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Bash The Rich & Diwali – 2007

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

Bash The Rich & Diwali - 2007 — *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.

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. ]

More pictures at Bash the Rich.

Brent Diwali Parade – 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.]

More pictures at Brent Diwali Parade

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March & Rally Against Custody Deaths – 2024

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.

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.”

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.

The letter which was delivered to Keir Starmer also contains that quote from the his booklet, before some details of some cases and a listing of the five demands of the UFFC campaign:

As bereaved families, we demand:

An end to all killings at the hands of the state.
An end to all racist police practice and an end to fatal use of force.
A radical reduction in the use of prisons. People are unnecessarily dying, as prisons
do not address underlying causes of social harm.
The individuals and state bodies responsible for deaths are pro-accountability for
their wrong-doings, and an end to all cover ups.
Legal Aid is made available to all families, automatically.

More pictures from the 2024 UFFC Annual March & Rally Against Custody Deaths

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March Against Far Right Hate, London, 26 Oct 2024

March Against Far Right Hate: Last Saturday, 26th October 2024 I joined thousands of others marching ine London in response to a far-right march called by ‘Tommy Robinson’ under the title ‘Unite the Kingdom’.

Police had imposed conditions on both marches, ensuring that they kept a long way apart and there was very little trouble, with only four arrests at the Robinson march and two at the Stand Up to Racism event.

Organisers of the counter-protest say that 20,000 came to march and the Robinson march was reported to be a little smaller. But certainly the large turnout for the Stand Up to Racism event showed that the kingdom was not united behind the far-right racists.

One person significantly not present at the racist march was the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, generally known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, who was remanded in custody the previous day to attend Woolwich crown court on Monday for his alleged breach of a 2021 high court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. He was also separately charged for a mobile phone offence under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Police restricted Stand Up to Racism for meeting on Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, while Robinson’s protest had to muster at Victoria around a mile and a quarter to the south though rather more on the ground.

The far right were marching to a rally in Parliament Square, while Stand Up to Racism’s rally was at the north end of Whitehall, with around 400 metres of blocked off road between the two.

I spent around 45 minutes photographing at Piccadilly Circus before walking down to Trafalgar Square for another event, catching up with the march later on Cockspur Street roughly halfway on its short march to the rally.

As the band of logos along the bottom of the main banner indicate the the Stand Up to Racism protest was supported by a huge range of organisation is including almost every trade union as well as groups who work with refugees and asylum seekers and there were many trade union banners carried on the march.

As well as the mass-produced placards from the organisers, many on the march had come with their own, and my photographs include some of those I fondud more interesting.

Some of the banners including those from the Latin-American and Jewish Bloc also indicated their support for Palestine, and there were quite a few others on the march with Palestinian flags. Tommy Robinson has also made clear his support for the genocidal actions of the Israeli State as a part of his anti-Muslim stance.

I stayed in Trafalgar Square as the march went by, mainly to see all of the marchers, or at least a good proportion of them in the crowds going past so I could pick out those who seemed more interesting to photograph, either from the side or by rushing into the crowd. But also because this seemed the most likely place where some might try to divert from the approved route and try to reach the racist rally.

And at the very end of the march a large group behind a black banner ‘NO TO TOMMY ROBINSON – NO TO FASCISM’ paused and then made what seemed to be a rather half-hearted attempt to do just that, but were easily held by a thin line of police at the entrance to The Mall. Only a small group at the centre of the banner seemed to be making any real effort to push through the police and those at the end where I was standing just stood holding the banner – and the crowd behind was standing watching and not joining in.

A stand-off ensued, but after some minutes a small police snatch squad came and pushed one of the protesters past or rather through where I was standing, pushing me forcefully to the side. I managed to recover and take a few pictures as he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. But I don’t know why they had decided to arrest this man.

I took a few pictures after this, but decided not to go through the packed crowds towards the stage and photograph the rally now taking place but took the tube from Charing Cross to begin my journey home.

These pictures are some of those I filed with Alamy and you can see my set of over 40 pictures their or at Stand Up To Racism March Against Far Right Hate on Facebook.

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Press Inquiry & Cold Homes Kill – 2012

Press Inquiry & Cold Homes Kill: On Thursday 29th November 2012 people protested outside the QEII centre as part 1 of the Leveson inquiry into the general culture and ethics of the British media was being published. Later there was a protest outside the Treasury and Parliament against government cuts in benefits and services that were leading to 24,000 extra winter deaths.

Leveson Comes Out

The Leveson inquiry had been set up in 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal and after a long series of public hearings came to the obvious conclusion the existing Press Complaints Commission was a total failure – and praised Private Eye for refusing to join it. A subscription to that magazine and the many articles it had published over the years could have saved the £5.4 million that Leveson cost.

Leveson was not of course set up to address the overriding problem of the UK media which is the narrow range of its ownership. As the Media Reform Coalition argued “we couldn’t just rely on better press regulation to improve standards are newspapers – we also had to challenge the disproportionate power these corporations held because they so much of our news media.”

The MRC stated in 2023 “Just three companies—DMG Media, News UK and Reach—dominate 90% of the national newspaper market” and go on to show similar resticted ownership of local newspapers and online news platforms.

The news which almost all of us are allowed to hear is controlled by a very few companies and their billionaire owners such as Rupert Murdoch, and Avaaz had brought to the protest large puppet heads of Murdoch and a gagged Prime Minster Cameron with placards ‘End the Murdoch Mafia‘ with a flaming dustbin into which Murdoch lowered the Leveson report.

The industry response to Leveson was to establish in place of the Press Complaints Commission the almost equally toothless Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) which my union, the NUJ labelled a “pointless so-called regulator” and the Hacked Off campaign described as a sham “owned and controlled by the very newspapers it is supposed to regulate” which does nothing to stop them.

The Press Recognition Panel (PRP) was set up by Royal Charter in 2014 with the duty to establish whether any press regulator met the standards set by Leveson. IPSO declined to apply for recognition but an independent body IMPRESS founded in 2016 has gained recognition.

IMPRESS thas been rejected by all the major national papers and most regional and local papers but now regulates “more than 100 publishers, publishing over 200 publications across the UK.” Most of these are small and local independent print or on-line publishers including many on the left. Among them are Novara Media, Skwawkbox and The Canary.

As well as failing to legislate on setting up the independent regulatory body which Leveson concluded was needed, the Tories later quietly shelved the second part of the inquiry into extent of unlawful or improper conduct within news organisations and the extent of police complicity. It was a clear demonstration of the power held by Mudoch over our government.

Leveson Comes Out

Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest

Over 50 people turned up outside Parliament and the Treasury to protest against the cuts made by George Osborne and the government’s energy policies which are leading to 24,000 extra winter deaths.

The protest on the day that Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, was introduing the Energy Bill to Parliament was organised by Fuel Poverty Action along with Disabled People Against Cuts and the Greater London Pensioners’ Association.

Other organisations taking part include Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities).

Many came with plastic silver reflective coated ‘space blankets’ to wear, and there were three ‘tombstones’ with the messages ‘George Osborne Your Cuts KILL’, ‘Gas Power = Killer Bills’ and ‘24,000 Winter Deaths – Big Six Profits up 700%’.

As speakers at the open mike in front of the Treasury on Horse Guards Road said, many were now having to choose between keeping warm and eating – heat or food – and could not afford to do both adequately. Food banks were now common but often unable to keep up with demand, and libraries where many went to keep warm were being closed.

Hypothermia, even among children, was on the increase, had doubled among pensioners and many disabled people had special needs for heating – and some were suffering from having their benefits removed by unfair Atos work capability tests – often to have them eventually restored on appeal, but with no or inadequate means for months before this happened.

Police tried to keep them off the steps of the Treasury but they declined to move and eventually police came and pushed them down, sometimes with rather more than necessary force, but the rally continued on the pavement. Among the speakers was Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

There were some further confrontations with police as the protesters moved around the area and protested on the pavement in front of parliament, where there was some hilarity as police came to tell them there has to move as “a Royal movement” was about to take place (they didn’t) and the protest ended with photographs on the grass of Parliament Square with the House of Commons and Big Ben as background.

More pictures on My London Diary at Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest.

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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.

more pictures

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.

more pictures

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.

more pictures

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.

more pictures

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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UFFC 21st Remembrance Procession – 2019

UFFC 21st Remembrance Procession: Saturday 26th October 2019 saw the 21st annual remembrance procession by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of of people killed by police, in prisons, in immigration detention and in secure psychiatric hospitals.

This takes place on the last Saturday of October each year, and people will meet for today’s procession on 26th October 2024 as usual at noon in Trafalgar Square. It will have added resonance for some following the ‘Not Guilty’ verdict earlier in the week for the officer who fired the fatal shot into the head of Chris Kaba two years ago in Streatham.

Each year sees new names added to those who have died in custody under suspicious circumstances – several thousand since 1990. Not one of those responsible have been convicted of murder or manslaughter.

Many of the suspicions may be unfounded, but others are clearly not. Relatively few have ever been properly investigated, and often there has clearly been a deliberate failure to do so on the part of the authorities.

Inquests have often been delayed for years, and evidence simply not recorded. Only the most determined of family campaigners have succeeded in getting at the truth. A few of these cases have become well known – such as those of Sean Rigg, Christopher Alder and Leon Patterson, but none has yet really resulted in justice.

Coroners have sometimes refused to allow proper consideration of the possible responsibility of the police and courts have at times come to conclusions that seem to fly in the face of the evidence. Police officers have on occaison colluded with each other to commit perjury.

The so-called Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began work in 2003. Wikepedia notes that in 2008 “over a hundred lawyers who specialise in handling police complaints resigned from its advisory body, citing various criticisms of the IPCC including a pattern of favouritism towards the police, indifference and rudeness towards complainants, and complaints being rejected in spite of apparently powerful evidence in their support.”

A Parliamentary Inquiry set up in 2012 described it as having “neither the powers nor the resources that it needs to get to the truth when the integrity of the police is in doubt.“

In 2018 the IPCC was replaced by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Again Wikipedia quotes from a Parliamentary report published on it in 2002: “There needs to be a change of culture in police forces. It should not be necessary to compel officers to cooperate with investigations. This culture change must be from top to bottom to ensure that complaints are handled quickly and openly, delivering punishment for misconduct where necessary and clearing officers who have not committed an offence.”

Also we have the Crown Prosecution Service, with Keir Starmer at its head from 2008-2013. Together there seems to be clear evidence of a powerful system of injustice which has protected police. And one of the most frequent chants at this and other events has long been ‘NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!’

Many at the protest carry banners, poster and placards with names and pictures of those who have been killed. I’ve written in previous posts about many of them and more details are on various web sites, Facebook and elsewhere. Recently I published a post here Sean Rigg Memorial – 4 Years about a rally in 2012.

More pictures UFFC 21st remembrance procession.

There were other events I photographed on 26th October 2019 – you can find them on My London Diary.

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Racist Borders Agency & University Protest Ban 2013

Racist Borders Agency & University Protest Ban: On Thursday October 24th 2013 I photographed a protest against the racist actions of the UK Borders Agency outside the Home Office Reporting Centre in Hounslow, West London before travelling into central London where supporters of the campaign calling for proper sickpay, holidays and pensions for all workers at the University of London defied a ban on protests by the University authorities.

Southall Black Sisters Protest Racist UKBA – Eaton House, Hounslow

The racial profiling of the UK Borders Agency in their spot checks at rail and underground stations in areas such as Southall, Slough, Brent and East London cause great anxiety in our minority communities, many of whom are British citizens born in this country.

Home Secretary Theresa May had in 2012 announced that her aim “was to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration”, and set out to do so by a series of measures, some illegal and all morally reprehensible.

After a successful legal challenge to the Home Office use of slogans on advertising vans, the UKBA had, according to Southall Black Sisters had “shifted the ’Go Home’ message to reporting centres in Glasgow, Croydon and Hounslow.” And so they had decided to hold this protest at the Hounslow centre inviting others to join with them “in demonstrating against the Government’s anti-immigration campaigns.“

They said “We will not tolerate underhand tactics used to instil fear and divide us. Let us return to the streets and make our voices heard. We need to fight for our rights.”

Most of the 30 or so people who made their way to the centre, housed in the former offices of a pharmaceutical company on the edge of London, opposite Hounslow Heath, poorly served by public transport (perhaps deliberately remote to make life more difficult for migrants and asylum seekers who have to report there) were from Southall Black Sisters, but there were a few from other groups with a banner with the message ‘F**K ALL RACISM – NO ONE IS ILLEGAL’.

A few police had turned up to watch, and one officer complained about the language used by one of the women present. She complained strongly that she had been responding to a racist remark by a passer-by, and asked why the officer had not responded to that. He replied that he had not heard the remark, but had heard her reply, and was surrounded by a group of women blowing whistles and horns and banging drums for a couple of minutes before being rescued by Pragna Patel, Director of Southall Black Sisters, who told the group they should get on with their demonstration.

The protest was still continuing when I left after about an hour to get one of the infrequent buses to the centre of Hounslow to catch the tube.

You can read a more detailed account of the event and more pictures at Southall Black Sisters Protest Racist UKBA

3 Cosas Defy London University Protest Ban – Senate House, University of London

Supporters of the ‘3 Cosas’ campaign for sick pay, holidays and pensions for all workers at the University of London and others today defied University management ban of protests by holding a noisy protest in and around Senate House.

The ban was seen by students and staff at the University, including cleaners as an attempt to prevent free speech and freedom of assembly at the university and the threat to bring in the police to prevent further protests as one which recalls the actions of authoritarian regimes overseas, rightly condemned across academia and the rest of society. The university was threatening to bring charges of trespass against any protesters.

The protest was called by the 3 Cosas campaign (Spanish for ‘3 things), University of London Union (ULU) and the IWGB (Independent Workers of Great Britain) which represents many of the cleaners in the university, and was supported by others including members of Unison and the UCU.

They began with a noisy protest outside the gates on the east of the site, before going around to continue their protest at the south entrance to Senate House, opposite the queues waiting to enter the north entrance of the British Museum before going on the the locked West Gates.

From outside we could see a few protesters already being ejected from the lobby under Senate House. Some people climbed over the gates to join them, but most of us found an easier way through an open gate and across a lawn, and soon the protest was taking place outside the now locked gates to the lobby at the bottom of Senate House.

After a while the protesters moved out to the area in front of SOAS and I thought the protest was over. But a group with the IWGB banner had other ideas, rushing down the narrow path into the Senate House East car park, and the rest of us followed.

At Senate House they were met by two police and management representatives who told them they were not allowed to protest. The only result of this was to add the slogan ‘Cops Off Campus!‘ to that of ‘Sick Pay, Holidays, Pensions, Now!’ and the protest continued, getting rather louder as more police arrived.

ULU Vice President Daniel Cooper used a megaphone to question why the protest was being filmed from a first floor window and then talked about the shame that the University was bringing on itself by its refusal to insist on decent conditions of employment for all workers in the university, for attempting a ban on freedom of speech and assembly in the university and for bringing police onto the campus against staff and students of the university.

More police arrived and made an ineffectual attempt to kettle the protesters, who simply walked through gaps in the police line. The police regrouped and tried to stop them leaving in a narrower area, but by now some officers were trying to stop them while others were shouting to their colleagues to let them leave. At last realising that their presence was only inflaming the situation and prolonging the protest and marched away. The protesters held a short rally in front of the SOAS building before dispersing.

More at 3 Cosas Defy London Uni Protest Ban.

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DPAC Court Vigil, a Poet Arrested, Musical Poor Doors & More 2014

DPAC Court Vigil, a Poet Arrested, Musical Poor Doors & More: Wednesday 22nd October 2014, ten years ago today was a busy day for me. You can read my full accounts of the various events I photographed on the links to My London Diary, along with many more pictures, but here I’ve only space for a short outline. Below is my day more or less in order.

DPAC High Court Vigil for ILF – Royal Courts of Justice,

DPAC Court Vigil, a Poet Arrested, Musical Poor Doors & More 2014

When disabled people won a court case over withdrawal of the Independent Living Fund the government simply put back the closure of the fund. Today’s protest by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) supported a second case against the closure. Speakers at the vigil included three MPs, John McDonnell, Andy Slaughter and Jeremy Corbyn, as well as many from various disability groups.

At the end of the protest, DPAC carried out their usual direct action, blocking Strand outside the court with their wheelchairs.

More at DPAC High Court Vigil for ILF.

End UK shame over Shaker Aamer – Parliament Square, London

Protesters were continuing their regular vigils opposite Parliament for Shaker Aamer, imprisoned and tortured for over 12 years and cleared for release in 2007. They believe he was still being held because his testimony would embarrass MI6 as well as the US.

End UK shame over Shaker Aamer.

Westminster Tube Station & Canary Wharf

I took the tube from Westminster to Canary Wharf to visit the Bridges exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, later returning to Westminster. I paused in Westminster Station to take some panoramic images of the interior, designed as Piranesian, though sometimes I get more of the feeling of Escher as you seem to walk endlessly up escalators and around the interior.

I found the show a little disappointing, but took advantage of my visit there to take a few more panoramic images.

A few more pictures,

Democracy Camp – Plinth Guy & Poet Arrested – Parliament Square

I made a couple of visits to the Democracy Camp in Parliament Square both before and after going to Canary Wharf. Although the camp had been ejected from the main grass area workshops and rallies were still taking place throughout the day, and Danny, the ‘Plinth Guy‘ was still up there with Churchill since the previous day – and there were cheers when he completed 24 hours.

Earlier someone had been arrested for throwing him a bottle of water, and when performance poet and activist Martin Powell arrived with a plastic tub of food he was warned he would be arrested if he tried to give it to Danny.

He replied it could not possibly be a crime to feed a hungry person and threw it extremely accurately over police heads and into Danny’s waiting hands. Arrested and marched away he loudly recited his poem ‘The Missing Peace’.

Danny was still in place when I returned at 5pm but the police had called in their climbing team. I listened while its leader talked with him, and Danny told him he would not resist arrest if they came to take him down peacefully. But I had to leave before they started to do so.

Democracy Camp – Poet Arrested

Musical Poor Doors – One Commercial St

This was Class War’s 14th weekly protest at the ‘rich door’ of Redrow’s One Commercial St flats and it was a lively affair with the banners dancing to the music of Rhythms of Resistance, a poetic performance and some rousing speeches against social apartheid.

There ws strong police presence but there was no trouble, with a carnival atmosphere and banners dancing up and down the wide pavement in front of the rich door. Most of the police appeared to be enjoying the event too.

As usual after an hour of protesting people dispersed and I went into Aldgate East station to begin my journey home.

More at Musical Poor Doors.

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Inequality, Democracy Camp & the Blessed Sacrament – 2014

Inequality, Democracy Camp & the Blessed Sacrament – On Saturday 18th October 2014 over 80,000 people marched in London to call for workers to share in the economic recovery which has seen a great increase in wages of chief executives while workers have lost out. Later I went to Parliament Square where the Democracy Camp finally took over the area. When police left, I left to photograph a Catholic religious procession.

Britain Needs A Pay Rise – Embankment

I walked along the Embankment a couple of hours before the march was due to start and already it was beginning to fill up with marchers, and I returned later from photographing Democracy Camp protesters in Parliament Square just in time to catch the end of a photocall with TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady in front of a bus covered with a green banner with the message ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ and people holding large white numbers 1,7 and 5.

The gap between rich and poor is widening in the UK, with company chief executives in 2014 getting 175 times the pay of the average worker. Wealth is also hugely unequally divided, with the “the richest 50 families in the UK held more wealth than half of the UK population” by 2023. Only 8 of the 37 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries are now less equal than the UK.

Eventually the march set off, and after photographing the start of the march I stayed in place to photograph the rest of the march as it came past me.

Matt Wrack, FBU

“At the front were the major unions, the health workers and the teachers, the firefighters and more, a reminder of how much we still depend on unionised workers despite the largely successful attacks by Thatcher and later governments which have almost eliminated the unions in many areas.”

“Further back the marchers were more varied, and I met rather more people I knew, including those with CND, Focus E15, Occupy London and other radical movements.”

I kept taking pictures as people came past me for around an hour and a quarter, when people were still coming past but it was close to the end. Rather than continue with them to Hyde Park where the final rally would be starting I considered taking the Underground – it would probably be over before those marchers arrived. But I decided I had enough pictures of the event and went instead to Parliament Square to see what was happening at the Democracy Camp.

Many more pictures at Britain Needs A Pay Rise.

Democracy Camp Takes the Square – Parliament Square

When I arrived the tense standoff between police and protesters around the edges of the grassed area was continuing. Many of the protesters had temporarily left the square to join in with the TUC march but were beginning to arrive back.

One group “from UK Uncut came into the square dancing to the sound of a music centre on a shopping trolley. As they danced on the pavement in front of the statue of Churchill, Westminster Council officials prompted police into action and together with one of the Heritage Wardens the police moved to attempt to seize the sound system.”

“Democracy campers linked arms to make it difficult for the warden and police to reach the system” but eventually the group were surrounded and “Martin Tuohy showed his ID as Senior Westminster Warden at Westminster City Council and together with another employee grabbed the system with police looking on.”

After some tense argument the UK Uncut group were allowed to leave the square along with their sound equipment with the warning that unless they took it away from Parliament Square it would be taken from them.

More people arrived from the TUC march, where some had carried “two large wood and fabric towers, one with the words POWER and OCCUPY and the other the word DEMOCRACY. Together with other protesters they ran onto the grass square and raised the towers“

Others joined them including some carrying a long ‘Real Democracy Now!’ banner and the rally began.

The first speaker was “Labour MP John McDonnell. Among the other speakers were Occupy’s George Barda, environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy and Russell Brand, who after speaking posed for photographs together with many of those present. “

The sudden invasion of the grass had taken the police and Heritage Wardens by surprise, and they had been unable to do anything to prevent it. But during the rally police began “massing around the square in blocks of around 20, obviously posed in a military looking formations ready to run onto the square.” As well as perhaps 200 ordinary police, reinforcements arrived “arrived with two larger groups of blue-capped TSGs obviously spoiling for a fight.”

“Then the police suddenly started to disappear while Brand was speaking. Perhaps someone had realised that with Russell Brand talking, any attack on the protesters would have generated massive and largely negative media coverage. Much better to come back late at night and do it after the mass media had left (which they did.)”

Nothing seemed likely to happen until much later, so I left for another event.

More at Democracy Camp takes the Square.

Procession of the Blessed Sacrament – Westminster Cathedral to Southwark Cathedral

I arrived just in time to see the procession emerge from Westminster Cathedral – no photography was allowed inside.

I followed it down the road to Lambeth Bridge where they stopped for a change of dress as Auxiliary Bishop Paul Hendricks put on his robe to carry the sacrament in Southwark diocese.

I left the procession at the south end of the bridge to catch a bus back to Waterloo and make my way home.

Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

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Palestine, Boris & Democracy Camp – 2014

Palestine, Boris & Democracy Camp: Ten years ago on Friday 17th October 2014 I covered a protest against bans on family visits to Palestinian prisoners, a spoof newspaper claiming Boris had seen the light over housing shortages and a rally in Parliament Square where Occupy Democracy were intending to camp and hold an unauthorised nine-day event.

Ban on Family visits to Palestinian Prisoners – Victoria

People had come to protest outside the new offices of the G4S Chief Executive Officer in Peak House, a new office building opposite Victoria Station.

It was a tricky site to hold the protest as most of the area was a building site, with extensive work being carried out to improve Victoria Underground Station (not part of Crossrail as I wrongly thought then, but possible important for the currently suspended Crossrail 2). But the protesters made use of the fences around this part of the building site to attach some of their banners.

The building works brought many of those walking towards and from Victoria to pass close to the demonstration and more than usual took the leaflets they were offered, with a few stopping to talk and express their sympathy with the protest. There were also two who made adverse comments and I missed seeing when one of them grabbed the lowest of three Palestinian flags of a long pole held by one of the women; she held on to the pole, others rushed to her assistance and the man hurried away.

They were protesting against Israel issuing banning orders denying Palestinian families the right to visit their loved ones in prison. A hunger strike in April 2014 by administrative detainees held without trial had ended when Israel had promised to reinstate family visits, but in July Israel reneged on this promise and went back to issuing banning orders again.

Among individuals the protest highlighted the case of Mona Qa’adan, a woman university lecturer who has been held in jail since November 2012 and has not been allowed a single family visit in two years. She is held in poor health without any trial at the G4S secured women’s prison HaSharon, where prisoners endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. The cells at HaSharon prison are overcrowded, dirty and infected with rodents and cockroaches and there is a total absence of basic hygiene.

Ban on Family visits to Palestinian Prisoners

Spoof shock U-turn by Boris on Housing

In Parliament Square I met campaingers from the Radical Housing Network with bags containing thousands of copies of a spoof edition of the ‘London Standard Evening‘ newspaper.

Under the headline ‘Boris in shock housing U-turn‘ the paper had Boris Johnson saying “its time to put the social back into housing” and carried features about London housing scandals.

The spoof edition was produced for the final day of the world’s largest property fair, known as MIPIM, which had taken place over three days at Olympia, with protests outside it and a day of workshops on housing issues. London Mayor Johnson had welcomed property developers, investors, financiers and politicians from around the world and encouraged them to build more large tower blocks here to sell to overseas investors.

“These developments feed the boom in house prices and rents in London and so exacerbate our increasingly serious housing problem, with a desperate shortage of social housing. Ten of thousands of London families are on council house waiting lists, and communities across the city face eviction and displacement at the hands of the profiteering developers Johnson welcomed to the city with open arms.”

The campaigners left carrying the bags to hand them out outside key tube stations around Central London, but I stayed in the square for Occupy Democracy’s rally.

Spoof shock U-turn by Boris on Housing

Democracy Camp starts with rally – Parliament Square

Democracy Camp had widely announced their plans to camp in Parliament Square for nine days and hold a series of protests, rallies and workshops there. Many arrived for the rally with tents and sleeping bags determined to stay.

They intended “to broadcast and demand the solutions we already know exist, to inspire people to be the active citizens required to take back democracy from powerful economic interests.“

Police and Mayor Johnson were determined they would not set up camp. Police ‘liaison officers‘ handed out an ‘Important Notice’ – basically telling protesters that democracy was stuffed by Act of Parliament as far as Parliament Square was concerned – and Westminster Council bylaws almost make breathing an offence.

Rather strangely, the Greater London Authority had suddenly decided the the rather healthy looking grass covering most of the square was urgently in need of repair and put up notices closing the area, roping it off, Though those of us who had visited the square knew that they hadn’t done anything about the part of it that really needed attention for weeks. An area that had been damaged by an allowed event some weeks earlier and badly needed roping off and reseeding had still not been touched.

People had come with bags but when asked by police and the private security ‘Heritage Wardens’ stated they intended to sleep elsewhere in London. Police argued with them but I think the media presence stopped them taking the bags away despite the urging by the private security wardens.

Eventually the start of the evening rally was announced and some speeches began with John Hilary, Executive Director of War on Want and author of The Poverty of Capitalism, followed by others including Mansfield vicar Keith Hebden who had fasted for 40 days for the End Hunger Fast campaign and Robin from the Radical Housing Network talking about MIPIM.

It was getting dark and I was getting tired and hungry. I left to file my pictures and to eat and sleep in a comfortable bed while the rally and the occupation of the square continued.

I came back the following morning and covered events later in the day when the camp did take over the grass and set up camp.

More at Democracy Camp starts with rally.

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