Wednesday June 2 was a significant but largely ignored anniversary. Nine years earlier, on June 2 2001, peace protester Brian Haw began his protest in Parliament Square. Nine years later, despite an Act of Parliament and various raids and harassment by the police, he is still there. Still there because our government is still pursuing a war against the people of Iraq, and against the children of Iraq, with children still dying. He said he would stay for as long as it takes, and it’s taking far too long.
I’m not sure when I first photographed Brian Haw. It’s still hard for me to find work I took when I was still shooting on film. Certainly I photographed him when he spoke at an International Women’s Day peace event in Trafalgar Square in March 2004, and later that year at his protest in Parliament Square.
Brian Haw in Parliament Square in 2004 after more than 3 years of protest
His protest there has changed the face of London so far as protest is concerned. Before then I’d gone to Parliament Square only on fairly rare occasions, but now it has become a major venue for political protest.
Since then I’ve made numerous visits, sometimes taking pictures, on other visits simply talking to him and the others in the peace campaign.
I photographed his display along the length of the square shortly before the police made a night raid and trashed most of it in May 2006:
Parliament Square, Brian Haw in the centre of his display, May 2006
And I was there for the party a few days later on June 2 2006 when we celebrated five years of his protest:
Parliament Square, 2 June 2006 – 5 Years of Brian Haw’s protest
In March 2007 I took what is still my favourite picture of him:
and later in that year I was at another party to mark another year there:
and again in 2008:
I was there in 2009 when he was arrested and bundled into a police van (he was released by the court and back in the square the following day):
This year there were no celebrations on June 2, although a few people came by to give Brian their regards and note his achievement. The police came along too, and marked the day by issuing a summons to Brian’s fellow protester in the peace campaign there, Barbara Tucker, for using a megaphone, illegal under SOCPA – the Act that was meant to clear Brian out of the square.
More about my visit to see Brian and Barbara, and the Democracy Camp also now in Parliament Square, on My London Diary. There are far too many sets of pictures of my earlier visits to list them all here, but these are some of my earlier visits:
- Mar 2005
- Aug 2005
- May 2006
- Brian Haw – 5 years. Jun 2006
- Jan 2007
- 6 Years in Parliament Square, Jun 2007