Political Issues | >Re-PHOTO

Gaza Protest at Egyptian Embassy

One event this year that I haven’t got round to mentioning was a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy a week ago on Friday 2 January. It hasn’t had a mention because I didn’t lose any pictures, didn’t get the exposures wrong or otherwise screw things up.

Camp David Treaty in flames © 2009 Peter Marshall
A photograph of the Camp David Meeting is burnt

And although I left early, before the event was finished, I don’t think I missed anything that I would have wanted to photograph, though I was so cold I almost went home before some of the protesters set fire to some home-made Israeli flags and a picture of the leaders at the Camp David Treaty meeting.

I was even reasonably happy with the pictures – and got some positive feedback about them after I put some on line at Indymedia. Just a shame I haven’t yet sold any.

More pictures on line on My London Diary.

Naked Rambler Jailed

One of the sadder pieces of news in the past couple of days has been the jailing of the ‘naked rambler’ Stephen Gough, given a 12 month sentence by a Glasgow Court for breach of the peace.

I don’t have any particular wish to walk our streets naked myself, our weather seldom tempts me to bare anything, but I find it hard not to agree with Gough’s comment reported by the BBC, that if members of the public were offended by his nakedness then the problem was with them and not with him.

In 2000 I photographed a protest for the right to be naked in public outside the Met police HQ at New Scotland Yard. I don’t think any of the public showed any signs of concern, and most of the police seemed pretty amused by it, although doing what they considered their duty by telling people to cover up – the man below was threatened he would be arrested until he held his hat strategtically over his penis.

More recently I photographed several of the annual naked bike rides through the centre of London – last years had almost a thousand riders, mostly wearing nothing more than a little decorative body paint. It was again an event that caused considerable amusement among spectators. Here are a couple from the 2006 event:

and one from 2007:

and again from this year:

We all have bodies, and most of us have nothing very special about ours. Mine I think generally looks better the more it’s covered and I certainly feel more comfortable wearing clothes. But I can’t really think it should be an offence not to do so.

Mooning

Even where the attempt was to give offence – as in this group of anti-monarchists ‘mooning’ outside Buckingham Palace in 2000. Here the police did wade in and make an arrest – of a Swedish journalist watching the event who had kept his clothes on, but just happened to wear rather similar ‘Lennon’ style glasses to one of those taking part in the protest.

This event came into my mind last week when the police were insisting that anarchist demonstrators should remove items of clothing – face scarves – in the demonstration I photographed at Dalston last week, but here and at Scotland Yard they were attempting to arrest them for not keeping bits on.

London & Greece

You can’t really compare the events in London with those in Greece, but if the Met haven’t yet started shooting harmless teenagers for being on the streets, they do seem to be stepping up the pressure against anarchists and other demonstrators, as well as journalists.

Over the last week or so we’ve also seen an inquest verdict on the shooting of an innocent man, in which the jury were clearly prevented from reaching the verdict of unlawful killing they felt deserved, making clear that they didn’t believe the evidence given by several of the police concerned. (And it’s not clear if the shoot-to-kill policy they were following was legal – it was certainly introduced without proper debate.) We’ve seen a photographer, Jess Hurd, covering a travellers’ wedding for The Guardian detained by police for forty-five minutes in London’s docklands by police misusing anti-terrorist legislation, (you can see the wedding pictures here), photographers covering a demonstration outside the Greek Embassy assaulted, (it happened again later in the week) and many other smaller incidents in which the press is harassed and obstructed in covering protests.

So I expected there might be some problems with the police last Sunday when I went to photograph a march by Anarchists along with Greek students and workers in protest against the events in Greece. Rather than at the embassy, it was being held in North London in an area where there is a sizeable Greek population.

Police arrest and unmask a protester they alleged to have assaulted an officer

What I didn’t expect was that the police would decide to use the powers they have under the 1994 Public Order Act to force people to remove face coverings where the officer concerned is convinced they are worn wholly or mainly to conceal identity – and an Inspector or higher rank has issued an authorisation for such actions in that particular place (and time.)

It is of course arguable whether masks are worn at such events to conceal identities rather than as some kind of ‘uniform’ or even a fashion statement or just to keep warm. Few of those taking part in demonstrations have any real need to conceal their identity, and masks are seldom a truly efficient way of doing so – most of their wearers remain easily identifiable and many remove their masks at times during events.

What is clear than an attempt to get all those taking part to remove masks was doomed to failure and would considerably raise tempers at the event. Those making the decision clearly did not want the march to go ahead but wanted to create a flash-point that would lead to a confrontation between police and anarchists.

Demonstrators in the kettle.
Police complained I was too close when I took this picture – though a gap between three separated lines of police.

It was a confrontation set up to show who was boss. And although the police were rather slow in bringing up reinforcements after they only managed to “kettle” a small fraction of the anarchists (along with rather more of the Greek students and workers) they were clearly in command.

I’m starring in the film for the Police Xmas Party again

You can read a more detailed account of the events in Dalston on My London Diary, where the story is also told in pictures. My job was occasionally made difficult by the police, particularly in their insistence on keeping a clear zone around the kettle and I did get pushed around a few times when the crowd spilled over into the street and colleagues took a few amusing pictures of me arguing with police about the rights of a free press, but I saw none of the assaults and attempts to grab cameras that had marred the events outside the Greek Embassy in the previous week.

Retour en Lorraine, bar Floréal & Willy Ronis

Retour en Lorraine
bar Floréal
43, rue des Couronnes, 20e
7-30 Nov, 2008

In 1979, when workers in the steel industries of Lorraine were under threat of closure and there were strikes and violent disorder, centred around the steelworks of the basin of Longwy, Alex Jordan et André Lejarre went there to photograph the people and the dispute, producing some powerful black and white images in the ‘concerned photography’ tradition. Despite a long struggle in which their pictures played a part, as did the first free radio station, Lorraine Coeur d’acier (Heart of Steel), the industries closed.

Jordan and Lejarre went on to found le bar Floréal photographie in 1985, a photographic centre in Belleville in the north-east of Paris (20e). It became a thriving centre for photography in the area, run by a collective of photographers, and noted for its great shows and crowded openings. The name comes from the eighth month of the revolutionary calendar and means flowering, and ran for the 30 days (3 decades) starting on April 20 or April 21.

In 2008, the ten members of the collective, including Jordan and Lejarre returned to Lorraine to photograph the same area – the others were Jean-Christophe Bardot, Bernard Baudin, Sophie Carlier, Éric Facon, Marc Gibert, Olivier Pasquiers, Caroline Pottier and Nicolas Quinette. (You can see more about the photographers with links to their work elsewhere on the Bar Floréal photographers page.)

What they found was in many ways depressing but typical, with many former skilled workers unable to find suitable work, some moving across the bored to Luxembourg to find work, ex-miners retraining to become Smurfs in an entertainment park… As we have seen in many areas of this country, de-industrialisation isn’t easy.

This was certainly one of the more interesting shows in the Mois de la Photo, and one Linda and I would have liked to spend much more time at. I think if I lived in Paris I would end up spending an awful lot of time at this particular bar. But then I was born on the 25th (or Carpe) Floréal CLIII!

The show was also on at la Maison des métallos, a cultural centre owned by the city of Paris, not far away in the 11e. Next year there will be a book published to accompany the show as it opens in Lorraine, at first in Mont-Saint-Martin and later in Longwy itself.

At the bar Floréal, I notice a thin book about one of the great photographers of Paris (and one I wrote a long feature on a few years ago) Willy Ronis, whose finest work was all from Belleville, where he started taking pictures in 1947. Published for a show they had of his work in 1990, it described his favourite walk around the area by contact prints and illustrated with larger reproductions of some of his better images.

La Traversée de Belleville isn’t listed on their page of books, but it was truly a bargain, as when I offered the 5 euros to buy a copy, I was told that they were all damaged by damp during storage and given a copy for nothing. A few pages were slightly stuck, but with a little careful handling came apart with no damage.

It was pleasing but perhaps a little disappointing to discover that Ronis’s favourite route around the area was almost identical to mine, and that I had already walked most of it yet again a couple of days before. But we decided to fit in another walk following his footsteps if we had time before we went home. I’ll post my pictures from that walk on My London Diary in a few days.

London National Climate Change March

Almost 4000 marchers, along with several hundred cyclists, demonstrated in London on Saturday 6 December, marching from Grosvenor Square along Piccadilly, past Trafalgar Square and up Whitehall to a rally at Parliament Square. It was a colourful event, with many in costumes and most carried placards or banners to send a clear message to the UK government that urgent action is needed to secure a future for the planet.

Marchers in Piccadilly

Posters reflected the four major themes – no to coal-fired power stations, no to airport expansion, no to agro-fuels and a big yes to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs – as well as numerous related issues. Campaigners from many groups around the country – such as those opposed to the building of a third runway through homes to the north of Heathrow – made their views felt.

Phil Thornhill, National Coordinator of the Campaign Against Climate Change

The march, organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, was timed to coincide with the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland, and was part of a Global Day of Action with events in 70 countries around the world. There was a large police presence, with more Forward Intelligence Teams than I’ve seen at a single event before, but despite a few provocative actions – including what seemed some arbitrary “stop and searches” and photographing a working photographer in defiance of the guidelines – the event remained peaceful and good-natured.

Tasmin Osmond brought the Suffragette Banner from the ‘Climate Rush’ in October.

Environmental direct action continued on Monday morning, when around 50 activists from Plane Stupid cut through the fence at London Stanstead Airport and staged a lock-on. It was around 5 hours before police were able to remove them and the airport could be re-opened. Very many more such actions – but on a larger scale – are expected should the government reject environmental advice and press ahead with plans to build a new third runway at London Heathrow.

More pictures and more about the Climate Change March on My London Diary.

Swap Don’t Shop

There are times when it’s hard to decide how to cover a story. Although when I got an e-mail about the latest event organised by the Space Hijackers it looked as if it might be interesting, I could see there might be practical difficulties in covering it.

They had decided to hold what they called “the restyling fashion mash-up event of the year” inside one of the larger shops on London’s busiest shopping street, Oxford St. And of course to do so without permission. Although I wasn’t sure about how the store would react to this event, I was pretty clear about one thing – they would not be happy with photographers taking pictures.

So I went along hoping that something interesting would happen outside the shop. I did recognise a few people going in from having taken pictures at earlier events, and there were a couple of police standing around watching the front of the shop, but otherwise nothing was happening. So eventually I decided to go inside and take a look.

There a found a group of people taking off various items of clothing and exchanging them with others on the shop floor, watched by rather a lot of security men and a few police. And as expected, almost as soon as I started photographing I too was surrounded by large guys dressed in black telling me I couldn’t take pictures. Since thespace in front of my lens was by then filled at short range by large black clad shapes, there wasn’t a lot of point in trying!

All of them were polite to me (as I of course was to them) but our conversation wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and so I walked out of the store (with one of the security men following me until I left the premises.) I was rather surprised that I hadn’t even been asked to leave, just told to stop taking pictures.

Two other photographers who had come to cover the event were treated a little less politely, getting pushed around and one woman photographer was actually physically thrown out of the store – though I was just too far away to get a picture as this happened. They’ve also been banned from Topshop, though I don’t think either will be too worried by this.

ASBO notice and Space Highjackers pink “Get out of Topshop Jail Free” card

The demonstration, which continued on the pavement outside the shop after those taking part were escorted out of the side door, was of course a protest against consumerism and the relentless pressure on people to buy things that they don’t really need that is central to our society. One of them was served with a Notice for the Dispersal of Groups under the Anti-social Behaviour Act. This didn’t seem appropriate for the protest in the store as it seems only to apply in public places and outside there seemed to be no evidence of “members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed.” Those few who noticed what was happening seemed either slightly puzzled or mildly amused, though one or two stopped to join in or take photographs.

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

Ricky Bishop Remembered in Call for Justice

Ricky Bishop was a passenger in a friend’s car, driving through the back streets of Brixton, London on a Thursday afternoon, 22 November, 2001. For reasons that have never become clear, police decided he was suspicious (being a young black male seems often to be a good enough reason, and the fact he was in a car with a white man may have added to their concerns) and decided to stop the car and take the two along to Brixton Police Station for questioning.

Four hours later, a healthy young 25 year old black man was dead. Bishop’s family and friends allege he was assaulted by police, and that they held him down and failed to giv e medical assistance when he had a heart attack. The inquest seems largely to have served to lay bare inconsistencies in the police account, and the jury were denied the opportunity of bringing in a verdict that would have blamed the police for his death – as is also happening in the current case of Jean Charles de Menezes.

His family and many members of the community want to see justice done, not just in this case but in many others. At the anniversary march in Brixton this year, two other men were also remembered, Derek Bennett, shot in the back by police as he held a novelty gun-shaped cigarette lighter in Brixton in 2001, and Sean Rigg, who died after being taken ill in police custody in Brixton Police Station on Thursday 21 August 2008.

You can see more about the march and rally outside Brixton Police Station on My London Diary. Elsewhere on Current TV there is also a short video by Jason Parkinson which includes much of Ruth Kimathi’s statement about the Bishop case.

Boston Globe – Big Picture Mumbai

Thanks to EPUK for sending me a link to a dramatic set of large images of recent events in Mumbai on the Boston Globe site.

Last week I went to see the World Press Photo exhibition, on show at the Festival Hall on London’s South Bank until Dec 7. Worth a visit if you are passing, though you can also see the work online. Some of it possibly looks better on the screen than on the wall, although other images are more impressive on a large scale.

WPP does sometimes seem to be more about the dramatic nature of the incident than the quality of the photography – though often the two coincide. But there are a few images on the Boston Globe roundup that I would not be surprised to see featuring in the 2009 prizewinners. It is incidentally, one of the easiest contests to submit an entry to, and it is free to enter – if one of the hardest to win. You have until 15 Jan to send in your work,whether over the internet or by courier.

No 2 ID Cards

There is a particular satisfaction in photographing an event where there is really very little visually to work with, and coming up with some even half-decent pictures, and the demonstration against ID cards outside the Border and Immigration Agency provided me with that.

Nov 25, 2008 saw the start of the programme to track the every movement of all of us in the UK by our government with the start of the issue of biometric identity cards. You can read some of my thoughts about this and see the other pictures I took on My London Diary.

Wellesley Road in Croydon sprouted tall buildings in the late 1960s, in an attempt to imitate Manhattan in Surrey. Most now look rather grim and dated and they have been joined by newer buildings. The ensemble forms an efficient wind-tunnel providing a blisteringly cold gale to chill the protesters.

Among the few who came to brave the Arctic conditions was one man who has managed to get his fingerprints and DNA profile removed from the police national databases – and you can read more about him there too.

BNP Address List – Identity Crisis

A couple of days ago, a list of addresses of people connected to the BNP was made public on the web – and I guess most of us now have seen a copy, even though it is no longer on the blog where it was posted. A quick ‘google’ will let you find both the original list and also a number of sites where you can do on line searches by location, postcode, etc as well as mapped data. The BNP list contains a Peter Marshall (who is presumably the Peter Marshall also listed on a BNP web site as the BNP candidate for the Central Ward in the 2008 Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council local elections) but it certain isn’t me.

NF marchers in Bermondsey, April 2001

Among several people who made the list available on their own web sites for a while was a photographer Peter Marshall, (or Pete) who covers some similar events to me, but is based in the Birmingham area. When his name was published in the papers, somel people assumed it was me. There is yet another photographer of the same name who works as a wedding photographer – and doubtless others. c

Peter Marshall just happens to be a very common name. Here are just a few more of us found in a quick search on Google:

Peter Marshall, academic, activist, author of books on William Blake, William Godwin, a history fo Anarchism and much more
Peter Marshall a Scottish-born Presbyterian who was chaplain to the US Senate during the Second World War.
Peter Marshall, son of No.2, also a USAmerican preacher, who got to petermarshall.com before me
Peter Marshall USAmerican singer game show host
Peter Marshall UK television announcer who hosted Sale of the Century years ago.
Peter Marshall “one of the greatest squash players of all time.”
Peter Marshall a leading USAmerican swimmer.
Peter Marshall, Commissioner of the City of London Police around 1980
Peter Marshall, a photographer based in the Birmingham area
And then there is me! One of my various domains is peter-marshall.com which has some old pictures of Paris I took in the 1970s. But I’m I hope rather better known for My London Diary.

I think I was possibly given the name Peter after No. 2 on the list, but so far as I know am not related to any of the others. My own personal details have been on the web since 1995, but were very definitely not in that BNP list.

Unite against the BNP Rally – Dagenham, Dec 2006

Do I have any connection with the BNP? Well, I have photographed a number of right wing demonstrations – as have most photographers who cover events on the streets. You can see my coverage of both the demonstration against the BNP and the BNP meeting addressed by Richard Barnbrook at Dagenham in December 2006 on My London Diary. But I’m clearly opposed to them and their policies.