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European Creative Social Forum – 2004

The European Social Forum took place in London from Friday 15th October to Sunday 17th October 2004 and I covered events on the street on all three days, along with some other events. In this post I’ll include the entire text I wrote in 2004 (with the usual corrections) and just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took with links to the others still on My London Diary.

Friday

European Creative Social Forum - 2004 — *The samba band under Waterloo Bridge*

The event of the month was undoubtedly the European Social Forum, held in London from 15-17 October. This brought together trade unionists, socialists, peace campaigners and greens from all over Europe to demonstrate that “Another Europe Is Possible“, but apparently left many complaining about how the event had been organised and manipulated. I choose not to attend the more serious sessions but to look at how this conference spilled over more creatively into the streets of London.

It was a generally good-natured event, with an international samba band. From the top of a tourist bus an American voice asked the bill what was on. As he floundered to reply, the woman I was talking to suggested “Hey it’s a fluffy takeover!”

On the Friday, Critical Mass were out on their bikes, together with Rising Tide and other environmental protesters. On a ‘London Underwater 2050 Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals‘. Starting under Waterloo Bridge, they went on tour, visiting the London offices of several climate change villains, including petrol giants Exxon Mobil and BP and the Canadian government, ending up outside the National Portrait Gallery, site of the annual BP-sponsored portrait award.

Most of the police were good-natured and cooperative throughout, but there were some ineffectual attempts to block the path of the demonstrators. By standing in the road the police blocked traffic, while the demonstrators simply walked around them.

Worrying was the deliberate police use of photography as intimidation, with the police photographer going out of his way to confront demonstrators, aided by two other officers.

I worry because I think it is an attempt to attack civil liberties, but also because such behaviour makes all photographers suspect. I can only work effectively if I gain the trust and cooperation of those whose pictures I take. Perhaps it helps that photography is one of the activities that also arouses suspicion and intimidation by the police.

As I walked away at the end of the demonstration, this team ran 50 yards down the road and caught up with me, one calling “Excuse me, sir!” and tapping on my shoulder. I turned to face him, and found myself looking into the lens of the police photographer, who took my picture as his colleague started to question me about who I was taking pictures for. It seemed clear and deliberate harassment, intended to intimidate a photographer acting entirely lawfully, photographing on the public highway.

More pictures from Friday

Saturday

The samba band and others visited the temple of Mammon. Oxford Street on a Saturday must rank as about the most depressing place on earth, although IKEA – where my wife and son spent the day buying furniture for his new flat – must be a close contender.

I couldn’t stand a whole afternoon in shopping hell, so left to watch the Rosary Crusade Of Reparation procession leaving from Westminster Cathedral on its way to Brompton Oratory. “The future”, I was assured, “is Latin“, and the event started with Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan from Brazil intoning “Credo in Unum Deum” from the loadspeaker on a police van. The creed was continued by the congregation, led by several Knights Of Malta and the traditional Catholic Family Alliance.

Later I re-joined the French CGT and British GMB unions who were demonstrating outside Puma in Carnaby Street, over their use of sweated labour. It is an issue that has been highlighted in this country by ‘No Sweat’ who were also there, along with what was by now my favourite samba band, an international group with strong contributions from Sheffield and France.

By the time the band reached the top of Carnaby street, the police were obviously getting restless. I heard one giving the opinion to a member of the public “they’ve been pissing about for six hours and it’s time they went home“. Muscled officers in baggy black fighting gear were flexing muscles and grinning stupidly, obviously relishing the likely opportunity for a little action, as officers and demonstrators argued the toss.

Eventually commonsense and law prevailed and the demonstrators were allowed to keep moving along. On Oxford St we headed towards the goal of the CGT, the Virgin Megastore. There were actually a couple of tempting CDs on special offer, but I managed to leave empty-handed just before security, on police advice, lowered the shutters as the demo arrived, making a very brief stop for a CGT photo-opportunity.

After yesterday’s harassment, I slipped across Oxford Street at this point, past the police vans that were holding up the traffic and behind a bus before disappearing rapidly down the underground. It saves hassle, and I wanted to get to a great Nepalese meal near Euston Station.

More pictures from Saturday

Sunday

Network Rail chose October weekends to isolate Staines from the rest of the world with extensive engineering works and a replacement bus service. The first I travelled on [on Saturday] got lost several times, taking the wrong route out of Feltham (including a prohibited two point left turn from the station yard) and proved unable to find the station in Hounslow. Getting various directions from other bus drivers and passengers, a mile further on he made a three point turn in the main London road, only to come back and drive past the turning for the station again. Directed by a passenger he then tried some side roads hardly wide enough for the bus to edge its way through, only to arrive at a one-way section leading away from our goal. We finally squeezed through another narrow side road to Hounslow Station.

Next time [on Sunday] the driver only got lost twice, missed out Feltham Station completely, and had to make one U-turn on a major road, but otherwise it was uneventful. I don’t like to knock the railways, but a little organisation would help.

*Agit Contre la Guerre (ACG) were one of the liveliest groups on the march.*

Sunday was the climax event for the European Social Forum, with a huge anti-war march to a rally in Trafalgar Square, and it was big. Stop The War as usual were trying to control the uncontrollable and mainly succeeding in frustrating the media. Demonstrators simply and entirely predictably surged past the ‘front of the march’ they tried to establish.

I don’t know how many there were on the march, but the police estimate of 15-20,000 seems as usual on the low side, although the organisers 75,000 may be equally too high. The most reliable guess is an average of the two.

More pictures from the march

*Jamal Jumaa, Director of Stop the Wall Campaign in Palestine spoke forcefully*

People were still flooding up Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square as I left, some two hours after the rally there was due to start.

Among the speakers I photographed were Tony Benn, George Galloway and Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Che.

Although it was a generally well-behaved and good-natured event, there were a few minor incidents – the police reported nine arrests. I saw two incidents that were sparked by aggressive police behaviour in trying to photograph some of those present, as well as some violent attempts to break through the stewards and access the fenced off platform area in the square, by demonstrators who wanted to raise the problem of several arrests having been made but were not allowed by the Stop The War stewards.

George Galloway: “There is one word in our hearts and our prayers – Falluja.
Falluja is going to be a new Stalingrad over the next few weeks”

Domination of the anti-war movement by Stop The War and the SWP must take the blame for its lack of effectiveness. When a few lorry drivers can force a government volte-face, it takes really effective dinosaur socialism to prevent the views of a majority of the British people having any effect at all.

More pictures of the rally at Trafalgar Square

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Arms Dealers, Dirty Oil and Pay – 2013

Arms Dealers, Dirty Oil and Pay: On Thursday 13th Jun 2013 a protest in the week before the G8 summit in Ireland targeted the offices of arms manufacturers in London. Unlike the previous day the protesters were not harassed and attacked by police and the protest remained peaceful.

Canadian prime minster Stephen Harper had been invited to address Parliament and there was a noisy protest against him over his support of the environmentally disastrous Canadian tar sands as well as a smaller group of Canadian Foreign Service Workers demanding equal pay with other Canadian government employees.

I also briefly photographed the continuing daily vigil calling for the release of Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo which I had written about earlier.

G8 Protest Against Arms Dealers

West End

Anti-G8 protesters continued their protests with a tour of the offices of companies making armaments in Central London. Today their peaceful protest, unlike yesterday’s, was not attacked by police, and there were no arrests.

As well as a group of protesters in black robes with ghost or skull masks and carrying mock scythes and a black banner with the message ‘Think we’re SCARY? You’ll find ‘ARMS DEALERS INSIDE‘, there were others calling attention to UK based arms companies including BAE and EDO and the huge DSEi arms fair held in London’s Docklands.

Some changed into white plastic overalls suitable for a ‘weapons inspection’ as the protest began outside the offices of UK’s largest arms manufacturer BAE in Carlton Gardens. BAE is the third largest arms company in the world and notable for several corruption cases – and they have been fined £48.7m by the US government for braking their military export laws. Speeches here gave brief details about their immoral and sometimes illegal activities.

The protest moved on to give similar performances outside the offices of other arms companies:

Thales, the world’s 11 largest arms company with a wide range of surveillance equipment, drones, armoured vehicles, missiles and more.

Lockheed Martin UK – the British arm of the world’s largest arms producer, making fighters, bombs, nuclear weapons and involved with the CIA and FBI.

Northrop Grumman UK, one of the world’s largest defence contractors and the largest builder of naval vessels

missile developer MBDA

QinetiQ, a major defence contractor which manufactures drones and armed robots used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They also protested outside Charing Cross Police Station where those arrested at the previous day’s J11 Carnival against Capitalism had been taken.

More on My London Diary at G8 Protest Against Arms Dealers.

Harper, we don’t want your dirty oil!

Parliament Square

Canadian PM Stephen Harper was invited to address the UK Parliament as he had a special relationship with UK PM David Cameron, both trying with the support of British Oil companies such as Shell and BP to force the EU to accept oil from the Albertan tar sands. And this protest took place as he spoke.

Canadian campaigners say Harper “has spent the last few years promoting the destructive tar sands industry, eroding Indigenous rights, weakening environmental regulations, muzzling scientists, and helping keep the world fixed on a collision course with runaway climate change by pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol.” They say his “government is currently mired in scandal and sleaze” and ask: “What was the UK thinking in extending this invitation?”

The protest was supported by all the leading environmental groups in the UK, and around a hundred protesters came to chanted in protest as this ‘climate criminal, addressed the UK Parliament shouting slogans including “Don’t say no thank you! Say No Tar!” and “Stephen Harper off our soil; We don’t want your dirty oil!”

More at Harper, we don’t want your dirty oil!

Canadian Foreign Service Protest

Abingdon Street

A few yards down the road from Parliament Square a much smaller group of protesters had come to greet the Canadian Prime Minister, mainly dressed in suits.

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Workers representing men and women working for the Canadian Government here and around the world had come to demand demanding equal pay for equal work. They say other Canadian government employees doing the exact same jobs as them are paid up to $14,000 a year more.

Canadian Foreign Service Protest

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Pedal Power Bike Rush – 2009

Pedal Power Bike Rush: On Monday 1st June 2009 I put my Brompton on the train and came to London to photograph Climate Rush’s mass bicycle ride demanding the the UK government take effective action to counter climate change and global warning. As we have been feeling in recent days, neither our government or most others around the would has done anything like enough despite the great majority of scientific advice and the many protests such as this. You can read a longer account of this protest together with many more pictures on My London Diary at Pedal Power Bike Rush.

Pedal Power Bike Rush

Westminster

Climate Rush was a direct action group led and inspired by women, modelled on the Suffragette Movement of a hundred years previously and had first emerged in a rush to Parliament on the 100th anniversary of the 1908 ‘Suffragette Rush’ when 40 women were arrested as they attempted to rush into The Houses of Parliament.

Then, as for this pedal power protest their key demands were an end to fossil fuel use and for the government to make policies in line with climate science and research.

*Hare Krisha came with food and a sound system*

Earlier in the day I had not been with them as they protested outside a conference at Chatham House in St James’s Square ‘Coal: An answer to our energy security’, attempting to block the entrance with a sculpture made of bikes and a banner ‘NO NEW COAL – CLIMATE RUSH’ demanding that no new coal-fired power stations be built – and existing ones shut down. (It was October 2024 before this finally happened, years too late.) Five of the protesters had been arrested.

I joined around 300 Climate Rush cyclists and a tandem-hauled sound system outside the conference venue and after around an hour of further protest there, with a short speech by Climate Rush founder Tamsin Osman we set off on a ride, pausing briefly outside BP’s headquarters where she spoke briefly about their huge contribution to global warming and related crimes.

Other climate criminals the ride halted at for protests and where people came to talk about their activities including the British Airports Authority at Victoria and the the government’s clumsily-named Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR), responsible for promoting much of its anti-environment climate warming activity.

Helpfully these were marked out by rows of police standing outside, and police pedal cyclists riding with the Climate Rush were also helpful in stopping traffic at various points to facilitate the ride.

*More information about Climate Criminals 0utside the RBS in Lower Regent St*

Many riders wore white dresses and hats evoking the Suffragette era with red sashes with messages including ‘CLIMATE CODE RED’, ‘DEEDS NOT WORDS’, ‘NO AIRPORT EXPANSION’, ‘ACTION ON COAL NOW!, ‘TRAINS NOT PLANES’ and ‘PEDAL POWER.’

*At the Dept for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform*

The riders also slowed down to hand out copies of a newspaper ‘HERE COMES THE SUN’, with information about climate change and what people can do as well as celebrity exclusives from Quentin Tarantino, Paris Hilton, Colin Firth, Vivienne Westwood, Daisy Lowe, Stephen Hawking, Giles Deacon, Gavin Turk, Katherine Hamnett and Queens of Noize, quotations from Gandhi, Einstein and more.

At the end of the ride, the cyclists went around Parliament Square and then onto Westminster Bridge where they brought out a very long banner with the text ‘Remember Remember the 5th of December’ – the date of the next National Climate Demonstration – and hung it over the side of the bridge before settling down to have a picnic. This was continuing when I left for home.

More at Pedal Power Bike Rush.

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Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour – 2008

Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour: Many thought that the driving force behind the US invasion of Iraq, shamefully assisted by the UK and a few others, was oil. It was clear that there were no real ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and by 2008 it had become clear that the only rational basis “was a desire to open up the Iraqi economy to economic exploitation by the multinationals, with oil as the chief goal.”

As I wrote in 2008, “Few liked Saddam, but the oil giants had a particular reason to get rid of him. As long as he was dictator, oil would remain a public sector industry in Iraq. Now Shell, BP and other majors in the oil business are pressing for the spoils of victory, production sharing agreements that will give them effective control over Iraqi oil for the next 25 years…. Under the occupation laws are being imposed, regulations changed and institutions set up to ensure that US and multinational companies can profit from and dominate the Iraqi economy.”

The Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour of London was a part of an international campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people against the corporate theft of Iraq’s oil, and it was also rather a fun piece of street theatre with pirate costumes and a samba band, pointing out various London-based companies that were involved in the theft of Iraqi oil.

I met the protesters as they were getting ready for the tour and walked with them down Oxford Street to the New Bond Street to a mock battle outside the offices of Erinys International Limited, a private military security company with a reputation for using excessive force which provides security services in Iraq as well as training Iraq’s Oil Protection force.

A short walk took us to BP in St James’s Square. “Former BP CEOs worked as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, and their advice was (what a surprise) to let companies like BP come in a make vast profits. They helped to draft the Iraqi hydrocarbon laws and have plans for giant oil fields. “

We stopped briefly outside the National Portrait Gallery – earlier in the day there had been a brief protest inside there as their major wards are sponsored by BP.

Around the corner in Duncannon Street they protested at the offices of the International Tax and Investment Centre, paid by the big oil companies to lobby for a free-market approach which would let them dominate Iraqi oil.

There were two venues the protesters ran out to time to visit: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office employed former oil executives as advisers on economic policy to work on the new Iraqi laws in support of BP and Shell and Development Program Worldwide Ltd (previously Windrush Communications) promotes private enterprises in areas such as conflict zones where there are few controls over their activities and no effective government to represent the public interest.

We crossed the river over the Jubilee footbridge to the Shell Centre and a slightly longer rally. Shell has played a leading role in the re-purposing of the Iraqi oil industry from a state asset to a multinational profit opportunity and have plans for three major oil fields there.

More text and many more pictures at Hands off Iraqi Oil Piratical Action Tour

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Ahwazi Crash Secret UK-Iran Business Meeting – 2015

Ahwazi Crash Secret UK-Iran Business Meeting: On Friday 3rd July 2015 I went into the offices of the British Iranian Chambers of Commerce (BICC) with a group of British-Iranian Ahwazi Arabs and human rights activist Peter Tatchell to gatecrash a secret meeting promoting UK-Iran trade and investment in NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) House in Westminster.

Iran of course is very much back in the news now, following the attacks on its nuclear installions by Israel and the USA, concerned that Iran might be developing nuclear weapons. At the moment Israel is the only state in the Middle East with nuclear weapons and they and their US partners are very much concerned to keep it that way. But this protest was against the continuing savage oppression of the Awazi in Iran.

Iran is of course a state with a highly oppresive authoritarian religious regime – as Amnesty International report they surpress “the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly” with “Women and girls, LGBTI people, and ethnic and religious minorities” experiencing “systemic discrimination and violence.”

The Awazi Arabs are Iran’s largest Arab speaking community and their largely autonomous state of Al-Ahwaz was forcibly taken over by Persia in 1925. And they suffer more than any other ethnic group from Iranian oppression.

Oil was first discovered in Al-Ahwaz in 1908, and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company formed to exploit it (in was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935) was directly controlled by the British government from 1914 to 1951 when oil was nationalised under the the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC.) Almost all of Iran’s oil is in the Ahwazi regions. Anglo-Iranian is now rather better known as BP.

Iranian violent persecution, forced displacement and the suppression of Ahwazi Arabs and their culture has continued since 1925, turning their homeland, thought to have been the inspiration of the Biblical ‘Garden of Eden’ into a a desolate wasteland, the poorest area of the Middle East.

*Peter Tatchell talks with some of those taking part in the secret meeting*

A recent Facebook post gives a short clear summary of Iran’s history – here’s the text:

“IRAN ONCE HAD DEMOCRACY – THE WEST DESTROYED IT.
Every time Western leaders talk about “freedom and democracy” in Iran – they either don’t know history – or they’re hoping you don’t.

IRAN HAD DEMOCRACY – Until the CIA and MI6 overthrew it. Why? Because Iran dared to nationalize its own oil. That was 1953. The elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, was toppled by Operation Ajax. Why? Because British Petroleum (yes, that BP) didn’t want to lose control.

So let’s stop pretending the West ever cared about the Iranian people.
It was always about oil and imperial control. And those parroting “freedom” today – without this context – are sadly, useful idiots for empire.”

The post goes on to promote the book “The Devil’s Chessboard” by David Talbot, founding editor of Salon, which apparently “tells the full story” of how the “Dulles brothers weaponized the CIA to crush democracy abroad – from Iran to Congo to Guatemala” though I’ve not read it.

*‘We demand Dignity and Justice for Ahwazis’*

You can read more about what happened inside NIOC House on My London Diary, though I think the pictures and captions give a good idea there are many more there. I had some difficult in working in the low lighting in the corridor and from some trying to stop me taking pictures, but was not seriously harrassed, though I was stopped and wasn’t able to get a picture of Lord Lamont as he was confronted by some of the protesters, although the other photographers did.

One man – recognised by the protesters as an Iranian Embassy official – began to assault one of the photographers but was restrained by others from the meeting. After ten minutes the protesters decided they had make their point and we all made our way down to the foyer. Here we were met by police who stopped us leaving.

While we were not arrested we were prevented from leaving for over 45 minutes, although I and the other journalists all showed our press cards. It was hot and I was pleased to drink some of the cold fruit juice the building manager hospitably offered. The photographer who had been assaulted complained to the police before went up to the sixth floor – when they came down he was told his assailant might have diplomatic immunity and the photographer decided not to press charges.

Eventually all of us were released, presumably as the BICC wished to avoid publicity about their meeting. The protesters including some who had stayed outside the building then posed on the steps for photographs.

More on My London Diary at Ahwazi crash secret UK-Iran business meeting.

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The Carnival of Dirt – 2012

The Carnival of Dirt: Friday 15th June 2012

The ‘Carnival of Dirt‘ united activist groups from the UK and around the world in a funeral procession for the many killed by mining and extraction companies, powerful financial organisations whose crimes are legitimized by the City of London.

Mining companies have exploited mineral resources in countries around the world, mainly in the majority countries to feed the industrial development of countries such as ours, and have done so with little or no regard for the environment or the people who work in their mines or live in the areas around, creating large amounts of pollution and destroying vital habitats and traditional ways of life, driven by producing minerals at the lowest possible cost.

Many of those companies are based in London, in part because of our imperial past and are listed on the London Stock Exchange and trade on the London Metal Exchange. They are propped up by our pension funds and protected by our government and even allowed to get away with evading millions (if not billions) of UK taxes – as well as often evading taxes in the countries where they mine. Among the major criminals named were Xstrata, Glencore International, Rio Tinto, Vedanta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, BP and Shell.

The carnival procession began at St Pauls and stopped at the Stock Exchange, the Bank of England and the London Metal Exchange for speeches about the various crimes, before going to stop for lunch at Altab Ali Park.

There had been several heavy showers and by lunchtime my zoom lenses were all steamed up internally – zooming draws in damp air which condenses on the glass – and I only had a 16mm fisheye giving totally clear images. I needed to dry the others out and decided I had taken enough pictures and it was time for me to go home – although the carnival was going to continue to the West End and end with a ‘Reclaim the Streets’ style party starting on the Embankment at 6pm.

I described the event at length in 2012 and here I’ll quote some of it, but you can still read it all at Carnival of Dirt on My London Diary.

The funeral cortege that gathered at St Pauls included a large snake, a turtle and a tortoise, a reminder of XStrata’s criminal diversion of the McArthur River, destroying the ecosystem and despoiling the sacred sites of Australian aborigines.

There were coffins representing the dead and naming many of the companies involved one said ‘Glencore Values – Toxic Assets, Toxic Environments‘, another ‘XStrata – X-Rated on Human Rights‘ and pointed out the CEO Mick Davis “Gets £30 million to stay in job while 2 Dead 80 Injured protesting at Tintaya mine in Chile.’

A small coffin represent the over 18,000 child miners in the Phillipines, while another read ‘10 Million Dead Through Conflict in 16 years equals a 9/11 every 2 days‘. A black coffin carried on the side the message ‘Resist Corporate Terrorism‘ and on the top the message ‘London Metal Exchange – Setting the Global Standard in Bloodshed‘ with red drops bleeding from it. Another testified to the genocide in West Papua where Indonesian troops have torched villages.

Many carried placards with photographs of a few of the better-known activists who have been murdered for standing up to corporate terrorism, and marchers distributed a leaflet naming 15 of them – Valmore Locarno, Fr Fausto Tentorio, Victor Orcasita, Alexandro Chacon, Fr Reinel Restropo, Dr Gerry Ortega, Armin Marin, Dr Leonard Co, Elizer Billanes, Jorge Eliecer, Floribert Chebeya, Raghunath Jhodia, Abhilash Jhodia, Damodar Jhodia, Petrus Ayamiseba. Others carried photographs of unnamed and horribly mutilated victims.

More – and many more pictures at Carnival of Dirt.

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Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS – 2015

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS: Ten years ago on Saturday 18th April 2015 London was busy with protests and I rushed around covering seven events, though the last four at Shepherds Bush were all part of the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, related to the problems which would be caused with a trade deal with the USA – and all threats now relevant to the current talks between our government and the Trump administration.

Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS - 2015 — *A woman paints an Armenian flag on a man’s cheek*

I met hundreds of Armenians close to Hyde Park corner on Piccadilly as they prepared for their annual march in protest against the Armenian Genocide. This year, 2015 marked the centenary of the start of the killing of 1.5m Armenians by Turkey between 1915 and 1923.

Turkey still refuse to accept the mass killings as genocide and the UK has not recognised the Armenian genocide. Armenians demannd that both countries should recognise this historic event and that it should be taught in the national curriculum.

Some carried placards with pictures of Hrant Dink who is described as ‘The 1,500,001st Victim of The Armenian Genocide‘. Editor of the Istanbul Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, he was prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which makes it a crime to publicly denigrate the Turkish government, republic or nation. After having received many death threats he was assassinated by a 17 year old Turkish Nationalist in January 2007.

I left the protest shortly before the march began, hoping to see them later at Downing Street but had left Westminster before they arrived.

More pictures: Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Football Action Network Manifesto

I went to Westminster to find the Football Action Network who were taking copies of their manifesto to the Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem offices, and finally caught up with them on the steps of the Lib-Dem offices.

Their demands include a Football Reform Bill, a living wage for all staff, fair ticket prices, safe standing, and reforms to clubs & FA.

Football Action Network Manifesto

Tweed Cycle Ride

I briefly left the football fans as the Tweed Cycle Ride stopped on the road opposite and rushed to take pictures as it went into Parliament Square. The vintage-themed ride, “a jaunty bike ride around London in our sartorial best“, stops for tea and a picnic and ends with “a bit of a jolly knees-up” and raises funds for the London Cycling Campaign.

Tweed Cycle Ride

Stop TTIP Rally – Shepherds Bush

Shepherds Bush was the venue chosen for the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed trade treaty between the European Union (then still including Britain) and the United States which would have given excessive power to corporations, enabling them to override national laws.

The event began with a rally on Shepherds Bush Green with speakers including Dame Vivienne Westwood, John Hilary of War on Want along with many others.

But much of the time was spent in a number of group discussions and it wasn’t an easy event to make interesting pictures. What was really clear was the threat that the TTIP treaty being negotiated by governments and corporations poses to democracy and all public services, that it would be a threat to public health and the NHS and would prevent changes made to combat climate change.

Campaigners then left to carry out the three separate actions I then photographed.

Stop TTIP rally

KFC protest over TTIP – Shepherds Bush

Protesters in white coats formed a line outside KFC at Shepherds Bush dipping rubber chickens in buckets of chlorine and acid, illustrating that TTIP would force the UK to accept unsafe agricultural and food practices (including GMO crops) allowed in the USA.

Chickens need chlorine washing because of lower farm hygiene standards and US meat contains much higher levels of hormones and other chemicals than here.

KFC protest over TTIP

BP die-in against Climate Change

On the other side of Shepherds Bush Green protesters calling for a fossil fuel free future staged a die-in at BP Shepherds Bush against TTIP, which would force countries to use dirty fuels including coal, tar oil and arctic oil and seriously delay cutting carbon emissions and the move to renewable energy.

After some speeches about the protest the protesters got up from the garage forecourt and walked away.

More at BP die-in against Climate Change.

Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest

Protesters walked in to the Westfield Centre to protest outside the Virgin media shop over the danger that TTIP poses to our NHS. Virgin Healthcare, (in 2021 rebranded as HCRG Care Group) had already taken over providing large parts of the simpler services provided by the NHS, replacing the easily run parts of our National Health service, and taking money out of the system.

*NHS campaigner Gay Lee introduces the protest and the short piece of street theatre*

Campaigners urged that the NHS should be excluded from TTIP, but governments and business insist it should not be. Now in 2025 we are again worried that any US-UK trade agreement made by the Starmer Labour government may open up our health service to much greater privatisation by the giant US health companies.

*George Barda offers his garland of dollars to ‘Richard Branson’*

Many UK government members have significant financial interests in private healthcare companies, and coulld have expected rich profits if TTIP is agreed as it will force the NHS to contract out its services to them.

After Trump became president he stopped the TTIP talks so he could pursue a trade war with the EU. One of the few things we can thank him for.

I had been worried that security staff might try to stop photographers working as like most shopping centres, Westfield does not generally allow photography. Police and security watched the protest closely but did not generally try to stop it or photographers working.

The protesters were considering further protests, but I had been on my feet too long and left for home.

More on My London Diary at Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest.

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Welfare State & Tar Sands Party – 2010

Welfare State & Tar Sands Party: On Saturday 10th of April 2010 pensioners led a march to defend the welfare state and oppose cuts in public services and later I went to a party at a BP garage in Shepherds Bush against the company’s plans to exploit Canadian tar sands.

Defend the Welfare State – Temple

The National Pensioners’ Convention, which represents over a thousand local regional and national pensioner groups with a total of 1.5 million members had organised a march and rally in London to defend the public services they are particularly dependent on ahead of the 2010 general election. The march was supported by the TUC and all major unions.

Age Concern has predicted that over 40% of votes in the next month’s election would be made by those over 60, and had identified five key issues which particularly impact pensioners. In particular they said that the basic state pension was seriously inadequate and the pension rise of only £2.40 was far too low. A quarter of all pensioners were living in poverty.

But all three major parties were making plans for cuts in public expenditure and moving away from the consensus Britain had come to during and after the Second World War, the welfare state with pensions, a free NHS, free education and other public services. Over the years some of these provisions had been eroded (and in a few areas such as dental care, never fully implemented) but now they were increasingly under threat, whichever party wins the general election.

Huge deficits had come from handouts to the bankers and the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the NHS had been hit particularly hard by the costs of privatisation under the huge debts from the Private Finance Initiative.

Cuts to local authorities who many pensioners rely on for social care and support services such as meals on wheels, as well as housing benefit, threaten the daily life of many and are leading to the closure of day centres and other provision.

It was pressure from protests such as this, as well as the presence of the Lib-Dems in the coalition with the Tories that was elected that led to the introduction of the “triple lock” on pensions in 2010. In 2020 the state pension was around 16% of average earnings and by 2025 it had risen to around 25%. But pensioners have been badly hit by cuts in care.

More at Defend the Welfare State.

Tar Sands Party at the Pumps – BP, Shepherd’s Bush Green

The UK Tar Sands Network, Rising Tide and the Camp for Climate Action had organised a ‘Party at the Pumps’ as a part of a ‘BP Fortnight of Shame’ trying to get BP shareholders to reverse the company’s decision to take part in the exploitation of the Canadian Tar Sands which environmental activists say is “the dirtiest and most desperate attempt yet to profit from – and prolong – humanity’s crippling addiction to oil.“

*Whistles signal its time to follow the flags and get on the Central Line*

Extracting usable crude oil from tar sands always results in between three to five times the amount of carbon dioxide production as normal oil wells. Deposits close to the surface are strip mined, destroying ancient forests and peat bogs to dig up around 75 metres depth of sand and oil with huge trucks and mechanical shovels.

*At the previous stop we were told to alight at Shepherds Bush*

In Alberta four-fifths of tar sands are too deep to be mined in this way and are brought to the surface by the injection of high pressure steam – which uses around twice as much energy and pollutes twice as much highly toxic waste water which is already leaking into drinking water.

Indigenous people living in the area have very high cancer rates and their staple moose meat has been found with 300 times the acceptable level of heavy metals from the tar sand extraction.

*People on the canopy roof with a banner*

BP only got involved in the Canadian tar sands in 2007, probably because they had cheaper sources of oil elsewhere. They signed up with Canadian company Husky Energy for a large-scale tar sands project they called the ‘Sunrise Project’ and for other tar sands projects. This was put on hold when oil prices crashed in 2008, but BP shareholders were expected to approve it going ahead at their meeting in April 15th.

Protesters were told to meet at Oxford Circus with a Travel Card and after an hour or so we all – including a few police – went down into the station following those with green and yellow (BP’s colours) flags, at least some of whom knew our destination and boarded a west-bound Central Line train.

At Shepherds Bush the message came to alight. We rushed behind those carrying the flags along the busy shopping street, across the green to the BP garage on the south side, which had already been occupied by a smaller advance group of demonstrators.

Some of them had got onto the roof from scaffolding on a neighbouring block of flats and were fixing a banner there, while others blocked the forecourt entrance with a large ‘CLOSED’ banner. The protesters occupied the area and put tapes and stickers around the petrol pumps and elsewhere with the messages ‘DANGER GLOBAL WARNING‘ and ‘BP TAR SANDS – BACK TO BLACK?’

The Rhythms of Resistance band had also arrived and was drumming loudly and there was also a bicycle trailer sound system and the protesters were dancing. A live band and a caller played for more dancing and the protesters sat on the pavement and talk, eat sandwiches and snacks and drink, while some handed out leaflets to the passers-by and explained why the protest was taking place.

When I left after a couple of hours the protest was continuing. Police and a man from BP had earlier asked them when they would be leaving and were told ‘sometime later in the day‘ and assured that they would cause no permanent damage and although the police were still watching the protest, filming and taking notes but not otherwise taking any action. I presume BP had asked them to avoid more publicity for the event by trying to force it to an end or make arrests.

More at Tar Sands Party at the Pumps.

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COP29 March For Global Climate Justice, London, 2024

COP29 March For Global Climate Justice: When this march was taking place on Saturday 16th November 2024, COP19 was just beginning in Baku, and there was still some small room for optimism, even though it seemed to be dominated by fossil fuel lobbyists, from its president Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Republic and previously been Vice-President for Ecology at Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR, down.

*London, UK. 16 Nov 2024. The start of the march*.

But now we know the agreement reached after many hours of argument at the end of the meeting we can only conclude ‘TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE’. Even in the unlikely event of the wealthier countries actually keeping their promises we will see dramatic catastrophes in much of the Global South in the coming years.

And of course we in the wealthier countries whose industrialisation created the mess the world is in as we burnt coal and oil resulting in a huge increase in carbon dioxide levels blanketing the world will also suffer.

Increasingly chaotic weather patterns, more and more serious storms with more floods and greater wind damage. Greater droughts too and more forest fires. More disruption of agricultural production and higher food prices.

More loss of species too, aided by other of the ‘benefits’ of industrial production with new insecticides coming to support those currently decimating pollinating insects such as bees.

As many of the marchers pointed out with their placards and flags, war and militarisation are huge drivers of climate change, both from the production of weapons and their use. One poster pointed out that the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2023 produced roughly half as much CO2 as the UK’s emissions in the same year. War doesn’t just kill people but also is ecocide on a grand scale.

The continuing attacks by Israel on Gaza and Lebanon have also added huge amounts of carbon dioxide as well as killing many thousands of civilians both through direct bombing of homes, schools and hospitals but also through a deliberate policy of destroying infrastructure and preventing humanitarian supplies of food and medicines – for which the International Criminal Court recently issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallan.

Banners, posters and placards on the march rejected militarisation and called for an end to arming Israel. ‘THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT STANDS WITH PALESTINE – STOP FUELLING GENOCIDE AND CLIMATE BREAKDOWN’.

But however hopeless the world situation seems now, the election of Trump as US Pesident seems certainly to make things worse – already he has chosen Chris Wright, the CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy as Energy Secretary to lead his promise of increasing US fossil fuel production under his campaign pledge “Drill, Baby, drill”.

The current world political system dominated by institutions such as the IMF and World Bank and by Western governments increasingly seems unable to come up with any effective solutions to the climate crisis – as COP 19 and the previous 28 UN climate Change Conferences have shown. As the placards carried by many of the marchers stated, we need system change.

More pictures from the march online

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March for a People’s Olympics – 2012

March for a People’s Olympics: Twelve years ago on Saturday 28th June 2012 the London Olympics was in full swing and London was suffering from huge restrictions on the activities of ordinary Londoners.

Although the modern Olympic movement was started in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin with high aims it has changed over the years to something very different. He intended them to help build a peaceful and better world by educating young people through sport and stated “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Instead what we now have is a fiercely nationalistic event, with countries devoting huge resources into training a small elite of athletes and expenisve and highly detailed scientific research to find legal ways to enhance their performances – as well as at least in some countries to find ways to circumvent the tests designed to prevent the use of illegal drugs.

The games have also seen a corporate takeover to provide some of the huge sums needed to stage such events, although taxpayers have also suffered. London 2012 cost £8.77 billion, around three and a half times its original budget, around two thirds from general taxation, a quarter from the National Lottery and the remainder from the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency.

The money for the games in London meant there was less to spend in other areas or the country, and even diverted money from grass roots sport. And huge amounts were spent on infrastructure designed for the needs of a few weeks in 2012 rather than the best interests of the future for the Olympic area.

London in 2012 saw a huge military presence, in part aimed at reducing the risk of terrorist attacks and draconian policing largely aimed at the protection of the brands of the various sponsors.

The ‘Whose Games? Whose City?’ protest had at first been totally banned by the authorities as its start point was only just over 2km from the Olympic stadium. Transport for London had refused permission for them to march along roads which had been designated as emergency backup Games routes. Eventually the march organisers came to an agreement with the police that should an emergency arise the marchers would simply go on to the pavement – something that regularly happens with marches when ambulances and other emergency vehicles are allowed to pass.

The endpoint of the march, Wennington Green, was also around 2km as the crow flies from the stadium, and Tower Hamlets Council, owners of Wennington Green attempted to ban speeches or other events there.

Marchers were also threatened with arrest should they display placards, hold banners or even wear t-shirts with political slogans. But on the day there were no arrests although police did at one point stop and search a man who had cut a piece of police tape. He was released after a large and noisy crowd of marchers gathered around and demanded his release.

The attempts by the authorities to stop the march taking place had led to a great deal of media publicity and press and TV from around the world came to cover the start in Mile End Park.

The march organisers, the Counter Olympics Network (CON) pointed out strongly that this was not an anti-Olympics march, but one that protested at the way what should be a sporting event of noble origins has been taken over by corporate interests.

They pointed out that the games sponsors included “serial polluters, companies which seriously damage the environment and which wreck or take lives, Coca Cola, Rio Tinto, BP, Dow Chemical” as well as stating “G4S, Cisco, and Atos deny people their human rights in a variety of situations while Macdonalds helps to fuel the obesity epidemic. London2012 provides benefits at taxpayers’ expense while receiving little in return.”

They also pointed out the many broken promises and pointed out the doubts about the legacy of the games for East London in particular: “the lack of benefits for local people and businesses, the fantastic expansion of security into our daily lives, the deployment of missiles and large numbers of troops, the unwarranted seizure of public land at Wanstead Flats, Leyton Marsh and Greenwich Park.“

As the march went past the former match factory soldiers on top of the flats watched the marchers who chanted
“Hey Ho, Sebastian Coe
Get your missiles out of Bow“

Another popular chant also mentioned Coe:
“Seb Coe, Get Out, we know what you’re all about!
Missiles, job losses, Olympics for the bosses!”

Chris Nineham of the Stop The Olympic Missiles Campaign was one of the first speakers at the final rally. He pointed out that the London Olympics had already set a number of records, including the largest ever number of arrests on the first day – including 182 cyclists taking part in a ‘Critical Mass’ ride the previous day – the highest ticket prices, the most intensive application of branding rules and the highest level of militarisation of any Olympic games, with far more being spent on security that even in China.

There were, he said, more troops in London than at any time since World War 2, and more than at any time in Afghanistan, and that it was our presence there which made us a terrorist target, calling for the immediate withdrawal of our troops.

Much more about the protest and many more pictures at March for a People’s Olympics.

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