Political Issues | >Re-PHOTO

Keep the Post Public

Postal workers held a rally at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster on Tuesday to protest at government plans to part-privatize the postal service. The government argue that this is necessary to protect pensions and to modernise the service, but it seems likely that any company taking over mail deliveries would only do so if the government picked up the pensions bill in any case.

The real problem with the post is that earlier measures allowed private companies to cream off the easily delivered profitable parts of the service, while leaving the Royal Mail to continue the expensive universal delivery service – including the delivery of its competitors post at regulated prices.

To provide a level playing field, these should have properly reflected the fact that the competitors were not required to provide a universal service.

After the rally, I photographed the postal workers – including the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) of the Communications Workers Union Dave Ward, and CWU General Secretary Billy Hayes, as they came out into the street and walked down for a short demonstration in Parliament Square.

More pictures on My London Diary

Al-Haq Sue UK Government

The Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq filed a claim for judicial review before the High Court of England and Wales on Tuesday challenging the government’s failure to fulfil its obligations with respect to Israels activities in Palestine.

They call upon the government to publicly denounce Israel’s actions in Gaza and in the continuing construction of the wall, to suspend arms related exports and government, military, financial and ministerial assistance to Israel and to UK companies exporting arms and miliatary technology and to insist the EU suspends preferential trading with Israel until that country complies with its human rights obligations.

They also ask that the government should give the police any evidence of war crimes committed by any Israelis who intend to come to the UK.

A small group of demonstrators were outside the court to support the application on Tuesday and a press conference was held including solicitor Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) and Gaza Legal Aid Fund trustee Mary Nazzal-Batayneh.

More pictures on My London Diary

Plane Stupid Modern Movement

I think of the modern movement as an interesting historical time in art and architecture, exemplified in architecture by the work Le Corbusier (I hope to see the show about his work at the Barbican shortly), by the painting of Picasso, the photography of Strand and Weston. For all it’s new ideas and appeal at the time, it now seems curiously outmoded, dated perhaps even more than some of the work that preceded it.

Brasilia © 2007 Peter Marshall
Museum, Cathedral, Ministries and Parliament buildings, Brasilia

Perhaps it’s last great exemplar in urban design and certainly one of its grandest was the new city of Brasilia, which I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit in December 2007. The planning of Lucio Costa and the concrete poetry of Oscar Niemeyer is certainly breath-taking, but it is a future vision with some very obvious cracks around the edges.

Modernism was certainly an interesting experiment, with lessons that continue to inspire, but not a model to follow. Rather than think in terms of machines for living we have perhaps moved more towards the idea of organisms that have to live together in an environment as a central theme.

‘99% of scientists can be wrong’

So the so-called ‘Modern Movement‘ (MM) set up by those associated with the old ‘Revolutionary Communist Party‘ is perhaps an appropriately named dinosaur, based on the outworn dogma of extreme free markets. On the evidence of Thursday’s demonstration, with around 20 people in Parliament Square, it is also a very small and poorly supported dinosaur. By contrast, perhaps fifty times as many were demonstrating against the building of a third runway at Heathrow just a few hundred yards away on Whitehall.

The intervention of a just a small handful from ‘Plane Stupid‘ who came to join in with placards that expressed in simple parody the ideas of the MM was effective beyond their numbers, and clearly linked the demonstration to the ‘Living Marxism Network‘ and the ‘Revolutionary Communist Party‘. Their placards read ‘One solution: Aviation!‘,’Down With the Ice Caps‘ and ‘99% of scientists can be wrong’, and their very presence caused a minor security alert across the whole of government offices in central London.

‘One Solution: Aviation’

One of the co-founders of MM, Alex Hochuli said in a TV interview (on Worldbytes, an internet TV station that seemed to have a connection with the demonstrators) : “the ability to travel, to see the world, to work abroad, to live abroad, to have other people come here is more important than dealing with climate change.” There you have it. This is what their protest was about. The planet can go hang just so long as a few of us in the rich world can have cheap air travel.

On the square, police and MM stewards attempted to stop Plane Stupid protesters taking part in the demonstration (see comment – I may well have misinterpreted the reaction of the MM stewards.) The police gave a warning that they could be prosecuted for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration in the SOCPA area, while they insisted they only wanted to take part in a publicly advertised and authorised demonstration. While one man slipped apparently unnoticed onto the end of the short line of protesters and stood there for around half an hour before police finally removed him, a woman was prevented by police from taking part for most of the time I was there.

You can read more about the history of the RCP and the organisations associated with it on Lobby Watch although this has not yet been updated to include ‘Modern Movement’. There is more about this event on My London Diary with more pictures of those taking part.

I’m A Photographer… not a Terrorist

Photographers increasingly feel threatened when they take pictures on the public street. Sometimes they are actually threatened, both by vigilantes and by the police – and like most others who work on the streets, its happened to me. The police have even run a poster campaign against photographers – and in March last year NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear staged a one-man protest at New Scotland Yard to defend press freedom and the rights of photographers. Previously the NUJ and other journalistic bodies had agreed guidelines with the police about how police and press should work together, but these seldom seem to respected by the police. You can read more about the issues and the event in the >Re:PHOTO blog post ‘Photographers by the Yard.

Previously much of the legal friction between police and photographers had been over the wide-ranging powers of police under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000, which allows them to stop and search anyone within a designated area. The whole of London is one such area, and the powers, intended to be in force for a maximum of 28 days, are renewed indefinitely.

Monday’s demonstration – or rather ‘media event’, since it took place in the SOCPA designated area – was a rather larger event, with an estimated 400 professional and amateur photographers, and was organised by a small group of photographers to mark the introduction that day of Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. It is now an offence to photograph any policeman, serviceman or intelligence agent in a way that is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” or to publish such a picture – for example on a web site such as this.

You don’t have to be a terrorist or to make use of your picture for any terrorist purpose. If a court can be persuaded your picture might be of use to a terrorist, you can get 10 years in jail. It is the kind of law that a few years ago we would have shrunk with horror at as clear evidence of a police state.

At the moment although we are lurching dramatically in that direction, our courts do usually provide some protection, and the law does give them some power in it’s statement: “It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action.” It is perhaps hard to imagine – at the moment – a court convicting a journalist covering a demonstration for photographing the police. But rather easier to imagine it being used – as with Section 44 – by police to harass photographers and prevent them from getting on with their job. Being held and searched for 40 minutes while on the way to cover an event can be a pretty clear interference with the freedom of the press to report.

More about the event and more pictures on My London Diary.

Reclaim Love

Last Saturday was St Valentine’s Day. My French calendar also informs me that it was also the day for St Cyrille and St Methode (is this a takeover bid for John Wesley?) but I’ll pass on them. Traditionally St Valentine’s day has become a great merchandising opportunity in which large hearts fill the windows of shops and the pockets of shop-keepers.

Reclaim Love, now in its sixth year, sets in opposition to the commercialisation of this festival of love. Everything is free – including several hundred free t-shirts, free hugs, free food, music and being together and enjoying each other’s company.

Love comes free and it is the greatest force in the world is the message behind this annual festival organised by – who else – Venus. And it’s an event that is spreading around the world, with Reclaim Love events this year in countries including Iceland, Finland, Spain, Italy, India, Pakistan, Australia and elsewhere.

At 3pm, Venus organises everyone present to hold hands to form a large circle around the whole area, rushing herself to join it and send out a message of love to the world.

And then the partying continues under the statue of Eros.

More about the event and more pictures on My London Diary, where you can also see pictures from some previous years – 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Children Protest for the Children of Palestine

Whitehall demonstration for the children of Gaza and for all children of Palestine

Many children were killed and injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza and many others have been killed over the years in other Israeli raids and military actions in Palestine.

On Sunday afternoon, children, together with their parents, came to Whitehall for a protest opposite Downing Street organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Palestinian Forum of Britain. There, with banners and slogans they forcefully called for an end to the fighting and killing of innocent civilians and for a free Palestine. The captions for the pictures are text from their placards, some of which also carried horrific images showing children injured and killed in the attacks.
more pictures

An Open Letter to Obama

© 2008 Peter Marshall
One of President Obama’s first actions was to stop the unfair trials at Guantánamo Bay. But there is still more to do

Dear Mr President,

I’ve never met you, but like millions of others I felt that your election offered the chance of a new start for the United States of America, and was heartened by what you had to say about many things, not least about Guantánamo Bay and the use of torture.

I write to you on behalf of someone I’ve never met, nor have you, who once lived in the city I work in, London. And although I know you are extremely busy there is something that would only take you a few seconds that would possibly save his life, as well as sending a powerful message that you mean to follow fine words with fine actions. It would take you three words. “Release Binyam Mohamed.”

Binyam (as well as fellow Londoner Shaker Aamer) has many supporters here in the UK, and according to his lawyer is in a very poor state. As well as still suffering from his previous torture and deprivation his hunger strike makes his condition very dangerous, and unless released and given proper treatment he is likely to die in Guantánamo .

The British government has I understand made a request for his release. So far as is known the only problem of any sort over his release is the embarrassment it might cause to US and possibly also British security services if he is able to tell his story in full. This cannot be a valid reason for prolonging his unlawful imprisonment by a single second.

I don’t expect a personal reply, but it would be great to hear the news and see the pictures of Binyam and others returning to their homes, friends and families. I know there are problems with returning some of the prisoners who might be imprisoned or tortured on their return, but there can be no justification for keeping people like Binyam, where no such problem exists, in custody at Guantánamo a second longer.

You can say it. “Release Binyam Mohammed.” Yes you can!

Please do. And soon.

More on Binyam and the protests in this country against his detention on My London Diary, Jan 2008, July 2008 andJan 2009.

Boycott the fruits of apartheid

There was no sign of the Israeli flag which used to fly proudly outside the Carmel Agrexco warehouse in Hayes, Middlesex, and the Union Jack on the adjoining flagpole was tattered and skewered on its pole. When I arrived the gates were closed and guarded by around 20 police, with perhaps another 50 or more in reserve in vans parked around the industrial estate. As well as normal police vans, these included a couple of old vans that looked like they had been rescued from the knackers yard and cheaply fitted with a notice saying Metropolitan Police in the front windscreen, so perhaps police resources were rather stretched. Later I saw even more police vans at other points around this industrial estate a couple of miles north of Heathrow.

Roughly the same number of demonstrators eventually arrived, looking considerably more cheerful than the police who appeared to be feeling the cold. Once the samba band got there the protesters went off with them for a walk around the block, attempting to visit another company on the estate involved in the export of Israeli and Palestinian flowers. Police formed a solid line across the road and refused to let the marchers past, pushing back those who tried but refusing to say why there were not allowed to continue. Eventually an Inspector introduced himself and read a statement (he afterwards confirmed this was under the Public Order Act 1986) confining the demonstration to the block containing Carmel Agrexco, and after a few arguments the marchers moved on.

At this point one man was stopped and searched, but no arrests were made. The FIT photographer was hard at work throughout the event, but generally the police were well-behaved and made an effort to engage the protesters and photographers in polite conversation throughout the roughly three hours I was there.

At several places the march stopped to sing songs, with ‘Amy Whitehouse’ whose wig was surely too tidy to fool anyone and another singer with a strong voice, both of whom had the advantage of knowing the tunes. The Boycott Israel Song (tune Bye Bye Love) reminded us not to buy Israeli goods including dates, Jaffa fruit, Israeli wine – and anything with a bar code starting 729. (Although some Israeli produce has this barcode, there are others, so always read read all the small print.)

A new Boycott Agrexco Song (none of us knew the tune, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, but then few at the demonstration will have attended Sunday School – and we didn’t sing it at mine) was more specific, reminding us of the house demolitions and checkpoints that force Gaza farmers to sell their produce dirt cheap to Israeli companies who illegally export them as Israeli produce, and of the stealing of water from Palestine to irrigate Israeli fruit. It ended on a seasonal note:

“Don’t buy your flowers from Agrexco
To give your valentine
Boycott the fruits of apartheid,
And help free Palestine”

Agrexco is Israel’s largest exporter of agricultural produce and much of it goes to EU countries including the UK. Its main UK depot is in Hayes because this is close to Heathrow – where much of the produce is flown in to this country.

Movement of food by air is a considerable an unnecessary drain on the planet’s resources and contributes to global warming. So Carmel Agrexco was naturally a target for demonstrators during the Heathrow Climate cap in August 2007. As in other protests no prosecutions resulted despite there being considerable damage reported.

© 2009 Peter Marshall
There were other photographers present – including this one.
From 16 Feb I might be arrested for taking pictures like this.

Protesters claim that Carmel Agrexco is in violation of international law in exporting produce – mainly carnations, strawberries and cherry tomatoes – from Gaza, as well as from Israeli settlements inside the Green Line and in the West Bank.

More pictures on My London Diary.

Sri Lanka Petition and Update

Avaaz.org is asking people from all around the world to send a message to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to help protect civilians in Sri Lanka’s civil war. 250,000 civilians are currently trapped in the battle zone of a deadly conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels.

I’ve already done so earlier today. You can join in at this address:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sri_lanka_civilians/99.php

Digital Journalist – Dispatches from Gaza

The Digital Journalist has long been one of my favourite on-line photo magazines, published by a real pro, Dirck Halstead (who shot his first war for LIFE when he was 17) and running some of the best features on photojournalism, if just occasionally the perspective does seem a little too aggressively USAmerican. So although the latest February issue is dominated by a recent event in Washington (about which I’d like to keep decently silent), I was pleased to find that Dispatches contains four essays from Gaza, with a note about them by Marianne Fulton, who curated many fine exhibitions in her 27 years at George Eastman House in Rochester and edits this section.

Jim Hollander has worked as a photographer since the 1970s, covering Israel since 1983; chief photographer in the area for Reuters from 1985, he now holds a similar position in EPA. His contribution deals with the total lack of cooperation – almost at times amounting to open conflict – that photographers received from the IDF. He finishes by saying that in the “23 days of misgivings and misturst we were not allowed to get even close to a soldier to see how this war was waged.” You can see more of his phtoography on the Hollander artists family web site.

Unable to get into Gaza, Israeli freelance Ilan Mizrahi photographed the effects of the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. It’s a story that should be told, and although of course on a different magnitude compared to what was happening in Gaza, traumatic for those closely affected. More of his work on his own site.

Ahmad Khateib lives and works in Gaza and his four pictures, two of funerals, one of a young boy in the rubble and another of homes destroyed by Israeli bombing have a greater immediacy. He was not just there and close enough, but as he says an actual target: “I am not lying about the Israeli army when I say that they know where journalists live and work and they hit the housing and offices of the international news agencies and Arabic ones.”

Greek photographer Stefania Mizara has worked with many NGOs and she managed to get into Gaza with a group of doctors on Jan 12. Her pictures too capture something of what was happening; relatives waiting desperately at the hospital, relief supplies in the UN building in Gaza City burning after being bombarded with white phosphorus bombs, a child whose house has been destroyed and graffiti left by Israeli soldiers. You can see some of her pictures from Kosovo here and a more varied selection of work on Lightstalkers.