It was security guards again the following day, or rather the company that employs many of them – though couldn’t find enough for the Olympics, and don’t provide them for the University of London. But they do provide security services for the Israeli government to keep Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, mainly without charge and in defiance of International law. And they did employ the 4 men in whose hands Jimmy Mubenga was killed on a forced deportation flight from Heathrow.
And a few other practices many of us find morally indefensible, as one placard listed. It perhaps isn’t inappropriate that most times I try to type their company name it comes out as G$S rather than G4S.
Central London at the moment is full of building sites, and the first three sets of steps I tried to go up to make my way to Salters Hall where their AGM was taking place were all blocked off; eventually I got there by pretending I was a car rather than a pedestrian and walking on a main road past another blockage. The City doesn’t seem to be suffering much from the current recession, despite having caused it.
By the time I arrived, with roadworks holding up and diverting my bus, I was a little late and missed the start of the event. The protest was perhaps just a little confused with several different groups taking part, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Apartheid Wall and prisoner in a cage were rather tucked away behind the other protesters.
It was all a little crowded, with police keeping the protesters off the road, and in this part of the city around the Barbican there isn’t a great deal of pavement, as pedestrians were planned to be segregated from traffic at first floor level on the walkways there – you can just see one of the walkway bridges at top left in top image above.
I tried my best to find something but wasn’t too happy with the results. Plenty of pictures that were OK, but somehow I couldn’t fit things quite into place, the magic just wasn’t there.
Looking at the pictures at Outrage outside G4S AGM I don’t think it was for want of trying. Some days things just don’t work out as well as others.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated are by Peter Marshall and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
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