks in Newham in order to evade their responsibility for them.
Clearly the council, then led by Newham Mayor Robin Wales, had not expected these young women to put up much if any fight against this unjust treatment, but the Focus E15 women were determined not to move away from London. Their continued protests, always powerful and colourful attracted media coverage and made their case into a national scandal, and they revealed the serious mismanagement of the council.
‘Boris Build More Homes’
Stratford was at the centre of a housing boom, particularly around the former 2012 Olympic site but this was largely for private sale, which many flats being bought up by investors, many from abroad wanting to cash in on London’s housing price boom, despite Newham having the highest waiting list for social housing in London.
Focus E15 and others pointed to the Carpenters Estate, a well-designed and highly popular council estate in a highly desirable location next to Stratford Station and the Olympic site where there were large numbers of empty flats and houses – some having been left empty for 10 years. Rather than seeing this as successful housing for the people of the borough, the council had regarded it as an asset to be sold off.
In February 2014 the mothers and children were still all living in the Focus E15 Mother and Baby Unit despite having been served eviction orders the previous October – East Thames had promised they would not be forced out until they had alternative accomodation. And they hired an open-top bus to bring themselves to City Hall.
Green Party GLA member Jenny Jones visited the protest
City Hall has now moved out to the Royal Docks, but in 2014 was in an unusually shaped Norman Foster building on Queens Walk next to the Thames on the privately More London office development owned by the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund (Ken Livingstone called it a ‘glass testicle’.) And although Focus E15 were allowed to protest by the security there, they were told they must not hand out leaflets. And no one at City Hall was prepared to accept the card the mothers signed for Boris Johnson.
The card for Boris
Their protests did result in them being rehoused in London, but the women didn’t stop there, developing into a ‘Housing For All’ protest, including an occupation of empty flats on the Carpenters Estate which achieved national news coverage. Locally they fought for others, going with them into Newham’s housing office and demanding the council meet its legal requirements and also stopping evictions.
They set up a housing advice and support stall every Saturday on Stratford Broadway and more. I’m sure that it was due to their activities that eventually the local Labour party turned against Robin Wales, getting rid of him.
Assistant director of the affordable homes programme in London, Jamie Ratcliff came to meet the E15 Mums
Their Focus E15 campaign, still continuing and still demanding ‘social housing, not social cleansing!’ became the most effective housing campaign in the country. I’m pleased to have been able to give them some support.
The mothers take their card for Boris into City Hall, but staff refused to accept it
The pictures on this post are all from Friday 21st February 2014 and there are more together with the text I wrote in 2014 at Focus E15 Mums at City Hall.
Return to Hull: Monday 20th February 2017 was the last day of a short visit to Hull, the city where my wife was born and grew up, and where I made my first sustained photographic project.
Scott St Bridge and the River Hull
As I wrote in 2017, “I was trying to visit as many of the locations where I had photographed back in the 1970s and 80s for the show and the book ‘Still Occupied – A View of Hull’ and which I’m currently putting on the ‘Hull Photos’ web site, a day at a time throughout Hull’s year as UK City of Culture.“
You can still see those photographs on my Hull Photos site, though there are now larger versions and more pictures in my Flickr albums – links at the end of this post.
In 2017 didn’t want to do a straightforward “then and now“. My earlier pictures were not simple topography but a more personal view of the city, and both it and I had changed in the 45 or more years and I was determined to look at things differently – and with different photographic parameters.
While I had then photographed mainly in black and white and with only a moderately wide 35mm shift lens, in 2017 all of my pictures were in colour and my main interest was in the much wider scope of a roughly 140 degree panorama rendered with a cylindrical perspective which I had been using for some years in my personal urban landscape projects.
I’ll post here under the various headings in my 2017 posts for the day on My London Diary. Here I’ll just post pictures but you can read much more on the links to that site I give for each section.
Gipsyville
Dorset St and the former Cawoods site – they and the fish moved to Grimsby
We went on to visit some exhibitions and it was soon time for dinner, but our day had not ended and afterwards we walked into the Old Town and to the Humber Street Gallery where I took this picture looking over the rooftops to Holy Trinity.
Many of my older pictures from Hull are now in two of my albums on Flickr:
On Thursday 19th February 2015 after a ‘poor doors’ protest at One Commercial Street against the separate entrances for rich and poor residents lit up by flaming torches, Class War marched with these across Tower Bridge to protest at new luxury flats at One Tower Bridge in Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames where social housing residents are to be denied access to the private garden.
It was raining slightly and the ‘poor doors’ protest had started with only the core protesters outside the entrance to the private flats next to Aldgate East Station on Whitechapel High Street (residents to the social housing enter by a side alley.)
A van of police had driven up as Ian Bone was speaking and came to guard the door, though the protesters were not on this occasion attempting to enter the building. An officer tried to talk to Bone but he wasn’t interested. The police had asked Class War to pay for their march to be policed, but had been very firmly told that the fewer police there were the better.
After around half an hour Class War decided it was time to light up ready for the march and torches were handed out and were soon flaming. They cheered up the rather damp night and provided a little more light for photography, but did make things look rather warm coloured.
There was a little light relief for the protesters when a woman who I think worked for an estate agents came to complain about the protest to the police telling them they should stop it. She got a little shouty when police told her that people had a right to protest, but police soon persuaded her to move away.
There had been some discussion about whether the march should take place, but numbers had grown and people were keen to march despite the weather and the march set off down Leman St led by the Class War banners and flaming torches.
There were some disputes about the best route to take, and some small diversions down seriously dark side streets where it was hard to photograph without the help of the torches. On the busy roads the march spread out across the whole carriageway to stop traffic behind it – with much hooting from frustrated drivers, though the delay was only short.
On Tower Bridge the marchers took over both carriageways bringing both the ‘Lucy Parsons’ and ‘Party Leaders’ banners beside each other.
Orange flares were set off and there was a short pause as the flaming torches were refilled with paraffin before the marchers moved onto the pavement and set off again, crossing the road and down an alley into the new luxury flat development where police were waiting for them.
The development here consisted of eight blocks of luxury apartments and one of affordable homes and includes a private garden area. In the original planning application this was to have been used by all tenants, but a few days before this protest Southwark Council had agreed to the developers changing this to deny access to the social housing residents, which led to this march by Class War against another aspect of social apartheid.
March For Our Flag & Chinese New Year: Sunday 18th February 2007 was very much a day of two halves for me, photographing ‘football supporters‘ on an extreme right march and then going to Chinatown for a brief visit to the New Year celebrations. Here’s what I wrote back in 2007 about the day (with the usual minor corrections) and some of the pictures – with links to a few more on My London Diary.
March For Our Flag – United British Alliance
There were around 200 football supporters in the right-wing march.
There were perhaps just over 200 marchers in the ‘March For Our Flag’ which made its way from Westminster to Marble Arch on Sunday. Organised by football supporters, it was billed as “a peaceful march consisting of Whites, Blacks, Asians” and the invitation was clearly made for people to attend “regardless of colour or creed or firm or team.” However it was also an event that members of the National Front Youth ‘Bulldogs’ were urged to support in one of their forums with the hope of attracting new members.
Marchers at the start in Tothill St
Englishness has been officially relegated to a fringe activity, and to a great extent politically appropriated by the ultra-right. So it isn’t surprising that we get populist outbreaks such as this, under the banner of the ‘United British Alliance’. This seems to be largely an anti-Islamic movement of football supporters, many of whom seem to take a pride in their membership of noted hooligan groups (the ‘firms‘.) On its web page, UBA describes itself as “a multi-ethnic, multi-faith organisation with a passionate interest in reclaiming our once proud nation from the grip of international terror and political correctness gone-mad, with a view to re-installing some pride in our communities and way of life.”
So I was hardly surprised to find the march almost solidly white and male; I noted only one Black and one Asian face – and only three women. What was overwhelming was the drab surliness of it all, with rather few English flags in evidence – probably fewer on hats and shirts than in the average crowd, now that many England soccer and rugby fans regularly appear covered with St George symbols.
At its front was a large St George’s flag with the message ‘Tunbridge Wells Yids On Tour.’ Although generally a term of racist abuse, here it is a name Spurs fans use with pride, having christened themselves ‘Yids’ in response to the anti-Semitic chants from fans of other clubs.
Events such as this, organised by a fringe extreme right group, do represent a widespread feeling among many people that we need to do more to promote English culture and a pride in being English. Nothing prevents us celebrating St George’s Day, [but] such celebrations have never attracted the official support and funding that attend the other national saints days in the UK.
In the arts, there has been a reluctance or even a refusal to finance traditional English folk arts, while those from many other ethnic groups have often received generous support. In part this comes from the elitist snobbishness of an establishment that massively funds opera while being unable to stomach grants to Morris dancing, brass bands, folk singers and English choirs and other elements of a genuinely popular and largely working class English culture.
Even, if not especially, on the left, we have generally left official culture and the patronage it gives to be run by the champagne socialists in Islington and Hampstead rather than supporting the kind of activities that came with our roots in the co-operative movement, the Methodist and other [non-conformist] churches and the Working Mens Clubs and unions.
The police took a very obvious interest in the event, and in the few of us trying to photograph it. I was twice questioned by them, and my press card details were noted down both times, while I was photographed [by police.] There were probably more police than marchers covering the event, both at Liverpool Street, where many of the marchers had met, and also on the march itself.
Some of the marchers did not want to be photographed
The police were polite and made sure I was aware that some of the marchers resented being photographed and suggested it would not be sensible for me to attend the rally at the end of the march. I hadn’t intended to do so, although this almost made me change my mind.
[More specifically I was told that they “would not be able to guarantee my safety” if I went on to the rally.]
I’m very much in favour of London celebrating the Chinese New Year (as well as St George’s Day) but it now seems hardly worth me photographing it. Partly because I’ve done it so often that there seems to be little more to say, and in part because it is just too crowded with far too many people trying to take pictures.
Controlling crowds such as this is a tricky affair, but there never seems to be much reason in it, with police lines often blocking off relatively quiet areas and thus creating jams elsewhere. I wandered round a little and took a few pictures before going home. There are better days to come to Chinatown.
I’ve taken many pictures of the lions in previous years, so didn’t really bother this year
My walk on Sunday 4th March 1990 had begun at Clapham Junction in Battersea and I had ended my first post, St John’s Road & East Hill, Battersea – 1990 next to Trinity Road in Wandsworth.
Huguenot Burial Ground, Mount Nod Cemetery, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-46
From 1562 to 1598 France was at civil war between Catholics, supported by the Catholic League including the Pope and Spain, and Protestants – the Huguenots – whose backers included Protestant England under Elizabeth I. Although Henry IV had become King of France in 1589 after the death of his ninth cousin once removed, Henry III, he was not recognised across the whole country.
Henry IV had been born and baptised a Catholic but brought up a Huguenot, and was the first (and only) Protestant King of France, but under pressure and to be recognised in Paris and elsewhere he converted to Catholicism in 1593, though whether he actually said “Paris is worth a Mass” is thought highly doubtful.
One of his first actions as king was the Edict of Nantes which granted the Huguenots – Calvinist protestants – the right to practise their religion while maintaining Catholicism as the established religion of the country. The Catholic authorities were never happy with the edict and Henry survived several assassination attempt before one succeeded in 1610.
Huguenot Burial Ground, Mount Nod Cemetery, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-33
The Edict gave Huguenots religious toleration in certain towns and cities in France and allowed them to play a part in civil society, including holding public office, running their own schools, organising militia, carry out some trades and professions and to travel freely in France – and to avoid the Inquisition when travelling abroad.
Over the years the various freedoms granted by the Edict were lessened and in 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal in all of France. Ministers were given two weeks to leave the country, while others were prohibited from leaving, though as many as 400,000 did, many coming to England.
Although Spitalfields is well-known for its Huguenot population, others settled elsewhere in London becoming around 5% of the area’s population. And Wandsworth, then a small village on the outskirts attracted some, probably because there were already some French speakers there, running various small industries on the River Wandle as well as market gardens. They became involved in textile mills and as hat and dressmakers, with Wandsowth becoming famous for hat making.
Huguenot Burial Ground, Mount Nod Cemetery, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-34
There was religious persecution in England too, although the established church had broken from Rome, but protestants suffered as well as catholics. But it seems that in Wandsworth, French speakers were allowed to set up their own chapel since none of the English would understand their language. A plaque in Chapel Yard suggests that Flemish and French Protestants had set up a house of prayer there as early as 1573, when such chapels were clearly illegal.
The Huguenot Burial Site – also known as Mount Nod Cemetery – between East Hill and Huguenot Place was in use by 1687 and burials continued until 1854. In 1911 a memorial was erected – seen in two of my pictures, remembeing the contribution made by Huguenots to the “prosperity of the town of their adoption.”
The cemetery has recently been given local historic park and garden status has apparently been refurbished, though I’ve not visited it for some years, though I think may do so later this year.
Book House, 45, East Hill, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-23
This Italianate locally listed building adjioinig the Huguenot Burial Ground was built in 1888 as County House for the Wandsworth District Board of Works. After the Nation Book League moved into it in 1985 it became Book House, and was also home to the Publishing Training Centre. More recently it has been converted into flats.
Houses, Fullerton Rd, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-2j-24
I left East Hill and walked up Alma Road; this area was developed between 1865 and 1895, but the north end of the street dates from soon after the Battle of Alma and appears on Stanford’s 1862 map. Alma was the first major battle of the Crimean War, when the British and the French defeated the Russians close to the mouth of the Alma, a small river which flows into the Black Sea not far from Sevastopol. The war dragged on until February 1856.
Fullerton Road crosses Alma Road and I walked a few yards down it to take this picture of a covered motorbike or scooter in front of Rose Cottage, Lansdown House and Gordon House.
Shops, Old York Rd, Ferrier St, Wandsworth Town, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-64
Alma Road joins Old York Road opposite Wandsworth Town station and a few yards down to the left Ferrier Street leads off west, with a view of the Wandwworth gasholder. The superstructure of this was demolished I think over 10 years ago, but its base remains, visible from the railway.
Old York Road still exists, although the shops have shifted significantly upmarket and I’ve been to exhibition openings there, and the area around to the north and west is bristling with new towers of flats.
Shops, Old York Rd, Wandsworth Town, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-63
No trace remains of the HOVIS sign on this house on the corner with Edgel Street and Lawrence’s Shoe Repairs are long gone.
The Alma Tavern, Old York Rd, Alma Rd, Wandsworth Town, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-65
I went into Wandsworth Town Station and climbed the stairs to the platform to lean over and photograph the Alma Tavern. This was built in 1866 although there appears to be a pub here on the 1862 map. It was acquired by Young’s brewery – nearby in the centre of Wandsworth on the River Wandle – in 1888. Still operated by them it now has a hotel extension on the site of the former 1880s Victorian factory behind the pub in Alma Road, since 1983 occupied by Winstanley Metal Fabrications.
Old York Rd, Ferrier St, Wandsworth Town, Wandsworth, 1990, 90-3a-66
Further along the platform I took this view looking along Old York Road. This area along to what is now Swandon Way used to be Fairfield, the site of Wandsworth Fair, discontinued in the 19th century. York Road was once called Pickpocket Lane, then Slough Lane and only relatively recently becoming Old York Road. Much of the area was designated a conservation area in 2019.
Alevi, Union Flags, Fuel Poverty & Reclaim Love: Saturday 16th Feb was a busy day for me, beginning with a protest by Alevi against religious discrimination in Turkey, on to an extreme right protest in support of Belfast ‘loyalists’. Then a rally over fuel poverty which ended with a road block by disabled protesters. My day in London ended in Piccadilly Circus at the Reclaim Love Valentine Party, though I arrived there rather late.
You can read longer accounts and see more pictures of all these events on My London Diary.
Alevi Protest Discrimination in Turkey & UK
Trafalgar Square
A woman in traditional costume holds a banner (Semah For Peace) in Trafalgar Square.
Estimates of the number of Alevi in Turkey vary widely but they probably make around 15% of the population, including many Kurds. Their religion is generally considered a part of Shi’ism, but they worship in their own languages, men and women together; women are not required to cover their hair, and their worship incorporates their rich traditions of poetry, music and dance – Semah.
Turkey is a country ruled and dominated by Sunni Muslims and the Alevi have suffered centuries of religious persecution – sometimes violent, and while Christian and Jewish children in Turkish schools are exempted from the compulsory Sunni Muslim religious classes, Alevi are not.
The rally called for democracy in Turkey, an end to discrimination and persecution, and an end to this compulsory religious education.
They also called for all immigrant cultures in the UK to unite and fight to remind the UK government of its responsibilities towards them, saying they face “ignorance from institutions such as the health, education, police, social and political bodies.” They call for an equal education system which considers the needs of all different cultural backgrounds.
Around a hundred ‘patriots’ from the ‘South East Alliance’ marched down Whitehall carrying Union Flags to a rally with speakers from Britain First in support of Loyalist Flag protesters in Belfast.
Britain First Northern Ireland organiser Jim Dowson with the man carrying the wreath
Belfast City Council had decided only to fly the Union Flag on eighteen days a year as elsewhere in the UK, resulting in series of protests outside Belfast City Hall organised by a breakaway unionist group which disagrees with the peace process.
Around a hundred people came to the protest, mostly carrying Union flags, though there were a few Ulster and Orange flags also on show.
The marchers became silent at the Cenotaph where two wreaths were laid, one by the Kent Somme Society commemorating the Irishmen who died in the Battle of the Somme. They then marched on to Old Palace Yard for a rally.
Paul Golding of Britain First, a former BNP councillor in Swanley on Sevenoaks District Council
There were speeches from Paul Golding of Britain First, Paul Pitt of the South East Alliance and Britain First’s Northern Ireland organiser Jim Dowson who had been involved in the protests there.
Paul Pitt of South East Alliance, formerly the EDL’s South East organiser.
A few photographers were threatened by protesters but I suffered only some mainly relatively friendly banter from several who recognised me from other extreme right marches I had photographed, including some who mistook me for a Searchlight photographer.
A rally organised by Fuel Poverty Action and supported by Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater London Pensioners’ Association, Redbridge Pensioners’ Forum, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group, Global Women’s Strike and others was a part of a national day of action against fuel price rises and the government’s energy policies
Cuts and rising prices now meant one in four families now have had to choose between heating their homes adequately or eating properly. Many children were going to school hungry and we had seen a phenomenal rise in the need for food banks – now even in the wealthier suburbs, with many unable to buy food.
Fuel Poverty Action say that the government was doing everything it could to keep the big six enery companies making profts while “disabled and elderly people are forced into libraries and shopping centres to keep warm and people with cancer freeze in their homes with the heating off” as crucial benefits are slashed.
Many also suffer from benefit sanctions, losing financial support often for trivial reasons or for things beyond their control – such as a cancelled bus making them arrive late for an appointment. There seems to be a particularly vindictive approach encouraged (or mandated) at job centres towards claimants.
At the end of the rally disabled activists, many in wheelchairs went out onto Whitehall blocking the southbound carriageway. Some pensioners joined them, handcuffing themselves to the wheelchairs and others came to stand around them in the roadway. There were some more speeches from some of the protesters.
Protesters from the Disabled Peoples Direct Action Network move to block the road
After around a quarter of an hour police came and talked with the protesters asking them to leave. They were still asking 15 minutes later and by then many of the protesters were feeling they had made their point and were ready to go for a cup of tea. When they told police they would leave in ten minutes I left to rush to the Reclaim Love party which had started over an hour earlier.
The 11th Reclaim Love free Valentine’s Party – and the 10th organised by Venus CuMara who started the whole thing in 2004 – took place around Eros in Piccadilly Circus, aiming to spread peace and love around the world, and to reclaim love from its commercial exploitation.
I arrived late, after people had joined hands in the large circle around Eros to make their call for peace and happiness around the world, but the party was continuing and I took rather a lot of pictures – here are a few.
Venus CuMara straightens up the Reclaim Love bannerFree T-shirts – for the first time a donation was requested
I’ve written more about Reclaim Love on My London Diary over the years, and there is some more, along with many more pictures from the 2013 event at Reclaim Love Valentine Party.
Democracy, Greece & Pakistan: Events I covered on Sunday 15th February 2015.
Occupy Democracy Return
Parliament Square
I hadn’t been at Parliament Square the previous evening when Occupy Democracy had returned to take up residence and hold a protest and workshops there, but had heard about the arrests. Police following instructions from Boris Johnson’s Greater London Authority private security wardens arrested five of the protesters including Donnachadh McCarthy, along with the white cardboard coffin he was holding with the message ‘UK Democracy R.I.P. Killed by Corporate Billionaires‘ which was returned in a rather damaged condition.
On Sunday morning my first call was to the square where Occupy Democracy talks and workshops were continuing on the pavement area around Churchill’s statue.
While I was there George Barda spoke introducing the ‘Love Activists’ and Danny talked about their plans for future activities.
Another event in the square was led by Frances Scott of the 50:50 Parliament campaign to get equal numbers of men and women in Parliament, arguing that this would lead to much better government.
Although I agree there should be better representation of women, I feel that it’s more important that we have politicians who better represent the needs of the people and the country. More Thatchers, Trusses and Badenochs would hardly be an advance on Kinnochs, Blairs and Mandelsons. We need a far more radical system change.
I left to cover the other events, but returned on my way home in the afternoon when the workshops were continuing. Police and GLA security watched but did not interfere. As I commented, “They prefer to take action when fewer press are around and it is dark.”
A large crowd had come to the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square for a rally to celebrate the victory of the anti-austerity Syriza party in the Greek General Election in January and to support them in resisting the imposed austerity programme.
Greek voters had decisively rejected the the EU’s austerity plans, largely pushed by Germany and backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB) but the new government was having to revise its plans, facing stiff opposition and was having to compromise on many of its promises.
Speakers at the rally, including Jeremy Corby, Owen Jones, CWU’s Billy Hayes, Paul Mackney, Green Party’s Romayne Phoenix and John Sinha from Occupy Democracy, praised the Greek struggle against austerity, but their pleas for the country to be let to breathe fell on deaf ears in Germany and the financial institutions.
Many in Syriza felt betrayed by its actions and some left the party, but in a snap election in September 2015 the party polled well enough to remain as the leading party in the coalition. They did badly in the 2019 election, becoming a part of the opposition.
Pakistanis from Imran Khan’s PTI party called on the UK government to arrest and deport Altaf Hussain, the founder of the rival rival MQM party who fled to the UK in 1991 following an attack on his life in advance of a police crackdown of his party and was granted asylum here in 1992.
The protesters say Hussain and his party have an armed mafia wing in Karachi which indulges in extortion, blackmail and murder and were behind the Baldia Town factory fire in which at least 258 workers died, the Karachi Massacre of May 2007, as well as the murder of PTI leader Zahra Shahid in her driveway in Karachi in 2013 and many other crimes.
Since 2015 he has been a wanted man in Pakistan on charges of ‘murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech‘. In the UK he was tried in 2022 charged with ‘promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan‘ but was acquitted.
Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus: Saturday 14th February 2015 was Global Divestment Day, designed by the UN to “to draw attention to the importance of divesting from fossil fuels, which are the main cause of global warming.” But of course it was also St Valentine’s Day, and two events reflected this.
‘Bad Boy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day
London City Hall
One of the Boris bloc at the rally in front of City Hall and Tower Bridge
The protest at London City Hall, then at More London close to Tower Bridge, called on the Mayor and London Assembly to end their pension fund investments in climate wrecking fossil fuels and lead a fossil-free London.
The event began with a nightmare vision as multiple Mayor Borises arrived, revelling in dirty fuel. They were greeted by a choir singing songs specially written for the occasion and fed with some disgusting looking things supposed to be dirty fuel.
After several speeches the protesters split up around 3 metre tall letters which they eventually lifted up to spell out the word ‘DIVEST’.
They called for an end to investment in fossil fuels which are causing catastrophic climate change.
Two dressed as bishops called on the Church of England to get its act together and take its investments out of fossil fuels. Many churches have already divested, and campaigners were pressing others including the Church of England to do so.
A person in an Obama mask has a message for the President, ‘Free Shaker – Yes YOU Can’
A march from Parliament Square to a rally opposite Downing Street called for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he arrived has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.
Aamer had been in Afghanistan helping to build a school for an Islamic charity when he was captured by an Afghan militia and sold to US forces for a £5,000 reward. After the US and tortured him, aided by MI5, in Bagram Air Base they illegally rendered him to Guantanamo, on Feb 14, 2002.
Joy Hurcome holds a Valentine for David Cameron asking him to ‘Show your Love – Free Shaker Aamer’
There his torture continued – and he was lucky to escape death in 2006 when he was one of four prisoners taken to a special secret interrogation site – and the only one to survive the ordeal.
Bruce Kent – and a large inflatable Shaker Aamer
Aamer has permanent resident status in the UK and his British wife and family were living in Battersea, but it was not until 2007 that the UK government began to request his release. And despite doing so, the government also spent over a quarter of a million pounds in legal fees to prevent his legal team gaining access to evidence which might prove his innocence.
The years of torture of him and others at the hands of the US military have failed to come up with any evidence against him, and he was twice cleared for release in 2007 and 2009 – but only if he went to his native Saudi Arabia where he would almost certainly disappear without trace. Both UK and US intelligence agencies are thought to have prevented his release to the UK as the evidence he would give about their use of torture would be highly embarrassing.
Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign organiser
The protest was the start of a new ‘We Stand With Shaker’ campaign bringing together groups including the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign, Amnesty International and others. Among the long list of speakers at the rally were Joy Hurcombe of the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, writer Victoria Brittain, Lindsey German of Stop the War, veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent of CND, Katie Taylor from Reprieve, Yvonne Ridley, Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign, campaigner Andy Worthington and Joanne MacInnes of We Stand With Shaker.
People in the Reclaim Love Meditation Circle in Piccadilly Circys lift up their arms and chant the mantra
Venus CuMara’s 13th Reclaim Love Valentine Party at Eros in Piccadilly Circus included bands, dancing and a “Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos“.
As usual there was a great atmosphere as people came together to share in love and party together in opposition the the huge commercialisation of Valentine’s Day and indeed of love itself. It is nothing to do with money, just about people.
Venus speaks to everyone and tells them to form the Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle…
beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos and together they chant the mantra: “May All The Beings In All The Worlds Be Happy & At Peace“
After which the music and dancing continued, along with hugging and other activities, and was still continuing when I left for home.
New Year Of The Rooster: Celebrations in Soho on Sunday 13th February 2005 marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year on the previous Wednesday.
Here’s what I wrote back then, and a few of the pictures – with more of course still on-line on My London Diary.
The Lion prepares to pounce
Chinese New Year
Soho
Sunday 13th London was celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Rooster which started the previous Wednesday. Happy 4702 to all.
St Martins in the Fields surrounded by Chinese Lanterns
As a rooster myself I was pleased to read my horoscope for the coming year. Not that I believe such superstitions for a moment.
The Year of the Rooster – Chinese man on bicycle with rooster
I used to enjoy the rather anarchic celebrations in Cinatown, but its now more of and ordeal, with far too many people coming in to watch and too much organisation.
Ken [Livingstone] may be proud of having got something done about Trafalgar Square and be keen to have as many official events with various communities as possible, but it was better when various groups just did what they wanted to.
Meanwhile, back in Chinatown the real business continues
This year we had a procession down the Charing Cross Road with crowds penned behind barriers. Spectacle rather than event.
I did the official bit in Trafalgar Square last year – dotting the eyes on the dragons and all, [this year I] decided to give it and those horribly ingratiating speeches from local dignitaries and politicians, all keen to say “kung heI fat choy!”, a miss.
The Rooster, horoscopes and Lucky Charms
As you can see, because of the crowds making photographing from any distance difficult I took many of these pictures using a fisheye lens, and had posted them without any attempt at altering the fisheye perspective.
In later years working with fisheye lenses I would probably have used a plugin to reduce the curvature these lenses produce. Unfortunately Imadio who sold the ‘Fisheye-Hemi’ plugin I then used went out of business, and the plugin no longer works, as it was written to check back to their web site every time it was used that I was a registered user. I feel rather cheated having paid for it and no longer being able to use it.
It’s possible to get the same – or similar – results in Photoshop without the plugin, but rather a pain to do so. Photoshop does offer an Adaptive Wide Angle filter, but this seems to produce excessive cropping of the image. Here’s my rough correction of the image above in which the image curvature is less pronounced. But it would be nice to have a plugin or Photoshop action which would do the job properly.
