Pension Justice, Ethiopian Tyrant & Rioters United: Three very different protests on Wednesday 31st March 2010.
Ford/Visteon Workers March For Pension Justice
Former Ford workers who had been transferred to parts manufactuer Visteon, ‘An Enterprise of Ford Motor Company‘, in 2000 and had lost up to half of their pensions when Visteon went into administration and its UK plants were closed in 2009 marched through London from the Unite offices in Holborn to a rally outside Parliament.
Fraud – Justice for Ford / Visteon Workers
Many who came had worked at Swansea and there were others from the Belfast plant as well as from the North London factory in Enfield where I had gone in April 2009 to photograph the factory occupation and its end following a court order.
The occupation by the workers had failed in their efforts to keep the factory open and prevent administrators KPMG from gutting the factory and selling its high-tech machinery to China. But the fight to get back their stolen pensions continued,
Marchers at Downing StA speaker holds up the Ford & Visteon rule books – identical except for the covers
When the workers were transferred from Ford to Visteon they were given a ‘cast-iron’ guarantee by Ford and Visteon that their working conditions and pensions would be protected – and the only change in the book governing these was in the colour and logo of the cover – from blue to tangerine.
But when Visteon went into administration the factories and the 3,000 employees lost their jobs, adminstrators KPMG had no interest in the workers and Ford reneged on their promises. The former employees had to rely on the much less generous terms of the government Pensions Protection Fund. Their union, Unite, supported them in the long fight for justice that ensued – including this rally – as did others from the trade union movement and a long list of MPs. They demanded Ford meet its pension obligations of £350 millions to its former employees.
The fight by Unite continued and even got some support from the coalition governments Minister for Pensions Steve Webb (Lib-Dem). It took until April 2014 before Ford eventually came to a settlement with Unite covering around 1,200 ex-Ford workers. Even PM David Cameron praised “all those who played a role” in the fight.
Ethiopians protested opposite Downing Street where Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was co-chairing the UN climate finance group.
He was the leader of the coalition of rebel groups, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which it took power in 1991, and has been Prime Minister since 1995, imposing what has become a one-party state, with many opposition politicians being imprisoned and press freedom being highly restricted with leading journalists being jailed for criticising Zenawi.
Somalis came to demonstrate with the Ethiopians against the “Butcher of the Horn of Africa.”
Human rights violations and corruption are rife in Ethiopia, and food aid, education and jobs all depend on membership of the ruling party. His opponents regard Zenawi as a bloodthirsty tyrant and call for him to be brought to trial at the ICC at The Hague on charges of genocide.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) have accused his regime of war crimes in the Somali regions of Ethiopia and against the Anauk communities in Gambella in 2003-4. Despite this, the Ethiopian government was the largest recipient of UK budget support in Africa, and the protesters called on the government to think again and withdraw support from the regime.
‘Rioters Re-United!’ returned to Trafalgar Square on the 20th anniversary of the Poll Tax Riots saying it was the London mob who brought Thatcher down and announcing an Anti-Election campaign to keep the mob in business and pronounce sentence on politicians.
Chris Knight, one of the leading figures behind last year’s April 1 demonstrations at Bank announced that the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse who led the marches there would this year on May Day be dragging our political leaders (in effigy at least) from their various HQs to stand trial at a people’s assembly in Parliament Square. Since the event is called ‘Carnival of Death’ I think we can take it that the sentence has already been passed, and as Knight reminded us, the only good politician, the only honest politician is a dead politician.
A tap on the shoulder from Mr Bone
As I commented “no party leader will actually be hanged, and the police should not make the mistake they made last year at Bank of confusing the rhetoric with reality, which led to their ridiculous over-reaction, with squads of riot police psyched up to batter largely innocent and joyful protesters – and the death of a bystander. “
A PSCO was called on by the Heritage Wardens to tell the 30 or so former rioters that they were not allowed to hold protests or other events in Trafalgar Square without permission. Of course they simply laughed at him, and continued even after a dozen police officers he had phoned for support arrived and stood around watching. “Fortunately they had enough sense not to try and stop the commemoration, which ended after around 30 minutes when the organisers decided it was time to go down the pub.”
Ian Bone
Of course politics and parliament carried on regardless. The turnout at our general elections is low, with the Institute for Public Policy Research finding that only 52% of the UK adult population bothered to vote in 2024, considerably less than the official turnout of 60% which only counts those who have registered as voters. Starmer was brought to power in a landslide by roughly a third of a half of us – if the PPR is correct, around 17%. The real winners in the 2024 vote were those who didn’t bother at 48%,
The lion thinks about May Day. Parliament still to do.
The Tories had brought in the voter ID law in the hope that this would result in more Labour voters being unable to register their votes. It probably did – but this was not enough to save them after their obvious and dramatic failures in government under May, Johnson, the brief but disatrous Truss and Sunak. Labour have failed to repeal this law, and are currently emulating the Tories in losing support. If they continue their current policies it seems likely that even fewer will bother to vote at the next general election – and the next election will see the landslide continue to put Labour on the sidelines with the Tories.
Vaisakhi is the traditional New Year and harvest festival of the Punjab in India and Pakistan and gained added significance for Sikhs, the majority population in the area when at Vaisakhi in 1699 Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru, founded the Sikh nation with the establishment of the Khalsa Panth.
Vaisahki is actually the 13th or 14th of April each year, but the festival is celebrated over several weeks at different Gurdwaras. You can read more about Vaisakhi and see some of my earlier pictures from various Nagar Kirtan (Sikh processions) on My London Diary posts from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and although they follow a similar pattern there are differences. In Hounslow the event seemed to me to have more active participation by women and girls than in some of the others.
I’d previously photographed the celebrations at most of of the Gurdwaras around London as a part of a larger project on religious celebrations in London, but had somehow missed out on covering the festival in Hounslow.
I’d always enjoyed photographing Vaisahki as the Sikhs were always very hospitable – I was made very welcome and guided and encouraged to take photographs and Hounslow was no exception. I wrote a fairly long description of the event on My London Dairy and included some of my personal history in the area where I – and my father – grew up.
The procession began at the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha which was built on the site of the dye factory where I had my first full-time job – and where many of the shop-floor workers were Sikh. On the route various people had set up stalls offering free food and soft drinks to everyone in the procession – and I enjoyed their hospitality, but was soon too full to be able to accept more.
It went along streets that were very familiar to me, past the clinic where I was weighed and measured as a baby and my mother was given free orange juice and cod-liver oil (which I didn’t thank them for.) Past the nursery school, Major Drake Brockman’s Academy, from which I was expelled aged 4, past the school my father left in 1913 at the age of 14 (though he wouldn’t recognise it now) on to the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha where the procession halted for more celebrations before continuing back to its starting point.
Iraq War & Climate Change: Two separate protests on Saturday 29th March. The invasion of Iraq had begun nine days earlier and there were protests against it around the country including one I covered outside the BBC where a march from North London came to protest against the biased coverage on BBC radio and TV.
Broadcasters were carefully toeing the government line on the war and acting as its mouthpiece. The country was at war and accurate unbiased coverage appeared to be the first casualty.
I didn’t write much about the protest, but the pictures and the posters and placards told the story.
The BBC lost a great deal of credibility over its coverage and I don’t think it has ever recovered from this, And of course it has gone on with biased coverage of other situations including its coverage of the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and of the Israeli government’s actions in Palestine over the years and particularly the genocidal attacks since the October 7th Hamas attack.
After the protest at the BBC I went on to cover an event calling for urgent action on Climate Change. Twenty two years ago there was still time to avoid its worst effects – if the world took urgent action, but instead most governments dragged their feet, driven by fossil fuel interests and making largely token changes if any. In the UK we are still thinking in a way that should be unthinkable about discovering and exploiting new oil resources such as Rosebank and BP has recently moved away from Green energy back to oil. Total madness.
The Kyoto Protocol had been agreed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 1997 and set targets industrialized countries and the European Union to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels during in 2008-2012. Some did, although largely by various ways of fiddling the figures, but the major polluters – India, China and the USA made no attempt to do. The main cause of its failure was that the United States never ratified the agreement.
Kyoto was largely replaced by the 2015 Paris agreement and we are now seeing the results of the failure of this to be properly implemented. But here is what I wrote about the ‘Kyoto march’ organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change on Saturday 29th March.
Marchers had started at the UK Esso HQ in Leatherhead and were marching to a party outside the US Embassy. I joined them at the Imperial War Museum to take photographs.
The march marked the the second anniversary of Bush’s decisive rejection of the Kyoto climate treaty. Esso (ExxonMobil) is a key partner in Bush’s energy policy and its opposition to controls on energy use. The per capita energy use of US citizens is dramatically higher than that of other advanced countries, with no incentives for its reduction and a policy of low tax on fuel that makes the US by far the worst polluter of the planet.
Protest the Pope: Sunday 28th March 2010 saw a large protest by a coalition of organisations against the historic state visit planned for the forthcoming September by Pope Benedict XVI. This was the first official visit ever by a Pope to the UK, although in 1982 Pope John Paul II made a pastoral visit here.
England has had a long tradition of anti-Catholicism dating back to even before Henry VIII, often said to have begun with the martyrdom of Saint Alban, beheaded in St Albans (then Verulanium) at some time in the 3rd or 4th century. But matters certainly came to a head (!) again with the split from Rome on largely political and matrimonial grounds by Henry in 1536 in England and 1538 in Ireland (where Henry also ruled, although only proclaiming himself King in 1541 following several hundred years of Anglo-Norman invasion.) The reformation in Scotland in thanks to John Knox in 1560 was considerably more on religious grounds.
Catholicism became illegal across the British Isles and under Elizabeth I a failure to attend weekly Anglican services became an act of high treason. King James II was actually a Catholic when crowned and tried to remove the restrictions on Catholics and establish greater freedom of religion, but this was a major part of his downfall and replacement by Dutch Calvinist William III. It was under his reign that in 1701 the Act of Settlement prohibited any one who was a Catholic or married one from becoming an heir to the throne. This latter restriction remained in force until 2013 with our PM David Cameron in 2011 still insisting that the monarch must be a card-carrying member of the Church of England but at least they can now marry Catholics.
Every November 5th we still celebrate the foiling of a Papist plot to blow up Parliament by burning effigies of Catholic Guy Fawkes – though at some celebrations now they also burn effigies of various politicians. And in previous centuries we had serious anti-Catholic riots although we now think of these as confined to Northern Ireland and thankfully somewhat diminished in recent years. But Orange Order marches here in England as well as in Ulster remain a reminder of anti-Catholic prejudice.
And of course it hasn’t just been Catholics who have suffered from religious prejudice and persecution over the years, but also non-Conformists, Jews and Muslims. Although most of the legal restrictions have now gone we have seen a considerable rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia particularly in extreme right circles.
But the protest in 2010 was driven by the continuing revelations of sexual abuse by priests and in Catholic organisations and the evidence that leading Catholic figures were trying to cover these up rather than take effective action. Of course it isn’t just Catholics who abuse, and recent events in the Anglican church have opened up our knowledge of institutional failings there too. And to be fair to religions we are also aware of similar problems in the army and some left and right wing political parties too, as well as Harrods and other private companies.
You can find out more about the event in my account and more pictures on My London Diary but I’ll end with a couple of long quotes from that article, the first a list of the organisations that were involved in the protest and the second about why the objected to the state visit.
The coalition includes eleven organisations: the British Humanist Association, Central London Humanist Group, Council of ex-Muslims of Britain, Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association, International Humanist and Ethical Union, National Secular Society, North London Humanists, One Law for All, OutRage!, Southall Black Sisters and Women Against Fundamentalism. The largest banner was for London for a Secular Europe, though there was also one for the National Secular Society and many Outrage! posters; both Peter Tatchell of Outrage! and Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS were taking part.
And about the Pope and the Catholic Church:
He is the head of a church which, as well as failing to deal with childe abuse, has opposed the distibution of condoms, increasing family sizes and the spread of AIDS in poor countries, denied abortion to women, including the most vulnerable, opposed equal rights for LBGT people, and rehabilitated holocaust deniers.
The Pope is also head of state of the Vatican which has not signed many major human rights treaties and has produced concordats with many states that effectively deny their citizens human rights.
Woolwich to New Charlton Panoramas: Continuing my occasional series of colour images from 1995 – I think this is the eleventh post – with some colour panoramas made in May 1995 on a walk from Woolwich to New Charlton.
River Thames, Church Hill, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-342
My walk had begun when I got off the train at Woolwich Arsenal on my way back from Dartford on May 7th and I think these pictures were made that afternoon as I walked from there to another station keeping close to the River Thames. But I did but return to Woolwich the following Sunday, May 14th and some of these pictures could have been made then.
A path leads up from the roundabout at the start of Woolwich Church Street to Church Hill and St Mary Magdalene Church, built on a spur of high ground leading out towards the river. Originally this ground went rather closer to the Thames, but much of it was quarried for sand though the digging had to stop at the church. Although the present church dates only from 1727-39 there had been a church on this site since the 9th century if not earlier and it was probably a much earlier site of settlement.
The road in front of the church, Church Hill, gives a splendid panoramic view of the Thames. In 1995 you could still see the remains of Woolwich’s riverside industry, but by the time I photographed here again in 2000 all had gone and the area was empty and derilect. Now it is filled with four tall blocks of flats and some other housing.
Former Woolwich Dockyard Dry Docks, Europe Rd, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-343
Woolwich Dockyard was the Navy’s most important dockyard for many years and ships were built here from 1512 to the Victorian era. By then it had become too small for the new ships and the Royal Dockyard closed in 1869. Parts remained in industrial use and a large area was bought by Greenwich Council in the 1960s where they built the Woolwich Dockyard Estate in the 1970s – part at the left of this picture. I think this is the Grade II listed Graving Dock.
Ernest Bevin, Ferry Boat, River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-332
Taken on the Woolwich Dockyard Estate this shows one of the old dry docks and at a mooring in the Thames the Woolwich Ferry Ernest Bevin. You can just see part of the south ferry terminal in the centre of the image.
The ferry across the Thames became a free ferry run by the LCC in 1889 – two days after they had replaced the Metropolitan Board of Works who had organised and funded it. A number of public bridges had been built to make crossing the river in West London easy and free and it had been decided that there must also be a free crossing in East London. The Ernest Bevin was one of three ferries in the third generation of ships which came into operation in 1963 and it was replaced in 2019. All have been named after local figues and Bevin was elected as MP for Woolwich East in 1950.
These point blocks, close to Woolwich Dockyard Station were built for Greenwich Council are St Mary’s Towers, one of the more successful housing schemes of the late 50s and early 60s, opened by Princess Margaret in 1961. They remain now still in good condition and popular.
River Thames, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-472
Back to the River Thames and another cleared area of the former Dockyard with a view across the river to Tate & Lyle’s Silvertown works.
River Thames, Warspite Rd, Woolwich, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-433
Another former dockyard area still in industrial use. I think this is Thameside Wharf on Harrington Way. Some of the buildings here were once part of the Siemens Brothers Telegraph Works factory established in 1863 and became Thameside studios for artists around 1990.
Bugsby’s Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-521
Bugsby’s Way took its name from this part of the River Thames known from around 1830 as Bugsby’s Hole or Bugsby’s Reach which probably got its name from this once “marshy area to the south of Blackwall Point where executed criminals were formerly hung in chains.” As E.W.Green suggested in 1948, ‘bug‘ was the old British (ancient Welsh) word for ‘spook’ or ghost, and what could be a better place to meet with ghouls. Bugsby’s Way was built across this marshy area by the London Borough of Greenwich in 1984.
Beatle Line Ltd, Bugsby’s Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-511
Another picture from Bugsby’s Way. The Beatle Line perhaps got its name from the later meaning of ‘bug’, perhaps from a different Anglo-Saxon root, at first simply meaning beatle, though later coming into popular use for a wider range of species – including the famous moth found by Grace Hopper and colleagues in the Mark II computer at Harvard University in 1947.
TUC ‘March For The Alternative – On 26th March 2011 between a quarter and half a million people marched through London against planned public spending cuts by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the largest demonstration since the 2003 protest against the plan to invade Iraq.
The TUC argued that what the country needed was not austerity but policies that would grow the economy, and that we should raise income from those more able to pay rather than by measures that had the greatest impact on the poorest in society.
It was the largest march and rally organised by the trade union movement since the Second World War, and like other major trade union marches was perhaps largely worthy but not exciting – and like others it achieved nothing. The cuts went ahead and we all suffered – except of course the wealthy – who continued to grow richer and richer, helped by government bail-outs and the deliberate failures to tackle tax evasion, stop tax avoidance loopholes and raise taxes on those with excessive wealth.
The cuts particularly hit the public services, including teachers, nurses and other medical professionals – and eventually helped drive these areas into the critical conditions that they are now in. They resulted in financial problems and excessive workloads and also meant that those of us who rely on public provision for health and education often failing to get proper treatment. The gap between those who could afford private services and those who relied on the state provision increased.
Particularly hard hit by the cuts were the disabled and for them the situation continues to worsen with our now Labour government announcing huge cuts which will leave many considerably worse off – and greatly reduce their ability to lead normal lives and contribute to society.
As well as the TUC, other groups contributed to the march, announcing various feeder marches and other activities, many of which added a little life and colour to the day’s events. They also resulted in over 200 arrests and a number of injuries.
Too much was happening on the day for me to rehash it all here, but you can read my seven posts on my London Diary for my account of events. I started with the feeder marches from South London, disowned by the TUC. The ‘Armed Wing of the TUC’ brought its street theatre Trojan Horse, Spitfire, Tank and armed Lollipop Ladies produced by Camberwell art students to Camberwell Green where they marched to Kennington where the South London Feeeder March was gathering for a rally before the march in Kennington Park – the site of the final “monster meeting” of the Chartists on 10th April 1848 from where they marched to Parliament to deliver their final petition.
I left there to take the tube to Trafalgar Square where I found that the main march had started early and was well on its way to Hyde Park and I stayed around there for over an hour as marchers filed past, including photographing the Morris Liberation Front, an idea of Henry Flitton specially for the TUC demonstration, with music, provided by a couple of mandolins playing the Clash’s ‘I fought the Law’ and the Smith’s ‘Panic.
Later in the day Trafalgar Square was the site of bitter fighting as police made a largely unprovoked attack on a partying crowd, but when I was there things were peaceful.
I left the square to follow several hundred anarchists, dressed in black and mainly wearing face masks making their way up past the National Portrait Gallery, many waving red and black flags. I went with them through the back streets to Piccadilly Circus and then up Regent Street where they turned off into Mayfair and were held off by police when they attacked a RBS branch – one of the main banks to receive a huge government handout.
At Oxford Circus they attacked Topshop, then owned by the prominent tax avoider Sir Philip Green. As I went to take photographs of police arresting one of the protesters and holding him on the ground I was “hit full on the chest by a paint-bomb possibly aimed at the police, although many of the protesters also have an irrational fear of photographers. My cameras were still working and I continued to photograph, but I had also become a subject for the other photographers.”
It wasn’t painful, but it was very messy and bright yellow. I scraped and washed the worst off in a nearby public toilet for around 20 minutes, then went out to take more photographs, joining UK Uncut supporters who had come to hold peaceful protests at tax dodging shops and banks around Oxford St and to party at Oxford Circus.
Eventually I followed them down to Piccadilly Circus where 4 hours after the start of the official march people were still filing past. I stopped there and photographed until the end of the march passed, rather than going with UK Uncut into Fortnum and Mason. Inside the story they sat down and occupied the store peacefully. if noisily calling on them to pay their taxes. After an hour or more a senior police officer told them they were free to leave, promising they could make their way home “without obstruction”. 138 were arrested as they left the store, charged with ‘aggravated trespass’. Most of the cases were latter dropped but at least 10 were found guilty, given a six-month conditional discharge and a £1,000 fine.
Even after the official end of the march there were various other groups following the march route – including a group of Libyans with green flags, marching in support of Colonel Gaddaffi. I walked back to Trafalgar Square where there were still plenty of people around but everything was pretty quiet, so I got on the tube to come home and try to wash more of the paint off.
I think it was later when police made a charge to try and clear Trafalgar Square than almost all the arrests on the actual march took place – according to Google “Further clashes were reported later in Trafalgar Square. 201 people were arrested, and 66 were injured, including 31 police officers.” Had the police simply gone away people would have eventually dispersed and there would have been no trouble.
Others also got hit by paintballs
Back home I spent hours trying to scrub out yellow paint, but the rather expensive jacket I was wearing was only ever really fit to wear for gardening. The also expensive jumper underneath still has some small traces of yellow 14 years and many washes later, though I do sometimes still wear it around the house. Until my Nikon D700 came to the end of its life, beyond economic repair, a few years later I would still come across the occasional speck of yellow paint.
Much more about the day and many more pictures in the following posts on My London Diary
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: Bicentenary: On Sunday 25th March 2007 I was in Brixton and Clapham where commemorations were taking place on the 200th anniversary of the bill to abolish the Atlantic slave trade being given royal assent by King George III on 25 March 1807. It was a great step forward but despite this bill, slavery “remained legal in most of the British Empire until the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.”
The previous day I had photographed the “Anglican Church’s walk of witness to mark the abolition. The Church Of England has much to repent, with many of those who profited greatly from the ships that transported some 12 million African people over the years being pillars of the church and supporting it financially.“
As I continued on My London Dairy:
“When Christopher Codrington died in 1710 he left his Barbados plantations to its missionary society, who at least at first continued his regime of forced hard labour, punishment with the lash, iron collar and straight-jacket, and, at least for some years to brand its enslaved Africans across their chest with the word “society”. Even though the church claimed to have made various improvements in conditions, 4 of every 10 Africans bought by the society still died in their first 3 years there in 1740. Despite the efforts of abolitionists, slavery continued until made illegal by the 1833 act, which provided the church with a very large financial reward in compensation.”
This procession had been accompanied from its opening service in Whitehall Place by a small group who had walked from Hull, the birthplace of William Wilberforce who had led the fight for the abolition in Parliament. They had taken turns to march in a yoke and chains and ended their walk in Victoria Gardens at the Buxton Memorial Fountain erected in 1865 to mark the ending of slavery in the British Empire in 1834.
Drexel Gomez, the Archbishop of the West Indies, symbolically removes the yoke
After photographing a ceremony on Lambeth Bridge acknowledging the 2704 ships that left the port of London to carry enslaved Africans the march then continued in a silent remembrance of those who died in the ocean crossings to Kennington Park. I left them to photograph a second march coming to join them from Holy Trinity, Clapham.
The walk from Holy Trinity Clapham was just coming into Stockwell when I joined it.
On Sunday 25th I began at Windrush Square in Brixton where another commemorative event was taking place, organised by the Brixton Society. After drumming, gospel music and speeches about the abolition people planted bulbs in the grass and there were prayers, The event then moved on to celebrating the contribution of those of black Afro-Caribbean origin to life and culture in Britain now with a number of speeches and then more gospel singing.
Planting bulbs
After a lunchtime walk by the Thames I went to Clapham, the spiritual and physical home of the abolition movement, where the London Borough of Lambeth had organised a commemorative walk.
Holy Trinity, Clapham, the home of the Clapham Sect which was the centre of the abolition movement.
This started at Holy Trinity Church, where the Clapham Sect at the centre of the movement, including William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, John and Henry Thornton, John Venn, Zachary Macaulay and others had worshipped. But as tour guide Steve Martin pointed out Clapham was also home to many who had made fortunes from the trade and opposed the abolition, with both sides worshipping in the same parish church.
One of the three groups of walkers at the probable site of the African Academy
You can read much more about these events on My London Diary, and I won’t copy it all here, but here are my two opening paragraphs:
There is no escaping that all of us who live in Britain – whatever the colour of our skin or our personal history – are now benefiting from the proceeds of the trafficking of African people and their forced labour in our colonies over around four centuries. Fortunes made from slavery helped to build many of the institutions from which we still benefit, including many of our great galleries and museums. Slavery founded many of our banks and breweries and other great industries, and made Britain a wealthy nation.
But it is also true that the same wealthy elite that treated Africans so callously exploited the poor in Britain. My ancestors were thrown off their land and probably some were imprisoned for their religious beliefs by these same elites. Almost certainly some of my forebears were a part of the movement that campaigned against slavery and called for and end to the trade in human beings, although equally certainly they had little or no political power at the time, and probably no vote.
Aldermaston 2008: Searching for what to write today I came to my post about my journey to Aldermaston, where the huge 750 acre Atomic Weapons Establishment is the UK’s main site for nuclear weapons research, design and manufacture. It was to here that people marched from London over 4 days at Easter1958 in a pivotal event in the anti-nuclear movement organized by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and supported by the newly formed Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) – which took over the organisation of further marches.
“MARCH TO ALDERMASTON WHY? BECAUSE we must show our opposition to the Testing, Storing and Manufacture of the H-Bomb in Britain. If we make no protest now we have given our consent to its use. “All who are opposed on any ground to Nuclear Weapons, whether possessed by the British, American or Russian Governments, are welcome.”
I didn’t go on that march as my parents thought I was too young, but both my older brothers marched. 50 years later at Easter 2008 I decided to take part in CND’s 50th anniversary event.
The cyclists arrive at the main gate at Aldermaston
I had decided not to march but to cycle at least part of the way from London to Aldermaston with Bikes Not Bombs, but for various reasons (sloth, other events, lousy weather and a dislike of early rising) it didn’t happen, although I did manage to photograph the riders on Oxford Street, where they were going in exactly the wrong direction.
WMD were not in Iraq – but here at Aldermaston
In the end I did ride from Reading to Aldermaston (and back) on Monday, but started an hour or two later than the organised ride, taking a more direct route at a faster pace and arriving before them. Here I’ll copy what I wrote on My London Diary in 2008 with a couple of minor corrections and post a few of the pictures with a link to many more on My London Diary.
Aldermaston – 50 years
Monday 24 March, 2008
Holding hands around the base
Monday I got up too late to join the Bikes Not Bombs cyclists on their way from Reading, where I arrived by train. The train that goes from Staines to Reading is so so slow I’m convinced there is still a man with a red flag walking in front of it much of the way, and the 20 or so miles took almost an hour.
I took exactly the same route from Reading that I’d walked with Pat Arrowsmith and the other Aldermaston marchers in the 2004 march. Although a cool day, it was a pleasant morning for riding and I was quite enjoying it until a stretch of road called ‘Hermit’s Hill’ reminded me how out of practice I was at cycling. I can’t remember when I last had to push my bike up a hill, although in 2002 when my arteries were almost fully clogged with cholesterol I did once have to stop and rest in Normandy. Fortunately it turned out to be the only significant hill on the route.
I went first to the main gate and joined the other photographers who were there, and took a few pictures of people arriving, including the 30 or so cyclists who I had beaten there. I walked down with some of the other photographers to the Falcon gate, but not a lot was happening there.
Falcon Gate
Later I took a ride around perimeter, or at least the part of it which is on roads – the northern side is simply a footpath, and it was rather muddy and full of demonstrators, so I didn’t try to ride along it. I caught up with the cyclists again at the Boiler House gate where I stopped to take some pictures, as quite a lot seemed to be happening there.
They left before I had taken all the pictures that I wanted, and got a few minutes start on me, before I pedalled off in pursuit. The road leads down and through the actual village of Aldermaston (rich home counties, rather too tidy), but what goes down has to come up, and I found myself struggling uphill again through the queue of traffic held up by the ‘bikes not bombs’ group and their police escort of two cars and several motorbikes.
Welsh choir at the Construction gate
The Construction gate at the top of the hill had a Welsh socialist choir, and I took a few pictures before I saw the cyclists coming up again – they had stopped to regroup a little down the road. Further along the fence, near the Home Office Gate was another largish group of people and a veteran from 1958 was talking.
Veterans of 1954 who spoke
The incredible Rinky-Dink mobile cycle-powered sound system was also there – another reminder of 2004 when it accompanied us as we marched down the lanes to the base.
People were now beginning to link hands around the base, although the organisers had talked about one person every 5 metres. Most of it seemed to be surrounded considerably more densely than this, although there were some gaps.
Back at the main gate there was an opportunity to photograph some of the speakers who were touring the event, although I didn’t actually hear them speak. They included two labour MPs, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, Green MEP Caroline Lucas, veteran Labour Party member Walter Wolfgang and several guests from Japan, one of whom was a survivor from Hiroshima.
Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas, Walter Wolfgang, John McDonnell and others
After that people started to go home, and after a short but rather heavy shower I decided it was time to get on my bike too.
Redbridge 1995 Colour: Redbridge is one of the boroughs in the north-east of London and not one that I visit very frequently. The only major town in the borough is Ilford, and had they called the borough that more people would know where it is.
North Circular, Mll, River Roding, South Woodford, Redbridge, 1995, 95p4-2073
Instead they named it after an area in the suburbs of Ilford, which got its name from a red brick bridge over the River Roding. It stood out as most other bridges were stone and shades of white. The bridge was demolished in 1921 but the name stuck.
Industrial Estate, Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, Redbridge, 1995, 95p4-2063
Much of the borough is covered by suburban sprawl, particularly from the interwar years, but significant parts of Essex’s Epping Forest remain, and where the red bridge once stood is now a huge road junction where the North Circular Road (here the South Woodford to Barking Relief Road) intersects with the A12 Eastern Avenue. And a little further north is Charle Brown’s Roundabout where the North Circular and other roads lead to the M11 in a complex interchange. The name came from the landlord of a pub, The Roundabout, demolished in 1972 to build M11 slip roads, and has no link to the more famous Limehouse pub.
Industrial Estate, Roding Lane South, Woodford Green, Redbridge, 1995, 95p4-2051
The extension of the Central Line of the London Underground system to here – the Hainault Loop – was held up by the Second World War but opened in 1947 with some fine stations including https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gants_Hill_tube_station Gants Hill whose underground concourse between the platforms is often said to be inspired by the Moscow Metro.
North Circular, Mll, River Roding, South Woodford, Redbridge, 1995, 95p4-2043
It was designed by Charles Holden, better known for his 1930s stations on the Piccadilly and other lines, and who was doubtless responsible in part for the advice given to Moscow in the early 1930s. In turn London Transport produced a report on the Moscow system and decided to build an underground Underground station on similar lines, designed by Holden.
Unlike his earlier stations, Gants Hill is almost entirely underground, with its ticket hall below the Gants Hill roundabout on Eastern Avenue. The line follows Eastern Avenue to the station after Gants Hill, Newbury Park where it comes to the surface and turns north until it exits the borough of Redbridge at Grange Hill.
Subway, North Circular, Gants Hill, Redbridge, 1995, 95p7-342
I think all the the pictures I made in 1995 were made on walks beginning and ending either at Ilford (on the District line) or stations on the Central Line, including South Woodford, Redbridge and Gants Hill.
Stand Up to Racism & Kites Not Drones: On Saturday 22 March 2014, the day following UN Anti-Racism Day (chosen to remember the 69 people killed by police in the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa on 21 March 1960), the TUC and Unite Against Fascism organised a march and rally as a part of a European day of action against racism.
Thousands – perhaps as many as 20,000 – turned up to march the short distance from Old Palace Yard opposite parliament to a long rally in Trafalgar Square – on My London Diary I list 19 speakers, though I think there were a few more on the day, but I didn’t stop to listen to all of them, going instead to Hyde Park where a smaller protest by peace activists tried without much success to fly kites in in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.
Stand Up to Racism – Westminster
No Human is Illegal’ – protesters from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
This protest stood out for the wide range of people and organisations who had come to join it, “many of whom are sickened by the anti-immigrant policies of successive governments and opposition parties who have long been engaged in trying to outdo each other in the ‘toughness’ of their immigration policies, and have recently moved even further to the right in an effort to neutralise the political threat of UKIP and Nigel Farage.”
And since 2014 the main parties have kept moving to the right. We continue to see this scapegoating of immigrants in the policies both of the current government and its recent Tory predecessors, particularly in the campaigns and legislation against those who cross the channel in small boats, but also in restrictions on those who claim asylum here and the harassment being suffered by many who have made their lives here and contributed to our society but are now threatened by deportation, dragging them away from families and friends. Still we have not set up safe routes for asylum seekers to come to Britain, still we have not offered amnesties to those who have worked here and made useful and essential contribution here for years.
I photographed many of the marchers in Parliament Square, where the march had been planned to start close to the statue of Nelson Mandela who had celebrated “the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities” as the aim of the fight for freedom and equality in South Africa.
A man taking part in unusual dress for a protest
Some posed in front on the grass with ‘Big Ben’ in the background, a name I like to use as it annoys pedants, but is what everyone except them still calls the clock tower which Wikipedia describes as “one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom and parliamentary democracy.”
Among those taking part were people from our Roma and Muslim communities who bear no responsibilities for our country’s current problems and suffer more than most from them while at the same time being blamed by the racist right for them.
“In particular we have seen many promoting fear and hate of Muslims associating the whole community with the acts of a tiny few. Islamophobia is rife and has led to more attacks on the Muslim population, including murder and violent attacks on mosques. “
Kites Not Drones Solidarity with Afghanistan – Hyde Park
This protest by peace activists was part of a weekend of solidarity with the Afghan people who traditionally celebrate their New Year (Now Ruz) on the Spring Equinox by flying kites. (Until 1752 the New Year began at around the same time in Britain and its colonies on Lady Day March 25th.)
Peace activist Maya Evans ties up the Drones on Trial banner ‘EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME, WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME’
In 2014 I quoted the organisers statement:
‘Kite flying has become synonymous with Afghanistan as a well loved pursuit which was banned under the Taliban, now Afghans are more used to the presence of UK armed and surveillance drones flying overhead.’
‘We are encouraging peace groups, Afghans in the UK and the Muslim community to fly kites in solidarity with Afghans who now have to live under the mental pressure and physical destruction which British drones (currently operated from RAF Waddington, Lincoln) now reap upon Afghanistan.’
None of those taking part appeared to have had any previous experience in actually flying kites, and although the photographers present helped, the gusty conditions only allowed some short and erratic flights, with one kite getting stuck up a tree. For once a police officer was sympathetic, and having come across to tell the protesters that flying kites was not allowed in this or the other Royal Parks told them that so long as they stayed in this empty area of the park and were not a nuisance to others he would not stop them.
