Archive for July, 2018

London University – End Outsourcing

Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

Outsourcing – getting an outside companies to bid to employ people who work at your location – is never a good idea. It adds extra management and takes out profit; if there are cost savings its because you are getting the job done less well  – and the people you rely on to do it are getting treated badly.

Like many of London’s cleaners and others in low paid work, the security, porters, cleaners, catering staff who do the essential jobs to keep the University of London running, at its central administration and halls of residence etc, include many migrant workers.

Often they are working in low paid jobs despite having higher level qualifications and experience which is not recognised here. Migrants have proved their resilience by coming here, and expect to be treated with dignity and respect, but outsourcing  is rife with incompetent and bullying managers.

The larger unions – apart from some branches – have often failed these workers. At times they are more concerned with maintaining differentials than in getting a good deal for the lowest paid. Often too, union organisers lack the language skills to communicate with Spanish speaking workers, and haven’t really made much effort to do so.

This has led to the rise of grass-roots unions, small organisations run by the workers directly such as the United Voices of the World and the IWGB, representing international workers, particularly in the cleaning sector. These unions have employed simple tactics of direct action, loud protests outside workplaces to shame employers, and have been remarkably successful in campaigns to get the London Living Wage and better conditions of service.

The IWGB at the University of London has campaigned for years getting improvements for the outsourced workers there, working with other union branches and with other small unions. At today’s protest they were supported by people from the UVW, and from SOAS Unison branch as well as students and lecturers.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP has long supported workers such as these and came along to speak, supporting their campaign and promising that a Labour government would make important changes to unfair trade union laws.   Waiting to perform after he spoke was Billy Bragg, who sand a new song and then led the singing of several well-known worker’s songs.

There were other speeches and performances, including from Poetry on the Picket Line and then the protest ended with a march around Russell Square, blocking traffic for some time on Southampton Row.

The marchers were led by the bright yellow Precarious Workers Mobile, a three-wheeler Robin Reliant with a powerful amplification system which has come out in support of other workers’ struggles, including the Brixton Ritzy strikers.

Unfortunately the PWM turned out just a little too precarious, and had to leave the road at the end of the march, leaking petrol. I hope it was soon fixed.

More on My London Diary: End outsourcing at University of London

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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Windrush Brixton

Sunday, July 29th, 2018

It was only in 1948 that we became British citizens, or more accurately, Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC), before which all those in the UK or its colonies had been British subjects. But new countries which were former colonies wanted to have their own nationalities, and so change was needed. But those who had been born in the UK or the former colonies retained the right to come here unfettered until the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, introduced by a Conservative Government largely at the behest of right-wing Conservative extremists in the ‘Monday Club’.

It was, as then Labour Leader Hugh Gaitskell said, “cruel and brutal anti-colour legislation“, and later Acts made things even worse. But that 1962 law had an important exemption as Wikipedia states:

Commonwealth citizens who were residing in the UK or who had resided in the UK at any point from 1960 to 1962 were exempted, as well as CUKCs and Commonwealth citizens holding a passport issued by the British government or who were born in the UK. The exemption also applied to wives and children under 16 of these people, or any person included on these people’s passports.

That exemption was necessary  because of the huge contribution by 1962 being made to the running of our hospitals, buses and other services by immigrants particularly from the Carribean, where Minister of Health  from 1960-63 ran a very active recruiting programme for nurses.

It is these people who came to the UK up to 1962 – including wives and children under 16 and others on their passports who make up what we think of as the Windrush generation, part of a process that began with the Empire Windrush docking at Tilbury in June 1948, but involves many, many more than the  492 passengers on board. Others too who arrived between the 1962 Act and the 1971 Immigration Act which gave CUKCs the ‘right of abode’, a somewhat curious concept that results in the UK being in breach of international law.  The 1981 British Nationality Act made them (and those born here) British Citizens.

More directly the problems for these people arise from then Home Secretary Theresa May’s 2014 Immigration Act which introduced draconian and discriminatory provisions and changed the legal immigration landscape. Among the speakers at the event was Labour Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbot, one of only 8 Labour  MPs to vote against that act, pointing out then the problems it would cause.

The Home Office, with its policy of a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants has been deporting many who have British Citizen status (or refusing to allow them to return to the UK after they take a holiday or trip to visit relatives. It is doing so as a part of a racist ‘numbers game’ which has involved both major political parties in trying to appease racist pressures to cut immigration.

People who came here legally – often by invitation from the government or major employers at the time – are being asked to produce documentary proof of their residence and employment many years ago, to prove that their status was covered by the various twists of UK immigration policy over the years.

It’s a quite unnecessary and virtually impossible process, clearly designed simply as harassment. If anyone has the records that they seem to require it should be the relevant government departments as these people have paid taxes and national insurance over the years. And to learn that the Home Office has recently destroyed vital historic documents related to the Windrush generation rather than sending them to the National Record Office or the Black Cultural Archives in front of which this protest was held adds injury to the already significant insult.

More on the protest in Windrush Square Brixton on My London Diary:  Solidarity with the Windrush families
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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High Ideals

Saturday, July 28th, 2018

The planners of post-war London were people with a vision, but it wasn’t always one that it was possible to put into practice. They were not starting with a clean sheet, but with a city that despite its devastation was still largely intact.

We can still see much of their vision in the Barbican, where a large area had been more or less flattened. It integrates the high rise blocks with lower buildings as well as a large school and an Arts Centre, as well as a medieval church remaining at its centre. Most of the movement around the area is by pedestrians on its high-level walkways, well above any road traffic. It is a system that is popular with those who live there, though casual visitors find it confusing – and it had to be given yellow lines to follow to guide those going to the Art Centre.

Bits of that ‘ped-way’ or ‘high walk’ system extended out, with bridges across London Wall and Aldersgate St, and there were small sections of similar high walks to the north of the Guildhall and around Lower Thames St, as well as across Bishopsgate and around the Nat West Tower developmetn, with developers being required for some years to provide these to get planning permission, but the whole never developed into anything like a joined up system, which would have required far too much demolition of existing buildings.

People in general like to take the easiest route, not that which looks best on the architects or planners drawing boards, and the steps required to access these upper level streets were a considerable disincentive. Although the bridge across Wormwood St was a good vantage point for photographers before its closure (in part by the IRA) most pedestrians preferred the short wait at the traffic lights.


St Alphage Highwalk, 1992

Some years ago St Alphege Highwalk was closed and the bridge across London Wall to it from the Bassishaw Highwalk was demolished. It was one of a number of areas of London I had photographed for a show by London Documentary Photographers in 1992, using my newly acquired Japanese panoramic camera.

The whole site is now redeveloped, with a new bridge a few yards to the west of the former, and I again took a number of mainly panoramic images around the area, now using a digital camera.

Where the old bridge was is now a dead end – and the walkways that are left have many such dead ends. The small triangular pavilions of my 1992 picture are now large tall office blocks, rather lacking in character, though doubtless considerably more energy efficient.

These blocks apart – and they are no doubt what made it all possible – the area is a more pleasant one now, with plenty of space to stroll around at ground level, as well as on new walkways, room for the workers to eat their lunchtime sandwiches (if they can leave the screens to which they are now chained.)

It opens up also the view of Salter’s Hall, one of the better modern buildings in London, where I was once briefly involved in an innovative chemistry teaching scheme, and also the ruins of St Alphege.

The digital panoramas are considerably easier to produce than when I used film. Not only is it much easier to work hand-held (and I’ve grown to hate tripods) but the give roughly twice the vertical angle of view, producing images within the standard 1.5:1 format of 35mm film, though I often find it useful to crop them at top, bottom or both to something more recognisably panoramic.

The horizontal angle of view is a little greater than the three swing-lens panoramic film cameras I’ve used, and around 50% more than is sensibly possible with a rectilinear view. Although the verticals in the images are straight, to get such a large angle horizontal lines away from the image centre have to curve. The images from the High Walk include some rectilinear views, mainly taken with a zoom at its widest, 18mm.

Many more pictures from around the area at City Highwalk.

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Forests Aren’t Fuel

Friday, July 27th, 2018

It is hard to understand why cutting down forests which have taken hundreds or thousands of years to establish to burn them as fuel could ever have been considered as a viable renewable energy source.

That we have to pay a surcharge on our electricity bills which enables ancient forests in the south of the USA to be cleared of threes, converted into woodchips and shipped to be burnt at Drax is irresponsible madness. Apart from the environmental damage in felling, wood is a dirtier fuel even than the coal it is replacing at Drax.

And there is the ‘double whammy’. As well as putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the destruction of the forests means the destruction of the only large scale method of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. Without the photosynthesis that converts CO2 and water into carbohydrates, releasing oxygen in the process there would be no life on earth.

The science is clear – even to primary school children – but there are still companies promoting biomass, trying to expand their businesses and profit from contributing to global catastrophe. And some of them were holding the largest international biomass conference in the Landmark Hotel opposite Marlebone Station in London.

Environmental group Biofuelwatch came to the hotel in what they called a ‘Time to Twig’ Masked Ball Forest Flashmob, bringing posters showing some of the environmental degredation caused by forest felling for biofuel, banners, a bike-hauled sound system and some rather strange masks showing a cut section of a tree trunk. They had also brought a small bag of wood chips similar to those used at Drax.

There were also speeches giving more information about the destructive nature of biofuels and their impact on global warming, including from one activist who had attended the conference and talked with some of those taking part.

More pictures: ‘Time to Twig’ Masked Ball
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Modi’s Visit

Thursday, July 26th, 2018

A large protest in Parliament Square included Kashmiris and Indians from many sections of the community including Tamils, Sikhs, Ravidass, Dalits, Muslims who say Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is pursuing policies dictated by the ultra-right Hindu supremacist RSS.

They say Modi encourages mob violence against Muslims and Christians, protects rapists and promotes caste hierarchy and the persecution of Dalits, and attacks on both the free press and the judicial system. Modi’s policies inflame Hindus to take illegal actions and the police and army ignore them. Modi also promotes the corporate plunder of Indian resources by global mining companies such as Vedanta. Kashmiris call for an end to the military occupation of Kashmir by India, and and for an end to the atrocities committed by the Indians there.

Many well-off Hindus welcome Modi’s Hindu nationalism and the benefits it brings them and their friends in India and dismiss many of the stories of atrocities or blame them on others. One was a group of Hindu women, many looking rather too well-fed, who came holding placards with a picture of Modi on one side and the logo of his ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ initiative (Save girl child, educate a girl child) on the other side.

Most of the richer Indians living in the UK are Hindu, and many are supporters and donors of the Tory party. Their representations to the government here have prevented caste discrimination being made an offence in the UK. Although outlawed by the Indian constituion, it is still rife in India, and those from the lower castes, such as the Dalits, feel that the Modi government encourages it.

And although the Sikh religion also opposes discrimination, many in the Sikh community felt that they were discriminated against by high-caste Sikhs who in 2009 were responsible for the murder of cleric Ramanand Dass in Vienna. Following this many Ravidass Gurdwaras declared themselves to be a religion fully separated from Sikhism, although some still consider themselves to be Sikhs. The two groups differ in their regard Guru Ravidas, a North Indian mystic poet-sant who lived around the 14th to 15th century and has many poems attributed to him in the Sikh scriptures.

Many Sikhs, particularly since the 1984 Indian army attacks on the Golden Temple massacring many of those in the complex, and later that year government encouraged riots following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in which many more Sikhs were murdered, call of the establishment of a separate Sikh state, Khalistan.

Kahmiris were there to call for India to get out of Kashmir, a country divided into three parts with three occupying powers, Pakistan, China and India, with boundaries between the Indian and Pakistani held region swhich have changed little since the British left in 1947 despite three major wars in Kashmir between the two countries and many border skirmishes. The Chinese army quickly seized the area it considered part of China in 1962, easily defeating the Indian Army.

One recent atrocity in January that united many of the protesters against Modi was the hideous rape and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl, Asif Bano in Indian occupied Kashmir by Hindus who kidnapped her and kept her in a temple where she was violated before her body was dumped in bushes. Not only were the details of the crime horrific but regional officials allegedly tried to cover up the crime and there was organised intimidation of those trying to get justice. Eventually 8 men were arrested, including two police officers and and former government official.

Parliament Square was surrounded with flags of the Commonwealth Countries, flying there because of the Commonwealth Conference Modi was in London to attend. Some of the protesters attempted to burn the Indian flag, but it proved to be rather fire resistant, though they did finally persuade it to melt an smoulder a little. There was quite a scrum of protesters and photographers around this group and it was difficult to get any clear pictures.

More on My London Diary:

Indians protest President Modi’s visit
Hindus support Modi
Save Girl, Educate Girl

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Famine Porn?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2018

I hesitated to add my thoughts about the World Press Photo Instagram posts from Alessio Mamo showing villagers from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in front of tables with what for them would be exotic foodstuffs. Really I didn’t want to give what I felt was a misguided project any more publicity. But since every man and his dog, including The Guardian and the BBC have had their say I felt I too should say something, just in case anyone had manage to miss this and the enormous stir it has created on the web.

Firstly I think it important to state that some of the criticism has been ill-informed. The villagers that Mamo worked with were not starving or particularly malnourished, though certainly they were not the obese figures we are so used to in the west.

As Mamo has stated:

Most of the people enjoyed spontaneously to be part of this and photographed behind the table. The people I photographed were living in a village and they were not suffering from malnutrition anymore, they were not hungry or sick, and they freely participated in the project.

Mamo, as he says, “brought…a table and some fake food, and…told people to dream about some food that they would like to find on their table”. But the food on the table was not food and would not represent the dreams those people had of food.

It isn’t true to say as some critics did, that this was bringing fake food to starving people. It wasn’t although it did rather look like this, and it is that impression which matters. We make pictures but it is others who read them, and create their own meanings from them whatever our intentions.

This picture highlights the problems when photographers start doing rather gimmicky projects like this imposing a false situation on their subjects. It might be art, though I think not particularly impressive as such, but it certainly isn’t photojournalism, and should have no place at all on the World Press Photo site, whose Instagram posts Mamo was given the opportunity to takeover for a week.

The guidelines to photographers who take on this responsibility remind them that they should present “quality visual journalism and storytelling’ and “present accurate, compelling and creative work allowing people to see the world freely.”

WPP reserves the right to step in and “edit a post or a photographer’s selection”, but chose not to do so, and instead gave what many of us feel a response which fails to support any clear idea of what photojournalism is or should be.

The area into which these pictures fall is certainly not photojournalism, but rather more that of advertising, with Mamo thinking like an art director trying to sell a product to an audience than allowing “people to see the world freely”.

There have been so many comments on this work already made – with large collections of them on various web sites including Scroll and PetaPixel. For a couple more opinions you could read Allen Murabayashi of PhotoShelter and Yamini Pustake Bhalerao on ShethePeople.

Scrap Universal Credit

Tuesday, July 24th, 2018

Although it was a good idea to try and simplify the benefits system, Universal Credit has proved to be a costly failure, which has created a great deal of hardship for many of the claimants who have been transferred on to it.

Those who have been putting the system into effect – particularly the truly evil IDS (Iain Duncan Smith) have simply failed to understand how most people on low incomes or on benefits actually live. They inhabit a world where people have bank accounts which are seldom empty at the end of the month, who never have to think whether they can afford to buy food or pay the electricity bill or rent. People who if they find themselves a bit short – perhaps because they have just bought some luxury item or had an expensive holiday – have relatives or friends who can lend them the odd thou or can get a bank overdraft which they can pay off after the next pay cheque or two, or when the next deal comes through. People who probably own several houses, and are profiting from the rental on some of them.

I’m fortunate now not to have to worry about money. Not particularly rich, but enough to meet my needs – and have the occasional small treat. I’ve lived on relatively little (by the standards of the wealthy) all my life, but grew up in poverty. My mother wrote down every penny she spent in a small red notebook, added it up at the end of every week. Usually there was enough to pay the baker, the butcher, the grocer (in those days they delivered and called for their money later) but sometimes she had to borrow a few pennies from a neighbour (or one of us children’s money boxes we saved the odd penny in) and pay them back with a little scrimping the next week.

People on low wages or relying on benefits don’t generally have the kind of back up that the middle classes take for granted. If they have to wait weeks without money (and most of those transferred to universal credit it is a minimum of 5 weeks, often much longer) they get behind with rent, often get threatened with eviction. They have to rely on food banks to eat.

Those most affected by the changes in the benefits system have been the disabled. Not just by changing to Universal Credit, but by other changes in benefits that have led to many losing the support that enabled them to live decent and productive lives. They have been targeted by deliberately poorly designed assessments of ability to work, administered to them by largely unqualified people who have targets to fail as many as possible. Its a system which has been clearly found to be unfit for purpose and where many are subjected to a repeated series of failed assessments followed – months later – by successful appeals.

Its a system that has rightly been called Kafkaesque, and is probably beyond saving. The effects of all the cuts are even worse, a national scandal in which thousands have died. But the government still claim that despite the problems it is a success and in any case there is no simple way to stop it and go back to a system that, however complex, actually more or less worked.

Some of the problems of Universal Credit are down to the failure to get a working IT system that could not only deal with the many differing circumstances of those claiming benefits, but even more more importantly give the kind of instant communication of personal details between the DWP and the HM Customs & Revenue. It seems unlikely that this will ever be got to work, with truly huge sums being wasted on yet another failed IT project.

The Conservatives when elected as a part of the coalition in 2010 picked on the disabled because they thought they would be an easy target. But the activities of DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) have proved them wrong, producing some of the most determined of protesters, and a group the police find difficult to deal with, not wanting to invite public outrage.

I met with the group outside Parliament, where some were intending to go inside and hold a protest there. I didn’t go with them as I was fairly sure I would not be able to take pictures, but instead went with others who were holding a rally in front of Parliament.

When the protesters came out after a noisy protest inside, the rally continued for a while and then Paula Peters told us more about what had gone on inside. She then asked those present if they were ready for some DPAC action, getting a resounding positive response.

The group then moved off towards Parliament Square, where, as expected, they blocked the road, holding up all traffic wanting to go to Millbank or Victoria St. Police came to talk to them, telling them they were committing an offence and might be arrested, but most protesters ignored the warnings. A little over half an hour later, the protesters decided the road block had gone on for long enough, and made their way to the side of the road.

More on My London Diary: Stop & Scrap Universal Credit say DPAC

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Grenfell – another month

Monday, July 23rd, 2018

Very little progress appears to have been made in finding homes for those displaced by the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower, and in April little or no progress appeared to have been made in the official investigations, either by police or others. There seems to have been a great deal of deliberate delay, one of the usual tactics of the establishment under threat, giving time for that grass to grow long.

But I think it is clear that the Grenfell community will not give up its demands for Justice, with these monthly marches keeping up the pressure for action, even if so far little has resulted. One thing that many were discussing before the silent march began was whether something more active was needed.

Moving the march to start at Kensington & Chelsea Council’s offices just off Kensington High Street certainly make it more visible, with the march holding up traffic on one of London’s busiest streets, still full of shoppers and normally busy with traffic in the rush hour. Marching around Ladbroke Grove close to Grenfell Tower obviously was significant but could go almost unnoticed in the rest of London and the country.

Not only was the march more visible, the event was more audible too. The march remains silent but the United Ride 4 Grenfell by bikers from the Ace Cafe on the North Circular Rd, which included Muslim bikers Deen Riders, riding to Parliament and then coming to Kensington Town Hall was definitely very noisy. The silent marchers waited by the side of the road at the Town Hall as they went passed, then moved onto the road to start the silent march.

I didn’t find it easy to photograph the bikers. The glare from their powerful front lights as the came down the slope towards the town hall was overpowering, and the first of them were past fairly quickly. Fortunately they had to wait for some of the group to catch up, and then for the traffic lights at Kensington High St, so I was able to take a little more time. There wasn’t a great deal on many of the riders or their machines to show their support; a few had flags on their machines or labels on their clothing, one or two with Grenfell t-shirts visible. I took most of the pictures opposite the marchers waiting to leave so their banners and hearts appeared in the background.

 

Grenfell silent walk – 10 months on
Bikers for Grenfell

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Hizb Ut-Tahrir at Turkish Embassy

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018

I first met Hizb Ut-Tahrir in 2004 and have photographed a number of their protests since then. There are often some at them who are not very happy about being photographed, though mainly it is a few men who are unhappy about the women on their protests being photographed. Of course they have staged women’s protests – such as one at the French embassy in 2010, but at most the women are relegated to an area well away from the speakers. At least at this one there were powerful speakers so they could hear what was going on, but at least while I was there, no women spoke.

The organisation was started in 1953 in Jerusalem by a Sunni Muslim scholar and aims to restore the Khilafah Rashidah, the “Rightly Guided” rule of the four caliphs who succeeded the Prophet in a 30 year reign when Muslim armies conquered much of the Middle East. They would sweep away the more recently created states such as Turkey which they accuse of complicity in handing Syria back to Assad in accordance with colonial interests.

While many Turks and Kurds condemn Erdogan as a dictator who is increasingly moving the country toward an Islamic regime, they condemn him as a secular leader, and in particular for his strengthening Turkish military and economic ties with Israel – which they do not recognise. The protest called on all Muslims to support the brave people of Palestine who “are raising their voices to speak out and protest against the illegal occupation, as they are mercilessly killed by the Zionist regime.”

Hizb Ut-Tahrir is banned in many countries, including, according to Wikipedeia, “Germany, Russia, China, Egypt, Turkey, and all Arab countries except in Lebanon, Yemen, and UAE.”
There were moves to ban it in the UK after the London bombings and again around the 2010 election but it remains legal here as there is little if any evidence of them being actively involved in any terrorist activities here. The organisation was given a huge boost by the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but numbers of supporters have declined in recent years.

More at Hizb Ut-Tahrir protest against Turkey.

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Mayfair Monopoly

Saturday, July 21st, 2018

We had come to Brown Hart Gardens in Mayfair for the start of a Land Justice Network event, loosely based on the board game ‘Monopoly’, The Landlords’ Game, an illustrated tour of London’s wealthiest areas reminding us that land ownership in Britain is one of the most unequal in the world, both in rural areas and in cities.

The unequal ownership of land, much deriving back to the Norman conquest and its aftermath is the basis of our class system and the inequalities which still persist which arise from it.

There is an excellent report of the event on the Land Justice Network web site (including one of my pictures) which also has links to the great map and guide for the walk by Nick Hayes which people at the left of the picture above are looking at, and those of you who missed the event can repeat it on your own if you wish.

Much of Westminster is owned by the Duke of Westminster, since 1677 when an area of swamp on the outskirts of the city came into the possession of the 21 year old Sir Thomas Grosvenor by his arranged marriage to the 12 year old Mary Davies (arranged marriages at an early age were not unusual then), who had inherited the land from her father. At the time it was hardly worth much, but eventually it became Mayfair, Park Lane and Belgravia, and the backbone of the enormously wealthy Grosvenor Estates.

Although the land belongs to the Grosvenor estate, many of the buildings are owned by overseas companies, particularly those in tax havens – such as the British Virgin Island – outside whose offices we stopped for several speakers, including Christian Eriksson talked about his investigations for Private Eye tracking the massive increase in tax haven ownership of UK property by various dubious characters.

The tour included stops outside one large house empty for around 15 years, the London offices -‘Grouse House’- of Odey Asset management whose owner Crispin Odey formed ‘You Forgot the Birds’ to oppose the RSPB who want to stop the killing of birds.

Then there was Foxtons, and along Park Lane to the Grosvenor Hotel, which hosts many of London’s most dubious events including awards for property developers, and into Hyde Park, the scene of many former battles over the public right of access, before walking along what was called London’s most expensive street, Grosvenor Crescent, where there is a statue of the first Marquis of Westminster (the family continued climbing, from Baronet to Baron to Earl to Marquis and finally Duke in 1874.)

I left the tour briefly to photograph another event, catching up with it again at the final rally in Cadogan Square, part of the second largest of the surviving aristocratic freehold estates in central London, owned by the Cadogan family, one of the richest families in the United Kingdom. The Cadogan estate began with another marriage, that of the second Baron Cadogan to Elizabeth Sloane, the daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, who had purchased the Manor of Chelsea in 1712.

More pictures at: The Landlords’ Game

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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