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St George, Armenian Genocide & Congo – 2011

St George, Armenian Genocide & Congo: On St George’s Day, 23 April 2011 I found little celebration taking place in Lcndon but mad3e a few pictures before photographing an Armenian march calling on our government to officially recognise the Armenian Genocide, then a protest over human rights violations in the Congo.

St George’s Day in London

Westminster

St George, Armenian Genocide & Congo:

I found it hard to find much celebration of St George’s Day in London in 2011. He had become the patron saint of England in the Tudor era, but had been almost forgotten by the Royal Society of St. George was founded in 1894 to try and revive the tradition.

But it was not until the 1990s that we saw much revival, with the English football team and right wing political groups widely adopting the St George’s flag, preciously mainly the preserve of miniscule nationalist political groups. The Royal Society of St George was joined by English Heritage in promoting the idea.

I photographed the Royal Society of St George event at Covent Garden in 2005, but it was only in 2010 that London Mayor Boris Johnson hosted the first celebration in Trafalgar Square. Before these there had of course been celebrations in various pubs around London, soemtimes rather right-wing events. In 2016 I photographed two rival St Georges in the same pub in Southwark.

But it was the then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was the first major leader to make a promise in his party manifesto. Had his 2017 election campaign not been sabotaged by the right wing in his party, today would now be a Bank Holiday.

The 2011 celebrations in London seemed very limited. There was a parade marking the 150th anniversary of our military cadet units (though as I note in My London Diary this was rather premature for the air cadets.) And later I went to Trafalgar Square for the Mayor’s official celebrations and was very unimpressed.

St George’s Day in London

Recognise The Armenian Genocide

Oxford St to Downing St

Between 1915 and 1923 the Turkish authorities killed around 1.5 million Armenians, around 70% of Turkey’s Armenian population in a deliberate attempt to rid Turkey of people who did not fit in with their desire to create a homogeneous Turkish nation. Armenians have a strong national identity, centred around their Christian heritage which did not fit well into a largely Muslim Turkey.

The genocide began on 24 April 1915 when Turkish authorities arrested and murdered around a thousand leading members of the Armenian community in Constantinople. They then killed the roughly 300,000 Armenian conscripts in the Turkish Army.

This was followed by “mass killings, deportations and death marches of women, children and elderly men into the Syrian Desert. During those marches, many of the weak or exhausted were killed or died. Women were raped. The deportees were deprived of food and water. Starvation and dehydration became commonplace.”

Turkey still refuses to admit to the genocide, and insists that the deaths were the result of a civil war. But it was a ‘war’ against a people who had no weapons and no organisations to fight and were simply slaughtered because they were Armenian.

The term ‘genocide’ did not exist at the time and was coined by Raphael Lemkin who described it as “The sort of thing Hitler did to the Jews and the Turks did to the Armenians.” One of the first resolutions proposed by him and passed by the UN was ‘The Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’.

The annual march in London calls on the UK Government to officially recognise the Armenian genocide – as the UN Commission on Human Rights and many countries around the world have done, including France, Germany, Italy and others of our European neighbours. It’s hard to understand why we have not done so, though successive UK governments have taken the line it is a matter for international courts to decide, not governments. But others think that trade issues are the real reason.

More about the march and the reasons behind it and about “Hrant Dink (1954-2007) ‘The 1,500,001st Victim of The Armenian Genocide'” on My London Diary.

Recognise The Armenian Genocide

Congolese Protest in London

Great Portland St to Downing St

The International Congolese Rights organisation (ICR) were marching from the Congolese Embassy in Great Portland Street to Downing St calling attention to human rights violation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and asking the UK Government to put pressure on President Kabila to hold elections or resign.

Formed in 2004 to defend the defend the rights of Congolese citizens living in the UK the ICR as held a number of demonstrations aimed at exposing the systematic violation of human rights in the DRC aimed at getting the UK and the international community to take action.

Ever since the end of colonial rule in the former Belgian Congo there has been fighting in the Congo. The DRC has vast mineral resources, probably “the richest of any country in the world, including 80% of the world’s cobalt reserves, and between 65-80% of coltan, the mineral from which tantalum capacitors, vital for mobile phones, games consoles, computers and other electronic devices.” It also has large amounts of copper and is the world’s second largest diamond producer. A large proportion of its trade is now with China.

Despite these resources, the DRC remains the second poorest country in the world, with almost three quarters of its 124 million people in extreme poverty as a result of its underdevelopment in the colonial era and the war and political turmoil since independence.

The main banner of the protest stated ‘David Cameron – Why Are So Quiet On 8 Million Deaths in D. R. Congo?‘ and people carried placards about the suffering in the country including the killings and the widespread use of rape as a military and political tactic.

They called for elections and for DRC President Joseph Kabila to step down and to face trial at the International Criminal Court.

Congolese Protest in London

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National Housing Demo, London 2026

National Housing Demo, London: Last Saturday, 18th April 2026, I photographed the National Housing Demonstration which began with a rally in Soho Square.

In the years after the end of the Second World War, Britain began a concerted effort to address the housing problems. Money was short but succesive governments did all they could to address the problems of old, poorly built slums thrown up in the nineteenth century as industrialisation caused a huge population surge in our cites and large towns.

During the war, Churchill’s government had laid plans to build 500,000 prefabs, “with a planned life of up to 10 years, within five years of the end of the Second World War”. And from 1945-51, 1.2 million new houses were built including around 150,000 prefabs.

For many of the 1.2 million families moving into these new properties it was the first time they had their own bathrooms and toilets, no longer sharing often rather primitive facilities with neighbours in multi-occupied and overcrowded properties.

London, UK. 18 Apr 2026. ‘Labour is in Bed with Landlords’

There were new towns and local authorites were encouraged to build council housing, although under the Conservatives the emphasis altered in the 1950s to providing “welfare accommodation for low income earners” rather than meeting more general housing needs. But under MacMillan as Housing Minister they still aimed to build 300,000 homes a year.

Mistakes were made. It was also largely when the Conservatives were in power that we saw a huge shift towards building high-rise, and in particular to system-built blocks. Some of the best of these are now largely privately owned and expensive flats, but others, often because of shoddy building practices have had to be demolished.

Increasingly Conservative policies changed to encouraging home ownership rather than municipal provision of low-cost accomodation. And the final death blows came under Thatcher, who prevented authorities from using local tax money to build new housing and serverely reduced local housing stocks with the ‘right to buy’ – and added final cruel twist by refusing to allow them to use the money from sales to build. Right to buy also meant councils many of their larger and more desirable properties.

Thatcher’s policies resulted in an increase in the waiting lists for council accommodation and meant that councils had to take desperate measures to try to rehouse those they had a statutory obligation to – resulting in a huge increase in the use of often sub-standard temporary accommodation often far away from their local areas, and in people being rehoused with little security in poor private flats.

New Labour did little if anything to improve things, except for property developers. In London and elsewhere we have seen a succession of well-built council estates with years of life being allowed to deteriorate and then, rather than being refurbished at relatively low cost, being demolished and replaced by developers working with councils largely as high-cost private developments with little social housing.

Although there were a few examples of succesful regeneration, most have been disastrous for their former residents, priced out of their local areas, with those who had bought their properties sometimes being seriously defrauded.

Many of these regenerated estates are now full of empty homes owned as investments by overseas buyers, buying them simply to profit over a few years from the increasing house prices in the UK and in cities including London in particular.

Under the coalition government and succesive Tory governments the housing crisis has continued to grow, with rents in London skyrocketing. And bit by bit the security of tenure that council property used to provide has been whittled away. So far the Labour landslide has changed nothing.

There are some simple policies the protesters were calling for that could help. There are huge numbers of properties that are long-term empty and there could be greater powers of compulsory purchase. There could be changes to make it possible for local authorities to maintain and refurbish existing estates and build more social homes. We could stop getting estate agents and developers to dominate our housing policies for their own benefits.

Part of the housing problem is that too many of our MPs are themselves landlords and have opposed attempts to improve the conditions of tenants, watering down legislation. But perhaps the largest need is for a change in the way we think about housing, seeing it as an asset rather than a home. The whole idea of the ‘property ladder’.

Many more pictures from Saturday’s protest in my Facebook album National Housing Demo.

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Christian Aid, Mordechai Vanunu & Mass Lone Demos – 2007

Christian Aid, Mordechai Vanunu & Mass Lone Demos. My photography on Saturday 21st April 2007 began with a small event close to home with music and tree planting celebrating 50 years of Christian Aid. I then rushed into London for the start of the Mass Lone Demo initiated by Mark Thomas as a protest against SOCPA, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act which greatly restricted the right to protest in the area around Parliament.

After a short while there I travelled to Hackney where cyclists, some who had begun at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, were beginning the final leg of the Vanunu Freedom Ride. After they had set off I returned to take more pictures of the Mass Lone Demo, then took the tube to meet the cyclists again close to the IsraelI Embassy in Kensington.

Below is what I wrote in 2007, with the usual minor corrections and links to more pictures from the day on My London Diary.

Christian Aid: Tree Planting – Celebrating 50 Years

Staines, Middlesex

Saturday was another beautiful day, sunny, warm but not too hot, and the quintet with a fine singer created a mellow atmosphere as we gathered to plant two apple trees to celebrate 50 years of Christian Aid. the music included several of my Ellingtonian favourites, there were some interesting home-made cakes, and it was great to relax for a while in the sun.

Christian Aid, Mordechai Vanunu & Mass Lone Demos - 2007 — *One of the 2 apple trees planted at Staines to celebrate 50 years of Christian Aid gets watered in.*

The trees were given and planted by Colin Squire of Squires Garden Centres, and as he commented, the Cox’s Orange Pippin was an appropriate choice, as not only is it a fine apple, but was first grown by Richard Cox just three miles away at Colnbrook in 1830.

The two trees are in a public area, and we hope that in years to come the public will come and help themselves and enjoy their crop.

More pictures from the event on My London Diary.

Mass Lone Demos – the BIG one

Westminster

Mark Thomas’s latest twist to the Mass Lone Demo was for demonstrators to set out a list of 20 demonstrations they would eaach hold in the SOCPA area on Saturday and to apply for permission for each of them. He was aiming for 2000 demonstrations (and hoping for an entry in the Guinness Book Of Records.) The police figure for the number of demonstrations that permission was applied for was 2,486, but it was actually quite hard to find many of them.

I’d hoped to photograph people at such highly desirable sites for demos as the Mothers Union, the Adam Smith Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia, but nobody was there when I looked. However I did find a few, [and also some Kurds who were not part of the Lone Demos] but unfortunately had to miss the final event to get to Kensington.

Mass Lone Demos – the BIG one

The Vanunu Freedom Ride Reaches London

Hackney and Notting Hill Gate

Mordechai Vanunu told the world about Israel’s nuclear weapons – still denied, still secret and still not subject to any international inspection. He worked on the program for 9 years until 1985, and in 1986 blew the whistle, talking to the press. Days later he was lured to Italy and kidnapped from there by the Israeli Secret Service. Convicted of treason in Israel he spent 18 years in jail, 12 of them in solitary.

Released in 2004 he has been under severe restrictions on movement, who he can meet and what he can say. He would like to leave srael but it seems likely he will be sent back to prison. The ride demanded his freedom, the setting up of a nuclear-free Middle East as well as freedom for Palestine.

The riders started at the Faslane base to the west of Glasgow where daily demonstrations are taking place outside the base of the ridiculous UK nuclear deterrent (ridiculous to have it, and in no way independent as we need us permission to use the weapons.) The ride stopped at many places on the way to demonstrate and hold meetings, including Menwith Hill spy station and Lakenheath USAF base.

*A rally at the end of the ride at Notting Hill Gate, not far from the Israeli embassy*

They were met at Hackney Town Hall by members of Hackney & Islington CND and CNF vice-chair Sophie Bolt. From Hackney they cycled on via Downing Street to Kensington, where there was a rally at which Jeremy Corbyn MP, Kate Hudson, CND chair and Louise Richards of War On Want were among the speakers.

The Israeli embassy in London is on a private street with security lodges at each end. cyclists are not allowed in the street, and demonstrations are certainly not tolerated.

Vananu Freedom Ride at Hackney and Kensington.

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Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL – 2009

Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL: Saturday April 18th 2009 was another varied day for me, beginning at the City of London Police HQ with a protest over their policing of demonstrations – including the killing of Ian Tomlinson on April 1st, then a chance meeting with a Shakespeare event close to where he died. In Westminster I photographed a continuing Tamil hunger strike and went on to the Dutch festival in Trafalgar Square before photographing the annual Loyal Orange Lodge Parade, leaving them in Whitehall to finally go home.

Protest Against London Police

City of London Police HQ, Wood St

Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL - 2009

The carnival-themed protest in London on April 1st was met with an extraordinary display of police violence “police chiefs and politicians had spent the previous week ramping up the temperature and predicting violence.”

*Three and a half Horsemen of the Apocalypse outside the Police Station on Wood St*

As I reported on the April 1st protest: “Many of the police, particularly the TSG, came along to the event psyched up and spoiling for a fight” and their violence was not restricted to the small number of protesters who had come to cause trouble, but was also directed at the great majority of peaceful protesters – and to the press who were photographing the event.

Many police officers had removed or hidden their ID numbers to avoid being identified by protesters or recorded in photographs, a clear sign that they were intending to break the law.

Videos taken of the police attacks on the crowds show ‘people being attacked simply holding up their arms to protect themselves as police assault them with batons and riot shields used as weapons, people standing there and chanting “We are not a riot” and “Shame, shame, shame on you.” ‘

The protesters called for police to remember they are there to serve the public and for an end to the wholesale “kettling” of protests, the disbanding of the TSG and for proper training of police in handling demonstrations. They called on senior officers to enforce proper discipline and regulations and a complete end to all officers turning a blind eye when their colleagues behave illegally.

More at Protest Against London Police.

Shakespeare’s Birthday Coincidence

Cornhill

At the end of the protest I walked to the display on Cornhill set up around the Cornhill Fountain a few yards from where Ian Tomlinson died, staggering there after being assaulted by a police officer while making his way home after work, with police refusing to give him medical attention until too late.

I was standing there when to my surprise a group of around 20 people, each holding a red flower came towards me, led by a woman with a badge saying ‘Steward.’ They stopped for a short performance exactly where Tomlinson died, where there was a picture of a woman and some flowers

They then stopped and a man read a short piece, which sounded vaguely familiar. As the group left I asked him about it “and found that this was one of around 20 groups each being taken on a guided walk around the city to various sites with similar performances to this of one of the sonnets to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday next Thursday.”

Shakespeare’s Birthday Coincidence

Tamil Hunger Strike Continues

Parliament Square

Eight days earlier I had visited the hunger strike by two young Tamil men over the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had begun their hunger strike on 6th April and the hunger strike was still continuing on the 18th, with a dozen of so others joining them each day for a one day fast, and a crowd of around 500 more Tamils beside their pen in support.

They protesters all supported the Tamil Tigers in their fight for an independent homeland and called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka, with full access for the UN, the Red Cross and other agencies, as well as the international press, along with an opportunity for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to have a free and independently observed referendum on their future.”

Not long after, in May 2009, the fight by the Tamil Tigers for independence ended in defeat. Since then Tamils have been subjected to continuing human rights violations although their situation is reported to have improved somewhat since 2015.

Tamil Hunger Strike Continues

Dutch Stereotypes

Trafalgar Square

“In Trafalgar Square, the Dutch were holding a festival to prove their lack of understanding of popular music and to sell cheese, chips and beer. The cheese did look quite attractive. The only thing missing seemed to be a windmill, but I probably just didn’t look hard enough.”

Dutch Stereotypes

Loyal Orange Lodge Parade

Westminster

On My London Dairy you can read more about the Orange Order which takes its name “from William, Prince of Orange who landed in Devon in 1688 to restore parliamentary democracy and prevent the imposition of the Catholic religion by James II. This was the ‘Glorious Revolution’ which forced James II to flee and made William king as William III.“

It led to greater freedom for dissenting nonconformist Protestants but Catholics were denied the right to vote, be MPs, become army officers or marry the monarch. That marriage is still out.

*The Worthy Mistress of Corby First Ladies LOL53 unveils a new banner before the start of the march*

The regular Orange marches in London are largely uncontroversial, but in Northern Ireland they still perpetuate the division between the Protestant and Catholic communities which led to the ‘troubles’.

*Banners are lowered as a mark of respect as they march past the Cenotaph*

I photographed them laying wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and marching past but theen left as they went on to the the statue of of “King Billy” in St James’s Square.

I’ve often been threatened and made unwelcome when photographing Orange marches, because of my political views or possibly those of a photographer who worked for Searchlight magazine which gathers information on the far right they have confused me with. Others taking part in Orange Order marches have congratulated me for my pictures.

More about the parade and many more pictures at Loyal Orange Lodge Parade.

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Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – 2014

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: In 1974 the Palestinian National Council approved April 17th as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, choosing the date as the anniversary of the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel – when Fatah militant Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi who had been captured by Israel six years earlier was released.

In 2008 the 20th Arab Summit adopted it for all Arab countries as a day in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained by Israel. Human rights organisations say many prisoners are denied visits, subjected to mental and physical tortures and denied proper medical care. Many are held without trial under ‘administrative detention‘ while Palestinians “are tried by Israel’s military courts and often held in Israel, in conditions that violate international humanitarian and human rights conventions“.

In 2014 the World Council of Churches had issued a Palestinian Prisoners Day call to churches worldwide to pray and act for justice which “resolutely confirms our solidarity with the nearly 5000 Palestinian men, women and children languishing in Israeli prisons” and called for churches to press UN Member States to put pressure on Israel to end arbitrary detention, meet its obligations over human rights, provide apt medical care and end athe use of torture.

Bill Gates End Support Of Israeli Child Torture

Cardinal Place, Victoria

On 27th April 2014 I photographed the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest in Westminster, where protesters met on the plaza outside Westminster Cathedral for a ‘mystery protest’.

There they put together a mock prison cell and gave a briefing that the protest was to be at the Europe and Middle East Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Portland House, just across the road inside the Cardinal Place shopping centre.

We crossed the road with the prison cell and some protesters, one with a Bill Gates mask and they tried to deliver a petition from the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah which monitors and provides legal support to Palestine prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian jails.

“By holding shares in G4S, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is complicit in Israel’s detention without trial and torture of Palestinians.

As people that share your belief that every life has equal value, we call on you to divest from G4S immediately.”

The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest shareholders in G4S and Addameer say it “is legitimising and profiting from Israel’s use of torture, mass incarceration and arbitrary arrest to discourage Palestinians from opposing Israel’s apartheid policies.”

Addammer point out that their investment makes a mockery of the foundation’s aim to use its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives“.

A few protesters who tried to enter the building were quickly ejected by security and the protest continued outside with speeches, chanting and music. They promised to leave after someone came down from the Gates Foundation office to receive the petition, but no one came in the 20 minutes while I was there before leaving to cover another Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest at the G4S offices a short walk away.

More at Bill Gates end support of Israeli child torture.

G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day

Victoria St

The Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign – which began twice-monthly London protests against companies supporting Israel’s prisons in 2012 – had arrived outside the G4S offices before me and set up their banners. They were handing out leaflets about the terrible conditions under which prisoners are held and calling for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

British multinational G4S is the worlds largest security contractor and provides security services for many prisons in Israel where Palestinian men, women and children are tortured and caged.

After around 25 minutes we were joined by some of the protesters who had been at the Gates Foundation and their cage.

After a few minutes some of the protesters walked into the foyer of the offices and I followed them to take photographs.

They brought in the ‘cage’ as well.

And there was soon a prisoner in the cage with a smiling ‘Bill Gates’ and another protester holding it. There were some short speeches about why they were there protesting against G4S and some chanting, but the foyer is large and the protest did not interfere with people entering and leaving the building – which contains other offices as well as that of G4S.

Eventually a couple of police arrived, and took a look at what was happening and decided just to watch. More protesters arrived and some brought their banners into the foyer.

Outside the protest also continued, with people handing out detailed leaflets about the conditions in ‘G4S Israeli Dungeons’ in which men, women and children are tortured.

You can read some of the details and in particular about the case of the 5 Hares boys on My London Diary.

G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day

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Hizb Ut-Tahrir & Grenfell Protests – 2018

Hizb Ut-Tahrir & Grenfell Protests: On Saturday 14th April 2018 I photographed a protest at the Turkish Embassy by the now proscribed group Hizb Ut-Tahrir and later went to Kensington Town Hall where I photographed bikers on a ride for Grenfell and the silent walk 10 months after the tragic fire.

Hizb Ut-Tahrir protest against Turkey

Turkish Embassy, Belgrave Square

Hizb Ut-Tahrir & Grenfell Protests - 2018 — *Men stand at the front of the protest opposite the Turkish embassy*

Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain had come to protest criticising Turkey for their role in supporting President Assad in regaining control of Syria.

They say Turkey since the end of the Ottoman state in 1922 has been a secular state “whose role is to protect the colonialist’s interests in our lands” with Turkey recognising the Zionist occupation of Palestine in 1949.

They accuse President Erdogan of strengthening Turkish military and economic ties with Israel, “defending and strengthening our enemies who murder us in Syria and Palestine“.

The protest took place on the night in the Islamic calendar when the Prophet made a night journey to al-Aqsa (Jerusalem) and it called on all Muslims to support the Palestinians in their fight “against the illegal occupation, as they are mercilessly killed by the Zionist regime.”

Hizb Ut-Tahrir are a Sunni Muslim group who call for the restoration of the Khilafah Rashidah, the “Rightly Guided” rule of the four caliphs who succeeded the Prophet in a 30 year reign from 632 -661 AD when Muslim armies conquered much of the Middle East.

The organisation was banned in January 2024 after a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in which they called upon Muslim armies to attack Israel. Previous calls under Tony Blair and David Cameron to ban the organisation had been opposed by the UK government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation and the Home Office as Hizb Ut-Tahrir did not advocate violence.

Hizb Ut-Tahrir protest against Turkey

Bikers for Grenfell

Kensington Town Hall

Bikers, including Muslim bikers Deen Riders and others took part in a United Ride 4 Grenfell from the Ace Cafe on the North Circular to Parliament and then came to Kensington Town Hall demanding action and justice for the victims of the Grenfell fire.

People gathering from the monthly silent march for Grenfell cheered and applauded them as they rode past and then began their march. Among them were many of the survivors from the fire.

Bikers for Grenfell

Grenfell Silent Walk – 10 Months On

Kensington

*‘Tories have blood on their hands’ but the silent walks seemed to have had little impact*

The Grenfell fire was a tragedy waiting to happen because of decisions made by Kensington and Chelsea Council who had approved the fitting of unsafe cladding to cut costs, had ignored residents complaints about safety in the building, and more. Government too share some of the blame for their cutting ‘red tape’ policies that had hugely compromised safety, including the privatisation of fire inspections.

The contractors they employed to carry out the cladding – and those they had employed had not done the job properly – but the council had failed to oversee their work properly and the reduced safety regulation regime allowed them to get away with improper installaion.

Kensington & Chelsea is a borough of extremes of wealth, and its Tory council is largely run by and for its wealthier residents. Both in the way in which it ran its social housing leading up to the fire and its failure to deal effectively with its aftermath it showed little concern for the poorer in the borough. Ten months after the fire there were still survivors who were not properly rehoused.

And now, almost nine years after the fire on Wednesday 14 June 2017, we have still seen no justice, despite a long and hugely expensive inquiry. As so often the authorities seem to have been more interested in protecting the guilty, kicking things into the long grass. I doubt there will ever be any real justice – if it comes it will be far too little and far too late.

More at Grenfell silent walk – 10 months on.

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End Iraq Invasion – 2003

End Iraq Invasion: Saturday 12 April 2003 saw another protest (there had been one a week earlier) against the invasion of Iraq which had begun on 20th March 2003 with US troops supported by those from the UK, Australia and a few from Poland.

Before the invasion UN weapons inspectors had reported that they had found no evidence of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq. But US and British politicians still insisted Iraq had these, but had just hidden them well. We now know that there were none. It was an invasion and war fought on known lies.

Almost certainly both the US and UK authorities at the time of invasion knew that there were no WMDs in Iraq, but the US had been planning and working up to the invasion for several years and were not going to let the facts get in the way of their war. The US had also carried out a long campaign to link Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks although there was no evidence for this and later “assertions of operational links between Iraq and al-Qaeda have largely been discredited by the intelligence community.”

End Iraq Invasion - 2003 Bruce Kent — *Bruce Kent*

The British public were also clear we should not go to war, with the largest protest ever in London in February 2023 demanding we not not invade Iraq. This had followed a unprecedented long campaign across the country with many local groups out on the streets in protest.

There were similar protests in other countries, with the largest of all in Rome where over three million took to the streets – roughly twice as many as in London.

Many of our allies also came out against the invasion – including France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand, but Prime Minister Tony Blair was determined to support the invasion – using misleading claims and lies to persuade MPs to back it – including that infamous ‘dodgy dossier’.

End Iraq Invasion - 2003 Jeremy Corbyn — *Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn*

By April 12th Baghdad and Kirkuk had been captured, and on May 1st President Bush announced the end of “major combat operations’ although the war continued with an insurgency against the occupying forces and the new US-backed Iranian government.

The insurgency continued after the US pulled out of Iraq in 2011, eventually resulting in the rise of ISIS. Various studies and experts conclude that the invasion and occupation resulted in a huge rise in Islamic terrorism and the global Juhadist movement.

In 2004 “UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the invasion illegal under international law, as a breach of the UN Charter.” It was an event that showed the US’s contempt for a rules-based international order or at least their assertion that the rules did not apply to them, operating under the simpler principle that US might is US right.

All pictures from Saturday 12 April 2003.

Aldermaston2004 – Sunday

Aldermaston2004 – Sunday: I took part in and photographed the 2004 London to Aldermaston march against the next generation of nuclear weapons, though I only marched part of the way. I photographed the rally in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday and marched the short distance to Kensington before leaving.

I had other commitments the following day when the marchers went on from Southall to Slough, but got on my bike on Sunday morning to meet them as they came into Maidenhead on their way to Reading. And on the Monday I marched with them from Reading to Aldermaston. Below are some of the pictures I took on the Sunday, with text from 2004 on My London Diary and links to the pictures from Friday and Monday.

Aldermaston March 2004

Aldermaston2004 - Sunday — *I met the marchers on Sunday morning as they came into Maidenhead*

Aldermaston2004 was jointly organised by CND, the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Campaign and Slough4Peace.

The ‘Stop The Next Generation Of Nuclear Weapons’ march from London to Aldermaston started on Good Friday, 9 April 2004, from Trafalgar Square, where there was a ‘No New Nukes’ rally.

Aldermaston and nearby Burghfield are at the centre of the UK’s atomic weapon programme, and the march was a protest against the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons. In 1958 the dangers of nuclear war were clear to most of us, and almost fifty years of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among members of the ‘nuclear club’ make them even more of a danger now.

*Bristol Radical Cheerleaders keeping our spirits up*

Since 1958 we have seen another almost 50 years of lies and deception dressed up as security and national interest. For example we still haven’t been told of the nuclear warheads kept by our American allies at Lakenheath.

Aldermaston2004 - Sunday Pat Arrowsmith — *Pat Arrowsmith with vintage CND placard and CND badges, striding along the road in Maidenhead*

Saturday, the march continued from Southall to Slough via Uxbridge. I had other things to do in the East End, but managed to catch up with the march on Sunday morning at Maidenhead Bridge with some furious bike riding.

By then, some problems with Thames Valley Police had emerged, with the police trying to force the march on to the pavement, while some marchers insisted on keeping to the road. In the end a compromise emerged, with the police tolerating those who wanted to stay on the road walking close to the edge of the pavement.

*Sheffield Samba Band plays the march into lunch at Knowl Hill*

From Maidenhead it seemed a long walk to Knowl Hill for a rather late lunch stop. There we were greeted from a distance by the sounds of the Sheffield Samba Band who piped the march in to lunch.

I regretted not bothering to pick up my meal tickets, but was really too busy to stop to eat. I photographed the column of marchers setting off for Reading and then started a more lonely walk back to Maidenhead and my bike.

The pictures in this post are all from my walk with the marchers from Maidenhead to Knowl Hill on Sunday 11th – there are a few more here.

*The march heads off from Knowl Hill with around 9 miles to go to Reading*

More about the 2004 Aldermaston March on My London Diary with many more pictures from both the ‘No Nukes Rally’ and the final day of the march on Monday 12 April:
Friday’s pictures in London
Reading to Aldermaston

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Roma Nation Day – 2005

March Against Racism, London, 9 April 2005

Roma Nation Day – 2005: March Against Racism

On 8th April 1971 the first World Roma Congress met at Chelsfield in southeast London. It called for Roma self-determination and international unity and the delegates unanimously rejected all of the names given to them by outsiders, including Gypsy (or Gipsy), still often used in English, which the community viewed as insulting. Both Rom and Romany have also been in use in English since the 19th Century, but throughout Europe the term Roma is now officially used, though in German-speaking countries the name Sinti is common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people Linguistic and more recent DNA studies show that Roma originated in northwestern India around 1500 years ago and later migrated to Europe, reaching the Balkans around 900 years ago. They have long been subject to persecution and in some central and east European countries were slaves until the 1840s and 50s.

In 1930s Germany Roma in Germany were stripped of their citizenship and many were interned and there was a programme of compulsory sterilisation. In 1942 the Porajmos or Romani Holocaust began, with Roma being sent to extermination camps. Estimates vary wildly of the number killed in Germany and German occupied territories, between 200,000 and 1,500,000.

Roma still suffer considerable persecution in some countries including Romania, and the end of communist control has led to an increase in prejudice and persecution there and elsewhere. And across all countries including our own there is still widespread denial about the persecution they still face.

8th April, the day of the first congress, was adopted in 1990 as the International Roma Day of Action. Perhaps because of that denial it has not received much attention.

Roma have generally taken on the predominant religions of the countries they have settled in and the London action began with a church service at St Jame’s Piccadilly before marching through central London. I photographed them outside the church and on the march, ending my pictures as they went up Charing Cross Road.

In my account on My London Diary in 2005 I used the term gypsy as this was still almost always used in the media and Roma was not widely understood. Commonly too, Roma are called ‘travellers’ although many Roma are settled and most ‘travellers‘ are not Roma. Here’s what I wrote in 2005:

After a church service commemorating the 500,000 Roma murdered in the Nazi holocaust, Roma from several countries marched across London against the ethnic-cleansing of 30,000 gypsies from their own land and in protest over threatened evictions at Dale Farm, Essex, Smithy Fen, Cambridgeshire, and elsewhere.

After the march, gypsy Richard Sheridan was to announce that he was standing against sitting Tory MP John Baron at Billericay in the general election on 5th May 2005 in order to make the travellers’ voice heard. [He did not actually stand, but did attract some media attention to the cause.]

More pictures start here on My London Diary.

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No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre – 2006

No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre: Twenty years ago on April 8th 2006 I was outside the two large detention centres on the Bath Road at Harmondsworth on the northern edge of Heathrow Airport. A protest there had been called by No Borders and among those protesting with them were the International Organisation of Iranian Refugees,

Detainees were kept way from the front of the building so they could not see the protes, but they could hear they were there.

It’s hard to find the text I wrote back in 2006 or the pictures, so I’ll include the text below along with a link to the start of the pictures.

No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre

Harmondsworth, London

The No Borders demonstration outside Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres – the two are separated only by a narrow road – was at times loud and noisy, so those kept in these secure prisons knew that they were receiving support, even though they were cleared from that side of the building so they could not hear the speeches. [Some who phone the protest clearly could hear them.]

Some demonstrators who went along a public footpath to a field at the back of the building were forcibly removed and detained for around an hour.

[Among those detained and kettled by police was a videographer, a fellow NUJ member, and when he showed his press card, police told him it wasn’t a real press card and refused to let him leave. He called up to me and a few other photographers asking one of us to come down and show them a press card, which is supposed to ensure that police let us get on with our job. I fished mine out from my pocket, then saw it had expired at the end of March, and put it back again. Another photographer went to his aid.

After around an hour the protesters were taken out from the kettle one by one and police demanded their names and addresses – threatending arrest if they did not give them – although the police had no power to do so.]

A number of the detainees actually did speak to protesters on their mobile phones [from inside Harmondsworth detention centre] and their calls were held to a microphone and relayed over the protester’s public address system. The detainees thanked the demonstrators for coming and also told us about the inhumane and arbitrary treatment they were receiving.

Many of those held have fled from violence and repression in their own countries, only to arrive here and find that immigration officials refused to listen to or believe the stories they told. Some have been held in detention for more than 3 years.

Detainees include some who have been living in this country for a number of years, working and paying taxes, setting up lives in this country and contributing to it. Then they are taken without prior warning and imprisoned in these units, sometimes more because the immigration service has targets to meet than anything to do with their case.

Possibly we need an immigration policy, although I’m not actually convinced. It’s an area where I have more faith in those market forces our governments now seem to worship than most. But whether or not we need one, if we have one it should be honest, transparent, just and efficient. At the moment it fails on every count.

Many of us are ashamed of the way our government has decided to let families and children in particular exist without proper support. Ashamed when we hear stories of families who get a knock on the door at 4am and are taken away in a matter of hours.Ashamed that we are sending people back to countries where we know they are almost certain to be imprisoned, tortured and possibly killed

More Pictures on My London Diary.

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