>Re-PHOTO

Saturday’s South London March for Palestine, called by Wandsworth Stop the War Coalition was supported by many organisations from south of the river and made its two mile route through the busy main roads of Balham and Tooting.

Almost three hundred people gathered outside Balham Mosque for the start of the march, including many families, and there were banners from several trade union organisations, as well as the many placards from Stop the War and Socialist Worker and rather fewer from Palestine Solidarity  Campaign.

The march had strong support from Muslims in the area, and apart from starting at the Balham Mosque it ended with a rally at the Tooting Mosque which unfortunately I couldn’t stay for.

For once it was an event it was a delight to photograph. Friendly people, helpful stewarding (other Stop the War stewards could certainly learn from this) and no hassle at all from the police,  who cleared the traffic and otherwise more or less kept out of the way, although they did insist that the march kept on moving. It was after all going down one of the main routes out of London to the south, the A24 Balham High Road/Upper Tooting Road, both also lined with shops and busy with shoppers on a Saturday afternoon.

It made quite an impressive sight going along the road, as well as a great deal of noise. Many people stopped to watch it go past and many showed their support by waving and applauding. The march was led by a group of very energetic young boys in white t-shirts with blood-red hands marking them, closely followed by some of the women of all ages  in front of the main banner which was mainly held by men – with Lindsey German of Stop the War joining them a little way down the road.

There were also several photographers from the local papers present, so I hope it got some good local coverage. I posted a short report on ‘Indymedia’ which is more or less as you can also read on My London Diary, where you can see many more pictures.

I’m against cruelty to animals. But even more I’m against cruelty to human beings and some of the actions taken by animal rights activists appear to me to have involved this. However there does appear to be a great deal of demonisation going on in this area resulting in heavy-handed policing and some draconian sentencing by judges. And of course, much of what you read about animal rights activists (and much else) in the papers or even hear on the BBC is simply sensationalist fabrication, usually around a very small and far less dramatic kernel of fact.

It would however be hard to exaggerate some of the cruelty that does go in in testing chemicals on animals and in intensive food farming in this country and in fur farms abroad. We should have adequate legislation on animal welfare and it should be much more rigorously enforced. But I feel much more inclined to support things like the RSPCA‘s ‘Rooting for Pigs‘ campaign (and eat bacon from pigs that are well-cared for) than the ALF.

I’ve also benefited from drugs that have been tested on animals – and I probably wouldn’t be here without them. So I’m not entirely opposed to animal testing, though I think there should be much tighter restrictions, that it should be limited to testing of essential drugs (and not cosmetics or cleaning products etc) and that there should be much more effort put into developing alternative testing methods. Again I’d very much support the RSPCA’s approach to the use of animals in research.

SHAC get ready to march from Bank

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) runs a global campaign to close down Huntingdon Life Sciences, the largest contract testing laboratory in Europe, exposed on many occasions by journalists, on TV, by ex-workers and by animal rights activists – including SHAC – for various inhumane practices, breaking or ignoring regulations, incompetence and more. Home Office inspectors have also been found failing to enforce regulations.

Some of the more horrific evidence that has emerged has been about the treatment of primates captured in the wild for experiments at HLS; the company tried to stop publication of some of this material with an injection but this was overturned after a lengthy court battle. Fresh appalling evidence on their primate trade came out last year. SHAC have also exposed terrible conditions in farms breeding animals for use by HLS, as well as cruelty at some of HLS’s customers.

The demonstration in London by SHAC last Friday was impressive in several ways, not least in the wide range of people in the 300 or so it attracted and their obvious dedication to the cause.  The march around London was to draw attention to the financial backing for HLS from the Bank of England, and also by major shareholders including Barclays, H P Morgan, Merril Lynch and AXA Investment Managers and it ended at the London NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) Euronext which lists HLS shares for trading.

This was a well-ordered demonstration that hardly merited the extensive police presence, although the City of London Police do appear to have a more even-handed approach to demonstrations than some other forces.

At NYSE Euronext where the demo dispersed

More at Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty on My London Diary.

On Ash Wednesday in 1982 members of Pax Christi and Christian CND went to the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall and held a religious service in protest at Britain’s reliance on nuclear weapons and the mass destruction of innocent populations these would cause were they ever to be used.

Every year since they have come back with the same message:

in a Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance, although it’s exact form changes from year to year.

This year, outside the Old War Office, black and purple ribbons were tied to a white cross as prayers were said for those killed in wars and violence:

It’s hard to see why we hold on to our nuclear weapons, difficult even to know who they are meant to deter now, after the end of the cold war. It was a policy that never made a great deal of sense, keeping a peace that it was in any case in no one’s interest to break.

Now it is far more about national prestige, “keeping a place at the top table” particularly in the UN, and not really about defence at all. I don’t think anyone can imagine a believable scenario in which we would deliberately fire our nuclear missiles (even if the US would give us the permission necessary.)

Far easier and much more likely are the possibilities of misuse and of these  dangerous weapons being stolen by terrorists.  The government lost all the arguments over Trident replacement but still decided it must go ahead, despite the dangers and the enormous sums of money involved. And it is of course that which is the real driver.  These weapons may be useless and outmoded, their use certainly against all reason and international law, but the profits for a small group of the rich and powerful are huge. It’s decisions like this that tell us who really runs the country whichever government is apparently in power.

More about the event and pictures on My London Diary.

I was fortunate to have been born in the era of the Welfare State. Not only did I grow up on clinic orange and cod-liver oil (a doubtful privilege) but education was free, or largely so. When I had to start school early because my mother was in hospital I went to a private nursery (it even called itself an ‘Academy’ to show it was posh) but that didn’t last – I was “too rough” and was expelled at the age of three.

Students stage a sit-down in Southampton Row

But after that it was on the state, all the way from four until I graduated. My father’s earnings were low and I got a full grant to cover my living expenses at university – and managed to live on it. Of course none of us paid fees. But things are very different now than in those days when even the labour party beleived in socialism.

Of course it is much easier to get into university now. Where there were once educational hurdles there are now colleges clamouring to attract students and the money they bring – although competition for the more popular courses and places is still intense.

Listening at the rally before the march

So I had a great deal of sympathy with the students and their protest last Wednesday.  More about it and of course more pictures on My London Diary.