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Workers, May Day March & Police Party 2006

Workers, May Day March & Police Party: May 1st is of course May Day, International Workers’ Day, and I will be at Clerkenwell for the annual May Day march in London, and perhaps some other events to celebrate the day. For Catholics it is also dedicated to Saint Joseph the Worker, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus and approopriately in 2006 my day started outside Westminster Cathedral with the launch of the London Citizens Workers’ Association. Here is what I posted back on May Day in 2006 – with the usual corrections and links to more pictures on My London Diary.

London Citizens Workers’ Association – Westminster Cathedral

May 1st saw the launch of the London Citizens Workers’ Association, a new organisation to support low-wage and migrant workers across London, backed by faith organisations, trade unions and social justice organisations. May 1 is the feast of St Joseph the Worker and the event began with a procession into the cathedral and a ‘Mass For Workers’, but I didn’t bother to get up in time for that.

After the mass was a ‘Living Wage rally’ outside the cathedral, with speakers including Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor (then leader of the Catholic Church in England & Wales), Sir Iqbal Sacranie (Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain), and Jack Dromey (General Secretary of the TGWU) along with representatives of other unions and faiths, and of the new association.

The association aims to fight a campaign for a living wage for low paid workers as well as training them to organise and campaign and providing free advice on rights at work and legal support. Workers in low paid jobs often also lack decent working conditions and there was in 2006 little trade union representation*. It will also provide english classes.

Several large employers who have already taken steps to improve conditions were awarded ‘Living Wage Employers awards’ at the rally, but I didn’t wait around for this.
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[* Since 2006 we have seen the rise of several grass roots trade unions taking a strong stance for the rights of low paid workers, particularly migrant workers, including the United Voices of the World and the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain.]

London May Day March – Clerkenwell

Around half of London’s tube network seemed to be down for planned engineering works, and getting around was a bit like playing Mornington Crescent to some very special rules. But the Victoria Line and Thameslink got me to Farringdon well before the start of the annual May Day parade.

This seemed larger than in previous years, with a few more trade unions there, with particularly strong support from the RMT, but many others also took part, including my own – the NUJ (and there were many of us members covering the event as well.)

As usual, the most colourful aspect of the march was provided by the various Turkish communist parties, with strong youth wings. MKLP (and its KGO youth), the DHKC, the TIKB, the TKP/ML and probably more. There were some powerful reminders of the repression in Turkey in the portraits of some of those who have died in terrorist actions or death fasts.

Movements in a number of other countries were also represented, including Iraq, Iran Greece and Sri Lanka as well as the Kurds. Also taking part was the African Liberation Support Campaign Network.

Gate Gourmet strikers marching behind their banner chanted “Tony Woodley – out out!” denouncing the attempts of the TGWU to force them to sign the compromise agreement which waives their rights to further work or legal redress. Others demanded that Remploy factories be kept open. There were protests over the Dexion and Samuel Jones pension outrages, and other causes.

More or less bringing up the rear of the march were around 500-1000 in the Autonomous Bloc, an anti-capitalist grouping marching against ‘precarity’, the working environment of late capitalism.

Increasingly there is a polarisation of the employment market in our service-based economies, characterised at one end by poor conditions, lack of job security, temporary employment, use of migrant labour at one extreme, and at the other by increasing encroachment of work into the private lives of more highly paid employees, making them into company property in exchange for their security.

In contrast to the relatively low-profile police presence for the rest of the event, this bloc was flanked on both sides by a line of uniformed police. Many of the marchers in this section wore scarves covering the lower half of their faces, and some carried anarchist flags. Leading the block were a number of bicycles, and a pedal powered sound system.

The march continued on its way to Trafalgar Square, where people stood around mainly looking pretty bored. I didn’t catch much of the speeches but if what I heard was typical I could understand why.

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Autonomous Bloc in Trafalgar Square

When the Autonomous Bloc arrived at the square, the police barred their entry on the grounds of public order and seized the sound system. More than half those marching left at this point, with the police making little attempt to stop individuals who wandered into the square.

The rest of the bloc stayed on the road, with a few short speeches over a loud hailer, then moved up the side of the square towards the national gallery, where there was another short meeting. This was interrupted by the news that the police tactical support group was on its way, and they soon surrounded the relatively small group who had decided to stay.

I walked through the police line at this point, and they seemed to be making little attempt to stop anyone leaving, or at least didn’t detain them for more than a few minutes.

Pictures from the autonomous bloc on the main march here, but there are more pictures from Trafalgar Square here.

Space Hijackers Police Victory Party – Bank

While the marchers were walking to Trafalgar Square, I took what was left of the tube to Bank and the ‘Police Victory Party‘ organised on their behalf by the Space Hijackers.

There I watched Tony Blair and some rather more attractive than usual police (and with pink fluffy hand-cuffs) being watched by some other police. A couple of the latter walked away when asked if they would mind being photographed, but some others seemed to be rather amused by the proceedings.

Of course, the police (both lots) were taking lots of pictures of the events too, and I can imagine some of them causing amusement at section house parties.

There was a ‘pin the blame on the anarchist’ game, a pinata (ta for the mini Mars bar) and some dancing before I had to rush off to make the gig at Trafalgar Square. Where the politics were perhaps less serious.

more pictures

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Union Busting, Tibet, Women & Sharia – 2009

Union Busting, Tibet, Women & Sharia: My work on Saturday 7th March began outside fashion store Prada in Mayfair. I moved on to the Chinese Embassy for the annual Tibet Freedom March, then to Portman Square for a International Women’s Day march and finally to Trafalgar Square where ‘One Law for All’ were marching to a public meeting against the use of Sharia and other faith-based laws in the UK.

Union Busting – Just SO Last Season – Prada, Old Bond St

Union Busting, Tibet, Women & Sharia - 2009

A dozen people from Labour Behind the Label, part of the international ‘Clean Clothes Campaign’ which campaigns in support of garment workers worldwide were protesting outside Prada, one of the best-known luxury brands around the world.

The ridiculously expensive fashion luxury goods its customers buy are not made in Milan where Prada was founding but in factories such as the DESA factory in Turkey. Workers there are on ridiculously low pay and work long shifts – sometimes up to 40 hours.

When in April 2008 workers at DESA decided to join the Turkish leather workers union, 44 were sacked and 50 forced to resign from the union.

Demonstrations outside the DESA factory have led to repression and arrests and when one union leader refused to accept a bribe, her family was threatened, and later that day men on a motorbike attempted to kidnap her 11 year old daughter.

Prada wasn’t the only luxury goods seller profiting from this despicable exploitation – the DESA factory in the Dzce Industrial Zone also makes goods for Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Samsonite, Aspinal of London, Nicole Farhi and Luella.

As well as publishing more about the protest – and of course more pictures, my London Diary post also pointed out that it isn’t just the high price designer labels that support sweatshops, but also Matalan and other cheap suppliers and supermarkets – and urged readers to visit the Labour Behind the Label web site to find out more and support their actions.

Union Busting – Just SO Last Season

Tibet Freedom March – 50 Years – Chinese Embassy

The march marked the 50th anniversary of the brutal repression by China of the ‘Tibetan People’s Uprising‘, when over 80,000 Tibetans were killed and many others jailed.

It was then the Dalai Lama fled the country along with many others. Those still in Tibet still suffer the same kind of brutal repression, with thousands missing after the demonstrations in Tibet in 2008, and hundreds serving lengthy prison sentences.

Many on the protest carried Tibetan flags. Two months earlier a young Tibetan, Pema Tsepak, had been beaten to death for carrying one in his own town in Tibet.

At the start of the march opposite the Chinese Embassy, Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk who spent 33 years in prison and labour camps from 1959 to 1992 and was permanently damaged by the beatings and inhumane torture he suffered tried to deliver a letter to the Chinese Embassy but the Embassy was not accepting any post.

Gyatso’s autobiography was the basis for the film, ‘Fire Under the Snow‘ – you can watch a trailer on YouTube.

I left the march when it reached Oxford Street to go to the International Women’s Day march.

Tibet Freedom March – 50 Years

Million Women Rise 2009 – Portman Square, Oxford St

The main celebration of International Women’s Day in London in 2009 was the ‘Million Women Rise 2009‘, a women-only march to end male violence against women.

This annual march since it started the previous year coincided with the global United Nation theme for 2009 which was ‘Women and men united to end violence against women and girls‘, but Million Women Rise is a women-only march.

*Hackney Women Rise. The march was co-ordinated by Sabrina Qureshi*

This year the numbers seemed rather smaller, despite the predictions of a much larger event, but it was still a lively event and one that made a greater impact with its route through London’s major shopping streets – Oxford Street and Regent Street and across Piccadilly Circus to a rally in Waterloo Place.

As they marched the women chanted their main message: “However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes, no means no!” and called for an end to male violence against women.

*“Yes means Yes and No means No” Women march along Oxford St*

This was a national march with coaches bringing women from Birmingham, Bradford, Hebden Bridge, Wales, Nottingham and Todmorden as well as other groups coming from around the country. There was also a strong participation by Kurdish and Turkish groups based in London.

One group marched behind the main march, choosing to follow the UN theme rather than be a women-only march; “the European Confederation of Workers from Turkey (ATIK) Women’s Commission group included men marching (as their placards proclaimed in Turkish) in a spirit of socialist equality, fraternity and freedom.”

Million Women Rise 2009

One Law For All – No Sharia Law in Britain – Trafalgar Square

The One Law for All campaign had been launched three months earlier on Human Rights Day by prominent civil rights activists, lawyers, feminists and academics as well as the National Secular Society.

*A speaker from the Worker Communist Party of Iran UK Committee*

Among those supporting it were many who had previously lived under Sharia, including both Muslims and ex-Muslims, some who had fled their home countries to claim asylum after persecution for political activities including the refusal to adhere to religious dictats.

The organisation objects to the setting up of Sharia courts in the UK, on the grounds that Sharia law is discriminatory and unjust, particularly against women and children. While supporters of religious courts see these as promoting minority rights and social cohesion they see them as a cheap short cut to injustice and call for one secular law to govern all of us.

After an hour of speeches One Law for All Spokesperson Maryam Namazie made a final address before the roughly 250 people present marched to a public meeting at Conway Hall. But I left for home instead.

One Law For All – No Sharia in Britain

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Fair Fares, Kobane and Biomass – 2014

Fair Fares, Kobane and Biomass: Ten years ago on Tuesday 28th October 2014 I photographed protests calling for fairer fares on our railways, an end to the Turkish backed Islamic state invasion of Kobane in Kurdish Syria and finally calling on the Green Investment Bank to end funding for hugely climate wrecking investments in using biomass for power generation.

Fair Fares Petition – Westminster

The Campaign for Better Transport, including their director Stephen Joseph OBE protested at the Dept of Transport before walking to Portcullis Hous to hand a petition with over 4000 signatures to Rail Minister Claire Perry MP calling on the recent increase in Northern Rail evening peak rail fares to be scrapped. My own rail fares also increased by around a third if I need to return from London between 4pm and 7pm, though the evening peak only really begins around 5pm.

We have the most expensive rail travel in the world, largely thanks to privatisation, as well as lower levels of service than many companies, and a hugely complex system of ticketing which often results in passengers paying more than necessary.

Labours Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill should eventually bring in a simpler more uniform structure for the railways and we can hope that it might make fares simpler to understand – and perhaps even less costly. Currently it is often cheaper to travel by less green modes of transport, even by air.

We also need to move away from the companies which lease trains and pay out huge dividends to their shareholders to a more sensible system in which the railways actually own trains and ensure that they provide more carriages on services which are now heavily overcrowded – which seem to include almost all CrossCountry trains. Their franchise ends in October 2027.

Fair Fares Petition

Kobane – Unite against Isis Drawing – Trafalgar Square

Kurds stood around a giant chalk drawing on the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square including the Statue of Liberty and the message ‘KOBANE Unite against ISIS‘ hold small posters “support progressive and left forces against ISIS” and “Support Kobani Struggle“.

The ISIS forces attacking Kobane, close to the Turkish border in a Kurdish region of Syria were being supported by Turkey as a part of their fight against the Kurds,

The main opposition to ISIS is provided by Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who were being supported by US air strikes.

Kobane – Unite against Isis Drawing

Biofuel picket Green Investment Bank Birthday – King Edward Street

Protesters from Biofuelwatch and London Biomassive, some dressed as wise owls, picketed the second birthday celebrations of the Green Investment Bank at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London against their funding of environmentally disastrous biomass and incineration projects.

These are more polluting than coal, producing more climate-wrecking carbon dioxide than coal, and protesters urged the GIB to finance “low carbon sustainable solutions” instead of these “high-carbon destructive delusions.”

The protest took place as many city workers were walking past on their way home and many took leaflets and some stopped to talk with the protesters.

There was live music, some short speeches and couple of birthday cakes for the GIB, one edible and the other rather larger with two ‘oil palms’ on top and a banner with the message ‘GIB No Biomass’ strung between them.

Biofuel picket Green Investment Bank Birthday

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Custody Deaths, Kurds, Abortion, Zombies & More – 2007

Custody Deaths, Kurds, Abortion, Zombies & More: Saturday 27 October 2007 was an unusually busy day for me and the lengthy write-up on My London Diary reflects this. The main event as on every last Saturday of October this century was the annual rally by the United Families and Friends of those who have died in custody who meet in Trafalgar Square for a slow march down Whitehall to a rally outside Downing Street – and I hope to post something about yesterday’s event shortly.

But the stories and pictures from 2007 are a little hard to find at the bottom of a long web page, so here I’ll republish the post – with the usual minor corrections and changes with links to the pictures I took.

Then on Saturday, everything was happening. I had to run around to start with to collect my unsold pictures from the City People show at the Juggler in Hoxton. [Although this web site is stilll on line, that organisation is long since gone dissolved the following year.} Fortunately I’d sold one of my four pictures, so that made them easier to carry, but it was a rush to be back in the centre of London.

Pro-referendum on Europe Rally – Yard, Westminster

Custody Deaths, Kurds, Abortion, Zombies & More - 2007

Campaigners were just leaving as I arrived and I more or less missed the demonstrators who wanted a referendum on the changes to the European Union.

A couple more pictures

Protest Against Custody Deaths – Trafalgar Square & Whitehall

Instead I really started at Trafalgar Square, where the annual event remembering those who have died in custody was taking place, organised by the families and friends of those concerned.

Its an occasion that always shocks me by the sheer number of people who have died in such disgraceful or suspicious circumstances, in police cells, in prisons and elsewhere. It’s an event i sometimes find it hard to photograph, both emotionally and physically – thankfully autofocus works even when your eyes are filling with tears.

[I returned to this protest later outside Downing Street – more below]

More pictures

Kurds Demand – Stop Turkey – Trafalgar Square,

While the United Families protest is getting ready, a large crowd of Kurds swarms into Trafalgar Square and holds a short rally, protesting against the Turkish governments approval of incursions into northern Iraq to attack the PKK there. Both the Kurds and the Armenians have suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks (who in turn have been rather screwed by the EU over Cyprus,

It’s a typically exuberant performance, and one that I enjoy photographing, but rather a distraction from the family and friends event.

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Anti-Abortion (Pro-Life) Rally – Old Palace Yard, Westminster

There seems to be hiatus at this point, so I catch a bus down Whitehall. Walking along to Old Palace Yard I pass a few of the pro-referendum demonstrators, though some others have stayed to join in the anti-abortion protest.

This is rather smaller than I’d expected, perhaps around 500 people, although it is the only event that makes the BBC news bulletins I hear when i get home later in the day.

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Lloyd George – Parliament Square

I listen a little to the anti-abortion speeches but then go to parliament square to take a look at the new statue of Lloyd George – which fails to impress me. Of course he was long before my time – although I did have a landlady as a student in Manchester who had worked as a secretary for him – but somehow I feel the statue trivialises him, looking rather like an enlarged version of a plastic figure you might find in a box of cornflakes rather than a statue.

Another picture

Peace Train – Parliament Square,

The peace train is beginning to form a protest in Parliament Square and I go along to talk to them and take a few pictures.

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More from Protest Against Custody Deaths

I rejoin the ‘Families And Friends’ march by now making a considerable protest opposite Downing Street, where a delegation has permission to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister’s residence at no 10.

For some reason the police decide not to allow those with press cards into the street in the normal way. I don’t like going in – the security checks are a nuisance and being restricted to a pen on the other side of the street is normally hopeless. But I think as a matter of principle that access should not be unreasonably prevented – even if personally I don’t want to take advantage of it.

By the time the delegation emerge, the mood is getting rather angry. one young policeman is getting surrounded and insulted and is trying hard to ignore it.A few minutes later a motor-cyclist foolishly stays in the route of the march, and is soon surrounded by angry people. He has to be rescued by his colleagues.

There are police who are racist, who are thugs, who are bullies. Too many who have got away with murder, often thanks to covering up or a lack of diligence in investigation by their colleagues. If it were not so, there would be no demonstrations like this one. But there are also officers who do their best to carry out a difficult and necessary job in a decent, reasonable and even-handed way – even though they may sometimes get disciplined for doing so. Those who bear the brunt of considerable and understandable hate directed against the police at a demo like this are not necessarily the guilty.

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Crawl of the Dead IV – City and Southwark

It’s time for me to leave and make my way to the City, where this year the zombies are starting their walk at a pub on Ludgate Hill. I go into the pub and talk to some of them and take photographs, and am gratified to find that quite a few have seen my pictures of them from around Oxford Street the previous year.

By the time they emerge from the pub it is getting dark, and my flash by now is refusing to work at all. I have to make do either with available light (and there isn’t a lot) or the pretty useless flash built into my camera, but I still manage to get a few decent pictures, even though some are rather noisier than I’d like.

There are quite a few people around as we go over the Millennium Bridge, and more in front of Tate Modern, where zombies decide to play dead for a while. Then we visit the famous crack in the Turbine Hall, coming out towards the Founder’s Arms, where I made my goodbyes and turned for home.

Many more pictures on My London Diary

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Brian Haw, Democracy, Cabs, Colombia & Israeli Atrocity – 2010

Brian Haw, Democracy, Cabs, Colombia & Israeli Atrocity: Six protests on Wednesday 2nd June 2010.

Brian Haw & Democracy Village – Parliament Square

It was 9 years since Brian Haw had begun his peace protest in Parliament Square and police marked the occasion by serving a summons on his fellow protester Barbara Tucker for using a megaphone. An officer writes out the details as I take photographs (more online.)

The previous week both Brian and Barbara had been arrested and held for 30 hours while the Queen came for the state opening of Parliament – as usual others in the campaign continued the protest during their enforced absence.

The arrest had come after Brian had objected to police carrying out a search of his home – a tent in Parliament Square – without a warrant – the 13th or 14th illegal search police have made as a part of the continual campaign of harassment against him over the years.

Still also in Parliament Square were the tents of the separate peace campaign Brian and Barbara label as the Police Camp, Democracy Village, there since the May Day protest a month ago.

A handful of those from the camp were protesting outside the railings around Parliament with banners demanding peace and questioning the authority of Parliament. Police generally left them along apart from telling some to climb down from the wall.

BrianHaw – Summons Marks 9 Years
Democracy Village Protest

Black Cabs Protest – Aldwych

Several thousand ‘black cabs’ had come to Aldwych with a number of ‘knowledge boys and girls’ on scooters currently training for the job, causing considerable disruption and delay to London traffic. They claim they are unfairly victimised by Transport for London, the Public Carriage Office and Westminster city council.

Many non-cabbies feel that these cabs are an outdated relic from the era of the hansom cab and that their operations in ‘plying for hire’ lead to unnecessary congestion. Minicab drivers feel that they are discriminated against in favour of the cabs and arguably have a rather stronger case.

Black cabs are largely used by a relatively small and well-off section of the community and we could surely have a better public transport system for the majority without them. But in my post on My London Diary I have a longer description of their grievances as well as reporting how police attempts to control the protest multiplied its effectiveness.

Black Cabs Protest

BP Picket for Colombian Oil Workers – St James’s Square

The Colombia Solidarity Campaign held a picket outside BP’s HQ in support of Colombian oil workers who have occupied a BP plant on the Cusiana oilfield and are stopping building works there while allowing normal work at the plant to continue.

On My London Diary you can read a lengthy piece on the dispute in an area of Colombia under military occupation and where peaceful protesters occupying the plant were attacked by armed commandos from the Colombian Army together with BP’s private security personnel.

Among the speakers at the picket was Jim Catterson of the ICEM, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Worker’s Unions, ICEM, which represents more than 20 million workers around the world, and was calling for international solidarity with the oil worker’s union (USO) and the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare in the fight against BP.

Much more about the dispute and protest at BP Picket for Colombian Oil Workers.

Protest for Murad Akincilar – Turkish Embassy, Belgrave Square

A protest at the Turkish Embassy called for the release of trade unionist Murad Akincilar arrested the previous September while on extended holiday in Turkey and still in prison in Istanbul. Lack of medical care in prison has resulted in serious eye damage and partial blindness. His case was due to come to court again the following day.

Based in Switzerland where he works for trade union Unia, Akincilar had studied in London for a Masters degree at the LSE 18 years earlier and was known personally to some in the protest organised by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and Gikder to support the campaign being organised by the Swiss trade union Unia.

Protest for Murad Akincilar

Zionist Federation Supports Israeli Atrocity – Israeli Embassy, Kensington

The Zionist Federation together with members of the English Defence League demonstrated opposite the Israeli embassy in support of the Israeli Defence Force killings in the attack on the Gaza aid flotilla.

A few Palestinian supporters had come to oppose this protest but the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War had decided not to support the counter-demonstration to avoid conflict.

On My London Diary I quote statements by the World Zionist Orgainsation and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) expressing regret at the loss of life that occurred, but the mood of this pro-Israel protest was very different, “one of a gloating triumphalism that seemed entirely inappropriate to the situation“, and I state I was “sickened when at one point a large group of the demonstrators began chanting ‘dead Palestinian scum‘.“

I also recorded “I had been appalled to find that this was to be a demonstration jointly with the Zionist Federation and the English Defence League, some of whose members many of us have seen and heard chanting racist slogans on our streets. It seems unbelievable that a Jewish organisation should align itself – even if unofficially – with people like this.” Few EDL actually turned up.

One placard read ‘Peace Activists don’t use weapons’ but as I pointed out on My London Diary the the photographs on the WJC web site show “almost entirely exactly the kind of tools that would be expected to be found on any ship in its galley and for general maintenance, as well as items being taken for building work in Gaza” with the exception of “a few canisters of pepper spray, some catapults and what looks like some kind of ceremonial knife.“

As I also pointed out in my report, the “the actions of the state of Israel in their attacks on Gaza, their disruption of everyday life for the Palestinians and the blockade is making the possibility of peace much more distant. I’m not a supporter of Hamas, but Israel needs to ask why Hamas enjoys such support in Gaza and to change its own policies which have led to this. Like other conflicts, resolution depends on winning hearts and minds and this can’t be done with tanks and bulldozers.”

I had few problems covering the protest but other press were less fortunate. Four “were surrounded and chased by a an angry group of threatening Zionist demonstrators at the end of the protest, before police eventually stepped in to protect them.”

More at Zionist Federation Support Israeli Atrocity.

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Israel’s Land Day Massacre & Afrin March

Israeli Land Day Massacre & Afrin March – On Saturday 31st March 2018 two emergency protests in London condemned the cold-blooded shooting by the Israeli army of peaceful protesters near the separation wall in Gaza the previous day, Palestinian Land Day. The was also a march calling for an end to the invasion of Afrin by Turkey and al Qaeda-affiliated militias intended to destroy this peaceful state and eliminate the majority Kurdish population of the area.

Land Day protest against supporters of Israeli state – Oxford St

Protesters from the Revolutionary Communist Group have held regular protests outside the Marks and Spencer flagship store on Oxford Street for many years. They were met there this morning by others apalled by the news of the 17 unarmed Palestinian civilians shot dead by Israeli snipers.

Those murdered in cold blood were taking part in the first of a weekly series of marches, the ‘Great March of Return‘, beginning on Land Day, the anniversary of protests against the state confiscation of swathes of Palestinian land in Galilee in 1976 until Nakba Day on May 15, the anniversary of the expulsion of millions of Palestinians from their homes and villages in 1948.

The protesters went from M&S to protest outside other stores on Oxford St with business links with apartheid Israel, calling for shoppers to boycott them. While I was with them they also protested outside Selfridges, which sells Israeli wines, Adidas which supports the Israel football team, Boots which sells cosmetics made in Israel and Carphone Warehouse and were continuing along the street when I had to leave.

Land Day protest against Israeli state

Defend Afrin – Bring Anna Home – Oxford St

Turkey’s attack on Afrin in north-west Syria is a clear violation of international law, and air strikes have deliberately targeted civilian areas.

Turkey has NATO’s second largest army and much of its weapons come from European states including the UK which had recently signed a major arms deal. The UK government has expressed support for Turkey, claiming it has a right to defend it borders, but this attack is outside these and Turkey has clearly announce an intention to push far into Syria.

Turkish aims are clearly genocidal with Turkish president Erdogan having stated he intends to invade all the Kurdish areas of Syria and “cleanse” the area of its Kurdish people.

As well as calling for an immediate ceasefire and end to the Turkish invasion of Syrian and UK support for this, they called for an end of UK arms sales to all human rights abusing regimes in the Middle East and for humanitarian relief for Afrin and other areas of Syria and for an investigation into human rights abuses there. They also called on the UK government to demand Turkey return the body of YPJ volunteer Anna Campbell to her family in Sussex.

Much more on My London Diary at Defend Afrin – Bring Anna Home.

Israeli Embassy Protest against Land Day Killings

I joined others close to the Israeli embassy in Kensington for an emergency protest against the shooting of unarmed protesters several hundred yards from the Gaza separation wall by IDF snipers. 17 Civilians were killed and over 750 seriously injured by live fire, with others injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.

The massacre the previous day had shocked the world and led the UN to call for an independent investigation, which Israel have refused – just as they have refused calls for independent investigation into other massacres. The news had come too late for a large protest to be organised – which followed in April.

Coverage of the event in the UK media on the day had been surprisingly muted, with the BBC giving considerable air-time to Israeli state speakers shamefully claiming the massacre was reasonable and fully justified. The same thing has been happening over events in Gaza in recent months, though I think it has now become very much clearer that they have lost all credibility and even some presenters have sometimes challenged them.

Against Israeli Land Day massacre.

Hate Crime, Turkish Invasion, Hong Kong & More

Hate Crime, Turkish Invasion, Hong Kong & More – Saturday 2nd November 2019 was a busy day for me and I made six posts from different events on My London Diary – and here is a little about each in the order of my day.

Day of the Dead – Columbia Market, Bethnal Green

I walked from Hoxton Overground station to Columbia Market which was holding a festival for the Mexican Day of the Dead, arriving at the time this was supposed to start. But it had been raining heavily and had only just stopped which had put off others from coming early and the streets were pretty deserted. So all I was able to photograph were the decorations on the street and on some of the shops.

Things would almost certainly have become more interesting had I stayed, but I had other things to attend and had to leave after around half an hour. I’d intended to return later but was too busy. I did take a few pictures as I walked to and from the station as well.

Day of the Dead

Against constitutional change in Guinea – Downing St

Back in central Westminster I photographed protesters from the UK branch of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) who were demanding that President Alpha Conde abandoned the constitutional chages that would enable him to seek a third term in power.

The London protest came after massive protests in Guinea in October during which 11 people had been killed in government violence against the opposition and peaceful protesters. They called for an end to and end to the killing and the release of all political prisoners, with posters showing the victims and calling for peace and justice in their country.

Against constitutional change in Guinea

Stop Hate Crime, Educate for Diversity – Downing Street

Also at Downing Street, campaigners from Stand Up to Lgbtq+ Hate Crime condemned the increasing incidence of hate crime and bigotry against LGBTQ+ people and defended the teaching of lessons which feature LGBTQ+ families and relationships.

Their message was one of celebrating love, inclusion and diversity and say No to Homophobia, Islamophobia and Transphobia. I took some pictures and left as some began to speak about their own experience of discrimination at school before before the group marched to Eros in Piccadilly Circus for a further rally.

Stop Hate Crime, Educate for Diversity

Defend Rojava against Turkish Invasion – Marble Arch & Oxford St

The largest protest of the day was a a rally and march in support of Rojava in North-East Syria against Turkish invasion which gathered at Marble Arch.

Since soon after the start of the revolution in Syria a large area of the country had been under the de-facto control of a Kurdish-led democratic administration which has put ecological justice, a cooperative economy and women’s liberation at the heart of society, enshrined in a constitution which recognises the rights of the many ethnic communities in the area.

Many have seen this area, Rojava, as an important model for more democratic government, particularly in multi-ethnic areas, but Turkey sees it as a threat on its borders. For generations it has been discriminating and fighting against its own Kurdish population which makes up almost a fifth of the country’s population, and the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, held in prison in Turkey since he was abducted from Kenya in 1999.

In prison Ocalan continued to campaign for the Kurdish people but had moved away from militancy towards political solutions. In jail he wrote about the rights of women and developed the philosophy of democratic confederalism which forms the basis of the constitution of Rojava.

Rojava has received wide support for its principles from environmental groups, green movements, feminists, human rights supports and those generally on the left, but not from western governments who see it as a threat to capitalist hegemony.

Despite this, the Kurdish people’s defence forces in Syria with the aid of US air power led the successful fight against ISIS. Turkey had backed ISIS although denying to do so, aiding them in getting the massive funds they needed by smuggling out oil from the ISIS held regions. Again they saw ISIS as an ally in their fight against the Kurds.

When Trump withdrew US troops from Syria, Turkey took advantage of this to invade areas of Syria controlled by the Kurds, and to encourage and aid Islamic groups to join them in their attacks. Turkey as a member of NATO has been encouraged and helped to develop its armed forces and is second only to the USA within Nation and is said to be the 13th largest military power in the world.

The Turkish invasion threatened the existence of Rojava, who had been forced to go to both Russia and President Asad of Syria for support. Obviously this threatens the future of the area and its constitution and its long-term hopes of autonomy in the area.

I left the protest on Oxford St on its way to the BBC who they accuse of having failed to report accurately on what is happening in the area. There had certainly been very little coverage of the recent events and a long-term failure to address issues of discrimination against the Kurds in Turkey.

Defend Rojava against Turkish Invasion

March for Autonomy for Hong Kong – Marble Arch & Oxford St

Also meeting at Marble Arch were protesters, mainly Chinese from Hong Kong living in the UK, and in solidarity and supporting the five demands of those then protesting in Hong Kong. Many wore masks to protect their identity, either because they may return home or fear their families there may be persecuted.

They demanded complete withdrawal of the Extradition Bill, a retraction of characterising the protests as riots, withdrawal of prosecutions against protesters, an independent investigation into police brutality and the implementation of Dual Universal Suffrage.

More pictures at March for Autonomy for Hong Kong

Queer Solidarity for trans and non-binary – Soho Square

Bi Survivors Network, London Bi Pandas, Sister Not Cister UK, BwiththeT and LwiththeT held a rally in Soho Square pointing out that the newly announced ‘LGB Alliance’, which claims to be protecting LGB people is actually a hate group promoting transphobia.

They pointed out that trans and non-binary people have always been a part of the gay community and played an important part in the fight for gay rights and in particular Stonewall, and there is no place for such bi-phobic and gay-separatist views in the gay community.

More pictures: Queer Solidarity for trans and non-binary

Israel, Egypt, ISIS, Sewol & Marikana 2014

Israel, Egypt, ISIS, Sewol & Marikana: The Marikana massacre when 34 striking mine workers were shot dead in South Africa took place on 16th August 2012, so today the 11th anniversary will be marked in London by a commemoration beginning at 16.00 outside the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square. You can read more about the massacre and these commemoration in my post last year, London Solidarity with Marikana Miners.

On Saturday 16th August 2014 I attended the event on the Second Anniversary of Marikana Miners Massacre and you can see more pictures from this on My London Diary.

But the Marikana commemoration was not the only event on that day, and here are also some of the other things I photographed.

Boycott Israel – Boycott M&S – Brixton

Protesters outside M&S in the centre of Brixton argued that the store legitimises the illegal occupation of Palestine and supports Zionist racism and brutality by selling Israeli goods and called for a boycott in solidarity with the people of Gaza. I made a brief visit as the RCG picket was beginning and then took the tube to Bond Street.

More pictures at Boycott Israel – Boycott M&S.

R4BIA remembers Egyptian massacres – South St, Mayfair

Marchers met at the Egyptian Embassy to march to Downing St on the anniversary of the massacres by Egyptian forces at Rabaa and Nahda squares on 14th August 2013 in which over 2600 were killed, 4000 injured and many arrested.

The Rabaa hand sign with four fingers extended and the thumb pressed into the palm was adopted in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters following the overthrow of President Morsi by a military coup. After his election Morsi had given himself unlimited powers to make laws and moved the country towards an Islamist state, eventually leading to mass protests which led the army to move on 3 July 2013, deposing him and suspending the new constitution. Pro-Morsi demonstrations were brutally dispersed with Human Rights Watch documenting over 900 deaths.

More pictures at R4BIA remembers Egyptian massacres.

March against ISIS massacres – Portland Place

The Kurdish People’s Assembly and others met in front of the BBC to march against the attacks on Kurds, Shia, Sufi, Christian and Yezidi communities in Iraq, calling on the UK government for greater action including pressure on Turkey and Qatar to end support for jihadism.

They met in front of the BBC to emphasise the lack of proper reporting of what is happening in Iraq and as one poster said, ‘Your silence is Killing people‘. The BBC has failed to report on the support that Turkey with its increasingly Islamic regime has given to the Islamic State jihadist forces. ISIS relies on oil exports smuggled through Turkey to support its existence and murdering attacks.

Our government keeps quiet about Turkey and refuses to condemn its activities as Turkey is a key member of NATO, and as in so many areas, the BBC toes the government line. While it employs many fine journalists they are constrained by their editors and managers up to the highest level and not allowed to report impartially, particularly on the UK domestic channels. Sometimes the World Service does rather better.

More pictures at Kurds Protest against ISIS

Koreans call for special Sewol Ferry Act – Trafalgar Square

Koreans had been holding regular silent vigils in Trafalgar Square since the Sewol ferry disaster in April that year when schoolchildren on board were told to ‘Stay Put’ below decks and drowned.

The protest on 16th August was part of global day of support for the Sewol Tragedy Victims’ Family Committee petition, already signed by around 4 million, for a special bill to investigate the deaths of 304 people, mainly high school students in the ferry disaster.

Koreans call for special Sewol Ferry Act

Second Anniversary of Marikana Miners Massacre

Taking place later in Trafalgar Square was the commemoration of the Second Anniversary of Marikana Miners Massacre mentioned at the start of this post.

Among those taking part was mime protester Charlie X, who came with a poster of the constitution of the Republic of South African and stood holding this and with a miner’s lamp in front of the locked gates of the embassy.

Turkey & Free Assange

Turkey & Free Assange: Ten years ago today on Sunday 16th June 2013 I covered two protests in London around countries and issues still in the news now. The first was demanding an end to human rights abuses in Turkey and for Erdogan to go – and he has recently won another term in office and his authoritarian regime continues. It was also the first anniversary of Julian Assange taking refuge in the Eduadorian Embassy and Assange is still confined, now in Belmarsh prison, still likely to be extradited to spend the rest of his life in US prisons for publishing details of US war crimes.

Turks continue fight – Turkish Embassy to Downing St

Around a thousand British Turks met opposite the London Embassy and marched to a rally opposite Downing St. Their march was in solidarity with mass rallies in Turkey a day before a general strike there called by the country’s largest union representing public sector workers as a response to the brutality used in clearing Gezi Park.

President Erdogan and his ironically named Justice and Development Party AKP had brutally repressed earlier peaceful protests in Turkey in Gezi Park, Taksim Square and elsewhere in the country. Some of the protesters wore badges of protesters shot by police in demonstrations.

This was a very patriotic protest, many carrying Turkish flags and singing Turkish songs. The modern Turkish state was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s as a secular and democratic state and many Turks feet the AKP governments under Erdogan sine 2002 have seriously eroded these principles.

Since 2002 they have imposed their conservative Islamic views on the country and have built an extra 17,000 mosques. Authoritarian measure have restricted the sale of alohol and shows of public affection.

The government had enacted strict control over Turkish media and imprisoned more journalists than any other country in the world. Opponents of the government are accused of treason and imprisoned without evidence, while court hearings can take years. Many had been held without charge for 5 years or more.

It remains impossible to have fair elections in Turkey as the government exercises almost complete control of the media. In May 2023 Erdogan was re-elected president with 52% of the vote against 48% for his opponent although there had been hopes he might lose.

More at Turks continue f i ght.

Waiting for Assange – Ecuadorian embassy, Knightsbridge

Sunday 16th June 2013 marked exactly a year since Julian Assange had been given asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy and I joined a crowd of supporters waiting for him to appear on the balcony and calling from release of all whistle-blowers.

The UK government had refused to allow him passage to Ecuador and instead had spent over £3m of taxpayers cash over a constant police presence outside the embassy, which occupies only a few rooms in the building.

The event was organised by Veterans for Peace UK, and they linked Assange with others ‘facing persecution for exposing the true nature of war and the state‘, Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Supporters view Assange, Manning and Snowden as heroes who should be released rather than prosecuted.

The decision of Sweden to pursue the extradition of Assange on charges related to his sexual activities appears to have been politically motivated to make it easier for him to be transferred to the USA.

Among those at the protest were women from Women Against Rape who made clear they were against his extradition, accusing politicians of using “once again women’s fury & frustration at the prevalence of rape & other violences” to advance their own purposes.

The protest continued with a protest on the pavement outside the embassy holding up signs with the message ‘F R E E A S S A N G E’. They went back acrooss to the pavement opposite after a few minutes when politely asked to do so by police. A number of South Americans entertained with songs, but there was no sign of Assange.

It had been suggested when I arrived that he would come out at around 5pm, but at that time the embassy told press he was sleeping and they hoped he would come out at 6pm. I decided there was little point in my waiting and left.

Following a change in government in Ecuador police were invited inside to arrest Assange in April 2019. Since then he has been kept, much of the time in isolation, in the high security Belmarsh prison in Thamesmead. After a number of legal cases and appeals, ten days ago on 6th June 2023 he lost his appeal against extradition.

More at Waiting for Assange.

Turkish Spring, Badgers and BNP – 2013

Turkish Spring, Badgers and BNP: Ten Years ago on Saturday 1st June 2013 Turks in London were celebrating the start of the Turkish Spring, but now they are mourning last Sundays’ election results with the Islamist dictator winning another term in office. Badger culling was just beginning and there is still no sign it will actually end and over 210,000 badgers have now been killed to little effect – and Defra is still failing to introduce more effective methods to control bovine TB. Anti-fascists managed to prevent the BNP laying a wreath to exploit the killing of Lee Rigby – but despite the family’s clearly stated wishes and MoD condemnation – racists including a leading Tory MP are still using the murder to whip up hatred.

London Supports Turkish Spring – Marble Arch

A large crowd, mainly Turks and Kurds from North London, met in Hyde Park close to Marble Arch for a march in support of the popular protests that had erupted over the previous few days over Gezi Park.

At first there had been small protests against the loss of one of Istanbul’s few remaining green spaces for a shopping mall. But brutal police repression, with tear gas and water cannon used indiscriminately on people in the area angered many and the protests grew, becoming protests calling for an end of the authoritarian Erdogan regime.

Many Turks were then disturbed at Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), abandoning the secular state established as the basis for modern Turkey in the 1920s by Kemal Atatürk towards a conservative authoritarian Islamic dictatorship.

This process has continued, and Turkey has also been involved in the supporting of wider Islamic movements in the Middle East, particularly ISIS, as well as supporting Russia in its intervention in crushing the anti-Assad revolt in Syria. Last week’s election came as a huge blow to democracy in Turkey.

The 2013 protest was high-spirited and noisy, with many young men including Turkish football supporters. Many of London’s Turkish and Kurdish community are people who had to flee Turkey for political reasons and their sons and daughters. Kurds in particular have long been subjected to huge discrimination and oppression with the Turkish government attempting to eliminate their culture.

I had to leave before the march to the Turkish Embassy were around four thousand protested in support of the ‘Turkish Spring’.

London Supports Turkish Spring

Cull Politicians, Not Badgers – Westminster

I joined a large crowd at a rally in front of Tate Modern for the National March Against the Badger Cull, where the speakers included Queen Guitarist Brian May.

Many at the protest had come up to London from country areas, particularly from the pilot areas in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset where culling was to start later in the year. Many more licences were issued in later years and culling is continuing. Detailed statistical analysis suggests in some areas culling has led to a slight decease in bovine TB but overall it has had no real effect as badgers are only responsible for a small amount of the transmission, with 94% of infection being passed from cow to cow.

Defra’s support for culling and their reluctance to bring in more accurate cattle testing, controls on the movement of cattle, vaccination, proper slurry management and other effective measures seems largely to be driven by lobbying from farmers who want to avoid more controls on their activities.

After the rally there was a short march to Parliament where some of those taking part danced on the street, with many then going on to join the protest taking place opposing the racist British National Party.

Cull Politicians, Not Badgers

Anti-Fascists Prevent BNP Exploiting Brutal Killing

*Anonymous were there along with Antifa, trade unionists and the UAF to oppose the BNP hate*

On May 22nd 2013, off-duty Fusilier Lee Rigby was brutally murdered on a Woolwich street, run over then stabbed by two Muslim men who tried to decapitate him. The killing was universally condemned, including by Britain’s Muslim community, and I had two days ago photographed a march and rally in East London by Muslims to show solidarity and sympathy with the family of Lee Rigby and to denounce his brutal killing, describing it as against all the tenets of Islam.

*Nick Griffin answers questions under a placard ‘Hate Preachers Out’ and fails to appreciate the irony*

The BNP had wanted to organise a mass protest in Woolwich to exploit the killing, making use of his senseless slaughter there to gain support for their anti-Muslim rhetoric, but police had banned their plans for a march as it would have endangered public safety, enraging many in the local area. Lee Rigby’s father had made clear that he and his family did not want his son’s death to be used to stir up hatred.

Instead, BNP leader Nick Griffin had planned to march to the Cenotaph and lay a wreath there, and had come with a small group of supporters to Old Palace Yard to start the march. It was only a very small group, even for the BNP, with perhaps as I wrote suggesting “it was something that even the ultra-right membership of the BNP could not stomach”.

Griffin himself blamed the low turnout on the police turning many of his followers away, stating that the whole area around Westminster was “a virtual exclusion zone“. I’d just walked there seeing no unusual police activity, and certainly large numbers who had come to oppose his wreath laying found no problems in getting in to do so.

It would have been possible for anyone – BNP member or not – to go to the Cenotaph on any of the days following the brutal murder and even on this morning to lay a wreath, though not today a well-known racist face like Griffin himself. But Grffin’s intentions were not about expressing sympathy. He wanted a triumphal march with flags flying to gain support for his Islamophobic hate, and given the opposition this never seemed likely to happen.

Police tried hard to clear a way for the BNP to march, but anti-fascists held their ground and refused to move. Police told them they were acting illegally and would be arrested if they did not move – and I saw a couple of double-decker buses being filled with arrested protesters and driven away, but there were simply too many for police to arrest them all.

The protest brought back memories of Cable Street, though few if any there were old enough to have actually been there back in 1936, though rather more had been at the http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2006/10/oct.htm 70th anniversary. But as then the slogan was ‘They shall not pass’, and on this occasion there were not enough police to force a way through. After the two buses of arrested protesters had been driven away police tactics changed and they simply maintained a standoff keeping the opposing groups apart.

Police told the BNP that they expected the anti-fascists to go home and they expected be able to clear the route by half past four, but they stayed on. It was the BNP who gave up, turning around and walking back to waiting coaches and leaving. When the anti-fascists were told the BNP had gone, they marched to Old Palace Yard for a brief rally to celebrate the victory.

Much more about the BNP and the protest which stopped them on My London Diary:
Anti-Fascists Stop BNP Wreath Laying
BNP Exploiting Woolwich Killing Stopped