2012 | >Re-PHOTO

Syria & St Patrick – 2012

Syria & St Patrick: Saturday 17th March 2012 was of course St Patrick’s Day, but before rushing to Willesden Green to photograph the St Patrick’s Day Parade there I photographed Syrians calling for freedom marching to the Syrian Embassy, where a rather smaller number had arrived earlier to support President Assad. When the march got to Edgware Road I took the Underground to Willesden Green and after photographing the procession rushed back to Belgrave Square and the Syrians.

Free Syrians March To Embassy

Paddington to Belgrave Square

Over a thousand Syrians had come to Paddington Green for the start of a march calling for freedom in Syria and an end to the massacres of the Syrian people.

They held a noisy rally there with a great deal of shouting, showing support for the ‘Free Syrian Army’, which included many who deserted from the Syrian Army after having been ordered to fire on innocent Syrian people.

A woman held a poster stating that 11,035 people had been killed by Asad’s forces, while others had placards giving monthly figures, for example that in December 2011 they had killed 1119 including 58 women and 68 children.

After an hour the march set off. I left them at Edgware Road but returned later to cover the events in Belgrave Square where there was a large pen filling most of the north side of the square with a platform for speakers opposite the Syrian Embassy.

Next to the platform was a tall tower, a reminder of the tower in the main square of Homs, where huge peaceful demonstrations were put down by force, and where over 700 people, including many women and children were killed in government attacks the previous December.

During the speeches an effigy of Asad hanging from a gallows was carried through the crowd.

There was a large police presence in the whole area around the square and double barriers with an area empty except for police around 50 yards wide separating their protest from a smaller counter-protest by Assad supporters.

Much more on My London Diary: Free Syrians Protest.

Asad Supporters Counter-Protest

Belgrave Square

I walked away from the Free Syria protest to visit the very much smaller counter-protest. As I commented, “It seemed more a disco about a personality cult than a political rally of any kind, with almost everyone waving a placard with Asad’s photograph on it, and many wearing t-shirts featuring his face.”

They were playing music at a distressingly high volume, distorted through their speakers, clearly in an attempt to drown out the speakers at the other protest. Thankfully there were a few times when the music stopped for people to lead chants praising Asad.

There was only one speech while I was there, with a man calling on people to go to Syria and see for themselves that the situation in the country was being falsely reported by the media.

The placards and banners were all expensively produced

Asad Supporters Counter-Protest

Brent St Patrick’s Day

Willesden Green

There had been doubts over whether there would be a Brent St Patrick’s Day procession in 2012 after Brent Council had been forced to make drastic cuts in council spending on community events.

But the event went ahead and as usual was led through the streets by the Mayor of Brent and St Patrick on its way from Willesden Green station to Willesden Library, though the streets did seem a little less crowded than in previous years.

On a smaller scale and with a more friendly atmosphere than the main London event, the procession was on St Patrick’s Day itself, which in 2012 was a Saturday. Most years I’d been there it had been on a schoolday; many children came from the schools to take part and watch along with their parents, but perhaps on a Saturday more had other things to do.

As usual, as well as the crowds that had gathered for the start of the parade, people came out of the bars on the street to watch as it passed.

There are many more pictures on My London Diary, though I had to rush away before the end to get back to photograph the Syrian protest in Belgrave Square.

Brent St Patrick’s Day

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Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece – 2012

Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece: On Saturday 3rd March 2012 I photographed a protest outside companies using people forced into free labour under the government workfare scheme, then a women-only march against male violence against women which I left to go to the Occupy meeting on the steps of St Paul’s which supported the protests in Greece against austerity measures imposed by the EU.

Boycott Workfare – Oxford St

Oxford St

Boycott Workfare, Million Women Rise & Greece - 2012

The group Boycott Workfare came to Oxford Street to lead a protest against companies who use unemployed and disabled people forced to work without pay but just a small allowance under the government workfare scheme.

As the protesters emphasised, workfare reduces the number of real jobs available in the workplaces, giving workers to the employers by forcing the unemployed to do work at no cost to the employer on an allowance roughly one quarter of the minimum pay – and around a fifth of the London Living Wage.

The event began with some good news when they met outside BHS near Oxford Circus by praising that company for having withdrawn from the scheme since the protest had been planned before moving off to protest elsewhere.

Around a hundred campaigners had arrived and were being carefully watched by police who went with them, guarding shop doorways and keeping a path along the crowded pavements clear when they stopped to protest.

The organisers had kept their route secret and had come with two ‘Boycott Warfare’ flags on long poles, white with the letters BW, and those taking part were told to follow the flags.

Police were also guarding some shops which had previously been targeted by UK Uncut over their failures to pay tax, though most of these were not involved in workfare and so of no interest to this protest.

The first stop was a Pizza Hut, where police managed to stop any of the protesters entering – but the protest put off a number of customers entering while there were a few speeches. There we were handed a map showing the locations of some of the other businesses on Oxford Street taking part in workfare, including McDonalds, Holland and Barratt, Superdrug, WH Smith, Argos, and a little way north of Oxford St, Holiday Inn and Barnado’s.

Police just managed to arrive at Holland and Barratt before the protesters, who only paused briefly there before rushing on to McDonalds, where a few managed to go inside. Police soon ejected them into the noisy crowd protesting outside, most of whom soon moved off towards Argos, with police following them.

I soon realised that not all the protesters had left for Argos, and hurried back to see another group being ejected from McDonalds. Another small group had returned to Pizza Hut – where again they were ejected by police.

The main body of protesters turned into a shopping arcade, but were not sure which of the shops were using workfare and hesitated, allowing police to rush in and form a barrier. After a few noisy minutes they left and held a rally on a street corner with a few short speeches – including at least one by someone passing by.

At the Holiday Inn on Wellbeck Street a few protesters again beat the police and were rather forcibly ejected.

Some at least of the police who I and the campaigners talked with clearly shared their disgust at a scheme which forces people to work without payment, and were also worried about leaked plans to part-privatise the police and other cuts, but insisted that it was their job to keep order and protect property.

More on My London Diary at Boycott Workfare – Oxford St.

Million Women Rise March

Oxford St

Women were gathering in the street on the west side of Selfridges to march through the centre of London calling for an end to domestic abuse, rape and commercial sexual exploitation. They called for prevention of abuse and support and protection for women.

They came from various womens groups and organisations around the country for this all-women march calling for and end to male violence against women.

Some of London’s more active women campaigning groups, including those that have been the leaders in previous celebrations around International Women’s Day were absent from the protest, and I was shocked to learn that they had been told they were not welcome at this march, despite the coalition’s aim to be non-partisan and to bring “together women who want to highlight the continuation of all forms of violence against women and demand that steps are taken to put an end to this.”

Among those marching were women from a number of political groups from London’s ethnic communities present, including Kurds, some in traditional dress and some holding posters calling for the release of their leader Abdullah Öcalan from prison in Turkey, as well as groups opposed to the Iranian regime.

The Million Women Rise Coalition has a statement of demands for government and societies here and around the world. They demand the recognise and reflect in policies the discrimination faced by all women and those from black and other minority groups in particular. They demand that domestic abuse, rape and commercial sexual exploitation are linked together in a definition of violence against women and that support is given to support organisations for women in the not-for-profit sector.

Their long statement called for support for various groups opposing violence against women, and end to child prostitution and pornography and proper support for trafficked women and children.

They called for International Women’s Day to be made a Bank Holiday in the UK and Ireland, and oppose “the continued misrepresentation, misappropriation and abuse of the female body throughout all forms of media.”

Their statement also made clear that wars and conflicts around the world perpetuate violence against women, and on the march a group carried a banner ‘Raped, Abused, Widowed and Forgotten – Tamil Women in Sri Lanka Still In Tears’ and others highlighted the ongoing abuses against women in DR Congo.

More on My London Diary at Million Women Rise March.

Greeks Protest With OccupyLSX

St Paul’s Cathedral Steps

I left the march at Bond Street Station to report on a protest at St Paul’s Cathedral against the terms of the Eurozone rescue package for Greece at Occupy meeting on the steps there and to show solidarity with the protests in Greece.

Much more about this and more pictures on My London Diary at Greeks Protest At St Paul’s,

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NHS Privatisation, Iran & the Bologna 12 – 2012

NHS Privatisation, Iran & the Bologna 12: On Wednesday 8th February 2012 I photographed a mock trial of Health Minister Andrew Lansley against his disastrous Health and Social Care Bill, visited the two peace camps then in Parliament Square and finally went to the Italian Embassy for a protest calling for the release of the Bologna 12, accused of terrorism through their membership of communist organisations, much like those who support Palestine Action in the UK now.

Stop NHS Privatisation – Kill Lansley’s Bill

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

NHS Privatisation, Iran & the Bologna 12 - 2012 — *Pensioners in the protest outside Parliament*

The protest, organised by Hackney Keep Our NHS Public, drew campaigners from across the country for speeches and a mock trial of Health Minister Andrew Lansley as his bill was entering into its report stage. Among those taking part – if briefly – was shadow health minister Diane Abbott MP.

Lansley’s proposals were a clear step towards the privatisation of the NHS, still a continuing process under Labour’s Wes Streeting, despite many of the changes brought in by Lansley having been later abandoned after, according to the Darzi report commissioned by Streeting it “imprisoned more than a million NHS staff in a broken system for the best part of a decade.”

Lord Darzi’s report concluded that “The Health and Social Care Act of 2012 was a calamity without international precedent – it proved disastrous. The result of the disruption was a permanent loss of capability from the NHS“. As Streeting commented it ” led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history”, but that hasn’t stopped Streeting pursuing his own policies to further prepare the NHS and the country for its privatisation. Of course Lansley was awarded a life peerage in 2015 for his services to capitalism.

At the centre of the protest was the mock trial of Lansley with a judge with an impressive white wig and witnesses for the prosecution who spoke about their own experiences as patients and workers in the NHS.

Most still see the NHS, along with the other welfare state reforms of the period, as the greatest British achievements of the last century and for all its problems it still provides quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost of the US system which Lansley and his colleagues appeared to take as a model

Most importantly, provides services to the whole population including those who would be unable to pay expensive medical insurance. Over 60% of the two million personal bankruptcies filed each year in the US are a result of medical debt.

I don’t think there was much if any defence for Lansley, and the guilty verdict was inevitable. After the trial and a few stops a small group took the protest around Parliament Square, walking onto the various pedestrian crossings and facing the traffic holding up placards and the letters ‘S’, ‘T’, ‘O’ and ‘P’, usually but not quite always in that order and with a bed pan in the middle.

More at Stop NHS Privatisation – Kill Lansley’s Bill.

Parliament Square Peace Protests – No War in Iran

Parliament Square

It was a cold day and I had to keep moving, walking around Parliament Square and stopping to talk with peace protesters still then protesting 24/7 in the square. Police and new laws against protest had resulted in the removal of all tents and in restricting the protests to the pavement facing Parliament, but the protests were continuing.

Brian Haw who began his Peace Campaign on 2 June 2001 had left the square on 1 January 2011 for treatment in Berlin for lung cancer, dying there on 18 June 2011. Since he left his campaign had been continued by his supporters, led by Babs Tucker, who had protested for some years with Haw. They on Day 3903 of the protest, continuing in the brutal winter weather despite police having taken away all tents, chairs and other items three weeks earlier.

*Maria Gallastegui’s tent and one box remaining in the square*

Maria Gallastegui, for some years a regular supporter of Brian Haw, had broken with him and begun her separate Peace Strike in the square several years earlier. She had cooperated with the police in various ways – such as covering her displays for the 2011 royal wedding – and had been granted a temporary injunction restraining police actions agaist her; police had left her tent and her large ‘peace’ box – modelled on the old police boxes – on the square until her case was heard.

Haw’s Peace Camp had been subject to lying and of devious and underhand actions throughout the ten and a half years of their presence in the square, and they told me the police had intentionally delayed their legal action so they could take away their property before the claim came to court.

I went with the three people from the Peace Strike to the weekly protest with others opposite the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street to remind Foreign Secretary William Hague of their opposition to war in Iran. Their protest was continuing when I needed to leave to go to the Italian Embassy.

Parliament Square & No War in Iran

Release The Bologna 12

Italian Embassy, Grosvenor Square

The trial which was starting in Bologna that day of the twelve was being made under section 270bis of the Penal code introduced by the Fascist regime under Mussolini. They were brought as a part of a long campaign by Public Prosecutor Paolo Giovagnoli for the Authorities of the Papal Republic, aimed against freedom of expression and organisation of the left in Italy.

The twelve were accused of “subversive association for purposes of terrorism” for their membership of communist organisations and if they were convicted, similar prosecutions would be brought against those belonging to other groups outside the official left, including anarchists, Maoists and the Occupy movement.

It was a small token protest, with representative from groups including ‘Democracy and Class War’, ‘Socialist Fight’ and ‘Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group’ and began outside the impressive door in my picture in Grosvenor Square.

But after 20 minutes police came and very helpfully told them that they were in the wrong place. This was the back door of the embassy and they should be in Kings Yard at the front door. A man came out from the embassy and confirmed this and we all walked round to the gates outside the yard, while I went inside with two people who handed in a letter.

I went home as the protest continued. More at Release The Bologna 12.

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Santacon Comes to Town – 2012

Santacon Comes to Town: On Saturday 15th December 2015 hundreds of santas, some elves, the odd reindeer and a few others converged on Trafalgar Square at the end of the annual Santacon event.

Santacon described itself as “a non-profit, non-political, non-religious and non-sensical Christmas parade“, though that makes it sound rather more organised than it is, with hundreds roaming the streets with their friends, largely sticking to routes from various starting points published shortly before the event and indulging in a considerable amount of festive drinking.

“Most of those taking part were young, in their teens or twenties, but there were a few older participants, although most of the beards on show were profuse, white and fake, as well as some younger children and at least one baby elf.”

Police don’t like it, I think mainly because it interferes with the great god of traffic as santas often spill across roads though they probably call it “inconvenience to the public”. But the great majority of the public seem to be amused and welcome the spectacle. And some even join in the festivities.

One particularly controversial aspect has been the friendly rivalry between elves and santas which erupts into battles between the two groups pelting each other with Brussels sprouts. It’s something firmly deprecated by both Santacon organisers and police, but elves will be elves.

It would be unusual for a Brussels sprout to inflict any real damage – I was hit be several while taking these pictures, but it does seem rather a waste of my favourite Christmas vegetable.

*Some had a rather minimal Santa outfit*

Santacon in London seemed to reach a peak around 2010, though I think I last photographed it in 2018. The date for 2025, announced only at the last minute, was December 6th, but I didn’t go.

The conclusion to my 2012 post included a snippet of history: “The first mass event with people in Santa costumes began with a street theatre group in Copenhagen in 1974, but the event took off in the USA in the 1990s and has spread to cities across the world. Some of those taking part see it as a protest against the commercialisation of Christmas, but for most it’s simply a fun day out in the city drinking on the street with friends.”

Many more pictures of santas of both sexes at Santacon Comes to Town.

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Leveson & Cold Homes – 2012

Leveson & Cold Homes: On Thursday 29th November press and protesters were outside the QEII centre waiting for the publication of the Leveson inquiry report, and were joined briefly by people who had been protesting outside the treasury over George Osborne’s cuts and energy policies and later moved to protest outside parliament where Energy Secretary, Ed Davey was to introduce the Energy Bill.

Leveson Comes Out

QEII Centre

Lord Justice Leveson had been appointed in 2011 to lead an inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press after the News of the World had been found to have illegally hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, royals and others since the 1990s.

Of course the News of the World which had been closed down by Murdoch’s News International in 2011 over this was not the only newspaper to have used illegal hacking. As well as other papers in the Murdoch Press it was said to be fairly widespread across the tabloid papers.

The Leveson Inquiry was to be in two parts and the report on Part 1 was due to be released on 29th November 2012. Part 2 which was to examine the extent of phone hacking in News International and other media as well as the complicity of the police in receiving bribes and other ways was shelved in 2015 and then scrapped in 2018.

Leveson found that the Press Complaints Commission was toothless and ineffective and recommended that a new voluntary independent body be set up. There are now two press regulators; Impress, which largely follows Leveson’s proposals and IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation which as its name says remains independent, and which more publications have signed up to, while others, including The Guardian belong to neither.

This was a small but visually interesting protest, and ss I wrote in 2012:

Avaaz had brought large puppet heads of Murdoch and a gagged Cameron with placards ‘End the Murdoch Mafia’ and a flaming dustbin into which Murdoch lowered the Leveson report.

Political artist Kaya Mar had brought one of his paintings with the judge and a cart-load of people, though I couldn’t recognise them all.

And a protester from Kick Nuclear was walking up and down with his dog which was wearing a poster about Fukushima warning of the dangers of nuclear power.

More pictures at Leveson Comes Out.

Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest

Westminster

Fuel Poverty Action along with others including Disabled People Against Cuts, the Greater London Pensioners’ Association, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) had come to protest against the cuts to come from George Osborne’s energy bill which they say will cause 24,000 extra winter deaths.

The protest which began outside the Treasury and then moved on pausing briefly at the Leveson protest outside the QEII centre to Parliament Square in front of the House of Commons where Secretary, Ed Davey, was to introduce the Energy Bill later that day.

“The protesters had brought plastic silver reflective coated ‘space blankets’ to wear and had three ‘tombstones’ with the messages ‘George Osborne Your Cuts KILL’, ‘Gas Power = Killer Bills’ and ‘24,000 Winter Deaths – Big Six Profits up 700%’.”

They say that already because of the government cuts many people were going hungry, with food banks being set up and kept busy even in the more prosperous areas of the country, and now with winter coming many have to chose between ‘eating or heating’.

*A protester with a hot water bottle tries to walk into the Treasury but is stopped by the police*

Cuts will mean more people suffering from “hypothermia, and the disabled in particular are hard hit, both because of the ruthless removal of benefits by poorly designed tests adminstered by poorly qualified testers with targets to meet and also because they often have special needs for heating.”

The protesters ignored police requests to leave the steps up to the Treasury and police then pushed them down, “usually with minimum force, but just occasionally rather more than necessary, but both protesters and police generally remained calm.” The rally continued on the pavement with speakers including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

After this the group of 50 or so protesters moved to the pavement in front of the Houses of Parliament, pausing briefly on the way for photographs in front of those waiting for the Leveson report.

Police again tried to get them to move on when they stopped in front of the Houses of Parliament, at first telling them they had to move as “a Royal movement” was about to take place, an announcement that cause much hilarity and comment but no movement. A little later they were told they could stay, but decided instead to cross onto the grass in Parliament Square for some final photographs.

More pictures at Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest.

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Paris Photography – 2012

Paris Photography: 2012 was my final visit to Paris to see Paris Photo and some of the other photographic events across the city. Although I enjoyed my time in Paris, I was finding the actual dealer-led Paris Photo show hard to endure – you can read more of my thoughts on it in Paris Photo – Photograph as Commodity.

I’ve long thought that the art market has had a hugely negative impact on photography, a medium that – after the cul-de-sac of the Daguerreotype – has unlimited reproducibility at its centre. It really lives in print and on the web, in books and in prints that can be cheaply made and sold and not in expensive limited editions. Of course photographers need to live and some are benefitting hugely financially from photography being sold at high prices, but I feel it has resulted in the emphasis moving away for the core of photography.

I’d hoped to blog from Paris, but poor internet connections from my hotel and elsewhere made that impossible – but I made copious notes at the many events I visited – some with Linda and others including Paris Photo itself on my own.

In the six days I think I visited over 80 shows in galleries large and small across the city making notes on all that I saw, and after I returned home wrote up and posted my ‘Paris Photomonth Diary – the links are in reverse order of the week:

PARIS PHOTOMONTH DIARY
Monday Blues
Sunday Afternoon
Sunday morning at the MEP
A Photo-Off Guided Tour
Saturday Morning
Paris at Night
Menilmontant
Friday Morning
More Photo-Off Openings
Thursday Afternoon
Thursday Morning
Paris Photo Wednesday pm
Wednesday Morning
Openings – Tuesday
Paris Photo – Photograph as Commodity

I also posted these here on >Re:PHOTO, along with a few of my pictures at intervals in November and December 2012 completing the set of articles with Paris 2012 Complete which also has the links above. I think the whole series gives a fairly good impression of a rather busy six days.

I was surprised reading them again today to find how much I had covered and they include some thoughts about the work I saw that I still find interesting. I won’t included the material here as you can just click on the links above to access it. So here I’ll just post a few of the pictures of Paris I took on one day, Thursday 15th November 2012.

During the six days we also did quite a lot of walking round the city from show to show and sometimes just walking to enjoy the city, though we also bought a weekly season for the Metro – it seemed ridiculously cheap, only a little more than for a day in London.

I was carrying a Nikon D800E DSLR, a full-frame camera but I used it in DX mode and several Nikon lenses including an 18-105mm zoom, 20mm and 10.5mm fisheye. I’d left my heavy wide-angle zoom back in England to keep my bag small and light.

There are very few situations where a 7360 x 4912 pixel file is really needed and the only reason I had for moving to full-frame was for panoramic landscape images. For the rest of my work the 4,800×3200 pixel DX format was more than enough. There is no visible advantage until you make prints greater than A3 and even then the difference is hard to see. Nikon orginally said that DX was enough and they were right, but had to move to full-frame to keep up with the marketing.

On My London Diary you can see more picture from Thursday 15th November 2012, including quite a few of the shows we visited – as well as pictures I took on other days. I think I probably did better later in the week when I didn’t spend so much time in Photo Paris.

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Cleaners Protest at Tower of London – 2012

Cleaners Protest at Tower of London: On Saturday 3rd November 2012 the trade union Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) held a high profile protest outside the Tower of London as a part of their campaign to get the London Living Wage, better contracts and improved working condition and management for the workers who clean the Tower, one of London’s major tourist attractions.

The Tower of London is run by a charity, ‘Historic Royal Palaces’, which also runs other royal palaces on behalf of the Crown, but they employ no cleaners. Instead they were using the cleaning contractor MITIE to employ the workers who clean the Tower and make it fit for visitors. By outsourcing the work in this way they try to deny responsibility for the poverty wages, lousy pensions, holidays and sick pay, poor physical conditions, overworking and bad management of their workers.

The IWGB was formed by Latin American cleaners organising for better working conditions earlier in 2012 after they had become disillusioned with the lack of support for lower paid workers by some of our traditional unions as “a worker led union organising the unorganised, the abandoned and the betrayed.”

It remains a powerful grass-roots trade union, based on building workers’ power and developing leadership by its members, taking action through strikes, powerful protests and legal actions and developing solidarity across cultural and language barriers.

The union has developed significantly since 2012 and has had many victories in its campaigns to improve the conditions of low paid workers. It now “organises couriers, cycling instructors, charity workers, yoga teachers, cleaners, security officers, video game workers, nannies, university workers, foster carers, private hire drivers and more.”

I reported on many of the protests by the IWGB and other grass-roots unions including the United Voices of the World (UVW) over the years – and you can see many of my reports on My London Diary. There had been a number of protests by cleaners before these unions were formed, but they brought a new level of activity and creativity to the protests.

The campaign for a London Living Wage was started by London Citizens in 2001 and recognises the extra costs of living in the city – something that had long been recognised in professions such as teaching, where teachers in Greater London received a London allowance. The London Living Wage level is calculated independently and supported by successive Mayors of London, but companies are not obliged to pay the extra amount above the National Minimum Wage (rebranded the National Living Wage for those over 21 a few years ago.)

As I wrote in 2012, the London Living Wage “still meets with bitter opposition from some of the most profitable companies around who are low pay employers, including MITIE, who last year increased their profit margins to 5.6% and had a pre-tax profit of £104.5m.”

The IWGB’s campaign as I also wrote, is “not only about wages, but also about civil rights, dignity and respect. MITIE seems to be treating its workers and employment law with contempt. The cleaners demand justice and fair treatment, and say they are treated as medieval serfs. They are asking for:

• the London Living Wage of £8.30 per hour
• proper contracts which reflect the actual hours of work and provide
    holidays and other normal employment benefits
• adequate staffing levels to cope with the workload
• proper changing and washing facilities
• proper Health & Safety training for managers and workers, and risk
    assessments of tasks
• proper safety equipment including protective gloves etc"

MITIE’s response to the campaign was simply “to ban the IWGB. Senior HR Manager Kevin Watson-Griffin stated ‘IWGB representatives will not be permitted access to any MITIE site, including the Tower of London, Barbican etc. to support the IWGB members who are employed by MITIE.'”

*After an hour or so of noisy protest it was time to go – but with the message “***We’ll be back**“

On My London Diary you can read more about the protest at the Tower, including what actually happened at this very public, very visible and very noisy protest which received considerable support from trade unionists from other unions involved with cleaners including the PCS, RMT and Unison. I also wrote about some of the speakers and their speeches and the photographs include most of them including journalist Owen Jones.

More on My London Diary at Cleaners Protest at Tower.

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The Battle of Walthamstow – 2012

The Battle of Walthamstow: On Saturday 1st of September the extreme right English Defence League attempted to march into Walthamstow and hold a rally outside the Waltham Forest Civic Centre on Forest Road. Several thousand people from all of Walthamstow’s communities came together as ‘We are Waltham Forest’ determined to oppose them.

From a long rally in Walthamstow’s main square with speeches by many community leaders and performances by local drummers and singers, the people of Walthamstow marched to Forest Road, arriving an hour or so before the EDL march was due.

As they made their way along Hoe Street there was no doubt of their wide support from the community, with people coming out from virtually every shop and building, many waving and cheering in support.

When the march reached Forest Road many of the marchers sat down on the road at the key junction on the EDL march route. I left them there and walked back towards where the EDL march was to start.

When I saw the EDL march coming towards me, it looked more like a police march as the EDL were probably surrounded by more officers than there were supporters on the march. None of the main EDL leaders was on the march as they had gone separately to where they intended to hold a rally and were setting up the PA system.

It was hard to get a clear view of the marchers through the lines of police around them, and I only had a short telephoto when a much longer lens would have been useful.

But I managed to take some pictures of the marchers and many of them saw me and shouted abuse or made offensive gestures. Others tried to hold up hands in front of their faces – in one case making a woman look as if she was giving a Nazi salute. One man even rushed through a gap between police officers and put his hand over my lens before police dragged him back into the march. Although they got in my way I was rather glad the police were there.

A few people had come out onto the side of the streets to watch the marchers. Most did so in silence, but some held posters against the marchers or shouted at them. I saw only one supporter, an elderly man who came out of his house to greet them and was greeted with cheers from the marchers. As I commented, “Clearly here the silent majority they claim to represent was overwhelmingly against them.”

As the crucial road junction was blocked, police diverted the march down a side road shortly before it. Some of the EDL were angry at leaving the route and wanted to get at those blocking the road and there were some minor scuffles between the EDL stewards and police.

I went to the junction where the EDL march was led across the Chingford Rd and joined other photographers who were photographing the march and residents who had come to oppose them. Here EDL stewards dragged back marchers who tried to attack us and police and managed to keep their march more or less in order.

Police halted the march in Farnan Avenue at the side of the Civic Centre, but it was now clearly impossible for them to continue to the planned rally location because of the mass of protesters opposed to the EDL who were mainly held by police behind barriers on the opposite side of the road.

I went to where Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll had come with a few others to set up for the rally and took a few pictures before I was stopped by an EDL steward who insisted I was a Unite Against Fascism photographer and called over a police officer. I showed the officer my press card, but he still insisted I leave the area. I unhitched a barrier and went across to the other side of the road.

*Facing them were hundreds of people from Waltham Forest with the message ‘EDL not welcome’*

‘We Are Waltham Forest’ organisers had asked that the protest remain a peaceful one, but some had other ideas and a few sticks and other objects were begining to be thrown towards the EDL. A small brick landed a few yards from Robinson, and was picked up by him and handed to a police officer as evidence.

I moved to one side to avoid being hit as more objects began to be thrown – unlike many other photographers I wear no protective headgear. The situation appeared to be a stalemate, and although many of the counter-protesters had left it seemed unlikely that the EDL rally would be possible. When I left the EDL marchers were still surrounded by police in the side road.

Police later told the EDL that the rally could not go ahead, and the EDL leaders left. Police then kept the marchers surrounded for several hours for their own protection and after RMT members told police they would not allow hooligans to endanger the public by boarding trains, police decide to arrest them all and take them in vans to various police stations. They were apparently de-arrested and released in the early hours of Sunday morning.

This defeat was important in the demise of the EDL and you can see many more pictures at Waltham Forest Defeats the EDL.

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Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis – 2012

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis: Saturday 14th July 2012 was another day I spent travelling to protests around London. On the Holloway Road Harringey Private Tenants Action Group protested against letting agents who take hundreds of pounds from people looking for homes but do nopthing for them, PETA marched from Waterloo to Marble Arch against bears being killed to make busbys for the guards, a protest at the Bahraini embassy in Belgrave Square against killing and jailing of political prisones. Finally I went to John Lewis in Oxford Street where cleaners were calling to be recognised as partners in the business and to be paid the London Living Wage.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam – Drivers & Norris, Holloway Rd

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis - 2012

I photographed protesters standing in the rain outside letting agents Drivers & Norris on Holloway Road, condemning them for taking over £300 from home seekers and providing nothing return but refusing to return the payment.

Harringey Private Tenants Action Group stated:

Agency ‘fees’, reference ‘checks’, admin ‘fees’, leaving ‘fees’ are all costs that have been created over the past few years by and for Letting Agents like Drivers and Norris, to increase their profits and exploit the basic nee of tenants to find a home. We, as private tenants, will not accept this anymore. We have a right to really affordable, secure and decent housing just like anyone else.

Police came and tried to get the protesters to end their protest, claiming it might distract drivers on the busy main road. The protesters told the police firmly that they were simply trying to suppress lawful protest and if they considered there was any real danger they should divert traffic from the area and that instead of wasting police time here they should be investigating the Drivers & Norris scam rather than harassing protesters.

I commented that there was no real reason for any police presence as there was “unlikely to be any breach of the peace. But I suppose it was an easy number to drink tea in the estate agents“.

On My London Diary I pointed out that agents had profited enormously from high property prices in London, now well above what people on average or lower wages can afford, and that successive governments had weakened the security of private tenants and cut the provision of social housing creating the current dire housing problems. Many new developments were also being aimed at overseas investors to enable them to take advantage of the rapidly rising property prices while often leaving the properties empty.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam

PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March – Marble Arch

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had stated:

It can take the entire hide of one Canadian black bear to make just one cap. Bears can be shot several times before they die, and some escape and bleed to death. In some Canadian provinces, there are no restrictions on the shooting of mothers who have nursing cubs, leading to the slaughter of entire families during hunts.

We need to send a clear message to the Ministry of Defence that the slaughter of wildlife for The Queen’s Guards’ ceremonial headwear is unacceptable and that the time has come for them to go fake for the bears’ sake.

I’d called in to the start of the march next to the Shell Centre at Waterloo before going to Haringey, but hadn’t taken any pictures, deciding instead to meet them at the end of the march. It took them much longer than they had expected and I’d almost given up when I saw them coming up Park Lane and rushed to take pictures.

It was perhaps a too regimented protest with so many identical placards and bear masks provided by PETA which made it difficult for me to find anything really different to photograph.

They had also been asked to wear black clothes, but at least had been told to bring their own teddy bears.

More pictures at PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March

Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners – Bahraini embassy, Belgrave Square

The Al Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since the late 1700s and in 1820 made a treaty with Britain – since renewed on various occasions, becoming a British protectorate. The country became independent in 1971 – when the USA took over what had previously been the Royal Navy base – and the family is still in power.

Various attempts to extend democracy in Bahrain led to little change in the ruling family’s control and to an uprising in 2011 with large protests and a brutal crackdown with many protesters tortured and around 120 killed. Mohammad Rahdi Mahfoodh was one of the ‘martyrs’ and was hit by a police vehicle and died from deliberate lack of care in a military hospital and mourners at his funeral were attacked.

Speakers at the protest including Jeremy Corbyn were there and people were still arriving for the protest opposite the embassy which was just beginning when I had to leave for my next event.

More pictures at Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners.

John Lewis cleaners step up protest – Oxford St

The flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street is cleaned by people employed by Integrated Cleaning Management (ICM) who employ them on far worse conditions than if they were directly employed by John Lewis, and on the legal minimum wage, then more than two pounds an hour below the London living wage.

Unlike others who work in the store the cleaners do not take part in the bonus scheme in which John Lewis shares its profits with its workers (the ‘partners’) although their work is essential to the operation of the store.

The cleaners also complain about poor management by ICM with discrimination and abuse at work, and are currently threatened by a 50% cut in their hours.

They had been long campaigning for equality of treatment and to be directly employed by the company they actually work for – John Lewis – and had held a one-day strike the previous day which had ended with a rally and a brief invasion of the store, though had caused no damage. But this perhaps explained the large numbers of police present, with small groups around each of the shop entrances.

John Lewis senior management watched the noisy but peaceful protest from inside the store. The management were still refusing to talk with the cleaners Union, and another one-day strike was caused the following week.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at John Lewis cleaners step up protest.

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Chariot Festival & Vigil for Custody Deaths – 2012

Chariot Festival & Vigil for Custody Deaths: On Sunday 17th June 2012 I photographed the Rathayatra Chariots Festival in Hyde Park, leaving as it set off to go to Brixton. Families of men killed in police custody were holding Fathers Day vigils outside police stations and at Brixton, the family of Ricky Bishop was joined by the sisters of Sean Rigg, whose inquest 4 years after his death there had just started and was in the news.

Hare Krishna Chariot Festival – Hyde Park

Chariot Festival & Vigil for Custody Deaths - 2012 — *Effigy of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) the founder of ISKCON (Hare Krishna)*

The annual Rathayatra Chariots Festival is now one of the largest and most colourful religious processions in London with more than a thousand devotees pulling the three giant chariots through the streets from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, chanting ‘Hare Krishna’ and dancing.

The ceremony which began at the Jagannatha temple in Puri, Orissa on the Indian east coast at least a thousand years ago celebrates the time when Krishna grew up on earth; when he became a great lord he moved away from his childhood friends who were cowherds and they came with a cart and tried to kidnap him and take him back to their village.

Jagannath means ‘Master of the Universe’ and his name and the chariots in the festival give us the word “juggernaut”.

The first Rathayatra festival in the west was in San Francisco in 1967 and two years later it was begun in London by disciples from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (better known as the Hare Krishna.)

Krishna, his sister Subhadra and elder brother Balarama each have a chariot and an effigy of the founder of ISKCON, C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) is also carried on one of the chariots in the festival.

More on My London Diary at Hare Krishna Chariot Festival.

Fathers Day Vigil for Custody Deaths – Brixton Police Station

At the vigil outside Brixton Police Station the family of Ricky Bishop was joined by the sisters of Sean Rigg; both were young men in their twenties died after being taken into the police station, Bishop in 2001 and Rigg in 2008.

On My London Diary you can read more about the two deaths and the steps police have taken to stop the truth about their deaths emerging with lies and failures to investigate. The inquiry by the IPCC wailed to question the officers concerned until 8 month after Sean Rigg’s death and the inquest was delayed for four years, beginning a few days before this protest. It was only because of the huge battles by his family that many of the facts emerged. A report into the IPCC investigation in 2013 had concluded they had committed a series of major blunders.

Two months after this vigil, Wikipedia states ‘the inquest jury returned a narrative verdict which concluded that the police had used “unsuitable and unnecessary force” on Rigg, that officers failed to uphold his basic rights and that the failings of the police “more than minimally” contributed to his death.’

Other vigils were taking place on the same day at Birmingham West Midlands Police HQ and in High Wycombe for Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah, in Manchester for Anthony Grainger, Slough for Philmore Mills and at New Scotland Yard for Azelle Rodney.

More at Fathers Day Vigil.

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