Re-photo

It was a football-themed protest outside Boots by UK Uncut, but although Boots (or ‘Loots‘ as some of the posters called them in a nice version of their logo) have been dodging tax, I knew that the protest there was only a diversion.  UK Uncut were there to occupy the police while DPAC and Occupy London were getting busy with another protest somewhere not very far away.

Obviously the protesters wanted to keep what they were doing a secret from the police, and surprisingly seemed to have managed to do so, but I felt just a little left out of things in that they hadn’t trusted me more. Of course I wouldn’t pass it on to the police, and I think most of the protesters know me well enough to know that.

I could have gone to one of the planning meetings for the event – which I had known about – but there is a line between being a part of a protest and reporting on it that I think it is important to stay clearly on one side of. Not that protesters can’t photograph protests, but you can’t be a part of the protest and report objectively on it;  a little distance is vital. But it would have been nice to know what was happening and when – as I have done at some previous protests by DPAC – so as to be at the right place at the right time.

As it was, by the time the protesters from Boots had marched down to Westminster Abbey to join the others already there we were just a vital minute or two late. So I wasn’t able to photograph the initial stage of the protest, and I would have liked to have done so.

I had to make a choice quickly whether to go over the fence and join the protesters or stay with the others who were outside the fence. It wasn’t hugely high, and there were certainly places I could have managed to go over even despite my age and condition (I have a real problem now with balance if I take my feet off the ground.)  But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, and certainly was not convinced if I had done so that I would have been able to leave when I wanted, even by showing my press card. The police are not always helpful to the press.

There were a few things I might have been able to do better inside. Although my picture shows quite clearly the officer standing on the tent so that it could not be erected, a closer viewpoint with a wide-angle might have been better, and would have shown more of the abbey behind.

And while I was able to take some decent pictures of Paul Peters of DPAC speaking by leaning as far as possible over the fence, being able to move a few feet further might have been better. But at least I was able to get pictures, if rather more with the 70-300mm than I would have liked.

Using that lens should have had one big advantage. It was dull and raining slightly, and the long lens hood on that zoom is a great rain shield. Unfortunately I’d lost the lens hood a few days previously, and although the replacement I’d ordered arrived that day, it only came after I’d left home. So I was taking pictures using my left hand to shield the front of the lens.

It was raining enough for most of the pictures taken with the 16-35mm to have a least one area with some diffusion caused by rain on the filter, including a whole series where I got a little excited and didn’t wipe the lens until I’d taken quite a few frames.

I’d I had been inside I would not have been able to photograph the protesters who had been left outside, and would also have missed the pictures of the arrest, where the protester was pushed against the fence by two officers, nor to run around to photograph as the protester was put into the police van.

As more and more police arrived, it did become harder to take photographs as most of them formed a line around the area inside the fence a couple of yards away from it. Fortunately there were a few feet between each of them, and by moving around I was able to see through the gaps. At times there was quite a crush of onlookers and other photographers at the fence which made this difficult, but I was quite pleased with what I was able to do.

Among others outside the fence was MP John McDonnell, who spent a lot of time trying to contact the Dean of Westminster and get him to allow the protesters to set up a temporary camp in the area to protest against the ending of the Independent Living Fund. Unfortunately although the Church of England has made some principled statements against the loss of the ILF, the Dean wasn’t prepared to talk to the MP or the protesters, but simply wanted the police to get these people off his grass.

Being outside did have the advantage that when I got tired  I could simply walk away and catch the train home. But by then I’d decided there was unlikely to be much of interest happening.

You can see the pictures I did get both of the earlier protest, UK Uncut ‘Boot Out Boots’, and also the protest proper, Occupy Westminster Abbey – save the ILF

, and find out more about the protests there.

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It was one of those days when I spent rather a lot of time running around London looking for things that either didn’t happen or I decided there was nothing much to photograph. On top of which there was also one of London’s largest protests, the No more Austerity march and rally organised by The People’s Assembly, trade unions and campaign groups starting from outside the BBC.

Two groups had promised to hold protests on their way to the big one, and I did manage to find one of these, a protest outside the Regent St Tesco branch where earlier protests and direct action had led to the removal of ‘homeless spikes’, designed to stop rough sleepers resting there. The Call for Nationwide Homeless Spikes Ban was smaller than I had hoped, but there was a story and it’s demand for a nation-wide ban was reinforced by a protester from Cornwall – carrying a Cornish flag – and policed by a Welsh police officer. But of the beach party themed flash mob taking the underground to the more austerity march I saw no sign, though I did I think find them later on the anti-Austerity march.

I’d also planned to cover two unrelated protests, one at Downing St and the other at the US embassy. I went to both shortly after their advertised starting times; opposite Downing St there were a small group of people, but no sign of them beginning a protest. At the US Embassy there was a small protest taking place, but little to photograph. I took a few pictures, talked to the protesters, who told me there were more coming and I promised to return later when they thought there would be more. But when I returned to both groups later, neither were anywhere to be seen, and I didn’t have enough material for either to make a story.

No More Austerity was different. A large protest with perhaps 15-20,000 people marching from outside the BBC, who almost entirely failed to notice it (a short mention appeared belatedly on the local news.) The organisers claimed 100,000 on the march and at the rally, and some papers quoted that unrealistic figure as fact.

My main problem in covering the event was simply it was too large and too crowded, at least at the start, and there was just too much to photograph. Too many interesting banners – such as that carried by the ‘Class War Womens’ Death Brigade’ with its typically uncompromising quote from US anarchist activist Lucy Parsons (Chicago police called her ‘More dangerous than a thousand rioters!’) “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live”  as well as a rather fine crocheted less controversial ‘Tax the Rich’.

It was also rather warm, and I could have done without the extra rushing around central London for the missing protests I tried to find as the end of the march reached Oxford Circus, a quarter mile or so from the start.

When there are large protests in London like this, traffic is hugely disrupted, and the only ways to get around quickly are either on foot (or bike) and the tube. But underground stations are seldom very close to where you want to be, so that too involves a lot of walking or running. Often too, as on this Saturday, key lines or stations are closed for engineering works, and I found I had to do rather more on foot than I liked, particularly when carrying a heavy bag on a hot day. So when I finally arrived at Parliament Square, a short walk from Westminster tube – I was as hot and tired as the protesters who were just arriving having marched the whole distance.

Fortunately the organisers had arranged for a fairly large press area in front of the platform, unlike at some other events, which made it easy for us to work, and particularly to photograph the speakers at the rally. The microphone then became the main problem, with some speakers apparently trying to hide from my camera behind it, along with a metal lectern that almost completely hid some of the less tall.

Celia Mitchell reads one of her late husband Adrian Mitchell’s poems

What surprised me greatly about the rally was that there were no speakers from the most active group of anti-austerity protesters, DPAC and other groups of the disabled. I later learnt that this was because the event organisers had refused to provide disabled access to the stage, or rather asked that DPAC should pay for it. It seemed unbelievable that any left group should be so clearly anti-equality; had they known in advance I suspect many of those who did speak would have boycotted the event.

NUT General Secretary Christine Blower with a reflection of Big Ben in her sunglasses

Something I did find annoying were the continual announcements that Russell Brand was on his way to speak at the rally. I expected him on past performance to be the least interesting of the speakers, and while his support brings publicity for the cause I think the whole cult of celebrity is something that the left should try and oppose. When he hadn’t turned up an hour and a half after the rally started I decided it was time to go home. Of course it was pictures of him on stage that dominated the press coverage of the event.

I was quite pleased with some of the pictures I made of the speakers, mainly using the longer end of the 75-300mm zoom, though some were on the 18-105mm. It wasn’t too crowded in front of the stage and I was able to move around quite a bit, which makes a big difference. There were also relatively few large video cameras, which also rather impede movement, particularly as you try to avoid being in shot. And of course there was no sign of the BBC!

Pictures from the day at:
Call for Nationwide Homeless Spikes Ban
No more Austerity – demand the alternative
People’s Assembly Rally
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Focus E15 Mothers and Andy Greene of DPAC block the Vodafone doorway

Focus E15 Mums were again to the fore a few of days later, along with a disabled activist from DPAC, Andy Greene, when UK Uncut, a group who seem to have been rather less active recently, renewed their protests against tax dodgers with a party at Vodafone in Oxford St.

The UK Uncut group that met up in Cavendish Square before marching the quarter mile or so to Vodafone were in fact a diversionary tactic, though they actually failed to draw much if any police attention. I’d realised this as we hung around in the square, but hadn’t come to the decision to trust my conclusion and head in advance to Vodafone in Oxford St. I’d checked in advance and we were also within easy walking distance of their Marylebone High St store and I could have missed the action if I’d made the wrong choice.

It was also important not to alert the Vodafone security or the police to what was about to happen. With a largish camera bag and a couple of cameras around my neck I am a little conspicuous.

As we set off and it became obvious where we were heading I did wonder about running ahead – and one of my colleagues did so – but I decided to keep with the leading UK Uncut protesters and to photograph their attempt to get into the store.

I was just ahead of them as they reached the shop and moved to the right as they were stopped in the doorway so I could take pictures. It turned out to be the right decision as I watched the shutters coming down on the door being stopped as a wheelchair protester moved underneath them. The shutters had to stop, and as they did other protesters from inside the shop, several mothers from Focus E15, one with her daughter, came forward to stand in the doorway facing me.

The situation outside the shop got rather confused, not helped by the security men employed by Vodafone appearing to be rather amateur – and they had no uniforms or ID. When one of them threatened a protester rather graphically I got into an argument with him and he denied having made what was a very clear threat. Fortunately after a few minutes couple of police officers came and quietened things down, though there continued to be some friction between protesters (and photographers) and security over the small area in front of the store doorway which was private property.

I was on the very edge of that private space (and occasionally straying a foot inside it) , close enough to Andy Greene in the wheelchair that I could have reached out and touched him. I would really have preferred to be a little further back – the situation was tight even with the 16-35mm, but if I had moved others – protesters and photographers – would have got in front of me and blocked my view.

After a few minutes of this stand-off, I did move away and photograph the protest party that was taking place on the wide area of pavement outside the store, before going back and taking a few more pictures of those in the doorway. I needed to get down low to get a clear view between two of the security men, which put me at the right kind of level for Safia, Jasmin’s daughter.

The protesters outside the store continued to have something of a party, passing around non-alcoholic drinks, holding balloons as well as placards and banners, and with the few small children present playing games. There was some music, and people sang a song urging Vodafone to pay the tax it owes, and flyers were handed out on the busy shopping street.

Finally, the protesters inside the store decided it was time for them to come out and join in the party outside and they came out celebrating, with Jasmin coming to the microphone to speak about Focus E15 and  their now much wider protest over housing. Many of the photographers had left by this time, rushing away to file their pictures and missed this part of the protest.

Shortly afterwards it began to rain, bringing the speeches, picnics and childrens’ games to an end as most people found shelter. It soon eased off, but the protesters were beginning to drift away, and I decided it was time to leave too.

More at UK Uncut Party at Vodafone.

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