Political Issues | >Re-PHOTO

Jobs Justice Climate: Put People First

The G20 meeting in London’s docklands this Thursday brought protesters out in force on to the streets of London on Saturday, as well as prognostications of violence and doom for April 1 and 2 from the authorities and some of the gutter press. But the first major event, backed by over 150 groups and attended by around 50,000 people turned out to be entirely peaceful, if rather chaotic.

Police led the front of the march at a brisk walking pace, although I managed to sneak in and slow it down a little while I took pictures as it passed the Houses of Parliament, but the groups behind had problems in keeping up, with a number of large gaps developing – so the front of the march reached Hyde Park around two hours before the tail. The major hold-up was apparently caused by a police over-reaction when a few anarchists staged a sit-down.

The march was enlivened by a little theatre or various kinds, but almost everyone was on their best behaviour except for a curious incident at Speakers Corner where the alternative end of march rally was being held. People who were there report that a mysterious figure in black dumped some tightly wrapped packages and moved quickly away. When some of the demonstrators investigated these and found them to contain catapults, they kicked them into a fenced off area away from the protest. Before long, a police officer who seemed to know exactly what he was looking for came and found them.

You can see quite a few of my pictures of the event on My London Diary, though I’ve not yet had time to complete all the captions, though there is a little more about the event there.

Our Green Government

I’m not sure that I’ll really be observing the World Wildlife Fund ‘Earth Hour‘ tomorrow evening, although the only light I’ll need will be that from my computer screen as I frantically process the hundreds if not thousands of image files I will have made earlier in the day. Although since their web page wants you to take pictures and videos or write blog posts and tweet during the hour I guess that’s OK with them.

However I don’t think I’ll bother with that 1 hour movie of me struggling with Lightroom, even though it would have far too much action in it for the late Andy Warhol.

But it was mildly amusing to learn from Iain Dales Diary that perhaps to celebrate the event with the Government’s typical concern for Green issues that while they have asked everyone in Parliament to switch off all non-essential internal lights when they leave for the weekend and that non-essential floodlighting will be extinguished for Earth Hour itself, they also sent round a e-mail to all staff telling them to ensure that every computer in the place is left switched on for the whole weekend.

It is rather like saying that Climate Change is the most important issue facing us, then announcing that they are going to build another runway at Heathrow.

Ancient & Modern – Cleaners Call for Justice

Part of the fascination of the City of London is its curious mix of ancient and modern. You see it every direction you look. Even the Druids who I’d photographed earlier celebrating their ancient traditions, were wearing trainers on their feet and one had not switched off a mobile phone which rang halfway through the event.

The cleaners who were out again in front of insurance brokers Willis seemed too to embody something both ancient and modern – up against modern capitalism, which seems to espouse a pretty Neanderthal attitude to labour relations, facing up to a modern hi-tech office building with only their voices and whistles.

This was the latest in a series of protests following the sacking of five cleaners – all trade unionists – by the contracting firm, Mitie, which have been going on since mid-February. These protests are unofficial, organised by the cleaners themselves, as their union doesn’t appear to be doing anything to fight their case.

The demonstration on Friday was very much a case of deja-vu, and little seems to have happened since I photographed an earlier protest in the same place two weeks ago.

Invade Jersey Now!

~~Don’t~~ Invade Jersey ~~Iraq~~ read the placards that Mark Thomas had made for his one-hour demo (sorry, this was a ‘media event‘ and not a demonstration and thus needed no SOCPA authorisation) outside the MoD. Demonstrating (or media-eventing) along with him were representatives of Jersey’s teachers, who want a British take-over of this offshore tax haven so they can get the same working conditions as UK teachers including the right to a lunch hour. But the main point of the demonstration was that, thanks to PFI, the Private Finance Initiative that is Gordon Brown’s prime dogma, most of our government buildings (and policies?) are now in the hands of private companies based off-shore in tax havens to avoid UK tax.

You can read more about the demonstration and the six reasons that Mark gave for we should invade now

and see more pictures on My London Diary.

End Child Poverty – 10 Years

Ten years ago today the Labour Government made a promise to eradicate child poverty by 2020, and to half it by 2010. The Campaign to End Child Poverty turned up today with a birthday cake to mark the 10 years as well as a small demonstration on Parliament Square with men and women dressed in black with bill boards reminding him of the pledges and the organisations involved in the campaign, and a petition with 5000 signatures.

Urgent government action will be needed to meet the target, and it will need perhaps £3 billion pounds – which would also help to boost the economy by being spent on food, clothing and essential items to bring children out of poverty.

Taking the cake and the petition to Downing St were a small group of 10-year olds from Newham, accompanied by End Child Poverty Director Hilary Fisher, Colette Marshall (no relation) the UK Director of Save the Children and David Bull, the UK Executive Director of UNICEF. I left them in Parliament Square as I was on my way to another event.

A few more pictures on My London Diary

Happy Newroz!

One of the many festivals observed in our richly variety of cultures in London is the Newroz Festival, celebrated in Trafalgar Square this year for the first time – celebrations in previous years have taken place in Finsbury Park, Shoreditch and elsewhere.

Newroz is the Kurdish version of the ancient Iranian New Year holiday, celebrated (as we used to) at the Spring Equinox, and since the 1980s has become widely celebrated as a symbol of Kurdish identity.

Turkey brought in its own official Spring celebration in 2000, Nevruz, in an attempt to replace the celebration of Newroz. It’s now a crime to use the name Newroz or celebrate it there. Newroz celebrations in Turkey, supported by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have at times led to mass arrests and killings, and the same is true in Syria where although in theory it is allowed, in practice the security forces clamp down on it because of its political overtones.

I’ve photographed many events involving Kurds over the years and come to admire their fiery determination and appreciate the dream that unites and energises them as a people. Their immediate goal is the release of the man who has become a symbol of their nation, Abdullah Öcalan (pronounced ‘erdjerlan’), and the dream is of a Kurdish nation, Kurdistan.

London now has a Mayor who has made bumbling idiocy an art form, and one he has used to great political advantage, not least in defeating Ken Livingstone. As we are seeing it’s a smokescreen that hides some policies which will make London a worse place to live in, particularly for those on low incomes and who rely on public transport. His gaffe over Newroz is a curious one, and suggests to me some serious confusion at City Hall.

Here is a part of Ken Livingstone‘s message about Newroz in 2006:

Newroz is an important opportunity for the size and contribution of the Kurdish community in London to be recognised, and with a celebratory concert in Finsbury Park this weekend, an ideal opportunity for Londoners of all backgrounds to celebrate, explore and educate themselves about Londons Kurdish communities. It is my pleasure to wish you a Happy Newroz.

And here is some of what Boris Johnson had to say in a press release that doesn’t appear to be on the extremely confused official London government web site:

‘I have the pleasure to announce that a Newroz Festival will take place for the first time in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 14 March. I’m proud so many people of Turkish and Kurdish backgrounds, like my paternal grandfather, have made London their home and have brought the rich history, culture, cuisine and trades of Turkish speaking communities to the capital’

Ilhan Genc, in an open letter to Boris on KurdishMedia, prints the whole of the message Boris sent to the London Kurdish Community, but with a deliberately unsubtle difference to point out the offence his message caused: ‘the words Turkish and Turkey have been substituted with German and Germany, and the words Kurdish and Newroz substituted with Jewish and Hanukkah.’

This results in Boris’s final paragraph now reading:

‘I am proud to be the Mayor of Londoners from every community and Im extremely proud of my GERMAN ancestry. HANUKKAH is a wonderful opportunity for strengthening the links that exist between City Hall and everyone marking HANUKKAH.’

Genc ends his letter:

‘I hope I have made my feelings clear, and look forward for an apology from the Mayor.An extremely angered and insulted Kurdish Londoner’

Boris is of course rightly proud of his Turkish great-grandfather Ali Kemal, a liberal Turkish journalist and politician, editor of the anti-Nationalist paper Sabah. Kemal was sentenced to hang by the Military Governor of Smyrna “In the name of Islam, in the name of the Turkish nation … as a traitor to the country” but was seized and torn to pieces by a mob of women with knives, stones, clubs and cutlasses as he was being taken to the gibbet. As the New York Times commented at the time of his death in Nov 1922, he was known as one of Turkey’s most enlightened and most impartial citizens.

Had Boris been at Newroz, he would clearly have seen that it was Kurdish and not Turkish, viewing the event through a sea of flags with pictures of Abdullah Öcalan, in prison on Imrali Island in Turkey since his kidnapping in Kenya in 1999 and heard the chanting “We are the PKK” and the calls for Öcalan’s release. As the finale of a highly energetic folk dance display on the stage, each of the troupe of young women pulled out a flag with his image and danced around the stage to tumultuous applause.

Many more pictures from this event on My London Diary.

Prada Protest

Unusually well-dressed protesters posed outside Prada holding placards denouncing the treatment of the woman workers who make some of the products on sale inside.

After sending an e-mail from the Labour Start web site, I received a reply from Mulberry, one of the other companies selling products from the Desa factories in Turkey. This claims that Mulberry have investigated the allegations that were made through a number of audits and visits to the site and are confident that the two Desa factories which supply them with goods are working to the high ethical standards that they insist on for all their suppliers – which include respecting the rights of workers to join the union of their choice.

On the specific case of the women who were sacked and whose cases are currently under appeal, it states that Mulberry will insist that Desa follow the court rulings when these are made.

There seems to be a very direct conflict between this message and the information about Desa at Labour Behind the Label, the group behind the demonstration. But obviously the companies that are profiting from selling these highly priced cheaply made goods and all the people they employ both in Turkey and here have a considerable interst in maintaining the status quo.

But you can read both sides of the story and make up your own mind. There is more about it and more pictures on My London Diary. I’m sure if you send a message from the Labour start website and you will get the same Mulberry response as I did a day or two later in my e-mail.

Million Women in Oxford St

Most Saturdays there seem to be about a million women shopping in Oxford St, and quite a few men too, worshipping at the altar of consumption. It’s a place I try to avoid, especially if I’m trying to get anywhere in a hurry, with crowded pavements and buses largely stationary. Unless, like my friend Paul Baldesare, you want to document such things. Its something I’ve tried in the past but don’t think I have the stamina to attempt now.

But Saturday it was different, with women marching in the ‘Million Women Rise‘ march from their assembly point in Portman Square turning onto Oxford St at the corner of Selfridges and continuing along it to Oxford Circus before turning down Regent St on its way past Piccadilly Circus to a rally at Waterloo Place.

This was intended to be (but was not quite entirely) an all-woman march, and although most of the couple of thousand or so taking part seemed happy to be photographed even by a male photographer, once the march was in progress we were asked to keep off the roadway while doing so. Which I did (although plenty of others did not) and was a little annoyed to then be harassed by one over-zealous steward for standing too close to the edge of the pavement. It was however an isolated incident. But as a photographer who very much prefers to work close to people this restriction very much affected my work, and I was taking much more with longer focal lengths than usual.

The march takes place at this time to mark International Women’s Day (the actual day is March 8th) and its theme – on the banner above – is “together we can end violence against women.” One of the more popular chants was “However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes, no means no!”

This year, the global theme of International Women’s Day was a similar but significantly different message: “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls“, which perhaps explains why one of the groups taking part – marching behind the women-only march’ with largely Turkish placards – also contained men.

But of course I was much more interested in the women and the statement that they were making, because, as some of the marchers maintained, “Women are Wonderful”.

By the time I reached Oxford Circus I was exhausted and left the women to continue their protest, while I sloped off to my favourite pub and a very welcome pint of bitter. Fortunately Paul, who had been busily photographing consumption, was ready for a pint too, so I didn’t have to drink on my own. You can see some of his work – from suburbia rather than from Oxford St – in our Another London on-line show which also has work by Mike Seaborne. Of course an updated version of this show is still available for galleries.

More of my pictures of the women on the Million Women Rise 2009 march on My London Diary, where there are also pictures from last year’s rather larger Million Women Rise march.

Tibet – 50 Years

I’m not a great traveller and it is pretty unlikely I’ll ever go to Tibet, but one of the advantages of being based in London (or at least just on its edge) is that London is a place more or less the whole world comes to. And comes to in order to protest on its streets about what goes on in their country.

We are Tibetans, not Chinese

Once our country had a great record for giving refuge to the oppressed from other countries. Many of the great revolutionary figures of the nineteenth and twentieth lived at least for a short time in London and their time here is marked by statues, blue plaques or both. Of course our reputation has now been tarnished by restrictions on entry and a heavy-handed enforcement of these by immigration officers which have turned away many genuine refugees and a shocking system of detention centres.

Last Saturday’s march to mark the 50th anniversary today of the popular demonstrations in Lhasa against the Chinese occupation of Tibet was, as in previous years a noisy and colourful event. As well as a large proportion of the UK’s small Tibetan community there were also Tibetans who had travelled from Europe to be there and many British supporters. There are the usual discrepancies about the number of demonstrators taking part, with reports ranging from “a small number” on CNN, 500 on Sky and Reuters and over 1000 on AFP. Before I left the march I stood and counted as best I could the people going past me down Regent St, and AFP seemed to have got it about right.

Palden Gyatso and Tibetan flag

Among those was at least one man who had been in Lhasa on 10 March 1959. Then a young Tibetan monk, Palden Gyatso took part in the peaceful demonstrations. In the violent repression that followed, some 80,000 Tibetans were killed and many imprisoned. He spent 33 years in jail and prison camps, and was subjected to beatings and extreme torture. At the start of the march he attempted to deliver a letter to Chinese Ambassador at the Chinese Embassy which included detailed evidence about his treatment by the Chinese, but the police on duty refused to allow this to be delivered by hand.

You can read more Tibet, Palden Gyatso, and the London march on My London Diary, which also has pictures of this annual march from some previous years: 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

I also photographed it in 2001, and there is one picture on the web site, along with a link that says “more pictures to follow” which I wrote at the time but never got round to putting them on-line. And the first few years I only have black and white on-line as I was still shooting film and only had a black and white flatbed scanner. Looking back on work from just a few years ago is a reminder of how much things have changed in those few years, and how we’ve come to take those changes for granted.

Cleaners Protest Unfair Sacking at Willis

Cleaners in London achieved some successes with their campaign for a living wage, which was supported by Unite for around two years. But the union have now dropped their support for the Justice for Cleaners campaign and appear to have lost the confidence of many of the cleaners.

The cleaners are continuing their campaign and one of their targets is the large office block of the insurance brokers Willis, immediately to the east of the Lloyds building on the opposite side of Lime Street. Cleaning of the offices is subcontracted to Mitie Cleaning and Support Services Ltd, part of a huge business group offering all kinds of services to businesses which is one of the top three providers of cleaning for commercial and public sector premises.

Mitie decided to change the working hours for cleaners at Willis from 7-11pm to 10pm-6am. Five cleaners who had been active in organising for better conditions including the living wage were then dismissed, apparently illegally, on grounds of redundancy.

When the cleaners decided to protest outside the Willis building they were amazed to get a letter from the company telling them that their union had signed an agreement banning workers from demonstrating outside company buildings. They had done so without consulting or even informing the workers. So the demonstrations have gone ahead without union backing.

This lunchtime saw the latest in a series of demonstrations that started on 12 Feb and around twenty people including cleaners and their supporters turned up to demonstrate noisily outside Willis, with slogans and whistles. They say they will keep up these demonstrations “until we get our jobs back… we have families to support and children to feed. We are completely sure about the unfairness of the company decision.”

More pictures on My London Diary.