Political Issues | >Re-PHOTO

Cuban 5, Knives & Peace Strike – 2008

Cuban 5, Knives & Peace Strike: Saturday 7th June 2008 I photographed a protest following the dismissal of an appeal in Miami by five Cuban men held in the USA since 1998, a Seventh Day Adventist Church march against knife crime and a rally by the Peace Strike camped in Parliament Square.

Release the Cuban 5

Trafalgar Square

The Cuban 5 were Cuban intelligence officers who came to Miami to spy and infiltrate on the Cuban exile community after terrorist bombings by Cuban exiles had taken place in Havana, organised with the support of the CIA.

The five men were arrested in September 1998 and later convicted in Miami and given lengthy jail sentences. International concerns about their lack of a fair trial led an Atlanta Court of Appeals hearing which overturned their convictions in 2005, but this decision was soon overturned by the full court, who re-instated the original convictions.

In the week before this protest an appeal court in Miami upheld the convictions and the life sentence against Gerardo Hernandez and that of 15 years against Rene Gonzalez, but referred Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez for re-sentencing in Miami.

Rock Around the Blockade had protested at the US Embassy the previous Thursday as a part of an international day of protest and were in Trafalgar Square on Saturday to raise awareness and collect signatures for a petition calling for the release of the men.

Rene Gonzales was eventually allowed to return to Cuba for his father’s funeral in 2013 having served 13 years of his sentence and Fernando Gonzalez was released in February 2014. The three remaining prisoners were released later that year in a prisoner swap.

More at Release the Cuban 5.

Adventist Youth March against Knives, Guns & Violence

Trafalgar Square- Kennington Park

*Pathfinders – an Adventist youth group – wait for the march to start*

Seventh Day Adventist Church organisations had organised a youth rally in Trafalgar Square before marching to Kennington Park to make young people realise the dangers they face if they carry a knife.

Many feel that they need a knife to defend themselves if they are attacked by someone with a knife, but we know that meeting aggression with aggression carries a high risk.

*Carrying a gun can get you a five years, use it and you could get a life sentence*

I wrote: “Communities need to police themselves more effectively and to cooperate with the police when they cannot deal with situations without them. The problem is one that needs both strong community organisations and sensitive policing. I hope that Boris will be encouraging and putting resources into community organisation in the inner city and not just stepping up policing.”

He didn’t.

Youth March against Knives

Peace Strike – Parliament Square

*Maria Gallastegui explains about the Peace Strike*

The Peace Strike had joined the peace protesters already in Parliament Square in Brian Haw’s Peace Campaign there since 2001.

Maria Gallastegui had set up Peace Strike to call on people to take effective action for peace by striking, withdrawing their labour if only for short periods. The campaign against the invasion of Iraq had shown the marches, even huge marches, did not stop the war.

At the marches before the invasion began, speakers including Tony Benn had called for people to strike if the war went ahead, but when it happened Stop The War had simply decided to call yet another march.

Peace Strike aimed to build actions not just in the UK but globally which will demonstrate that people are willing to strike for peace and the future of humanity. In June 2008 an attack on Iran was a major threat, with the US building up forces.

As well as speeches we all enjoyed the playing and singing of singer/songwriter Harry Loco who had come from Holland, and as well as his own songs he gave a fine performance of a Dylan number.

Peace Strike – Parliament Square

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End Child Detention, Gaza Flotilla Atrocity – 2010

End Child Detention, Gaza Flotilla Atrocity: I covered two protests on Saturday 5th June 2010, a carnival against the holding of children in immigration detention centres, and rallies and a march following the killing by Israel of on 31st May of peace protesters who were on a flotilla attempting to break the illegal blockade of Gaza, carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials. As last month, the ships were illegally intercepted in international waters, A UNHRC report on the incident concluded Israel acted with “an unacceptable level of brutality“. Nine protesters were killed and 30 seriously injured, with another dying later from his wounds.

Gaza Flotilla Atrocity Protest

Whitehall – Israeli Embassy

End Child Detention, Gaza Flotilla Atrocity - 2010

Around 20,000 people flooded Whitehall for a rally at Downing Street before marching to protest close to the Israeli Embassy following the murder days earlier of peace protesters by Israeli forces. They called for international action against Israel and an end to the illegal blockade.

The protest called by Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Viva Palestina and Palestinian Forum of Britain had the official support of the trade union movement.

There were speeches from politicians, activists and flotilla survivors both in Whitehall and after the march on Kensington High Street – and I name many and posted their pictures on My London Diary.

Although independent media reports had made clear that some of those killed had been shot multiple times in the head at close range in what appeared to be more or less random executions, the BBC had been broadcasting again and again the same lies from the same Israeli apologist defending their killings.

On the evening news they did mention this protest but reported that only 2,000 people took part, when clearly the actual number was at least five or ten times as many. As I commented “This is not an isolated error – there is a consistent policy by the BBC to play down the scale of protest.”

We have seen this playing down of pro-Palestine protests in particular in recent years, as well as a continuing and academically well-documented pro-Israel bias in their overall reporting. At least now there are now some interviewers who do try to question the Israeli spokespeople despite the overall editorial imbalance – but also allow them to keep repeating their lies.

More at Gaza Flotilla Atrocity Protest.

Release Carnival – End Child Detention

Torrington Square

*Albanian children wait their turn to perform*

SOAS Detainee Support Group had organised the ‘Release Carnival’ which called for an end to the practice of holding families and children in immigration detention centres.

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Sir Al Aynsley-Green had stated “Detention is harmful to children and therefore never likely to be in their best interests” and he argued “that detention of children for immigration control should cease“.

Although the UK Border’s Agency claimed “treating children with care and compassion is a priority for the UK Border Agency. Whenever we take decisions involving children their welfare comes first” the reality was very different, as you can read in many publications including the highly detailed report ‘State Sponsored Cruelty‘.

Detention centres are run by private contractors such as Serco and G4 whose main concern is profit, with little or no proper monitoring. Official inspections as well as many media investigations have made clear the real lack of proper care and maltreatment of detainees.

More at Release Carnival – End Child Detention.

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Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs – 2006

Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs: Sunday 4th June 2006 was a day for marching and running on the streets of London. In the City, the London Regiments were remembering their fallen comrades, and several thousand women were raising funds for cancer research. In Hyde Park I joined several thousand Sikhs at a rally before they marched in memory of the martyrdom of the Fifth Guru and the Indian genocide of Sikhs, calling for the release of political prisoners and the formation of an independent Sikh state.

I wrote a rather longer piece than usual, ending with a complaint about the police harassment of photographers during the Sikh march. There do seem to be some officers who really have a very negative attitude towards photographers, and at times in particular towards those with UK Press Cards. Though formally these are recognised by all police forces in the UK, that recognition too often means nothing on the street. Below is what I wrote in 2006 – with the usual minor corrections.

London Old Comrades

Bank of England

Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs - 2006

Early Sunday the centre of the real City, around the Bank Of England is generally pretty empty, but today things were going on. Immediately north of the bank a small group of ‘old comrades’ from the London Regiments were preparing to march and lay poppy wreaths at the monument to their fallen comrades in front of the Royal Exchange. Some of those I spoke to had fought in the second world war, though there were also some younger people there. It’s a remembrance that has taken place twice a year since 1919.

It was a solemn and ceremonial occasion, impressive and colourful, with a well-disciplined smoothness. The monumental architecture of the Bank made a good setting, although the area on top of Bank Station itself is too fussy and cluttered.

more pictures

Race For Life London

City

As they marched off, I peeled left in search of 750,000 women, or rather that fraction who were taking part in the Central London event. ‘Race For Life’ for Cancer Research UK, is the UK’s largest women-only nationwide fund-raising day. There certainly were a lot of them, [around 10,000], at times packing even the wider streets full from side to side, making it hard to walk along Cornhill.

Women of all ages, shapes, sizes, races and speeds running, walking or limping or wheel-chairing around the 5km course. There were fewer serious runners than I’d expected and less fancy-dress, but the sheer numbers were impressive.

more pictures

Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally

Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square

The Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally commemorated the martyrdom of the fifth guru, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji 400 years ago, as well as the events of 1984.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji compiled the first version of the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, in 1604, writing many of the hymns within it. He was arrested in Lahore in 1606 on the orders of Mogul Emperor Jehangir, tortured for 5 days and martyred on the banks of the River Riva.

Punjabi speakers at the rally in Hyde Park described the events of 1984. The marchers demanded an acknowledgement of the Indian genocide of Sikhs, the release of Sikh political prisoners held in Indian jails, and for the establishment of an independent secular state of Khalistan in the Punjab.

During the annual celebration of the death of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji in 1984, Indira Ghandi sent her troops to attack Sikh militants in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Many innocent pilgrims – men, women and children – were killed in the brutal assault. Thousands more died around the Punjab, particularly in the riots incited by government TV and radio stations after the October assassination of Indira Ghandi by her Sikh bodyguards.

After the speeches came prayers, and then the march set off for Trafalgar Square and another rally. This was a serious event, with strongly felt grievances, and an impressive display of Sikh tradition and feelings.

The marchers were pleased to find photographers taking an interest in their cause, with many of them encouraging me and thanking me for my presence. Some had heard of this web site [My London Diary] too.

*The march sets off in Hyde Park, with five men representing the original Panj Piare (Five Beloved Ones.)*

Until we were close to Hyde Park Corner, the police were helpful and in good humour too, but then along came one of the rotten apples, someone who just wanted to push photographers around. He came and told me to get off the road, as I was stopping the demonstration. This was clearly absolute nonsense, and I tried to tell him, but reason held no interest for him.

*Police harass a photographer trying to do his job. I and other photographers got the same treatment*

Other photographers got harassed too. You can see one of them in my picture. We are accused of holding up the march, generally nonsense as most of us want to capture action in our images, and if people even slow down, will wave them on.

Of course it’s those at the actual front of the march who would have any effect on its progress. Further back where we were working, small gaps develop and are closed up all the time without affecting the overall progress.

I have respect for the police – some at least of their work is essential, but this kind of petty and stupid behaviour simply makes their job harder for no reason.

It also makes the work of photographers impossible. I can’t work unless I can stand in the right place to take pictures, and that is seldom on the sidelines. At the highest level, the police realise this; it’s about time they got some of the little dictators in the middle to put it into practice.

*The message of love & peace SILENCED BY TANKS*

Of course the policing of many marches is over the top. There were probably ten times the number needed for this event, which was predictably well ordered, good natured and essentially self-policing. Traffic control was really all that was required. Perhaps harassing photographers makes these surplus guys on overtime think they have a purpose.

Twenty minutes later, along with several of the other photographers, I was on my third warning from this guy and he was getting redder and more and more tense. I was interested in how the situation might develop, but I was also tired and it was time for me to go elsewhere.

more pictures

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Jubilee Celebrations and Kurdish Protest – 2002

Jubilee Celebrations and Kurdish Protest: Celebrations were taking place on Sunday 2nd June 2002 for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee (and they continued the following day which was the Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday, with the Tuesday also being the Spring Bank Holiday – moved into Summer for more celebrations.) My main reason for going into London was to photograph a protest by Kurds but I also tried to photograph some of the celebrations. Quotes below are from what I wrote on My London Diary back in 2002 with some of the pictures and I took.

Sloane Square

Chelsea

“As a convinced republican I wasn’t too excited, but thought I’d go along and have a little look at how others were celebrating. Sloane Square seemed a good place to see how Chelsea was taking it as they were having a fair on Sunday 2nd June.”

At least while I was there the celebrations in Sloane Square were an extremely formal event and rather boring.

Kurds Call For Human Rights in Turkey

Westminster

“I was glad to leave and join the Kurds in their demonstration for human rights. Britain has a lot to answer for, having betrayed them at the Lausanne Treaty in 1923 which divided their country, giving most to Turkey which has since behaved with complete disregard for their human rights.”

*Kurds protest against banning of their organisations*

“More recently – again to keep the Turks onside – the US put the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on their terrorist list, despite it having abandoned terrorism to try and obtain justice. ” KADEK was the name the PKK changed to in 2002 when it said it was committed to non-violent activities and it was added to the PKK proscription in 2006.

“Turkey has continued a policy of brutal repression – as the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed.”

“Cynical support of US policy by Britain and other countries resulted in the PKK also being listed [in the UK] as a banned terrorist organisation last month. It’s the kind of politics that makes me ashamed to be British and loses our Labour government any respect.”

A few more black and white pictures

Southwark Celebrations?

“After the demo I went on to see how Southwark were celebrating. “

“The answer turned out to be very low key, though as usual there were some interesting food and drink stalls at Borough Market, and a steady stream of people walking along by the river.”

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Pedal Power Bike Rush – 2009

Pedal Power Bike Rush: On Monday 1st June 2009 I put my Brompton on the train and came to London to photograph Climate Rush’s mass bicycle ride demanding the the UK government take effective action to counter climate change and global warning. As we have been feeling in recent days, neither our government or most others around the would has done anything like enough despite the great majority of scientific advice and the many protests such as this. You can read a longer account of this protest together with many more pictures on My London Diary at Pedal Power Bike Rush.

Pedal Power Bike Rush

Westminster

Climate Rush was a direct action group led and inspired by women, modelled on the Suffragette Movement of a hundred years previously and had first emerged in a rush to Parliament on the 100th anniversary of the 1908 ‘Suffragette Rush’ when 40 women were arrested as they attempted to rush into The Houses of Parliament.

Then, as for this pedal power protest their key demands were an end to fossil fuel use and for the government to make policies in line with climate science and research.

*Hare Krisha came with food and a sound system*

Earlier in the day I had not been with them as they protested outside a conference at Chatham House in St James’s Square ‘Coal: An answer to our energy security’, attempting to block the entrance with a sculpture made of bikes and a banner ‘NO NEW COAL – CLIMATE RUSH’ demanding that no new coal-fired power stations be built – and existing ones shut down. (It was October 2024 before this finally happened, years too late.) Five of the protesters had been arrested.

I joined around 300 Climate Rush cyclists and a tandem-hauled sound system outside the conference venue and after around an hour of further protest there, with a short speech by Climate Rush founder Tamsin Osman we set off on a ride, pausing briefly outside BP’s headquarters where she spoke briefly about their huge contribution to global warming and related crimes.

Other climate criminals the ride halted at for protests and where people came to talk about their activities including the British Airports Authority at Victoria and the the government’s clumsily-named Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR), responsible for promoting much of its anti-environment climate warming activity.

Helpfully these were marked out by rows of police standing outside, and police pedal cyclists riding with the Climate Rush were also helpful in stopping traffic at various points to facilitate the ride.

*More information about Climate Criminals 0utside the RBS in Lower Regent St*

Many riders wore white dresses and hats evoking the Suffragette era with red sashes with messages including ‘CLIMATE CODE RED’, ‘DEEDS NOT WORDS’, ‘NO AIRPORT EXPANSION’, ‘ACTION ON COAL NOW!, ‘TRAINS NOT PLANES’ and ‘PEDAL POWER.’

*At the Dept for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform*

The riders also slowed down to hand out copies of a newspaper ‘HERE COMES THE SUN’, with information about climate change and what people can do as well as celebrity exclusives from Quentin Tarantino, Paris Hilton, Colin Firth, Vivienne Westwood, Daisy Lowe, Stephen Hawking, Giles Deacon, Gavin Turk, Katherine Hamnett and Queens of Noize, quotations from Gandhi, Einstein and more.

At the end of the ride, the cyclists went around Parliament Square and then onto Westminster Bridge where they brought out a very long banner with the text ‘Remember Remember the 5th of December’ – the date of the next National Climate Demonstration – and hung it over the side of the bridge before settling down to have a picnic. This was continuing when I left for home.

More at Pedal Power Bike Rush.

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State Opening of Parliament 2015

State Opening of Parliament: I wasn’t of course attending the Queen’s Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 27 May 2015, but it was a day for protests in Westminster. Class War had come to protest against the monarchy and the political system and were hounded by police, Compassion in Care protested in support of whistle-blowers, students in the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts had organised a rally and march and others including Disco Boy and Ahwazi protesters came to join in. The day ended with a People’s Assembly rally at Downing Street but I was too tired to cover this properly and went home. I wrote about all these in My London Dairy and uploaded quite a few pictures – you can read and view more by following the links in the brief introductions below.

Class War protest Queen’s speech

Parliament Square

Class War only managed to display their ‘political leaders’ banner on the corner of Parliament briefly before police forced them to put it away. Around 50 officers then followed most of them as they went to a nearby pub and continued to watch them from the opposite side of the street for several hours.

Police arrested two other men for simply standing in the square, one holding a video camera and the other a rolled up poster. They were released without chanrge some hours later.

More at Class War protest Queen’s speech.

I am Edna’ – protect whistle-blowers

Downing St

*A woman holds a photograph of her husband who died because of his mistreatment in a care home*

A line of people held up posters and shouted ‘I am Edna’ at Downing St calling for a law which would make it an offence not to act on the genuine concerns of a whistleblower and to protect those revealing scandals in social care and other sectors.

More at ‘I am Edna’ – protect whistle-blowers.

Police arrest man in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

As people gathered for the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts a police squad rushed in and arrested a man. They were surrounded by a crowd who grew angry when police refused to give them any explanation for the arrest and pushed some away roughly

Police pushed a young man standing on the pavement near the police van roughly out of their way, and when he complained, he was assaulted by an officer then arrested for assault.

Later police announced that the arrest in the square was in no way related to the gathering protest but to an earlier offence. Had they made that clear to the crowd when they made the arrest the problems could have been avoided.

More pictures Police arrest man in Trafalgar Square.

Disco Boy plays Trafalgar Square

*Disco Boy at the mike with his mobile rig and crew in Trafalgar Square*

Disco Boy’ Lee Marshall from Kent who runs discos at local events and carries out stunts to be videod and posted on social media brought a mobile rig to Trafalgar Square before the NCAFC protest there and had people dancing around the square before going on to perform elsewhere, including outside Downing St.

Disco Boy plays Trafalgar Square

NCAFC rally in Trafalgar Square

*Class War’s controvesial banner got loud cheers from the crowd*

Students and other supporters of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts met in Trafalgar Square, and there were a few short speeches before they set off on a march.

A banner points out that less than a quarter of the population had voted for the Tory government and called for proportional representation.

Protesting with them were Class War, with several banners including a replacement for their ‘Political Leaders’ banner’ which had been taken by Bethnal Green Police the previous month (and police ‘lost’ it) and also the Hashem Shabani group of Ahwazi Arabs, who later held their own protest

NCAFC rally in Trafalgar Square.

NCAFC March against ‘undemocratic’ government

The National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts set off down Whitehall with police making ineffectual attempts to stop them, arresting several forcefully.

The rest of the protesters remained peaceful and simply walked through the huge gaps in the police line, made larger as they made the few arrests. There seemed to be no reason for the police attempting to stop them.

The protesters complained to police about the violent attacks and arrests. They went to protest outside the DWP and then marched past the now heavily protected Tory Party HQ back to a People’s Assembly rally opposite Downing Street. Some stayed there, others marched on and I went home. It had been a long day.

More pictures at NCAFC March against ‘undemocracy’.

Ahwazi Arabs protest Iran’s war on them

*Our Pens Are Our Swords. Our Voices Are Our Bombs*

Ahwazi protesters joined the mainly student anti-austerity National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts protesters in London to call for an end to the Iranian attacks on their heritage and identity. Their homeland, which includes most of Iran’s oil, was occupied by Iran in 1925

I photographed them in Trafalgar Square with the NCAFC and later when they left the march as it went through Parliament Square to hold a separate protest there.

More pictures: Ahwazi Arabs protest Iran’s war

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March Against Monsanto – 2013

*March Against Monsanto in Parliament Square*

The March Against Monsanto on Saturday 25 May 2013 attracted rather more attention than in some years partly because Bianca Jagger was to speak.

It had been intended to hold a static rally on the pavement in front of Parliament Square which is controlled by Westminster Council, but there were more people than could fit on this.

*One of many pictaures of Bianca Jagger*

The protest began to spill over on to the grass of the square where the authorities are particularly sensitive about protests after it was occupied by the Democracy Village peace camp in 2010.

Police suggested to the organisers that they move to Old Palace Yard, where there is more space for the rally, and they did so.

The London rally was one of many taking place around the world as an annual global ‘March Against Monsanto’.

Bianca Jagger has a long history of working for human rights and environmental causes – receiving for the latter the Green Globe Award from the Rainbow Alliance in 1997, and the United Nations Earth Day Award in 1994. Among over events I photographed her at several protests against mining company Vedanta.

*Monsanto GMOs Destroy Agricultural Diversity*

She was followed by a number of other speakers stressing the danger of GM foods and biofuels and calling for some more organised action against them.

Hare Krishna had come and were providing free food for all who wanted it – but as usual I had brought my own sandwiches – always safer for a long-term diabetic. At the end of the rally their bike-hauled band with drum kit, amps and speakers arrived.

The event had been planned as a static rally, but soon the band was leading most of those present in a march around Parliament Square and up Whitehall where they stopped for a brief protest at the gates of Downing Street.

The march continued up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square where I left them – the band was returning to its base in Soho.

On My London Diary there is a very brief account of the problems of GMO foods and the particular dangers posed by Monsanto and their relationship with the US Food and Drugs Administration, as well as many more pictures: March Against Monsanto.

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Youth Strike for Climate – 2019

Youth Strike for Climate: London, Friday 24 May 2019

As we are expecting record May temperatures in the next few days and a summer with more deaths than ever from excessive heat, it is abundantly clear that the response of governments and politicians around the world to the climate crisis has for many years been woefully inadequate – and continues to be so.

Of course many of us have been pointing this out for many years, stressing the need for drastic changes to move away from the use of fossil fuels. As well as a huge shift to renewable energy this would also have needed dramatic changes in lifestyle in the industrialised countries and a move away from the politics and economics of greed and inequality.

Back in 2019 many young people saw we were heading towards catastrophe and failing globally to take effective steps to ameliorate the unavoidable crisis. They face a future world where temperatures will be generally several – perhaps five – degrees higher and our current global weather systems will be replaced by more extremes, with even more common fires and floods.

The younger you are now, the worse the problems will get in your lifetime, so it is hardly surprising that the young are more concented, and that many thousands around the world took part in a global climate strike against the lack of action by governments worldwide to combat the climate crisis in London in May 2019.

It was a protest with a great deal of energy, with a large crowd of mainly school students meeting in Parliament Square before marching past several ministries and staging a sit-down outside the Ministry of Education demanding that climate change becomes a vital aspect of the curriculum.

*A crowded sit-down on the street at the Education Ministry*

Clearly many school art departments were already getting involved, with protesters carrying an unusually numerous wide range of placards, for once hugely outnumbering those mass-produced by the Socialist Workers Party.

From there they marched back up Whitehall past Downing Street to hold a rally in front of Nelson’s Column, then returning to protest at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and finally going back to Parliament Square.

By then I think some police tempers were getting a little frayed and some students were manhandled rather aggressively off the road – and at least one minor was arrested.

I’d got tired with some often rather fast marching and the protest was still continuing when I decided it was time to go home.

Many more pictures at Youth Strike for Climate.

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Waiters Day, Monsanto, White Pride & The Line – 2015

Waiters Day, Monsanto, White Pride & The Line: Saturday 23rd May 2015 was a busy day, beginning with Unite Hotel Worker, moving on to the global March Against Monsanto, then an extreme right White Pride protest and finally going to the opening of the world-class sculpture walk roughly along the Greenwich Meridian, The Line.

Waiters Day call for fair contracts and union rights

Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane

*Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union President Ian Hodson*

The Hotel Workers branch of Unite protested outside the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, the birthplace of Zero Hours Contracts, on National Waiters Day, calling for an end to poor conditions, poverty wages, zero hours contracts and management stealing of tips.

Some of the protesters wore masks and placards with names of leading company bosses using zero hours contracts and exploiting workers and took part in a short ‘waiters race’ along the pavement in front of the hotel. The race was of course fixed

Back in 1979 waiters at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane were sacked when they tried to organise a trade union branch there. The case eventually went to court where it was decided their sacking was legal. It was this case, O’Kelly v Trusthouse Forte plc, that opened to door to Zero Hours Contracts in the UK. Previously employment law had been based on “mutuality of obligation” with employers obliged to offer hours of work, and employees to work those hours.

Until 2012 less than 1% of employees were on zero hours contracts, but their use then rocketed, and by 2015 had increased to 2.5%. By 2021, roughly half of the organisations in hospitality and entertainment were using them.

National Waiters Day seems to have been invented in the USA in the early years of this century and is generally observed on May 21st. A UK Waiters Day was begun by restaurant manager Fred Sirieix in 2013 and is on October 20th.

Waiters Day – fair contracts and union rights

March Against Monsanto

Downing St

In London the annual Global March Against Monsanto by over 3.5 million people across 600 cities was marked by a small static protest opposite Downing St.

Monsanto and other companies which profit from GMOs claim they are playing an important part in feeding the world, but are actually attempting to monopolise food production for their own profit, patenting existing species, trying to prevent farmers from saving and using their own seed, encouraging the use of highly toxic chemicals and practices that degrade the soil.

As the protesters say, we need to plant our own seed, to grow local and to eat sustainable food, and to do so in our own ways in countries across the world.

March Against Monsanto

White pride protest for David Lane

US Embassy

*The end of the banner reading Töten für Wotan (Kill for Wotan) was rolled up as I moved to photograph it*

A group of around 30 ultra-right neo-Nazi protesters at the US Embassy remembered David Eden Lane, a convicted criminal and author of the ‘14 words’ statement used by extreme right groups about securing a future for white children. A small group of anti-fascists had come to oppose them.

*One of the right-wing protesters makes a Nazi salute for my camera*

Lane was a co-foounder of ‘The Order‘ a rabidly antisemitic group which bombed theatres and synagogues and he was convicted as the getaway driver after they murdered liberal Jewish Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg in 1984 when he was the second on their long death list. The group also carried out violent robberies to finance their activities. He died in prison in 2007.

His 14 words, a close quotation from Mein Kampf, is often referred to in extreme right circles as ’14/88′, where 88 stands for the repeated 8th letter of the alphabet, HH, shorthand for ‘Heil Hitler’.

*Peter Rushton of the England First Party waits to speak*

Inside jail, Lane, a former Ku Klux Klan and the ‘White Christian Separatist’ group ‘Aryan Nation’ member, was one of the founders of a new pagan religion, ‘Wotanism‘, named after the Germanic god Odin, also know as Wotan, which serves as an acronym for ‘Will Of The Aryan Nation’.

White pride protest for David Lane

Cody Dock Opening for ‘The Line’

Bow Creek, West Ham

It was good to get away to something much more pleasant, the official opening of the world-class sculpture walk, ‘The Line‘ with works by distinguished sculptors going north from Greenwich across the Thames and on to the Olympic Park.

I’d visited the festivities at Cody Dock in the morning when few people were around to photograph the site and walk a short stretch of the trail.

One piece I found particularly interesting was DNA SL90 (2003) made by Abigail Fallis from 22 shopping trolleys for a supermarket chain to mark the 50th anniversary of Crick & Watson’s discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. It’s location on the edge of Bow Creek next to a major distribution centre, seemed particularly appropriate, and it is an impressive piece.

*A Cody Dock volunteer snips the ribbon and ‘The Line’ is open*

I returned from central London just in time for the opening ceremony when a fair sized crowd had gathered.

Since 2015 new stairs down from the bridge at have removed the awkward detour alongside the busy Blackwall Tunnel Approach, but I think we are still waiting for the opening of the riverside path along Bow Creek south of Cody Dock.

Cody Dock Opening f or ‘The Line’

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6 Music, EDL & Democracy – 2010

6 Music, EDL & Democracy: On Saturday 22 May 2010 I began work outside the BBC with people protesting over the threatened closure of two popular radio networks, 6 Music and the Asian Network. I then covered a march through London by the far-right English Defence League. During the day I walked several times through Parliament Square and took a few pictures of the ‘Democracy Camp’ still there along with the longstanding Peace Camp.

Save BBC 6Music & Asian Network

Broadcasting House

Newspaper reports that the BBC might be planning to axe the digital music channel 6 Music stirred a huge campaign by supporters to save the radio station with #SaveBBC6Music trending on Twitter and a Facebook Group with nearly 180,000 members.

Radio 6 had been launched by the BBC in 2002 as a digital alternative music station and played a wide range of music including many genres largely marginalised by the more mainstream Radio 1 and Radio 2 – Wikipedia lists its output “pop, rock, dance, electronic, indie, hip-hop, R&B, punk, funk, grime, metal, soul, ska, house, reggae, jazz, blues, world, techno, experimental and many others“.

Around five months later “the BBC Trust announced that it was not convinced by the BBC Executive’s plans and that the station would not be closed.”

The very public campaign to save the station led to a significant growth in listeners and this continued, and by 2014 it was attracting more listeners than Radio 3.

The Asian Network which had begun on BBC local radio beofre being launched in 1989, and had later gone nationwide were also under threat. The BBC Trust also rejected plans to close the network but did cut its budget by 50%.

Save 6 Music & Asian Network

EDL In Patriot March in Central London

Westminster

The march through London to pay respect to the war dead at the Cenotaph and then hold a short rally at the Duke of York Steps was officially organised by ‘British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists’, but was largely if not entirely attended by those who had taken part in previous EDL marches, with many carrying EDL banners.

Unlike previous EDL marchers this was a peaceful march and there were few if any counter-demonstrations. The few hundred marchers included quite a few families and many carried St George flags.

Most here happy to be photographed when I met them outside a pub at the start of the march, many playing up for the cameras. And stewards quickly led away one man who seemed about to attack a press photographer.

Stewards also quickly dealt with a man who began an offensive chant about Allah, telling him the EDL was against such racist sentiments and also that the police had told them they would stop the march taking place if there were such racist chants.

There were loud chants against Sharia Law but also against ‘Muslim bombers’ a phrase that stigmatises all Muslims for the actions of a a few extremists which are not supported by the mass of the Muslim community.

The march set off noisily, but as it turned into Whitehall and approached the Cenotaph it became a silent tribute to British troops, which was followed by applause, with the chanting resuming as they came past Downing St, marching on through Trafalgar Square to Waterloo Place for the rally.

*This man had been cautioned by police for wearing this ‘England Till I Die’ t-shirt on the street*

On My London Diary I write more about the march and about some of the marchers I photographed who told me about police harassment and being refused entry to pubs for wearing England shirts. Most who spoke to me were also insistent that they were not racists and they were happy for Muslims to live here so long as they respected British traditions and fitted in with our way of life.

At the rally I was threatened by a few of the protesters who decided to try to prevent press photographers from working. I complained to a couple of the stewards, and one of them accompanied me as I took a few more pictures before leaving.

More at EDL Patriot March in London.

Democracy Camp Continues

Parliament Square

I walked through Parliament Square several times over the day and took a few pictures.

There wasn’t a great deal happening, but the Democracy Camp which had set up there on May Day was still there three weeks later, despite the huffing and puffing from Boris Johnson and others.

Although they claimed their action was supporting the long-term protest by Brian Haw and supporters who were under constant threat by the police and others, the Parliament Square Peace Campaign suspected the Democracy Camp of being promoted by the police.

Democracy Camp Continues

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