Women Protest Against Rape: I was going to be out of London for the ‘Slutwalk’ which was to take place on Saturday 22nd September – though I had photographed the first Slutwalk in 2011, and was pleased to cover this earlier event organised by by Women Against Rape and supported by other groups including the English Collective of Prostitutes which preceded it and highlighted the issues behind the larger protest.
The protesters demanded justice for rape victims, whose claims are often dismissed or downgraded by the police who often blame the victim not the rapist. Many rapes are not reported to the police and of those that are, only less than 1 in 7 result in a conviction of the rapist.
Women who do report rape have often been accused by police of lying and some have been prosecuted for making false accuesations and sentenced to jail. The great majority of rapes go unreported – estimates vary between 70-95%.
There are seldom any witnesses to the actual crime other than the rapist and victim, and their impressions of the event and certainly the stories they tell may be very different. Most of the cases that result in successful convictions are those when the defendant pleads guilty.
Most rape – outside of war zones – is by men who are known to their victim and has nothing to do with what they are wearing, but reflects the unequal relationship between men and women which is at the base of our society.
The women taking part in the protest stripped to their underwear, holding up placards with the word SLUT and posters against the current failure by the law, police and courts to treat rape seriously. Most had slogans painted on their bodies, and they sang and chanted and spoke, some from their own experience of police failures to respond appropriately.
Women of colour feel they are discriminated against by police, and asylum seekers and refugees are under threat of deportation if they make a complaint. Sex workers are sometimes told that rape is a consequence of their job that they should expect, and police often go out of their way to enforce laws which put them at risk, rather than doing anything to protect them. Cases are often dropped because police or CPS feel the witness ‘lacks credibility’.
English Results & Vedanta AGM: On Tuesday 28th August 2012 I photographed a protest by London teachers over Michael Gove’s interference with GCSE English grading before going on to Lincoln Inn Fields for a lively protests outside the AGM of London-based mining company Vedanta.
Regrade GCSE English
Dept of Education, Westminster
London teachers protested outside the Education Ministry against Michael Gove’s intervention in the grading of GCSE English results, which had moved the mark boundary between Grad C and Grade D, meaning that many students who previously would have achieved a C grade were now graded at D.
GCSE had been introduced as a system to grade students with no particular significance to the C/D boundary, but over the years has been altered by governments to make C a pass and D a fail, both for the students and also for the schools.
Students who fail to get a C or above in English (and Maths) may be prevented from goning on to further study even in unrelated subjects, and schools which fail to get passes for the required 40% pass benchmark are at risk. Some teachers may also lose pay as a result – even though their students have actually performed at the same level.
The change in the grade boundaries is seen as part of Gove’s agenda to blame schools and teachers for ‘failing’ students and provide a rationale for closing down schools run by democratically elected local councils and replacing extending the privatisation of education by their replacement by ‘academies.’
The altered grading disproportionately affects students from working class backgrounds, whose aims to better themselves through education have already been hit by this government with the removal of EMA, the educational maintenance allowance for 16-18 year olds, and by the hike in University fees.
Then NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney speaking
The grade shift was estimated to result in an increase of around 10,000 in the number of young people not in education, employment, or training, “NEET“s. and on the same day as this protest Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced that young unemployed Londoners would be forced to do three months of unpaid full-time work or have their benefits cut.
Mining company Vedanta, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal and backed by the UK government was opposed by groups in India, Goa, Liberia, Namibia, South Africa, Ireland, Zambia and Sri Lanka because of the environmental damage, pollution and human rights abuses caused by its mining of bauxite and other minerals.
Protesters from Goa ask ‘Where have all the trees gone!’?
Vedanta’s activities had been condemned by Amnesty International and many organisations had withdrawn their investments including the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, Martin Currie Investments, the Church of England, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Dutch Pension Fund PGGM.
But the company was still supported by over 30 major banks and financial agencies including HSBC, RBS, Deutsche Bank, Axa, Royal Bank of Canada, Credit Suisse, J P Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking Group, Nordea Bank, ICICI, Citigroup, National Bank of Kuwait, ANZ and Merrill Lynch.
Samarendra Das of Foil Vedanta speaks, John McDonnell MP listens
In Odisha, India, the smelting of bauxite had left over 10,000 displaced people landless, contaminated drinking water and devastated vast areas of formerly fertile land, with famines every year since 2007. Only widespread and determined resistance by the indigenous Advasi people over seven years has so far prevented the devastation of their sacred Niyamgiri hills.
There had been many huge protests in Tamil Nadu where their subsidiary “has flouted laws without remorse, operating and expanding without consent, violating environmental conditions, and illegally dumping toxic effluents and waste” and had overturned court decisions against them by “large scale corruption and bribery.”
The lively protest was organised by Foil Vedanta. At one point well-dressed protester who walked up to the gate leading to the AGM and threw fake blood on the pavement before rushing away.
Shareholders attending the meeting then had to step carefully over the pool of blood to go in to the meeting until some minutes later a cleaner was sent out to clear the mess.
Four of the protesters, icnluding Bianca Jagger, dressed as usual in white, had to step over it as they went in, having become shareholders to they could attend the AGM and raise questions about the company’s actions.
Olympics, Illegal Policing & Cody Dock: On Saturday 21st July 2012 I went to Stratford, first to photograph the Olympic flame being carried along the High Street, then to join a tour of the Carpenter’s Estate led by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration.)
What should have been a straightforward visit was help up by police at the BBC’s request for around an hour without any legal reason before we were able to enter Lund Point, a tower block overlooking the Olympic area. This made me late for the Open Day at Cody Dock, where I arrived as most people were leaving.
You can read more detailed accounts of the events on My London Dairy, with many more pictures – links below.
Olympic Flame at Stratford Six Days Early
Stratford High St
The Olympic flame visited Stratford briefly but avoided the Olympic site where it was not due until the following Friday. I was surprised at how few came out to watch it.
The torch itself generated a little more interest. I’ve no idea who 070 was carrying it, and she handed it over to 071 at the junction with Warton Rd, which leads into the Olympic site a couple of hundred yards away.
An organised party of people visiting the Olympic site watched from the temporary bridge taking the Greenway over the High Street – with a big wooden torch behind them.
The tour of the Carpenters estate met outside Stratford Station– Placards showing Mayor Sir Robin Wales as ‘The Sheriff of Newham Robin the Poor’
The Carpenters Estate, close to Stratford Station, was one of the better council developments of the 1960s, with a large area of two-story terraced housing, some maisonettes and three 22 storey point blocks as well as some existing small industrial premises. It included shops, a pub and a school, and later a community and health centre and remained a very popular estate.
The tour sets off
But Newham Council saw the estate as simply as an opportunity to sell and make money and as a part of Mayor Robin Wales’ plans to make Stratford ‘London’s Third City’, even if this meant getting rid of many of the people who currently live there. The council began moving people out around 2004, leaving properties in good condition empty in a borough with London’s largest housing problem. In 2012 they were still hoping to sell it to University College for a new campus.
The Olympic site is really very close
In 2011 the council decided to fix the elections to the Carpenters Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). They barred freeholders on the estate from standing for the new board of management and ‘lost’ five out of the six leaseholder nominations. At the AGM the TMO officials employed security guards to refuse entry to all freeholders who had been invited to attend.
Joe Alexander of CARP speaks about how the council takeover to the TMP led to residents settting up CARP
The TMO was supposed to stand up for residents and to fight against the low valuations being made by the council for compulsory purchase of properties on the estate, but was now essentially a tool of the council. This led to residents setting up Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans (CARP) to challenge what they say are unconstitutional decisions made by the TMO and to get it to fulfil its duties to all residents of the estate, and to fight for the future of the residents and for a sustainable community.
A long-term resident who has lived on the estate for many years and intends to stay
The tour began at Stratford Station and we were taken on a long walk around the estate, with several CARP members speaking at various points.
Lund Point. Some residents were upset not to have been consulted about the advertising on their blocks
When we tried to visit two flats we had been invited to see in Lund Point we were stopped, first by BBC security and later by police, who stopped us from entering for around an hour and a half, but finally had to allow us to go in since we had an invitation from the residents of the two flats – more below.
BBC employed security men bar our way into Lund Point – but are told we will be back later
We continued to go around the estate and talk with some of the nearby businesses which are closing as people move out and redevelopment is taking place along the High Street, as well as briefly visiting James Reilly Point, where the BBC had wanted to set up their coverage, but determined action by one of the residents there had caused them to change their plans. Then we returned to Lund Point.
Following a request from BBC Security, police denied residents access to their tower block home close to the Olympic site in Stratford for well over an hour, before having to acknowledge they had no power to do so.
Some of those on the tour were opposed to UCL’s proposed grab of the estate
Colin, a resident in Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford had invited a group viewing the estate in a tour organised by CARP (Carpenters Estate Against Regeneration) to come to his flat to see the high standard of accomodation in the 1966 tower block and the views across the estate. We tried to enter the building at 1.15pm but were blocked by BBC Security.
We are shown the BBC is occupying the lift lobby as well as the floors they have part rented and there are health and safety hazards for residents, particularly their children
When we returned 55 minutes later, there were a group of five PCSOs and a police officer assisting the security men in blocking our entrance. Again the resident and the group were refused entry but the police officer present refused to discuss why. She called for reinforcements; first one more officer and then two police vans arrived. Eventually I think a more senior officer decided that they were acting unlawfully and we were allowed to enter just before 3pm.
We take it in turns to go in and see the flat, which is in excellent repair (although the council say these flats are too expensive to refurbish, if UCL takes over the site it may reuse them as student residencies.)
Inside there was further resistance from BBC security and it soon became obvious why the BBC were reluctant to allow me and other members of the press on the tour to enter. Although this was still a residential building with around 30 flats still occupied, the interior appeared to be a health and safety nightmare, with cables, desks in lobby areas and so on.
On the 20th floor we move out of the lift but are stopped on the corridor by security
After visiting the first flat, we tried to visit another resident who owns a flat on the 20th floor of the block, and again police and security at first told us this was impossible. But we pressed on; we were blocked as we exited the lift, but when Warren confirmed he had invited us were eventually allowed through.
This is a residential area where people still live, despite the cables and poles
Tawanda Nyabango talks about the estate and the Olympic site next door from the 20th floor of Lund Point
Although the BBC has taken over most of the top 5 floors of Lund Point on the Carpenters Estate next to the Olympic park as studios for its coverage of London 2012, there are still some flats occupied by owner occupiers in the block. On a tour with residents group CARP (Carpenters Against Regeneration Plans) I was invited to visit a flat on the 20th floor of this 22 storey block.
I had a very limited time to work but managed to make a couple of panoramas as the single images while I was there.
More, including some different ways of representing the panoramic view on My London Diary: Olympic Views
Cody Dock Open Day
South Crescent, Canning Town
The hold-up by security and police made me too late for the Open Day at Cody Dock but I did manage to take a few pictures. You can see more in my post on My London Diary in April 2012 when I wrote Cody Dock in April and wrote Gasworks Dock Revived, which tells something of the history of the dock and the efforts being made to develop it into a real community resource, as well as filling a vital link in the footpath along the bank of Bow Creek from Bow Locks eventually to the Thames (there is still another gap beyond Cody Dock.
Diggers at Runnymede: On Saturday 16th June 2012 I cycled to Runnymede in Surrey on the south bank of the Thames, a large area of National Trust land which was possibly the site where King John met the barons and agreed to the Magna Carta in 1215. There is a large area of meadow on both sides of the current course of the River Thames and the actual site of the meeting within this remains uncertain.
I stepped back a couple of paces from the circle to take this picture
The meeting that I attended was close to the American Bar Association Magna Carta Memorial, unveiled here in 1957 – and almost certainly not where the 1215 meeting took place, but a short distance above the meadows on the slope of Coopers Hill.
There I met a group of ‘Diggers’ who were camping further up the hill, ecologists whose ideas mirror those of the original Diggers or ‘True Levellers’ founded by Gerard Winstanley in 1649 after the first English Civil War. He stated that “true freedom lies where a man receives his nourishment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth” and that “England is not a free people, till the poor that have no land have a free allowance to dig and labour the commons.”
When food became horrendously expensive in 1649 the Diggers set up a camp on common land at St George’s Hill in Weybridge and began to grow vegetables there. The local landowners called in the army, who came and decided the Diggers were not harming anyone and told the landowners to take their case to court.
Instead the landowners paid a gang of ruffians to attack the Diggers, beating them up and burning down a house. Three years after the 2012 meeting, history repeated itself during the Magna Carta 800th anniversary celebrations, when police illegally invaded the Runnymede Eco-Village community set up by the new Diggers to stop their peoples’ celebration. The site is now occupied by luxury housing.
The original Diggers based their ideas of sharing of property from the New Testament and early Christianity and also looked back to England before the Norman Conquest. After 1066 the Norman Conquerors took hold of the land and divided it between themselves and there has been remarkably little change in land ownership over the almost 950 years since then, with the same families still owning the great majority of English land; 0.65% of the UK population currently own more than two thirds of the UK land area.
It was an interesting discussion with some very historically informed contributions about Magna Carta and the lesser-known but more relevant to the common man ‘Charter of the Forest‘ which was issued shortly afterwards as well as a discussion of current issues and some interesting proposals for the future. As well as hoping to use the Eco-village as a practical example of their philosophy they also decided to hold a people’s celebration of the 800th anniversary in 2015 to take place as well as the official events.
At the end of the meeting people get up to go to the Diggers campsite
After a long meeting we walked up the hill to the Diggers camp close to the long disused Runnymede campus of Brunel University and I made a few pictures. The Eco-village was finally set up a few yards further down the slope.
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.
Beside the tower in Belgrave Square
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Diane Abbott was the only MP I saw at the protest
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.
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.
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.
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.
Santas celebrate on the plinth of Nelson’s Column
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.
A Santa uses his guitar as a bat to hit Brussels sprouts back
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.”
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.
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.
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:
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.
