Category: Political Issues

As darkness fell, another Halloween-themed employment-related protest was taking place, this time in one of the richest neighbourhoods of London, South Kensington, and involving some of the poorest workers in the capital, the two cleaners who have kept the Ferrari and Maserati showrooms of H R Owen spotless on the legal minimum wage for the last 12 years.

Both Angelica (below) and Freddy (above) are Spanish speaking migrant workers and members of the United Voices of the World trade union, whose members and friends had come to support the protest, meeting outside South Kensington Station. The posters they are holding sum up the issue, though they are not asking for parity with the bosses, simply for enough to live on, the London Living Wage. Not a fortune, but over 20% more than they were getting paid.

As is so often the case, the owners of the showrooms, H R Owen, the worlds largest luxury car dealer, say that it is not their responsibility. They put the cleaning out to tender and give it to the lowest bidder, in this case Templewood Cleaning Services Limited, who make their bid the cheapest by keeping wages and conditions to the minimum and cutting corners in various ways. While reputable companies would feel bound to pay a decent rate, provide proper sick pay, pensions and holidays in excess of the legal minimum, provide proper safety equipment, materials and training and give workers the time needed to do the job to a good standard, cleaning contractors generally have no such scruples.

The UVW, as legally required, held a strike ballot to support the workers claim for a Living Wage after this had been turned down. Unsurprisingly it got a 100% support in a vote with 100% turnout. The employer’s response to the workers’ demand was to suspend them. The day before this protest at the end of a a five hour grievance and disciplinary hearing they gave the workers a choice; promise not to strike at Ferrari and accept your poverty wage, or find work elsewhere.

This had been meant to be an unannounced protest, but the lengthy gathering outside the station and the rather noisy march along the road gave the showroom management plenty of notice, and when the protesters arrived the doors had already been locked, and the protest took place on the street outside. It blocked the road, causing considerable disruption with traffic including buses having to be diverted around nearby streets, and I’m sure greatly annoyed some of the wealthy neighbours.

Eventually after 30 minutes of protest the police arrived and tried to talk to the protesters, without a great deal of success. They were told why the protest was taking place and that the protesters would move when they felt they had made enough of a protest.

They did leave soon afterwards, but only because one of those supporting the protest, the president of the IWGB trade union persuaded the protesters to march to protest at another location where cleaners in the IWGB are under threat. I didn’t go with them as I had promised to be elsewhere.

This story did have a happy ending. This protest achieved some publicity in the newspapers and TV, and perhaps those wealthy residents in the area also put on some pressure (quite a few people passing the protest had actually stopped to find out why the protest was taking place and expressed shock at the low pay of the cleaners) but for whatever reason the next protest planned for a week or two later was cancelled at short notice as the dispute had been settled with the cleaners back at work and on the London Living Wage.

Halloween protest for living wage at HR Owen
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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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In June 2017 the results were published of a research programme commissioned by The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate the prevalence and nature of pregnancy discrimination and disadvantage in the workplace.  This report showed that every year 54,000 women lose their job for getting pregnant, a figure has almost doubled in the last 10 years.

It also demonstrated that 1 mother in 5 felt they had experienced harassment or negative comments related to pregnancy or flexible working from their employer and /or colleagues, and that 1 in 10 had been discouraged by their employer from attending ante-natal classes. It also showed how difficult it is for those suffering discrimination because of their pregnancy found it to access justice, with less than 1% raising a tribunal claim.

And not surprisingly the reaction of the government was to say thank you very much for telling us about it and then to take the usual action of putting the report to one side and hoping it will go away. Nothing has happened and campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed decided to give them a reminder.

That reaction had an unusually long gestation period and only emerged kicking and screaming 15 months later, at Halloween and wrapped not in swaddling clothes but in bandages with the odd saw or axe in the head in best zombie fashion.  It also came with some clever captions and posters and a tablet with various messages including ‘Stop Ovary Acting‘.

Although it would be easy to make fun of such vital issues as ‘Creches on Film Sets’ it is of course an issue that effects all women, not just those in well paid middle-class jobs, and though those on minimum wage have less to lose, its loss may be even more devastating. I think I was one of the 82,965 supporters who signed the petition that was being carried in a box on the protest.

It obviously is important that employers make it possible for women to work and not to discriminate against them for being pregnant or being mothers. As the organisers of the protest stated, “the Government has stalled and stalled, paying lip service to the issue but doing naff all to improve the outlook for working mums. And in that time 70,000 women have been pushed out of their job for daring to want both a family and a career.”

Many of those taking part had gone to some lengths to dress up for the occasion and there was plenty to photograph – and plenty of photographers there to do the business.  You can see quite a few of the pictures that I took on My London Diary.

Pregnant Then Screwed March of the Mummies
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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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Every year there are new families grieving the loss of a family member and calling for justice after a death in police custody or prison or secure unit. Most often those who have died have been young men, mostly black and usually in good physical health, though some have mental health issues.  Although some of the many deaths each year many be accidental or through natural causes, many seem to be the result either of direct actions by police or custodial staff, sometimes by failing to exercise proper care, but more often by failing to observe proper procedures and at least on occasion by deliberate use of inappropriate force.

Of course the police have a difficult job and often have to deal with difficult people, and like the rest of us sometimes get things wrong. But their actions should be subject to proper and independent scrutiny, and where appropriate they should be prosecuted for their actions. Instead we see a failure to properly investigate, a widespread conspiracy to cover up actions, ineffectual complaints procedures and organisations, a Crown Prosecution Service that works hand in hand with police to brush things under the carpet and a judiciary, inquest and court system which has far too often failed. Of course not every highly suspicious death at the hands of police was criminal, but many should have resulted in verdicts of manslaughter and some of murder – but none of the hundreds have.

Ajibola Lewis, the mother of Olaseni Lewis killed by police in 2010

The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), is a coalition of of people killed by police, in prisons, in immigration detention and in secure psychiatric hospitals and includes some who have been trying to get justice for deaths  for 20 years or more.  This was apparently their 19th annual march of remembrance – and I’ve photographed most since 2003, when I commented:

these are the friends and families of those – mainly but not entirely black – who have died while in police custody, in prison or in psychiatric care.

roger sylvester, david davies, joseph scholes, christopher alder, ricky bishop, rocky bennett, sarah campbell, mikey powell, brian douglas, james grafton, jimmy ashley, orville blackwood, alphonso coley, wayne douglas, joy gardner, glenn howard, paul jemmott, shiji lapite, alton manning, leon patterson, kenneth severin, ibrahima sey, aseta simms …

there are some 1500 names on the posters, listing those who have died in custody since david oluwale’s death in 1969. on the bottom of the list it says: “there are still more whose names we do not know.  all these individuals have died in the custody of police and prison officers or in secure psychiatric hospitals – many in suspicious and disgraceful circumstances.

Kadisha Brown-Burrell, the sister of Kingsley Burrell, killed by poiice in 2011

You can see more about the campaign and why it is necessary in the full-length film Injustice, about black deaths in custody from 1993–1999. The film was released in 2001 and received wide-spread showings despite efforts by the Police Federation and individual police officers to prevent it being shown with threats of legal action and it received various documentary film awards. The TV companies refused to show it, although it was shown in many cinemas, at community groups and elsewhere, and it forced a review into the Crown Prosecution Service, but this produced no real change. A special edition CD updated with extra material is now available.

Since 2003, the only main change has been that the list has grown longer, now with well over 2000 names. Many of the families of those listed above have given up the struggle to get justice, tired of beating their heads against the wall of officialdom.  Sarah Campbell’s mother Pauline Campbell is another name that belongs on that list; having thrown herself into campaigning for prison reforms after her daughter’s death she died from a drugs overdose close to her child’s grave with its message in black granite, “Her mother left broken hearted“, five years later. Having met and corresponded with Pauline, her death saddened me greatly.

As usual the march proceeded at funeral pace down Whitehall, this year with a banner at its front with the message “Police Have Licence To Kill” which unfortunately seems to be confirmed by events such as the shooting of Mark Duggan, Mohammed Yassar Yaqub and Jermaine Baker.  There were perhaps slightly fewer banners than in some previous years, with some families not coming this year, but there were some new ones too. And there were also two French campaigners whose problems with police violence are even greater than ours.

At Downing St there was a rally, blocking the south bound carriageway, with speakers from a number of the families. I had to leave before the rally finished and there were still others waiting to speak.

UFFC annual remembrance procession
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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On the 21st October 1967, 50 years ago at the height of the anti-Vietnam War protests in the USA, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, together with Allen Ginsberg, the Fugs and others marched to stand around the Pentagon and chant ancient Aramaic exorcism rites in an ‘exorgasm’ which was intended to get it to “rise into the air, turn orange and vibrate until all evil emissions had fled.”

Ed Sanders of the Fugs had researched the event, drawn out a flier for those taking part explaining the “magic rite to exorcise the Spirits of murder, violence and creephood from the Pentagon“.

The 10 stages of the rite included the exorcism text:

In the name of the amulets of touching, seeing, groping, hearing and loving, we call upon the powers of the cosmos to protect our ceremonies in the name of Zeus, in the name of Anubis, god of the dead, in the name of all those killed because they do not comprehend, in the name of the lives of the soldiers in Vietnam who were killed because of a bad karma, in the name of sea-born Aphrodite, in the name of Magna Mater, in the name of Dionysus, Zagreus, Jesus, Yahweh, the unnamable, the quintessent finality of the Zoroastrian fire, in the name of Hermes, in the name of the Beak of Sok, in the name of scarab, in the name, in the name, in the name of the Tyrone Power Pound Cake Society in the Sky, in the name of Rah, Osiris, Horus, Nepta, Isis, in the name of the flowing living universe, in the name of the mouth of the river, we call upon the spirit to raise the Pentagon from its destiny and preserve it,

the  placing of love-articles and clothing – “beads, feathers, rock & roll records,books and the sacred Grope Relic” onto the Pentagon and ended with the chanting by all present of the peace mantra:

a-ri-ia-ad-da-li-is Dim-an-za sar-ri ka-si-i hu-u-e-hu-u-i-ia tap-pa-as-sa-it sar-ri ti-ia-mu hu-i-hu-i-ia”

The Yippies had actually applied for and were granted official permission to levitate the Pentagon, though some hard bargaining by the authorites led to a cutting of the permitted height rise from the original 300 ft down to a mere 3 ft.  Accounts by eye-witnesses of what actually happened differ, perhaps largely depending on what people had been smoking.

Class War‘s Ian Bone and shaman Jimmy Kunt (aka Adam Clifford) along with a few co-exorcists went to celebrate the anniversary by attempting similar feats of levitation at Kensington Town Hall and later outside the Daily Mail.

Adam called out the demons of councillors responsible for the disastrous fire at Grenfell Tower, including Nicholas Paget-Brown, Rock Feilding-Mellen & Elizabeth Campbell on the steps of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea town hall and attempted to raise it to over 70 metres into the air, shouting . “Out, demons, out! Out, demons, out!” and ignoring the pleas of the security officer on duty.

Unfortunately I failed to capture the decisive moment of the building in mid-air; afterwards Ian Bone repeated a well-known quote from 1967 “You mean you didn’t see it, man?”

The team went on to repeat the performance outside  Northcliffe House, the home of the Daily Mail, where they were met with greater belligerence from a small group of security staff, apparently terrified of the effect removing demons might have on editor Paul Dacre, or perhaps that it might scratch the Rolls-Royce outside, before leaving to refresh themselves after the spiritual ordeal in the nearby Prince of Wales.

It seemed a strange choice of pub, though perhaps Charles has done more to discredit the monarch than most.

Class War levitate the Daily Mail
Class War levitate Kensington Town Hall

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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King George V Dock, 1984

Back in 1984 I got permission from the Port of London Authority to photograph inside the areas of the Royal Docks which they had closed down three years earlier. I’d been photographing around the edges of the docks occasionally over the past three years and needed to get inside to complete my project. A few pictures were shown and published from it over the years, and in 2013 published the book of the project on Blurb as ‘The Deserted Royals‘. Still available as either a reasonably priced PDF or expensive paperback, and there is a extensive preview on the Blurb page.

By the time I took the picture above, the public planning inquiry into a Docklands STOLport as a city centre air transport gateway on this site six miles from the centre of London had been going for around a month, though detailed planning permission was only granted in early 1986.  Work started immediately, and the first aircraft landed in May 1987, with the airport opening for business on 26 October 1987, though the Queen came and did the formal opening a few weeks later.

Like all airports it grew, and the promises made to the planning inquiry were soon forgotten. There are still some limitations on traffic there, but it is no longer used by the whispering turboprop STOL aircraft it was built for, but people close to the flightpath for miles around suffer from deafening jets which often seem to approach at lower heights than promised. The number of flights allowed has grown hugely over the years and in 2017 there were over 80,000 take-offs and landings – an average of around 220 per day. Fortunately there have been no crashes on approach or take-off but given the highly built-up areas around a major catastrophe remains likely.

I went to the airport with protesters from HACAN East, led by John Stewart, local residents who want their views on the airport and its future to be taken into consideration and are calling for no further expansion, no increase in air or noise pollution and for and end to the concentrated flight paths which have made life a misery for those under them.

They had planned a event to attract media attention rather than a confrontation with the airport, with a team dressed as bakers carrying a 30th birthday cake from the terminal entrance to the airport offices, though in the event only one local newspaper photographer and myself arrived to take pictures. HACAN want a constructive engagement with the airport, and City Airport’s Director of Public Affairs Liam McKay who met them stressed that the airport also wanted to be a good neighbour – though quite how possible that will be is questionable.  The airport owners – who now include a Canadian-led consortium and the Kuwait Investment Authority – will be rather more interested in increasing returns than the health, safety and sanity of East Londoners.

In a civilised gesture we were invited in for tea and coffee, and to share a slice of the birthday cake, though McKay refused my request to photograph him cutting it. It was good coffee and the cake was fine – and I hope the the City Airport office staff enjoyed the rest of it after we left.

30th Birthday cake for London City Airport

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Guardians of the Forest, indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa, came to London on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn where they were to argue that the continuing maintenance of the forests by their indigenous inhabitants is vital in the fight against climate change, and that the clearance and devastation has to be stopped.

Their rally in Parliament Square commemorated the many who have lost their lives defending the forests against exploitation by mining companies, clearances for timber and agriculture such as the production of palm oil, much of it carried out by companies registered and listed in London. A few of those who have been killed for our profits were shown in photographs held up by some of the protesters, but most of the deaths over the years have gone unrecorded and, except by their families and tribes, unmourned.

Profit and “progress” has eliminated many who have stood in its way, usually with little thought and less conscience, seeking short-term gain for rich investors but ignoring the death and distress their activities cause.

But in the longer term it is not just the forests and the indigenous people who are suffering, as these forests are a vital part of our global life support system.  We need them and we need them to  be maintained sustainably. And while the exploiters are thoughtlessly destroying them, the people who live in them have hundreds or thousands of years of experience in living with them and keeping them alive – and are truly the ‘Guardians of the Forests’.

It was a privilege to meet these people and to photograph them. Here are a few pictures of their strong faces which so impressed me.

You can read more about the event at Guardians of the Forest – COP23.

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Tower Hamlets Council have for some reason failed to take effective action against the so-called museum which shamefully exploits the horrific killing on young working class women on the streets of East London by ‘Jack the Ripper’, the name given by the press to the ghoulish serial killer who unspeakably mutilated the bodies of his victims, almost certainly  Montague John Druitt who drowned himself in the River Thames in early December 1888. Some of the ‘evidence’ that has kept controversy alive since the murders was manufactured by newspapermen for what was the first huge crime story to receive sensational tabloid-like coverage. The police appear to have considered the case closed after Druitt’s death and there were no further murders.

Class War have kept up the pressure on the ‘museum’ with periodic protests, supported by London Fourth Wave Feminists, while others seem to have given up.

The came to the protest behind the ‘Womens Death Brigade’ banner, bearing plastic inflatable hammers with which they symbolically attacked the facade and metal shutters which the council have found to be illegal but have not managed to remove. They tried to walk into the shop, but made no attempt to force their way in when they were refused entry.

A few minutes later police arrived and tried to persuade them that they should protest not outside the shop but on the other side of the road or somewhere where their protest would be entirely ineffectual. Unsurprisingly they declined to move.

The 4th Wave Feminists had come with cat masks and posters, and gave the kind of details that the museum neglects about what we know about the lives of the murdered women and why they were on the streets late at night.  Members of some families of the victims are still alive and we were read a condemnation from one of them of the voyeuristic exploitation of her relation in the displays.

A few customers pushed past the protesters to visit the shop, and others were escorted in and out by police, some looking a little shamefaced, others defiant. A few others looked at the protest and then walked away. One couple who came out while the protest was taking place told the protesters how poor they thought the exhibit was, and that it clearly did not live up to the publicity material that had brought them there.

There were relatively few customers considering that this was a Saturday afternoon, and it seems unlikely that this business is managing to cover its costs and I wonder why it is still persisting.

A police officer removed one of the Class War stickers from the glass window on the door and warned the protesters that putting stickers on the shop was ‘criminal damage’, although as he had just demonstrated they were readily removed and left no permanent damage. There were quite a few other stickers elsewhere on the frontage.

After an hour or so the protesters decided they had made their point and left for a nearby pub. They would return for a further protest in a few weeks time.

Class War return to Ripper “Museum”

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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I tried to go to the rally organised by the Football Lads Alliance and Veterans Against Terrorism with an open mind, or at least one that would have been pleased to be able to show that some of the things people had said about them was untrue. I certainly don’t believe that the great majority of football supporters are racist or Islamophobic, and on my brief previous encounter with the FLA as they photographed themselves with club wreaths on London Bridge had found no evidence to show they were other than typical football fans.

Of course there had been some disturbing revelations, not least about the group’s founder John Meighan and his former record as a football hooligan, and there were sure to be some in the large crowd with racist views. And as I walked to the protest I passed a couple of pubs with people standing outside drinking, some of whom I recognised from protests by the EDL and other far right groups – and some who made it clear that they recognised me. But as I mingled with the crowd of several thousand on Park Lane I began to hope that such people were in a small minority.

But then came the speeches, and any such hopes were dashed. Not just by what the speakers themselves were saying, but by the reaction of the crowd, a large proportion of whom seemed to be spiritedly endorsing racist and Islamophobic sentiments. It came to a head with a vast eruption when the name of Diane Abbott was mentioned, and amid th huge noise I could clearly hear a loud voice behind me shouting “Rape Her!”.

I photographed them as they lined up ready to march, and then left, rejoining the march later as it neared Trafalgar Square. Here they were joined by a couple of hundred Gurkhas and their supporters for the final stretch down to Westminster Bridge where they were to lay wreaths.

Although protests and campaigns led to Gurkhas with more than 4 years service in the British Army being allowed to live in the UK those who retired before 1997 receive pensions under a special scheme for Gurkhas operated before then which are only around a third or a quarter of those of other army veterans, and live in poverty. They include many who served for long periods and wear the decorations they were awarded for gallantry. A small amount of support in providing affordable homes was announced in 2015, together with larger measures for those remaining in Nepal, but many in the UK are still being treated very shabbily, and their cause attracts a high degree of public support, but has failed to move the Tory government.

For a few yards the Gurkhas headed the march, but were soon overtaken as it went down Whitehall. A small group of anti-racist protesters were waiting for them opposite Downing St, handing out leaflets. Although they had been at some lengths to point out that this was not a counter-demonstration, and the leaflet was asking questions about the organisation and how it intended to ensure that it stood up to the principles it had itself announced, many on the march reacted angrily.

Although a few took the leaflets and walked along quietly reading it, others snatched the fliers from the hands of those handing them out and scattered them, or took leaflets simply to tear them up in the faces of those distributing them, others shouted in rage, and a few made to attack the anti-racists, but were restrained by police who were standing alongside those handing the leaflets out.

One woman came across to shout at me, accusing me of calling her and the FLA and racist. Which I hadn’t done and was just there recording the event, taking photographs. Some of the FLA and Veterans Against Terrorism came to try and stop the abuse and to move people on – the end of the march had come to a halt. Finally police reinforcements arrived and pushed the crowd on and they slowly moved away. I watched from a distance as around a thousand made it to Westminster Bridge for the wreath-laying, though by this time rather more had disappeared. I sat eating a sandwich in Parliament Square with a large group of them around me discussing noisily what they should do; some were clearly upset by the way things had gone and were complaining about the way they felt the movement was being dominated by extremists.

Certainly not all of those at the rally and march are racists, not all are Islamophobic. But it does seem clear that there is a core of racists and Islamophobes at the centre of the organisation, including many with previous form in ultra-right organisations including the EDL and the National Front. And it is also clear that the kind of simple solutions that some of the speakers proposed are unworkable, breach every concept of human and civil rights and would have truly disastrous results for our society. There simply are no simple solutions and you have to be simple or dangerously duplicitous to propose them.

Football Lads Alliance Rally
Football Lads Alliance March
Stand Up To Racism and the FLA

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