Month: March 2018

I have to say that I thought taking on Trafalgar Square for a protest by Stop Killing Londoners was perhaps over-ambitious. But the operation had been carefully planned and there was a rather larger group gathering when I arrived at the meeting point for the protesters. It had been a dull day and was raining a little, and half an hour before ‘sunset’ and I was getting just a little fed-up waiting for anything to happen as the the light was beginning to fade.

The organiser also had a very clear idea about the photograph they wanted to get, and as often it didn’t sound too good to me. Their banner in an traffic-free Trafalgar Square with Nelson on his column might sound a good idea, but that column is 52 metres tall, and even their large banner would seem pretty insignificant if I moved back far enough to include him where they were planning to stand.

I’d set both cameras to ISO 2,500 by the time the groups began to move into place to stop traffic on all the roads feeding onto the roundabout at the south end of the square around the Charles II statue – St Martin’s Place, The Strand, Northumberland Ave, Whitehall, The Mall and Cockspur St.

I wanted to photograph all the groups blocking the road – I think there must have been six of them – but only managed five despite running around dementedly during the short period the roads were blocked for, as well as taking as best I could the banner in front of Nelson. I settled in the end for including the two lions at the base, but cutting out all of the column above its bas-reliefs. Of course I wasn’t the only photographer present, and getting a clear view without people in the way took some patience, difficult as the whole total block was only for around 5 minutes.

The group then moved into the centre of Trafalgar Square, pleased with its success, and after another five minutes moved together to block St Martin’s Place, this time accompanied by music and dancing, until after almost ten minutes the police, who had stood back and watched during the earlier protest, made a more determined attempt and persuaded them to finish and they moved off without much argument. This part of the square is very much shaded by trees, and the light was pretty low. Because of this and the movement, most of the pictures I took were at higher ISOs and for some I also added some flash, taking care not to completely overpower the ambient lighting.

As with their previous road blocks, this was intended to gain publicity for the almost 10,000 premature deaths and many more people suffering from the excessive air pollution in London, mainly caused by traffic. But although it got some publicity, neither the Mayor of London or Transport for London, although aware of the problem and making some minor improvements, have taken the kind of drastic action that this serious problem requires, and Stop Killing London are keeping up their campaign.

Trafalgar Square blocked over pollution

Continue reading Trafalgar Square Road Block

It has been relatively easy to finish my ‘My London Diary’ entries for last month – and I finally did so around 11pm on March 2nd. It was helped by having almost a week off after a minor dental operation, as well as some reduced activity because of the cold weather and snow, both as I was reluctant to go out and as a number of events I would otherwise have photographed were called off.  We didn’t have a great deal of snow where I live, but of course I did take a few pictures of it, though I’ve no great interest in weather images.

Feb 2018

Solidarity with Yarl’s Wood hunger strikers
HE & FE rally for pensions and jobs
HE and FE march for pensions and jobs
London Snow
A little snow in Staines

Class War’s Lambeth Walk for housing
More London

15th Reclaim Love Valentine Party
Against US war plans for Ukraine
‘Stay Put’ monthly Sewol silent protest
Protect Venezuelan democracy
Bolivians protest against President Morales

Lambeth Council opens fake Carnegie library
Grenfell Remembered – 8 Months On
Russia Stop the Killing, Leave Syria

Ladbroke Grove Pret-a-Manger land theft
Class War protest at Shard
Class War victory against Qatari Royals
Plasticus the Whale at Parliament
Sling the Mesh say campaigners
Fair Votes Hunger Strike for Democracy

Save Brixton Arches: 3rd Anniversary Action
Fix the NHS Crisis Now
TINAG Living Archive & Sylvia McAdam

London Images

In 2001, Eritrean dictator Isayas Afewerk closed down the free press and imprisoned leading opposition politicians and journalists. Since then ten leading journalists have been kept in isolation without charge, without trial and without contact with the outside world. Nobody knows their whereabouts and only four are now thought to be still alive.

The journalists were represented at the protest by a row of ten chairs opposite the Eritrean embassy in north London. Most were empty, with four people sitting with black gags holding up the names of those thought still be living, while to the side there were speakers and others holding posters about the disappeared journalists and politicians. The protest was organised by One Day Seyoum, a human rights movement working for the release of journalist Seyoum Tsehaye, one of the four thought still alive.

Lonely Planet‘s web site describes Eritrea thus:

“Historically intriguing, culturally compelling and scenically inspiring, Eritrea is one of the most secretive countries in Africa. For those with a hankering for off-the-beaten-track places, it offers challenges and excitement alike, with a unique blend of natural and cultural highlights.”

although the page does have a warning across the top about the Foreign office advice to UK citizens which should probably put anyone off visiting there, and certainly against going outside the capital, Asmara, which is apparently a fascinating place. The UK offers no consular services  elsewhere as it takes diplomats a week to get a permit required to travel outside, and tourists are subject to some pretty draconian restrictions.

A better description of the country comes from Human Rights Watch:

“Despite occasional vague promises of improvement, Eritrea’s respect for human rights obligations remains abysmal. In 2016, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry established by the Human Rights Council found the government’s “totalitarian practices” and disrespect for the rule of law manifested “wholesale disregard for the liberty” of its citizens. Thousands of Eritreans flee the country monthly to avoid “national service,” conscription that lasts indefinitely. Eritreans are subject to arbitrary arrest and harsh treatment in detention. Eritrea has had no national elections, no legislature, no independent media, and no independent nongovernmental organizations since 2001. Religious freedom remains severely curtailed.”

From Islington a couple of buses took me to the Home Office, where SOAS Detainee Support had called an emergency demonstration after another death in an immigration detention centre. The death of a Chinese man in Dungavel immigration detention centre followed the death earlier this month of a Polish man who took his own life in Harmondsworth (now called Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre) after the Home Office refused to release him despite the courts having granted him bail.

There are now too many cases since 2010 in which the government refuses to accept the decisions of the courts, often taking them through needless appeals and failing to take appropriate action even when they finally lose. I don’t think this has ever happened before and shows the current government’s contempt for the law and human rights. Parliament  this week voted against including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK law after Brexit.

People are sent to immigration detention centres without any trial, and are held for indefinite lengths of time, which can be for extended periods – Mabel Gawanas was sent to Yarl’s Wood on May 12th 2014 and only released on bail on May 10th 2017, a few days short of 3 years later. Conditions in a Yarls Wood led to it being described as a ‘place of national concern’ by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2015, though perhaps national shame would be a more accurate term.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley was among the speakers at the protest, called at short notice after the news of the death broke.

Free forgotten jailed Eritrean Journalists
No More Deaths in immigration detention
Continue reading Human Rights – UK and Eritrea

September 16th was certainly a busy day in London, but then most are. I could have stood all day in queues waiting to visit some of the more interesting of the city’s buildings, as it was Open House Weekend, a two day event when many buildings open their doors to the public. It’s a great idea which came from Europe, beginning in France in 1983 and starting in London in 1992, and over the years I’ve visited quite a few places either generally closed to the public or which normally charge an entrance fee.

In the early years you just turned up and queues were generally non-existent or short, but the event has grown tremendously in popularity, and advance booking is needed for many of the more interesting sites and there are very long queues for some of the others, sometimes taking several hours. So I’ve largely stopped bothering.

I’ve never had a great interest in photographing interiors, and of course although this is an opportunity to take photographs (hard to stop anyway now that almost everyone has a camera on the phone in their pockets), permission to take photographs gives you no right to make any commercial use of them, though generally it would not be a problem to put them on non-commercial blogs such as this which generate no income (*though I’m always pleased to accept donations!)

I hadn’t intended to visit the Banqueting House on Whitehall, but was walking past it and noticed it was open and there was no queue. So when I found the protest I had come to photograph opposite Downing St was not there. I turned around and came back.

It’s a fine building, Palladio via Inigo Jones, built in 1619-22, the earliest neo-classical building in England. It provided a useful ascent to the scaffold for the only English monarch to get the end he deserved, the son of the man who commanded it to be built. King Charles I stepped out of a side window to be beheaded outside it in 1649.  The interior is almost entirely a single large room, used for grand official events over the years, and would be rather plain except for its ceiling.  Charles obviously thought so, and commissioned Peter Paul Rubens to paint it.  Rubens did it in pieces in his Antwerp studio and they were shipped to London and installed. It is a very high ceiling, and to save visitors getting a crick in the neck there a several large mirror-topped cabinets in the room where you can look down and see up.

Alternatively there are cushions so you can lie on your back and contemplate it at your leisure, but I was rather afraid I might not be able to get up from these. I’m not a particular fan of Rubens, but the ceiling is certainly impressive.

The building I had been intending to visit was the Old Waiting Room at platform level at Peckham Rye Station, reached by the impressive stairs in the picture, though my interest was perhaps more in the exhibition of local photographs that was taking place there. As someone who photographed Peckham in the 1980s and have seen the changes since I was interested to see more earlier pictures of the place. The show also included some more recent pictures, though I found these a little disappointing. There was another show of recent local pictures on a wall a little way down Rye Lane that was rather more lively that I also wanted to see, as well as going to Copeland Park, where other Peckham festival events were taking place, but I was too early for there to be much of interest happening.

Back in the centre of London at Trafalgar Square I took a few pictures of the monthly protest about the Sewol ferry disaster. It was the 41st such event calling on the South Korean government to conduct a thorough inquiry into the disaster, recover all missing victims, punish those responsible and enact special anti-disaster regulations.

A few yards away, the 8 march women’s organisation (Iran-Afghanistan)  were starting their protest on the  29th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iraq in which over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK) were executed.

Repression of course continues in Iran, led by a fundamentalist Islamic regime, and there were around 500 executions in 2017 and many trade unionists and human rights activists are imprisoned, with torture being used on a large scale to extract confessions which are used if they are brought to trial. Various religious groups are also subject to particular persecution, as too are the Ahwazi Arabs whose land in the Khuzestan Province in southern Iran is rich in natural resouces, and where Iran has long pursued a process of ‘Persianisation’, beginning with the rise of the Pahlavi regime in the 1920s attempting to eliminate the Ahwazi language and culture and take over the region.

A short walk away opposite Downing St, a Malaysia Day protest was taking place by Sabahans and Sarawkians. They say Malaysia Day is a ‘Black Day for Sabah and Sarawak‘ and they call for a restoration of human rights and the repeal of the Sedition Act and and freedom for Sarawak and Sabah, the main areas of what Malaysia calls  East Malaysia.

These two former British colonies on Borneo became part of the new Federation of Malaysia in 1963 with considerable autonomy, but this was greatly reduced ten years later.  They argue that they entered the federation with equal status to Malaya but are now treated as simply constituent states on the same level as the states of Malaya, and there is a strong nationalist movement for secession.

Finally I had been watching out for the annual Lord Carson Memorial Parade by lodges of the Orange Order including the various lodges dedicated to the Apprentice Boys of Derry and others remembering the Ulster regiments that fought on the Somme.  I knew where they were meeting, but had decided not to go there as on some previous occasions I have been threatened when photographing their parades (though I don’t know why they should resent my reports, and others taking part have congratulated me), so was waiting for them on Whitehall, where I knew they would be coming to lay wreaths.

I’m not a supporter of the Orange Order, but I’ve always tried to report objectively on their activities in London. In my reports I have sometimes given some information about the past which they perhaps find uncomfortable – as for instance on this occasion where I state that Lord Carson, one of the founders of a unionist militia that became the Ulster Volunteer Force,  later warned Unionists not to alienate Catholics in the north of Ireland – which parades such as this through some Catholic areas clearly do – though in London they are considerably less controversial.

Open House – Banqueting House
Open House & more – Peckham
41st monthly Sewol ‘Stay Put!’ vigil
Overthrow the Islamic Regime of Iran
Black Day for Sabah & Sarawak
Lord Carson Memorial Parade

Continue reading A Day in London