Die-In and March for Palestine: Saturday 2nd November saw another huge march in London in support of the Palestinian people calling for urgent action by the by the international community to end brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools in Gaza and an end the deliberate starvation of Palestinians.
Examining what had happened from October 2023 to July 2024 in Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan they state: “Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life — food, water, and fuel, These statements along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid make clear Israel’s intent to instrumentalise life-saving supplies for political and military gains.”
London, UK. 2 Nov 24.
“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population.”
London, UK. 2 Nov 24. Health Care Workers.
You can read more about the report on the UN web site. It is to be presented to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly today – 18 November 2024, calling on “all Member States to uphold their legal obligations to prevent and stop Israel’s violations of international law and hold it accountable.”
London, UK. 2 Nov 24.
Doubtless there will be a few countries including the USA and Britain who will uphold the freedom of the state of Israel to continue its genocide and keep on supplying the weapons that enable them to do so.
London, UK. 2 Nov 24.
I was intending to write something more about what is happening in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere – and about the urgent need for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the start of longer term negotiations to bring about a just and permanent solution which would enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace.
London, UK. 2 Nov 24.
But it would largely be repeating things I’ve written many times before and I’ve decided to leave it to the UN committee and a few of the many pictures I took on the march to tell the story.
London, UK. 2 Nov 24
As usual there was a Jewish block on the protest as well as many Jewish indivuals elsewhere in the march, along with the small group of anti-Zionist Jews who have always supported freedom for Palestine. There was also a small protest against the march at the north end of Vauxhall Bridge which curiously included those calling for he release of hostages – which a ceasefire and negotiations has the strongest chance of acheiving.
London, UK. 2 Nov 24. Neterei Karta Anti-Zionist JewsLondon, UK. 2 Nov 24
Students march for free education: Several thousand students marched from Malet Street to Parliament on Wednesday 15th November 2017 calling for an end to all tuition fees, for living grants for all and an end to all government cuts.
Around 60% of 18 year-olds now continue their education in either universities or FE colleges, with just under 40% at university – though rather more women than men. This figure has increased massively since the 1960s when only around 4% of us went to university.
But back then we paid no fees and there were means-tested maintenance grants which gave those of us whose parents were on low incomes enough to live on during term-time though parents who could afford it were expected to make a contribution.
Many of us needed to find jobs in the long Summer Vacation or over Christmas when many students were needed by the Post Office to deal with the huge volume of Christmas cards, but universities generally prohibited working in term-time – and those students that needed to because their parents didn’t cough up with their contribution had to keep their work a secret.
My full grant was I think £300 a year which had to cover rent, meals, travel, books etc over the 30 weeks at university – equivalent, allowing for inflation to around £5,300 now, though I think it would be impossible to survive on that now. The maximum student loan for living expenses for 2024/5 for those living apart from their parents is now £10,227 – or £13,348 for those in London.
Students now also have to pay tuition fees for which they can also get loans up to the full amount – currently £9,250 but with a recently announced increase to £9,535 for the 2025-26 academic year.
So for a normal 3 year degree course those taking out the full loans possible will end up owing around £60,000. I ended my course with a degree and around £7 in the bank.
Of course student loans are not like other loans, and students only start repayment when there income exceeds a certain threshold – currently around £25,000, though this depends on when students took out their loan. And after 30 or 40 years (again depending on this) any remaining loan is wiped out. But still the amounts are daunting.
Because these are loans, the government is still essentially paying out the cost of tuition and maintenance for current students. But they hope eventually to get some of the money back – again the forecast of how depends on the scheme in place when students took out their loan.
I’ve been unable to find a figure for the amount of repayment the student loans company is currently receiving, but I think it is fairly low compared with the amount they are giving out in new loans. The total debt owed is expected to rise to around £25 billion.
With this background its perhaps not surprising that students now – and in 2017 when I took the pictures here that students are angry about the cost of their education and that several thousands took part in the student march organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts despite it not being supported by the National Union of Students.
But this was not their only concern. They also marched to condemn the increasing marketisation of the education system that is resulting in cuts across university campuses and a dramatic reduction in further education provision across the country. They also say that the Teaching Excellence Framework which was supposed to ‘drive up standards in teaching’ has instead intensified the exploitation and casualisation of university staff as a part of the marketisation agenda.
National Anti-Fur March: The march on began with a short rally in Belgrave Square before moving off to protest outside many of the luxury shops in the area that still sell fur products, including Harrods.
Protests like this one organised by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) had played an important part in making the public aware of the terrible cruelty to animals taking place in fur farms which led to fur farming being made illegal in the UK in 2001.
But it remains legal to sell fur in the UK – so supporting the cruelty in fur farms overseas. And the protesters demonstrated at many of the best known names in exxpensive fashion – including Armani, Gucci, Fendi, Joseph, Prada, Versace, Gianfranco Ferre, Dolce and Gabbana, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli and Nicole Farhi in Sloane St, and Burberry and Harrods in Brompton Road still selling fur products.
It seems only logical that when the government passed the law banning fur farming they should also have banned the sale of fur.
But perhaps a significant reason for not doing so was the fact that fur is still used in some military uniforms, notably the bearskins worn by the guards. Worn at ceremonial events including the changing of the guards in London and Windsor, these stupidly large headdresses each requires the killing of a black bear in licensed hunts in Canada and cost over £2,000 each. They could be replaced by false fur at a hugely lower cost.
Many leading figures including the former and current Queen have announced they will not buy fur, but others among the uncaring rich continue to do so.
According to PETA, in a 2020 “YouGov opinion poll commissioned by animal protection charity Humane Society International/UK… Only 3% said they would wear the cruelly obtained material.“
They say “Designers such as Calvin Klein, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Tommy Hilfiger have pledged never to use fur in their collections. The majority of high-street and online stores – including Topshop, AllSaints, and ASOS – are also fur-free.“
Others to have recently made the change to faux fur in their collections “include Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Versace, Coach, and Prada” and “in 2018, London Fashion Week became the first major fashion week not to show any fur on its catwalk” according to an Independent article.
But among those still selling fur, still part of the truly horrific trade, are “Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Max Mara, Harrods, Alberta Ferreti, Carolina Herrera, Roberto Cavalli.“
You can read a long account of the protest and see many more pictures from the event on My London Diary at National Anti-fur March.
St Paul’s, Lord Mayor’s Show, Somalia, Egypt & Abortion: Occupy London were still encamped at St Paul’s Cathedral on the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s Show which made the day a little more interesting than usual. But also on Saturday 12th November 2011 I visited the cathedral, went with Occupy to protest against UK arms supplies to the Egyptian Army and covered a protest about the continuing war in Somalia and a ‘500 crosses for Life’ anti-abortion procession.
The Lord Mayor’s Show & Occupy
After blessing the Lord Mayor, St Paul’s Canon in Residence Rt Revd Michael Colclough came at their request and blessed Occupy LSX in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. Later the camp hosted a ‘Not the Lord Mayors Show‘ festival of entertainment.
Occupy had set up a polling booth close to the route to point out the uniquely undemocratic nature of the City of London, where ordinary voters are outnumbered 4 to 1 by the votes of corporations which results in it promoting “a radical bankers’ agenda at odds with the interests and democratic desire of the British people.”
Occupy also received many more visitors than usual because of the crowds who had come up for the procession and after the official event had ended put on their own ‘NOT The Lord Mayor’s Show’, “a festival for the people, which aims to place the celebratory atmosphere of the traditional event in a non-hierarchical and community-focused environment.”
On the web site a supporter stated “We will not have golden carriages, we will not have military costumes, we will not have a marching band, but we are going to enjoy ourselves. This is about valuing people and community, rather than privileging the undemocratically elected Lord Mayor of the City of London.”
Before I left there was a show with comedians, spoken word artists and singers in a show compèred by stand-up comedian Andy Zaltzman. Later there was to be a special general meeting with speakers including John McDonnell MP. And as it was also Remembrance weekend, in the evening the camp was hosting the UK première of ‘The Welcome’, an award-winning US documentary film about a project for dealing with post-traumatic stress involving ex-soldiers and their family members.
I took some time away from Occupy to photograph the rather strange mix of floats and walking groups that make up the Lord Mayor’s Show.
There were the various groups from London’s guilds – including the Launderers in the picture, though the only laundering that goes on in London these days is of money with London being the world capital for making dirty money seem respectable.
And floats for a wide range of organisations – and there were some which it was rather harder to know quite what they represented with more carnival costumes.
Together with many of those at OccupyLSX who were also watching, I found the marching servicemen, military vehicles and weapons and military bands that are a major element of it disturbing. Like much of the celebration they look back to when Britain ruled the world.
The City of London is of course an anachronism, though now one that hides the ruthless pursuit of profit by any means it can get away with, including the now clearly immoral support of highly polluting industries such as fossil fuels which now threaten the future of many species on Earth including our own.
Entry to St Paul’s Cathedral except to attend services normally costs what they describe as a “small fee”, now £25 per adult, though only £14.50 in 2011. But entry is free on the day of the Lord Mayor’s show (though slightly restricted) and I took advantage of this to go the ‘Stone Gallery’ around the bottom of the dome where photography was allowed.
And I took full advantage of this, making rather a lot of pictures in every available direction, a few of which I’ve put online.
International Day to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian Revolution had begun with high hopes as a part of the Arab Spring and toppled the Mubarek regime, but since then things had not gone well for the coutry, with the army taking charge.
Since then there had been over 2000 trials in military courts, without the ability to call witnesses or access to lawyers in a programme of repression against any opposition. Many have been sentenced to death, and torture remains widespread. Many of those imprisoned are underage and women have been subjected to rapes and sexual assault.
The UK government supported the Egyptian military and UK arms manufacturers supply the army and police there with the weapons needed to maintain their repression.
A group of protesters from OccupyLSX as well as some Egyptians and Sam Weinstein of the US Utility Workers Union left for a ‘march of shame’ to the offices of 3 arms dealers, Qinetiq, BAE and Rolls Royce, who had gone to Egypt with Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011 to sell arms to the Egyptian army.
The protesters condemned the violence against the people of Egypt and called on the UK government to withhold support to Egypt and stop arms sales until a civilian government dedicated to freedom and civil rights is in power in Egypt.
I left them at Ludgate Circus on their way to the offices.
Somalis Protest Obama’s War – Old Palace Yard, Westminster
I paid a brief visit to Old Palace Yard opposite the House of Lords where a protest had been announces against the US-backed proxy war by Ethiopia against Somalia.
But when I arrived at the time the protest was supposed to start I found only three men and a boy there, with a number of placards. The men assured me more would arrive later, and I did return two hours later but found the place deserted. I think by then the protesters might have left to protest at the Ethiopian embassy in Kensington rather than outside an empty Parliament.
But my return to Westminster was not fruitless as I came across another protest, with several hundred people carrying white crosses in an anti-abortion ‘500 crosses for Life’ prayer procession.
This had started at Westminster Cathedral and when I met it was leaving Old Palace Yard and walking towards its end at Westminster Abbey.
I went with them in the fading light around 4.30pm and took some pictures. As I wrote back in 2011, “I don’t share the views of the Catholic Church on abortion and find the use of the term ‘pro-life’ by those opposed to abortion to describe themselves offensive. It’s an area where we need clear and unpredjudiced thinking and where all – whatever their view on abortion – are concerned with life and the quality of life.”
A speaker at the rally gave thanks for the activities of those in Germany who were protesting outside abortion clinics. I’m pleased by the recent announcement that these activities are now to be severely restricted in England and Wales with safe access zones.
In 2011 I commented “isn’t harassing women who go to clinics at what is almost certainly for them a very stressful time morally offensive, a demonstration of an un-Christian lack of love as well as a statement of lack of faith in the power of prayer?”
XR Zombie System Collapse Action: On Wednesday 30th October I returned to Trinity Square Garden to cover the third day and final day of Extinction Rebellion’s actions demanding the insurance industry end their support of new fossil fuel projects – part of a week of world-wide action, including protests the following two days in other UK cities. I’d missed Day 2 where they had marched with a giant potato.
XR had posted: “We Predict a Riot – mass action…..a zombie apocalypse! A wide range of creative actions will highlight what social collapse will look like in the UK as the population begins to panic in the face of repeated floods and food shortages over the next decade.”
And we had been promised a “Zombie die-in with flashmob, zombie insurers stumbling around” as well as a “Zombie Mass Dance Discobedience – This is the undead dance for life! – wear business suits with a zombie twist. We are the undead, dancing our way through the halls of power to expose the profiteers of destruction!”
I arrived to find a group of around 20 people practising the Zombie dance in Trinity Square, and a giant bomb of CO2 with protesters in business suits holding red boxes with the words WAR, FAMINE, EXTINCTION and FLOOD and a man reading a special copy of the ‘Daily Fail’.
Eventually the several hundred protesters set off on a march heading to Tower Palce, the home of insurers MarshMcLennan, where there was loud music from the Samba band, a short speech calling on them to end the insuring of new fossil fuel projects, a die-in, a few zombies runnning around and then the Zombie Mass Dance Discobedience.
Reading The Crimes outside insurers MarshMcLennan
Next stop was insurers AIG where a small group went inside the building to deliver a letter, but were soon ushered out.
The march continued around the City, before stopping for a lunch break outside the Howden Group offices on the corner with Bevis Marks.
After lunch the march continued, going back past Lloyds and on to the Sky Garden building in Fenchurch St, home to home to insurers Ascot, Talbot, Chaucer, Markel, Allied World, CNA Hardy, Tokio Marine Kiln, Sirius International and Lancashire Syndicates.
Here a small group had arrived before us to poster the windows with large signs, ‘INSURING FOSSIL FUELS = CLIMATE CHAOS’ and three campaigners were perched on top of the main entrance porch.
I’d been on my feet too long and things seemed to be at an end, so I sloped off for a pint of Brains (it was Halloween) in the Crosse Keys before making my way home. You can read about the protest in a press release from XR, and see more of my pictures here.
XR Floods Are Here – Don’t Insure Fossil Fuels: On Monday 28th Oct 2024 Extinction Rebellion began three days of action in London demanding that insurers end supplying insurance to fossil fuel projects. This was a part of a week of action with protests taking place around the country and of a global campaign, ‘Insure Our Future‘.
Gail Bradbrook is interviewed.
On October 14th XR sent an ultimatum to senior executives at all the UK-based insurance companies who insure climate breakdown telling them that unless they made “a pledge to get out of new oil, coal and gas” they would face non-violent direct action and protests.
“Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “The insurance industry has the power to stop the fossil fuel industry in its tracks by withdrawing the insurance that protects them from huge financial losses when things go wrong in a high-risk industry.
“Currently, insurers are refusing to use that power. Instead, they are choosing to bet on profits from underwriting oil, gas and coal projects that are accelerating the climate crisis to levels that could destroy our civilisation in our lifetimes.
“In effect, Insurers are insuring the worst people in the world to dig up more fossil fuels that cause extreme weather and flood our homes. Then they are charging us more and more to insure our homes against the increasing risk of flooding. “
The letter, also published online, pointed out that one of the most respected climate research institutions in the world the Potsdam Institute had just issued a damning report which made clear we were facing a global emergency and “very fabric of life on Earth is imperilled.” They point out that global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes account for approximately 90% of the carbon dioxide and “and other greenhouse gases are the primary drivers of climate change.”
Without insurance, new fossil fuel projects could not go ahead. At least one insurance company, Zurich Insurance, immediately announced that hey would no longer insure new oil and gas projects.
Monday’s protest theme was ‘The floods are here!‘ and this protest came the day before it was sadly demonstrated how true this was when “torrential rain … brought over a year’s worth of precipitation to several areas in southeastern Spain, including the Valencian Community, Castilla–La Mancha, and Andalusia.”
Several hundred XR protesters met at Tower Hill at 11am and set off to march around the City of London to stage protests outside insurance offices. Some wore southwesters and were carrying a pink inflatable boat, with others wore white hazard suits and held ‘CLIMATE CRIME SCENE’ police tapes.
Among the insurers the march targeted were Allianz and Lloyds and there were smaller groups picketing Hiscox which is supporting the the EACOP East Africa Crude Oil ‘carbon bomb’ pipeline and AXA.
Away from the march supporters Scientists for XR entered the lobby of the insurance industry’s regulatory body, the Prudential Regulation Authority. The march ended with a die-in in the open area next to St Mary Axe, facing Lloyds and next to the Leadenhall Building.
HP, Poor Doors & Anonymous: On Wednesday 5th November 2014 Guy Fawkes was obviously on our minds, and from a protest against HP’s support of the Israeli army and prisons I went on to a protest where a guy with a Boris Johnson mask was burnt and then joined Anonymous with their march on Parliament.
Boycott Hewlett Packard – Sustainable Brands – Lancaster London Hotel
Hewlett Packard, now known as HP, though that’s still a name that makes me think of brown sauce in bottles with a picture of the Houses of Parliament, were the sponsors of the Sustainable Brands conference taking place at the Lancaster London Hotel at Lancaster Gate.
Protesters from Inminds came there to protest against the company’s role in IT support for Israeli forces who had killed 521 Palestinian children in the then recent attack on Gaza, as well as in running the Israeli prison system. They handed out fliers to those going in and out of the hotel and others spoke about the HP’s deep involvement in Israeli war crimes and persecution of Palestinians.
They point out that young Palestinian boys as well as other prisoners have been kept for long periods in solitary confinement and tortured in Israeli prisons supported by HP. Many older Palestinian men and women are also locked up in ‘administrative confinement’ without any proper charges or trial, often being released and then immediately being confined again in what amounts to infinite imprisonment.
[HP Sauce is definitely a long-lived brand, having got its name in 1895, five years after it was first produced in Nottingham as ‘The Banquet Sauce’, though in 1988 like most things British it was sold off to foreigners. Currently it is owned by Heinz and made in the Netherlands and still tastes much the same. ]
Poor Doors Guy Fawkes Burn Boris – One Commercial St, Aldgate
I met Class War in a nearby pub before they marched to yet another of their weekly protests against the ‘social apartheid’ in this large block with a plush foyer and concierge for the ‘luxury’ flats for the wealthy and a bleak side entrance down an alley for the poor in social housing in the same building.
They had with them two effigies of Boris Johnson, one a BJ placard, one hand holding a bottle of ‘Boris Bolly’ and the other fanning out a wad of notes, and a life-size ‘guy’ in a suit and tie with a Boris facemask and a mop as hair, who was dragged along the the protest holding one end of the Class War Womens Death Squad banner.
Class War had brought along sparklers for the protest, and at some point the inevitable happened and ‘Boris’ was set alight, eventually burning to a small heap of burning material in the middle of the wide pavement. As you can see in the picture there was plenty of space around so no-one was in any danger.
The police called the Fire Brigade, who when they arrived, looked, laughed and walked away. But police insisted they deal with the fire. It took one fireman and one bucket of water.
After the fire was put out, police grabbed Jane Nicholl and told her she was being arrested for having set light to the guy.
A large crowd surrounded her and the police, calling on them to release her, but eventually they managed to take her and put her in the back of a van, which was then surrounded by people.
More police arrived and there were flashing blue lights everywhere, as police tried to clear a path for the van. Eventually police managed to drive away.
They then grabbed another of the protesters, handcuffed him and carried him away, though I think he was later released without charge. The CPS had agreed that burning the effigy was legitimate freedom of expression but Jane was charged with lighting a fire on or over a highway so a person using the highway was injured or endangered. But the CPS were unable to produce any evidence that burning Boris ‘injured, interrupted or endangered’ any passerby – it clearly hadn’t – and the case was dismissed.
Guy Fawkes ‘Anonymous’ Million Mask March – Parliament Square
Hundreds had met in Trafalgar Square for the world wide Million Mask March against austerity, the corporate takeover of government and the abuse of power, but by the time I arrived from Aldgate had marched down to Parliament Square. Some were on the ground under a police van with another standing on its read bumper with a placard.
Here there were a mass of barriers and large groups of riot police threatening the protesters, who called on them to put their batons away and join their Guy Fawkes party without success.
Many of the protesters wore ‘Anonymous’ masks but there were relatively few with placards and nobody seemed to have much idea about what they should do. They stood around, then marched around the square a bit before some decided to march to Buckingham Palace where I learned later that things did get a bit more lively. But I’d had enough by then and had gone home.
Students March for Free Education. On Wednesday 4th November 2015 students, led by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) marched through central London against the abolition of maintenance grants calling for free education without fees and huge student debts and an end to turning higher education into a market system impoverishing staff and students.
Back in the distant past when I was a student, UK students paid no tuition fees at UK universities and I got a grant of around £300 a year which was then just about enough to pay my living expenses, at least for the three terms I was away from each year, paid by my local authority.
Because my family income was low, I got a full grant, while some of my friends from wealthier families got lower grants and had to rely on their parents to give them a ‘parental contribution’ – and not all did, though some others were more than generous.
More recently, my two sons also benefited from maintenance grants and no fees, my younger son just squeezing into the final year before student fees came in. By then my salary as a teacher – our sole household income at the time – meant we were assessed to make a small parental contribution to his maintenance.
Since then things have got a lot tougher for students, with loans for both tuition fees and their living expenses. New Labour brought in tuition fees in 1998, means-tested at £1000 per year, then tightened the screw in 2004 when they tripled to £3000 and poorer families now had to pay the full amount.
In 2012 the Tory-led coalition tripled the fee yet again, setting a maximum of £9000 – and I think all universities charged more or less that maximum. Currently they are frozen after being rasied to £9250 in 2017, but are expected to rise with inflation from 2025 if no further changes are made. For a few years in opposition Labour promised to remove tuition fees, but that promise seems to have been quickly forgotten after Starmer became leader.
It was Thatcher who first introduced student loans for maintenance but these were in addition to maintenance grants for those who did not get full grants. It was again New Labour in 1998 that abolished maintenance grants for all but the poorest students – and these went in 2016.
Student loans have operated under several systems since 1990, with the first major change taking place in 1998 and the next in 2012, when the first Income-Contingent Repayment Plan 1 was introduced. Students this year are on the 5th version of this, with a new version for those starting in 2023.
Martin Lewis summarises the 1923 changes in a clear graphic. Students who started in 2023 pay 9% of their income when they earn over £25,000 a year and keep paying for 40 years after they left university. Inflation-linked interest is added to the amount on loan, typically now around £60,000 for a three-year course.
Most students now also have to supplement their income with part time jobs, as estimates for the income needed to take a full part in three years of university life together with tuition fees come to more than £80,000. It’s a far cry from back when I was at university when students taking paid work during term-time was frowned upon or prohibited by the university authorities.
The 2015 protest formed up at Malet Street outside what had until 2013 been the University of London Union where there were speeched, then marched to Parliament Square . From there it went on the Home Office and Dept of Business, Innovation & Skills and became more chaotic, with a black bloc of students took over and police rather fragmented the march.
You can read about it and see many more pictures – and also of the celebration going on in Parliament Square following the release of the last British resident, Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo on My London Diary.
Bash The Rich & Diwali: On Saturday 3rd November 2007 I photographed Class War attempting to march to David Cameron’s house in Notting Hill before going to Alperton for the Brent Diwali Parade. Here I’ll use – with some slight changes and some comments – what I wrote in 2007 about these events on My London Diary.
Bash The Rich – Class War – Notting Hill
Fitwatch get between the police FIT team photographer and the event
‘Bash the Rich‘ is probably still a popular slogan [and the title of a highly readable memoir by Ian Bone, subtitled ‘The true-life confessions of an anarchist’ still available], but the anarchist demonstration in Notting Hill which marched to Tory leader David Cameron’s house on Saturday attracted only around a hundred supporters (I think quite a few decided they would rather stay in the pub.)
The were watched, harassed and escorted by a similar number of police, with the inevitable police photographer to goad FitWatch into action.
Ian Bone
The police did allow the march to take place, if with a number of fits and starts, holding it for no apparent reason at various places, and it went along Oxford Gardens until it reached the junction with Wallingford Avenue, apparently withing shouting distance of Cameron’s home, although the Tory leader was sensibly miles away for the weekend.
There were a number of minor clashes between demonstrators and police, with three arrests being made, although I understand all were later released without charge.
Some of the friction was caused by a little over-keen encouragement of the marchers to move when the police wanted them to move – and I too was pushed on numerous occasions, and stopped from leaving the march for some time after I went inside the cordon.
Some of the police were also treated to considerable abuse, but most retained their good humour – as did most of the marchers.
Earlier, some had taken a walk around the area following Tom Vague‘s truly fascinating ‘Bash the Rich Class War Radical History Tour of Notting Hill‘ which had been published online by Indymedia UK as the souvenir programme for the event.
[Tom Vague is “writer and editor of the post-punk fanzine Vague as well as numerous publications on situationists, psychogeography and West London radical history.” Among these is ‘LondonPsychogeography – Rachman Riots and Rillington Place‘, described “almost as the autobiography of Nothing Hill with him as the inspired mouthpiece, his own biography mixed with that of the subject. He is the place.”
Somewhere I still have my copy of the programme, but it is still online if you sign up for 30 days free to ‘Your Media Publisher’publisher Yumpu where a number of Indymedia ePapers including this can be downloaded. It is no longer available in the Indymedia UK archive.
I left before a final rally at the end of the march to go to Alperton. ]
Diwali. the festival of lights, is one of the main events in the Hindu calendar and thousands of people come to watch and take part in the parade and festivities in Brent.
I arrived in time to watch some of the preparations and stayed for the start of the parade,
But then went home to watch the fireworks rather than waiting to see those in Barham Park.
[Brent is the UK’s most diverse borough by country of birth, with just over half of its residents born abroad, including many in India and other Asian countries, the Caribbean, Africa, Ireland and Eastern European countries. Until cuts in local government funding by the Tory-led government after 2010 the council funded a number of festivals including Diwali to bring communities together.
In the 2011 census almost 18% of the population of Brent identified themselves as Hindu, but many from the other communites came to join in and watch the Diwali events.]
March & Rally Against Custody Deaths: The march in London on Saturday 26th October 2024 by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) was the 25th annual remembrance of the thousands who have died after being arrested by police or held in prisons, secure mental health and immigration detention in suspicious circumstances.
The exact number of these deaths is not known, but is clearly very much larger than any official statistics. At some earlier of these events people have carried a list with well over 2000 names from the last 40 or so years.
Just a few of these cases have become well-known, both through continuing protests by the families and friends of those who have been killed and in a few cases also through inquests and prosecutions. But prosecutions have been rare and convictions non-existent even where the evidence has seemed clear.
Marcia Rigg holds Keir Starmer’s 1988 booklet ‘The right to life’.
Most have involved physically fit young men, usually in their 20s, who have been arrested by police. People from all communities but with young black men being over-represented, but there are also those of Asian heritage, white British and all others, women, older people. Almost all from the poorer parts of our society.
Attempts by the families to get information about the deaths have often been obstructed by police and official investigations into what happened have often been at best cursory, often more concerned with covering up than investigating. Despite the huge number of deaths there have been no convictions, no cases where families have felt they have received justice. And one of the most common chants is ‘No Justice, No Peace!’
Few of these cases receive more than a short paragraph in a local newspaper, and where they do get more coverage it is largely due to the persistence of the families in finding the evidence, campaigning and presentations to inquests – often deliberately delayed for many years by the authorities.
One of these is of course the case of Sean Rigg, killed by Brixton Police in 2008. At his inquest four years later, despite several police officers committing perjury, the jury concluded the police “more than minimally” contributed to his death – and were highly critical of the restraint that killed him. Eventually one officer was charged with perjury but acquitted by the jury despite the evidence. His family, particularly his sister Marcia Rigg, continue to fight for justice.
This annual march and rally has usually been completely ignored by the mainstream press – though journalists including myself have covered it. This year there was rather more interest than usual following the ‘not-guilty’ verdict on the police officer who shot Chris Kaba in the head at close range.
On Saturday The Guardian misreported this event in a single sentence in an article on page 6 about Robinson’s arrest: “the United Families and Friends Campaign is planning a protest in Trafalgar Square against the acquittal this week of the firearms officer who shot Chris Kaba dead.”
Justice for Chris Kaba campaigner.
The UFFC wasn’t. It had planned its usual annual commemoration and protest over the many thousands of custody deaths, though supporters of Chris Kaba’s family took part in it, and one of them spoke breifly at the start and at the rally in Whitehall where there were also a number of speakers from other family campaigns.
Trafalgar Square – or rather its southern edge – was only the start of the march, which was to a rally in Whitehall. Normally this would have taken place at the entrance to Downing Street, but this year there was a police barricade some distance before this, and instead the rally took place in front of the Cabinet Office.
The interest aroused by the Kaba shooting did make for a larger protest than in previous years and it was augmented too by some people who had arrived early for the Stand Up to Racism rally. Several thousand filled out across the street to listen to the families speaking.
As usual a small delegation from the event were to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister at Downing Street, though in some years they have been refused entry by the police. They too were prevented by the police barricade, but later I heard that police had helped them deliver it. But as well as the letter, the envelope contained a copy of the 1998 booklet by Keir Starmer, ‘The Right To Life’ in which he had written “When citizens die at the hands of the police, or make serious allegation of torture in police custody, the reaction of the state raises very serious questions about the protection of human rights.”
Justice for Chris Kaba campaigners and Qian Zheng, partner of late Benjamin Zephaniah raise fists,
You can listen to one of the speeches from the rally, by Temi Mwale, founder of the 4Front Project, in which she quotes from that booklet in a video on the Real Media site.
