Cleaners protest for a living wage at the Tower
My only regret about the Cleaners Protest at the Tower of London is that I had missed their previous protest, when they had actually gone inside the Tower. On this second occasions they were stopped as they made their way through the gates. There were several pictures I took that I liked, but this one I chose in part because of the obsious power of those puffed out cheeks, but also because it makes clear several things about the protest. When I was taking it I had some difficulty in getting a clear view of that crown and EIIR on the gate behind as well as one of the few placards on display – the simple single word ‘SHAME’ – as well as the union banners at right.
Guy Fawkes is usually known as the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions, and while our celebrations on 5 Nov started as an anti-Catholic event over the years they have changed. In my youth they certainly had a certain anarchic character, though more recently they have evolved from being things people did in their own back gardens or as a community event into performances staged by professionals, for people whose only participation is to move from watching a screen on a couch to standing in the open in a crowd watching the sky.
But the graphic novel/film ‘V for Vendetta’ took the anarchic side of the myth and developed it, providing the mask for the ‘Anonymous’ movement, so the Anonymous March to Parliament on Nov 5th was certainly apt if not entirely satisfying; like a firework it started brightly but rather fizzled out. But I rather liked this group on one of the lions in Trafalgar Square before the suitably anarchic stroll down Whitehall to Parliament, where nothing much happened for rather a long time and I got bored and went home.
Election night outside the US Embassy
Truth, Justice and the American way? took the occasion of the US Election to hold a protest against some of the abuses being carried out by the US, in particular over the continuing shame of Guantanamo, still a blot on the nation, still holding men illegally four years after Obama had come into office pledged to close it. The last remaining Londoner, Shaker Aamer is still there after almost 11 years, not because of any crimes he has committed but because of the crimes committed against him, the torture before he was taken to Guantanamo and while there, and the evidence he might give that would incriminate both the US and also the UK governments and agencies. While our governments have asked for his return in public, it seems likely that in private – as over extraordinary rendition and torture – they are colluding with the US to keep him locked up until either he dies or becomes unable to testify.
I think the picture, with three men in orange Guantanamo-style jumpsuits, two in black hoods, and one of them manacled and wearing headphones – a reference to the use of “culturally offensive” heavy metal and other music played at extreme volume repetitively for hours on end to send prisoners mad by US Military torturers – standing holding the banner ‘End Extraordinary Rendition’ around the feet of the statue of President Eisenhower with candles lit for the vigil, and a rather bored looking police officer.
On the full-size image I can read the start of Eisenhower’s ‘Order of the Day’ for the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, “Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!” He continued (hidden behind the banner) “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
The eyes of the world were on the USA on 6 Nov too, and the embassy was lit up by laser-projected Stars and Strips moving across its facade. Down in front of the embassy were around 50 or so “liberty-loving people” calling for the US to march with them again, and to release those illegally held and tortured by them. It was a deeply ironical moment.
On the top deck of the Campaign against Climate Change bus
The US came in for more criticism on the following day when the Campaign against Climate Change protested in London urging President Obama to stand up against the lobbying, dirty money and media lies funded by the Koch brothers and other fossil fuel companies. On My London Diary, in the text of Stop Fossil Fuel Dirty Money takeover of US I referred to it as “The day the USD election results were announced”, a typing error that was perhaps only too true.
The entire presidential campaign had been marked by an almost total silence over perhaps the biggest issue facing the US and the world – climate change. You can’t read all of the banner in the picture above, but ‘End Climate Silence’ is enough. Eventually it was forced onto the agenda at a late stage by the hurricane or tropical storm, which perhaps gave Obama the presidency. His record on climate is poor, but the Republicans abysmal, with many of their leading figures denying climate change or any man made contribution to it. Funding from huge private dirty energy companies – such as those of the Koch brothers plays a large role in US politics.
This year’s Student March on Parliament was a rather tamer event than those at the end of 2011, and so failed to really make the headlines. The student leadership had agreed a route with police that took them past Parliament and on to Kennington Park, but like quite a few students I gave up before we reached there as the rain began to pour down. Those who made it apparently turned some of their anger against the leaders, pelting them with fruit and veg, but I missed that.
I did take some more serious pictures, but I really enjoyed the humour of this group from the University of Central Lancashire, particularly the young woman in the centre who has been posing for photographers showing off her well-filled #DEMO2012 t-shirt (and there are a couple more pictures of her doing so on My London Diary, which I like too.) I went on to photograph another group from UCLAN with a young woman clutching her teddy bear, which made them laugh too.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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