Re-photo

Sometimes the law is an ass. And sometimes the law realises it is being an ass and decides to try and mitigate its asinity, though in this case rather inadequately.  The Stansted 15, peaceful protesters who prevented an illegal deportation flight taking place by going on to the runway and chaining themselves to the plane, should never have been charged with an offence under terrorist legislation because they clearly had no terrorist intent. Eleven of the 60 who were put on the flight have not yet been deported and should not have been on the plane; the Home Office should be in court for putting them there.

Equally clearly the government and the Home Office in particular put on a lot of pressure to get them tried under this entirely inappropriate legislation. It paints both police and Crown Prosecution Service in an extremely poor light that they bowed to this pressure, and it is perhaps surprising that the court went along with them.

Using a terrorism charge meant that the accused could have been sentenced to 15 years in jail.  They should not have been found guilty, but they were, though its hard to see why. Had the court really thought they were terrorists they would not have been on bail awaiting sentence, as they were at the time of this protest, spending a couple of months over Christmas worrying about what might happen, and whether they would spend years in jail.

Even though none was given an immediated custodial sentence, three who had previous convictions for aggravated trespass in an earlier direct action were given a suspended sentence of 9 months along with long hours of unpaid work, with the other 12 receiving community orders, again with long hours of unpaid work. All the sentences seemed disproportionate, and the judge in sentencing repeated the lie that their action had endangered anyone at the airport – except themselves. In fact they had saved a number of the passengers – including four victims of trafficking – from the danger that their deportation would have put them in.

I don’t know if there will be an appeal against the convictions or the sentences, though there are probably grounds for both. But it’s shocking that such as serious charge should be misused in this way, clearly in an attempt to deter further acts of legitimate protest.

Usually I try to remain as an observer when photographing protests, but this was a liturgy rather than a protest and one I felt I had to take part in.  So I stood with the others when not taking pictures, and when as a part of it a list was passed round with the names of some of the many refugees who have died, some drowned on their way to Europe, others trying to cross the channel , some in our deportation prisons, while being deported or deported to die in another country, I didn’t just pass it on, but read out some of those names.

More about the protest, and a few more pictures at London Stands With The Stansted15.

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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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On a cold wet evening I asked myself why I was standing on a dimly lit street corner in the CIty of London taking photographs of a small group of protesters. And I had an answer, that I wanted to try to draw attention to the real causes of the current situation in Venezuela, a country running out of money.

Venezuela is rich in natural resources, the largest known oil reserves in the world along with gold and other minerals. It was, and should be a wealthy country, but the problems have come because under Hugo Chavez, President from 1999 to 2013, it made a determined effort to share that wealth widely, eneacting wide-ranging social reforms and nationalising industries, creating neighbourhood councils and greatly improving access to food, housing, healthcare and education for the poor.

These policies brought the country into conflict with western dominated world economic agencies and countries, particularly the United States, leading to various sanctions, which, together with a steep drop in the price of oil have led to the current economic problems there, helped by a certain amount of corruption as well as political manouevering by the opposition largely right-wing middle classes whose dominance is threatened by the socialist programme.

Opposition voices dominate in the media coming out of the country and are widely reported in the UK media, with great prominence being given to anti-Maduro protests and little or no reporting of the large demonstrations in support of the government. The sanctions, particularly those imposed by the US seldom get a mention. As the US Congressional Research Service notes “For more than a decade, the United States has employed sanctions as a policy tool in response to activities of the Venezuelan government or Venezuelan individuals.” Sanctions were imposed under President Obama and have been stepped up under Trump, particularly over finanacial transactions and the oil industry.

The protest I was photographing was against one result of these sanctions, outside Euroclear, a J P Morgan Subsidiary in the City of London calling for the company to return over $1billion belonging to the Venezuelan government, sent to buy medicines and food for Venezuela. Euroclear accepted the money despite US sanctions which were in place, but has failed to release it, meaning that many Venezuelans, particularly children, will die because of lack of medicines.

So I was there taking pictures, though there wsn’t really a great deal to photograph, as you can see. And I sent them into the agency, knowing exactly how little interest there would be from the media in the story and little chance of them being used by the UK media as they don’t support the story the UK press want to tell. But perhaps one day they may help to tell a story which I think should be told about Venezuela’s stolen money.

Hand Back Venezuela’s stolen money

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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Modern Human Rights law came out of the aftermath of the Second World War as a response to the barbarism of that war, with the UN in 1947 setting up a Human Rights Commission, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, which after consderable discussion came up in 1948 with the non-binding  Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at at Palais de Chaillot, Paris on the 10 December 1948, 70 years to the day before this ‘Shut Guantanamo!’ protest at the US Embassy by the London Guantanamo Campaign.

December 10 is celebrated in countries around the world as Human Rights Day or International Human Rights Day, though it is an anniversary that passes almost unnoticed in the UK.

Almost 17 years – since January 11th 2002

When the Council of Europe (not to be confused with the EU) was set up in 1949, it immediately began work, led by Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, a British MP who had been a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, on a European Convention on Human Rights, completed in 1950 and ratifed three years later, with the European Court of Human Rights  established in Strasbourg to oversee it.

The Council of Europe now has 47 member states, including almost all those with any territory in Europe such as Turkey and Russia, along with Iceland, and is thus a much wider body than the EU

In 1998, the UK Human Rights Act was passed, incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights  into domestic British law; it sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to and means they can be argued in British courts rather than having to go to Strasbourg. It came into force in the UK in October 2000.

The protest was held outside the US embassy in Nine Elms, London because the US has been clearly contrravening the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its treatment of prisoners held at Guantanamo (as well as in other secret military prisons in countries around the world.)

The US activities are a violation of many of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but particularly:

Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

and

Article 9
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

But the UDHR was a non-binding declaration and its provisions have never been incorporated into US law, although there are some similar provisions in the US Bill of Rights (which were based on those in the 1689 UK Bill of Rights.)

70 years of Human Rights
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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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Two groups had planned events in opposition to a march by supporters of Tommy Robinson, advertised as the ‘Great Brexit Betrayal Protest‘ march in London on Dec 9th. One was Unite Against Fascism & Stand Up to Racism, both largely dominated by Socialist Workers Party members and the second was a broad coalition of anti-fascist groups, including Momentum, Plan C, Feminist Anti-Fascist Assembly, Global Justice Now, Women’s Strike Assembly, Brazilian Women Against Fascism, Women’s March London, Feminist Fightback, Fourth Wave: London Feminist Activists, Sister not Cister UK and many others who had managed to bring a previous fascist march through London to a halt, delaying it for several hours until police managed to re-route it, while UAF/SUTR held a separate small and innefectual static protest in Parliament St.

This group has a much broader representation of women’s and ethnic minorities than  UAF/SUTR, and a wider political base including many from Labour, left wing and anarchist groups, but is largely London-based. Outside of London there are fewer groups opposing racism and fascism and I think UAF and SUTR are groups with broader support than in London, often virtually the only game in town.

UAF and SUTR made a big appeal for unity, to stand up to the fascists together, and the anti-fascists agreed, only to find out that on the day of the march it was more or less a takeover by the other group, who with the aid of the police rather hi-jacked the event. The march to Whitehall took place, and it was a fairly large one, with perhaps roughly three times as many as on the Brexit Betrayal march, but they were stopped from presenting any real opposition to the fascists, and the rally at the end of the march close to Downing St was entirely a UAF/SUTR event, with no speakers from the anti-fascists.

For most of the march, the main banner, held by UAF/SUTR supporters with the message ‘No to Tommy Robinson – No to Facism’ was at the front of the march, carried at the head of a group of supporters carrying Stand Up To Racism and Socialist Worker placards. But when police halted the march briefly on Haymarket as there were a small number of fascist who had come to oppose the march in the area, the a hundred or two anti-fascists came to the front to defend the march,

Somehow with the aid of the police the No to Tommy Robinson – No to Facism’ banner was again at the front of the march as it reached Trafalgar Square, but it was the anti-fascist who left the march to tackle the counter-protesters who had gathered there, while the rest of the march moved on towards its end in Whitehall.

I paused briefly to photograph this small group of extreme-right couter-protesters in Trafalgar Square and was threatened with violence by them if I took their picture, as well as being pushed around a little by police who rather seemed to be on their side. But having taken a few pictures I soon moved off, keen not to miss the start of the rally in Whitehall.

As the rally went on and one I became more and more disappointed. Although there were some good speakers –  including Paul Mason – it became obvious that there was to be no representation at all of any of the many groups in the anti-fascist coalition that probably represented considerably over half of the march, and when a musical interlude was introduced I turned to leave.

Most of the marchers seemed to have come to a similar conclusion, and there were relatively few people in left Whitehall. It was a cold day and probably many had decided not to stand around listening to speeches – or had soon drifted away, perhaps to one of the many pubs and coffee shops around. But there was still a largish ‘black bloc’ group towards the Trafalgar Square end of Whitehall who had decided to leave together for security and make their way to Charing Cross station to disperse. I walked through a line of police without being stopped, but more police moved in to stop them leaving.  Evventually the officer in charge decided they could go and arranged for police to escort them to Charing Cross, though they were more than capable of making their own way their in safety.

More about the protest and many more pictures at Marchers oppose Tommy Robinson

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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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Rodney Kelly speaks beside his Gweagul ancestor’s shield

The world’s earliest known musuem was set up in 530 BC in the dying years of one of the oldest known cities of the world, Ur in Babylon (now Iraq) by a woman, Princess Ennigaldi, the daughter of the last King before the citysuffered terminal decline. The first excavations of the city, in 1853-4, were financed by the British Museum, but it was during the major excavations in 1922 to 1934, funded by the British Museum with the University of Pennsylvania, that archaeologist Leonard Woolley, later knighted for his work there, came across the evidence of the world’s first museum, a labelled collection of local antiquities from various ages, including some from the foundation of Ur some 2000 years before its demise.

Part of the crowd listening to Rodney Kelly

Objects from Woolley’s excavations are now a part of the collections of both the British Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, and the Iraqi authorities hope to develop the ancient city with its ruins as a tourist attraction. As a part of this there will doubtless be some kind of museum in which various objects can be displayed, probably including replicas of some at least of those objects in London and Pennsylvania.

Danny Chivers, dressed as a burglar, in front of the Parthenon marbles

The British Museum contains a vast collection of antiquities from around the world, some obtained by rather more dubious means than those from Ur. And it is great that everyone from around the world can visit and see at least those that are on display there – and presumably the much greater number kept hidden in the basement or stored elsewhere are made available to scholars. It’s a great resource and one that is generally free to access, and I’ve dropped in occasionally over the years, though currrent security measures make it considerably less convenient – where you just used to walk in, it can now involve a 20 minute wait to have your bag searched (though there is seldom much of a queue at the north entrance.)

‘Stolen Land, Stolen Culutre, Stolen Climate’ banner in front of the Assyian exhibition

It would be a shame to see this collection broken up, but it seems to me that there are some items in it that should be returned – and perhaps replaced in the collection by carefully made replicas. Probably the best-known of these are of course the Parthenon marbles. We used to call them the Elgin marbles, bought by Lord Elgin from the Turkish occupiers of Greece in a rather doubtful transaction. Certainly the Turks had no moral right to dispose of Greek heritage in this way.

Among much more recent acquisitions are apparently a number of looted items from Iraq which came onto the market as a result of the second Gulf War. I don’t know the details, but clearly there can be no argument for their retention. But not only is the British Museum hanging on to them it was proudly displaying them in the current BP-sponsored Assyrian show. BP of course has a long and unsavoury record of exploitation of oil in the Middle East

While those exhibits from Ur were from an ancient civilisation that was conquered and disappeared many years ago, there are other items which were taken by force or stolen from communities that still exist, and it was one of these that was at the centre of the British Museum Stolen Goods Tour organised by BP or not BP?  on December 8th, led by Indigenous Australian campaigner Rodney Kelly, a 6th generation direct descendant of Cooman, whose Gweagal shield was taken when Captain Cook’s men arriving in Australia fired on him. In a cabinet to his right, you can see the hole close to its centre thought to have been made in it by a musket round.

The shield, along with other stolen objects still have great cultural significance for the Gweagul, and would both form the centre-piece of a new cultural museum and also a springboard for a renaissance of indigenous culture. A similar case can be made for the return of the stolen Moai Head from Easter Island, whose return is demanded by the Rapa Nui Pioneers.

More about the protest against the British Museum and climate criminals BP at British Museum Stolen Goods Tour.
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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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