Brian Haw | >Re-PHOTO

Antifa Remember Carlos, TOTAL, Musharraf & More – 2007

Antifa Remember Carlos, TOTAL, Musharraf & More: I spent Saturday November 24th 2007 travelling around London to photograph protests. On the South Bank, anarchists were remembering Carlos Presente killed by fascists in Madrid earlier in the month, protests were taking place at TOTAL garages across the country for their support for the repressive Burmese regime – and I went to several of those in London. Pakistanis protested at Downing Street against President Musharraf and there were a number of protests in Parliament Square. Below are a few of the pictures and the text I wrote in 2007, with links to more images.

Antifa Remember Carlos Presente

Jubilee Gardens

Antifa Remember Carlos, TOTAL, Musharraf & More — *A comrade speaks at the memorial rally*

Carlos Presente was only 16, but was already active in opposing fascism in his native Spain. Along with other antifascists, he had stood on the street to defend one of Madrid’s multiracial working class areas when Nazis held an demonstration against immigrants.

After the demonstration on 11th November, 2007, Carlos and a comrade were attacked and stabbed while waiting on an underground platform by one of the fascists who had been demonstrating. The hunting knife went through his heart and he bled to death.

The Anarchist Federation – IFA and Antifa Britain held a short memorial rally to honour Carlos. Fittingly it was at the memorial for those who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s in London’s Jubilee Gardens.

More pictures

TOTAL Day of Action – London

Kilburn, Kensal Green & Baker St

The French oil company, TOTAL, is the fourth largest oil company in the world, and the largest supporter of the Burmese military regime. Although the media hardly noticed the country before the recent outrages against monks, it has long been one of the most brutal dictatorships around.

It holds over 1300 political prisoners, many subject to routine torture, makes widespread systematic use of forced labour and uses rape as a deliberate policy against women from some of its ethnic minorities.

It also has more child soldiers than any other country and spends roughly half the government budget on the military – and much of that budget derives from TOTAL.

Saturday saw demonstrations across the country against TOTAL garages, urging motorists not to support the repression in Burma by buying from TOTAL. There were at least 11 demonstrations in London, and I went to photograph at three of them, in Kilburn, at Kensal Green and [after photographing other protests below in this post] at Baker Street.

It wasn’t surprising, given the widespread nature of the action that numbers at some garages were small. I left Baker St after an hour – half-way through the demonstration, and more people turned up after I’d gone.

More pictures

Pakistanis Protest at Commonwealth Suspension

Downing St, Whitehall

I don’t know what fraction of Britain’s Pakistani population supports President Musharraf. Polls earlier in the year in Pakistan showed that almost two thirds of the population thought he should stand down. Of course there are some here who owe their positions to him, and certainly others who support him.

So it was hardly surprising to find a couple of hundred protesters in Whitehall on Saturday afternoon opposite Downing Street following the decision on Friday by a committee of Commonwealth foreign ministers to suspend Pakistan because Musharraf had imposed emergency rule – and then sacked the judges who were about to rule his proposed next term as President unlawful.

More pictures

Peace Strike and other happenings

Westminster

*Problems with the amplification didn’t prevent the24 hour picket starting*

Cold weather is not kind to batteries, and the overnight frost killed those used for the amplification in Parliament Square, so although some supporters had turned up for the ‘Peace Strike’ the planned starting rally couldn’t take place.

*Demonstrators in Parliament Square to mark 500 days in captivity for the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah led Israel to attack Lebanon.*

A few more pictures

[As darkness fell I made my way to my final protest of the day at the Baker St TOTAL garage.]

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Martyrdom of Ali, Save Fallujah – 2004

Martyrdom of Ali, Save Fallujah: I had a fairly long and busy day on Sunday 7th November 2004, beginning with the annual London celebration of the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali, the first Imam of Shi’ite Islam. From Park Lane I walked to Parliament Square where a protest demanded that the troops were withdrawn from Iraq.

This was the day when US and UK troops began the bloody offensive of the Second Battle of Fallujah, codenamed ‘Operation Phantom Fury’, fighting against Iraqis in militia of all stripes including both Sunni and Shia, united in opposition to the US-imposed Shia-dominated government.

Finally I went to Trafalgar Square and took a few pictures of the Diwali celebrations taking place there, although I didn’t post any of these at the time on My London Diary.

Diwali in Trafalgar Square, Martyrdom of Ali, Save Fallujah - 2004

In this post I’ll reproduce (with minor corrections) what I wrote in 2004, along with some of the pictures I took. These were made with the first digital DSLR camera I owned, the 6Mp Nikon D100, and most were made with a Nikon 24-85mm lens (36-127mm equivalent), though I had recently got a second lens, a Sigma 12-24mm (18-36 equivalent.) The Sigma wideangle was rather slow and working at f5.6 in low light was difficult as the D100 which did not have the high ISO capabilities of more modern cameras.

Muslims mourn in London

Hyde Park and Park Lane

Martyrdom of Ali, Save Fallujah - 2004 — *Talks and prayers before the procession started in Hyde Park*

Sunday saw Muslims on the street for a religious event, a Jaloos & Matam on the Martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali, organised by Hub-e-Ali, making its way from Hyde Park down Park Lane carrying a taboot or ceremonial coffin.

The event started with prayers, addresses and a mourning ceremony.

The banners carried included texts from the ‘purified five‘ members of the prophet’s family, but particularly Hasan Bin Ali Bin Abu Talib, the cousin and first believer in the prophet.

There was some impressive chanting and much beating of breasts (matam or seena-zani) by the men, chanting and sticks of incense being burnt. The women followed quietly behind.

*The women followed, their black-clad quiet dignity contrasting with the frenzied chest-beating of the men*

More images start here on My London Diary

Withdraw the Troops from Iraq – Save Fallujah From Destruction

Parliament Square and Whitehall

I met Dave at the procession on Park Lane and walked with him to Parliament Square where a demonstration was to be held demanding the withdrawal of troops from the cities of Iraq. From the news that morning it seemed the Americans were about to storm Fallujah. [They did – see below *]

The large anti-war organisations seemed to be keeping strangely quiet, and there were only a hundred or two demonstrators here.

Among them of course was Brian Haw, now almost two and a half years into his permanent protest in the square, which seems likely to lead MPs to pass a bill specially to make such protests illegal.

I admire him for making such a stand, even if I don’t entirely share his views, and feel it will be a very sorry day for civil liberties in this country if such activities are banned.

There were a few placards and banners, and some people who had come with white flowers as requested.

There were few takers for the ‘open mike’ and nothing much was happening until a group of ‘Code Pink’ supporters intervened theatrically parading a black-dressed cortège around the square. The effect was literally dramatic.

There were a few more speeches, including a moving one by Iraqi exile Haifa Zangana.

It was getting dark (or rather darker, as it had been dull and overcast, with the odd spot of rain all day) as we moved off up Whitehall towards the Cenotaph, where the funeral wreath was laid on the monument.

Police tried (although it is impossible to see why) to restrict the number of those putting flowers on the monument to an arbitrary five, but those who had brought flowers were not to be so easily diverted.

*People wait for police to allow them to lay their flowers at the Cenotaph*

They ignored police orders and walked across the empty roadway to lay their flowers, and around 50 of the protesters staged a sit-down on the road.

Eventually the police warned them they would be removed forcibly if they did not get up, and then started to do so.

*Police drag demonstrator away as peace protestor Brian Haw holds a placard “War Kills the Innocent” in front of Cenotaph and Code Pink wreath, “How Many Will Die in Iraq Today?”.*

For the most part the police used minimum force, but there were one or two unnecessarily unpleasant incidents.

The protesters were then corralled for a few minutes on the pavement before being allowed to continue the demonstration in the pen opposite Downing Street.

Nothing much seemed to be happening, so I went home [via the Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square] when police refused to let me photograph from in front of the barriers.

It seemed an arbitrary and unnecessary decision, but this time I couldn’t be bothered to argue. I think they were just upset because I had taken pictures during the violence a few minutes earlier.

*More about Fallujah

The Second Battle of Fallujah lasted about six weeks and probably resulted in around 2,000 fighters dead and many wounded, mostly Iraqis, with just 107 of the coalition forces killed. Another roughly 1,500 Iraqis were captured.

US forces had stopped all men between 15 and 50 from leaving the city, and treated all those left inside as insurgents. Civilian deaths were later estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000. Civilians who were able to fled the city and around 200,000 became displaced across Iraq. Around a sixth of the city’s buildings were destroyed and roughly two thirds suffered significant damage.

The US forces were heavily criticised for their direct use of white phosphorus in the battle against both combatants and civilians. Highly radioactive epleted uranium shell were also used and a survey in 2009 reported “a high level of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality” in the city.”

More pictures from the protest on My London Diary.

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Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs – 2006

Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs: On Sunday 29th October 2006 I went to the start of a National Union of Students march against university tuition fees, first introduced by New Labour under Tony Blair in 1998. University education had been free across the UK since 1945, with local authorities meeting the bill rather than students. In 2004, these fees, initially £1,000 a year, were increased to £3,000. In 2025 fees are now £9.535 a year and a major reform is expected later which will probably result in University education becoming even more expensive.

From there I left to cover a demonstration in Parliament Square where people were intending to set up a 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ peace camp protesting about the battles fought largely by US Marines against the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April and November 2004.

In the November battle US troops used white phosphorus, stopped military age males from leaving the city and treated all the inhabitants as combatants. The levelled thousands of buildings, denied Red Crescent access and according to the UN used “hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population“. Their use of depleted uranium shells led after the fighting to a high level of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality in the city.

This protest was illegal under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had required any demonstration within one kilometre of Parliament Square (excluding those in Trafalgar Square) to give written notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days in advance.

It was as a way to prevent embarrassment to politicians by seeing or hearing protests taking place, and to remove the permanent Peace Camp by Brian Haw which had been in Parliament Square since 2001, but it failed to do so, though it did lend to increased harassment of him by police and more shadowy figures. In 2011 these sections of the Act were repealed and the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 imposed different and in some ways more draconian restrictions on the right to protest.

Below is the text I wrote about these events in 2006.

NUS – Scrap Tuition Fees March

Malet St

I arrived in Malet Street early for the start of the NUS march against tuition fees, but there were already plenty of students there, including many Scottish students who had come down to show solidarity.

My father had left school at 14, at the end of his elementary education and never managed to complete the part-time studies which he had once dreamt would lead to qualifications. I came from the first generation of my family who could go to university, thanks to the 1944 Education Act that opened up secondary education and also the free tuition and student grants that were available. Without that support I would never have gone to university.

Both my sons were also fortunate to be able to study without having to pay tuition fees, [and to get maintenance grants] and were able to leave university with a degree and no debts.

Things are rather different for most of today’s students, with tuition fees now at £3000 a year, and costs of accommodation increasing all the time.

The NUS is campaigning for free education, but also calling for a cap on fees, as some universities call to be able to raise them without limits. Already the current level of fees seems to have led to a drop in the numbers of students entering universities.

more pictures on My London Diary

No More Fallujahs: Peace Camp

Parliament Square

I left shortly before the march started to get to Parliament Square, where the 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ Peace Camp, ‘No More Fallujahs’, was about to start. Potestors formed a circle and joined Maya Evans and Milan Rai in reading the names of Iraqis who have died as a result of the occupation.

*Milan Ray and Maya Evans read the names; Maya sounds a bell after each name*

A year ago, the two were arrested in Whitehall for a similar reading. In december 2005 Maya was the first person to be convicted for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, and in April 2006, Milan was convicted for organising the demonstration.

Maya is appealing against her conviction and fine, but was risking a prison sentence as arrest for this action would break the terms of her 12-month conditional discharge. Milan has refused to pay the fine of £350 with £150 costs imposed on him, and is also appealing to a higher court.

The demonstrators formed a circle in Parliament Square and began reading the names at one minute intervals, each marked by a bell. Various volunteers joined Maya and Milan in reading names from the list.

The police simply stood and watched for around half and hour, then at 12.30 began to circulate and hand out a notice to everyone that they were a part of an illegal demonstration. Where people refused to take one, they left a copy at their feet.

The officers concerned were extremely patient and polite, and were attended by a police photographer filming everything they did. Rather to my surprise one officer insisted I have a copy, despite my assurances that I was press, so I took it, while being recorded for yet another 15 seconds of so of video by the photographer, pointing out that I always complied with police directions.

It isn’t as if I’m unknown to the police. Earlier in the day in Malet Street, as I walked past two officers, one turned to the other and said “looks who’s here then.” I turned and gave them a smile.

After that, the protestors decided it was time to pitch their tents, and soon the square was covered with small tents, mainly blue. For a while nothing much seemed to be happening, and I went away for an hour or two.

When I returned, the news was that police had taken four people away. they had been approaching individuals involved in the demonstration and asking them to give their name and address.

They were told that they could then later expect a summons for taking part in an illegal demonstration. People were informed that if they did not give their details, they would be taken to the police station and arrested for taking part in the event.

While I was there several other people were questioned and one was taken away when he refused to give his details. Those who gave their names and addresses seemed to be allowed to continue to take part in the demonstration. While I was present, everything was conducted civilly and without any violent handling of those concerned, although I was told there had been a little rough handling of at least one person.

The demonstrators held an open meeting in the centre of the square to discuss what to do in the event of a more concerted approach by the police, while on the corner by Churchill’s statue, Brian Haw was making use of his megaphone to hold his weekly service. Its a sermon I’ve heard many times and I felt it was time to go home.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Iraq Oil, Freedom, Rosary Crusade & Parliament Square – 2008

Iraq Oil, Freedom, Rosary Crusade & Parliament Square: Saturday 11 October 2008 was another varied day, beginning with protests against the US grab of Iraq’s oil and tthe increasing control over our lives by governments and corporations. I then photographed a walk of public witness by Catholics in London before going to Parliament Square were I found a number of smaller protests.

100 Days to stop Bush & Cheney’s Iraq Oil Grab!

Shell Centre

Iraq Oil, Freedom, Rosary Crusade & Parliament Square - 2008 — *A giant Dick Cheney looms over Iraqi Oil outside the Shell Centre*

In 1972 the Iraqi government took over Iraqi oil, nationalising the Iraq Petroleum Company which was jointly owned by the world’s largest oil companies, and it provided 95% of government revenue.

Many of us thought that the main reason behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq was to get the country to hand over most of the oil reserves to foreign companies, particularly Shell and BP.

In 2007 the US-backed Iraqi cabinet had approved a new oil law, strongly opposed by Iraqi trade unions and oil experts, but driven by expert consultants supplied by the UK and US who previously worked at a high level for companies like Shell and BP which would give the foreign oil companies control over oil production and in 2008 the Iraqi Oil Ministry began to announce contracts with former partners in the IPC, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total and BP as with Chevron and others.

The protest came at the start of the final 100 days of President Bush’s administration in the US and was organised by ‘Hands of Iraqi Oil’, a coalition whose members include Corporate Watch, Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee Iraq, PLATFORM, Voices UK, and War on Want and supported by the Stop the War Coalition and others.

The samba band, brass band, ‘oil workers’ and others came to protest at the Shell Centre with a giant figure of US Vice-President Dick Cheney and a mock oil well as well as some with Iraqi flags.

I left them shortly after they set off to march first to protest outside BP’s headquarters in St James’s Square and then on to the US Embassy to go to New Scotland Yard.

Bush & Cheney’s Iraq Oil Grab

Freedom not Fear 2008

New Scotland Yard

Freedom not fear 2008 was an international protest in over 20 countries against excessive surveillance by governments and businesses, organised by a broad movement of campaigners and organisations.

*A camera behind this person dressed in a sinister black suit and hood*

The main UK event was a protest outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters, New Scotland Yard, then still in Victoria Street, Westminster. The protest was against the restriction of the right to demonstrate under SOCPA, the intimidatory use of photography by police FIT squads, the proposed introduction of ID cards, the increasing centralisation of personal data held by government, including the DNA database held by police, the incredible growth in surveillance cameras, ‘terrorist’ legislation and other measures which have affected our individual freedom and human rights.

The protest was within the area where restrictions on protests were introduced by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) which required the protesters to have given written notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days in advance for the event. But of course they had not as a part of the protest.

Police tried hard to give protesters SOCPA notices telling them that the protest was illegal but few took them or any interest in them. Some of the officers joked with the protesters who included People in Common and FitWatch, but sensibly they did not attempt to break up the protest or make any arrests, or at least not in the three-quarters of an hour or so I was present.

Freedom not Fear 2008

Rosary Crusade of Reparation

Westminster Cathedral

*Young girls in white communion dress walked beside the statue of Our Lady of Fatima*

I walked the short distance along Victoria Street to Westminster Cathedral where people were gathering for the Rosary Crusade of Reparation. This began in Austria in 1947 as a campaign by a Franciscan priest to free the country from communist control, and is said to have played a part in the Russian decision to allow Austria its independence in 1955.

THe first annual procession with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima took place in 1948 in Vienna on the feast of the Name of Mary, Sept 12th. This feast was set up by Pope Innocent XI in 1683 after Turkish invaders surrounding Vienna were defeated by Christian armies who had prayed to the Blessed Virgin.

*Families at the front of the large crowd in the procession*

The procession in London takes place on the nearest Saturday to the final appearance of Our Lady at Fatima in October 1917, close to the end of the First World War, when those present saw the sun dancing around in the sky, and she promised peace and an end to war if men showed contrition for their sins and changed their lives.

This was the 25 annual procession in London and had as its special theme atonement for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill then passing through Parliament.

I photographed the start of the procession which was making its way slowly to Brompton Oratory.

More at Rosary Crusade of Reparation.

Parliament Square

I’d gone to Parliament Square to look for a two-man protest by the two Bens from the ‘Still Human Still Here‘ campaign dedicated to highlighting the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are being forced into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country. The two men had spent two weeks in a tent in the square living on the emergency rations that the Red Cross will supply to these inhumanely treated asylum seekers.

In the square I found a number of other protests taking place. Of course Brian Haw was there – as he had been for over 7 years – and I saw him being insulted by a man who smelled strongly of alcohol. There was a small group of Tamils who told me that they were part of a campaign giving out leaflets all over the centre of London about the ethnic cleansing taking place in Sri Lanka. Another small group, ‘London Against Detention’, was campaigning to close down Asylum detention centres.

In the corner close to the statue of Churchill was a man who told me he had been on hunger strike for two weeks in a protest to get his case properly investigated. He claimed to have been abused by police and social services following an incident in which as a seven year old child in Llanelli he was implicated in the death of a baby brother.

Finally I saw another group of people hurrying along the street opposite towards Whitehall carrying posters. I chased after them and found that they were Obama supporters hoping to persuade Americans they met to register and vote in the US election.

More at Parliament Square.

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Bring All the Troops Home NOW – 2007

Bring All the Troops Home NOW: CND and Stop The War had called for a march to Parliament on 8th October 2007 to arrive when Gordon Brown was making his statement to Parliament on Iraq where British troops were still present having taken part in the US-led invasion in 2003.

They wanted to march to make clear that all UK troops should come back here now. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 had led to the fall of Saddam Hussein but had been made without any real thought for the future of Iraq – except for the profits which US companies hoped to make. Saddam’s civil and military administration which had united the country were simply removed rather than being put to use to keep the country running and chaos reigned. Iraq didn’t need foreign armies but needed real support to set up a new civil society and that had not been forthcoming.

Gordon Brown tried to ban the protest, using “Sessional Orders” to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for him to prevent the march under section 52 of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. But CND and Stop The War made clear it would go ahead despite this.

On the morning of the march Prime Minister Gordon Brown – probably reacting both to huge public pressure and legal advice – lifted the ban, thus avoiding a huge burden on both police and courts. They might otherwise have ended with thousands of arrests – and cases which the courts would probably throw out.

Around ten years later the powers that the Brown government had attempted to use were officially recognised to no longer have any legal effect – something I suspect had been part of legal advice given to Brown in 2007.

Last Saturday, October 4th 2025, I again watched a protest by Defend Our Juries in defiance of the government’s proscription of Palestine Action under terrorist laws, with police arresting almost 500 people for sitting holding a piece of cardboard with a message supporting the banned group. Many of those arrested seemed to be elderly and some also disabled, though there were also younger people.

The protestersy presented no danger to public order – other than challenging the legally doubtful ban on the group who few outside the government and those making arms for sale to Israel who had been heavily lobbying for a ban – believe could be described as terrorists. And this is something to be shortly tested in the courts. And the arrests made the police look unfeeling and stooges of the government rather than a force acting with the consent of the people.

Perhaps our current Labour government should have learnt from the example of George Brown in 2007. Supposedly we are a nation where the police operate by consent – which was clearly not the case here – and the police should have made this clear to the government and simply ignored this and earlier protests by ‘Defend Our Juries’. Which would of course have made the action – with people coming on purpose to be arrested and waiting patiently for hours for it to happen – totally ineffectual. And we do after all we have many laws which people – especially motorists – break every day and the police ignore.

Defend Our Juries also protests against the practice by some judges in some courts to prevent those charged from making a defence of their actions and instructing juries that they cannot use their consciences in coming to decisions – both vital protections essential to a fair legal system. Actions introduced into our legal system because successive governments have been angered by the decisions reached by juries in some cases. But it should not be the job of our legal system to serve the government but to serve the people and these developments endanger the whole basis of trial by jury which protects us and our democracy.

Here’s what I wrote in 2007 about the march and rally on 8th October 2007. All the pictures in this post come the event and there are many more on My London Diary.

Brian Haw’s t-shirt summed up the disaster: “Iraq 2,000,000 dead 4,000,000 fled genocide theft torture cholera starvation” though there were a number of other crimes to mention, in particular the poisoning of so much the area for generations to come through the dumping there of so much of our nuclear waste in the form of ‘depleted uranium’ weapons.

I was surprised at the level of support for Monday’s demonstration, a day when many of the supporters of the campaign would have been at work, and I had expected hundreds rather than the three thousand or so who actually turned up. The government’s clumsy ban on the event, using 1839 legislation passed against the Chartists, drummed up support, and to such an extent that on the morning of the rally they had to climb down and allow the march and the lobby of parliament to proceed.

Later in the day, the success of the demonstration even became rather an embarrassment for Stop The War, who when I left around 4.30pm, two hours after the start of the march, were trying to help police in clearing the large crowd who were still blocking Parliament Street, Parliament Square and St Margaret St, urging them to move along to College Green. Later in the day a small group of protestors took down the barriers on the grassed area of parliament square, piling them up.

But the real embarrassment was for Gordon Brown, forced to climb down and allow democratic protest. Unfortunately he didn’t do the decent and sensible thing (and surely now inescapably the logical thing in the interests of both Iraq and Britain) and announce a speedy withdrawal of troops to be replaced by a real programme of support for the Iraqi people.

Although doubtless pressure from the police at the highest level was obviously vital in the decision to allow the march to go ahead, there were clearly a few officers in charge on the ground who weren’t happy.

As we went down Whitehall, they obstructed photographers trying to photograph the event quite unnecessarily – so obviously so that some of the officers actually carrying out the orders were apologising to me as they did so. And later in the day a few tempers flared and there were a few fairly random assaults on demonstrators.

It did seem an unnecessarily provocative move to bring back Inspector Terry, apparently the man responsible for much of the harassment of Brian Haw and the officer in charge at the 2006 ‘Sack Parliament’ demo last year (photographer Marc Vallée who was injured is now taking legal action against the Met, with the support of the NUJ.)

British troops remained in Iraq in a combat role until 2009, with smaller numbers there mainly involved in training until the final withdrawal in 2011. You can read more about my NUJ colleague Marc Vallée being thrown to the ground by police and his eventually reaching a settlement on the EPUK web site.

Many more pictures from the march and rally on My London Diary at
Bring All the Troops Home NOW.

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Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin – 2005

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin: On Sunday 7th August 2005 I began by photographing London’s Latin Americans getting ready for the Carnaval Del Pueblo procession, then went to Parliament Square for an illegal protest against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had come into force on August 1st and among other things restricted the right to demonstrate within a large area around parliament without prior written notice to the police. Finally another illegal protest on Westminster Bridge expressed support for the Tobin Tax, a low rate of tax on currency conversions with the aim of discouraging short-term currency speculation and so stabilising currency markets. Here is what I wrote about the day in 2005 with some pictures and links to more on My London Diary

Carnaval del Pueblo – Southwark

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

Sunday I started off photographing London’s Latin American communities getting ready for the start of their annual Carnaval Del Pueblo procession. This year it was starting from Potters Fields near the GLA headquarters, on an empty site awaiting development, rather than from a street, and this made photography a little more difficult.

It was good to see so many groups taking part, although I found it very difficult to sort out the different nations, and found myself unable to recognise most of their national flags.

This procession, making it’s way to Burgess Park where there is a Latin-American Festival, is one of London’s most colourful events, with some costumes to rival those seen at the much larger annual Notting Hill event at the end of the month.

I was sorry not to be anle to go on to the festival, especially since there was to be a short period of silence to mark the tragic shooting by police of the innocent Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, on a tube train at Stockwell Station the day following the second round of bombings in London.

I followed the procession up to London Bridge Station where I needed to get on a train to get to Westminster.

More pictures

The Right to Protest – Parliament Square

*Police arrest a demonstrator in Parliament Square, London. The crime? Holding a protest banner. Welcome to Britain, the police state (not that I think the police particularly welcome it.).*

Britain once had a deserved reputation as a haven for free speech and the rights of the citizen. A number of acts by our New Labour government have seriously curtailed these freedoms – including introducing a number of measures that they had opposed before they came to power.

Some of these measures have just been a part of the general trend to central control begun under Thatcher, but others have been brought on by the threat of terrorism and even more by the growth of opposition to government policies, and in particular to the war on Iran.

Formerly a life-long supporter of the party it saddens me, and angers me. One of the signs that Brian Haw holds in a picture is a quotation from a speech by Condoleeza Rice in January 2005, when she said “if a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a ”fear society” has finally won their freedom.”

New restrictions have been brought in that move Britain into that realm of a “fear society”.

This afternoon I saw five people arrested for simply peacefully holding banners supporting the right to protest. It happened on the square opposite our Houses of Parliament, and it made me feel ashamed to be British.

Although the law was passed largely to get rid of Brian Haw, it turns out not to alter his right to be there, as his protest started before the act became law and is thus not covered by it. Rather a lot of egg on government faces there.

[The High Court decision that agreed Haw was not covered by the Act was overturned by the Court of Appeal in an alarming decision in May 2006.]

More pictures

The Westminster Tea Party – Time for Tobin Tax

*Holding up tea bags on Westminster Bridge*

In 1978, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin proposed a uniform world-wide tax at a very low level – perhaps only 0.2% – on all foreign currency exchange transactions. The aim was to deter speculation on currency movements, thus giving the elected governments greater control over their fiscal and monetary policies, and reducing the power of unelected speculators (who include some of the larger multinational companies) to affect the markets.

Exporters, importers and long-term investors would all benefit from less volatile exchange rates, and the revenue raised by the tax could make a significant contribution both to the revenue of national economies and also for international development projects.

As a small gesture of support for the Tobin Tax, another illegal demonstration took place in Westminster this afternoon, unnoticed by police. A small group of demonstrators, again following an example from Boston – although this time from 1773 – chose tea as a way to symbolise their protest. Each threw a teabag, produced by one of the giant corporations, from the middle of Westminster Bridge into the River Thames below.

A couple more pictures at the bottom of this page on My London Diary.

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Bonkersfest, Trade Justice & Brian Haw – 2007

Bonkersfest, Trade Justice & Brian Haw: On Saturday 2nd June 2007 I photographed three very different events, a festival to publicise mental health issues, a protest calling on G8 world leaders about to meet in Germany to get on with eliminating poverty and finally a visit to Brian Haw who was celebrating six years of his peace protest in Parliament Square.

Here I’ll copy – with a few corrections and clarifications – what I wrote back in 2007 about these events, along with a few of the pictures and links to the others which I posted then on My London Diary.

Bonkersfest – Camberwell Green

I felt rather sorry for the poor guy who got shut into the bottom of the cannon at Bonkersfest on Camberwell Green for the duration of Joe Brand’s opening speech, then deafened by the cannon going off. All to throw bananas out through the mouth of the giant gun, the first of which came as rather a surprise when it hit me on the head. I ate it later.

Bonkersfest has a more serious purpose, to make problems of mental health more visible and to rehabilitate offensive terms used about those with problems.

Jo Brand was once a psychiatric nurse

more pictures on My London Diary

The World Can’t Wait: Anti-Poverty Protest – Lambeth & Westminster

From Camberwell I caught a couple of buses to take me to Archbishop’s Park in Lambeth, where supporters of the many organisations united in the anti-poverty campaign were meeting to send the message ‘the world can’t wait’ to government leaders about to meet for the G8 talks in Germany.

From the park, supporters made their way down to the banks of the River Thames, stretching along both sides of the river (and in front of the Houses of Parliament themselves) between Westminster and Lambeth bridges, as well as on the bridges. It took rather a long time to assemble everyone for the several minutes of silence, after which there was much blowing of whistles, shouting and honking of horns.

more pictures on My London Diary

Brian Haw: 6 Years in Parliament Square

I strolled down to Parliament Square where a rather longer demonstration was still in progress. Today marked exactly 6 years since Brian Haw began his protest against the killing of children in Iraq (and later about the war more generally.)

Video and photography have been powerful in Brian’s stay in the square, with Rikki filming many of the clashes with police

That’s Six years of shame for Britain for supporting (and taking part in) the killing.
Six years of police harassment.
Six years of pressure by the government, including a whole section of an Act of Parliament designed to stop his and other protests.
Six years of shame for the New Labour government.

Although there were no police around at all during the couple of hours I was in the square, Brian told me that had been there this morning at 4 am, watching and taking no action as a group of hooligans attempted to provoke the Peace Camp protesters into retaliation. Waiting for it, to arrest not the hooligans but the peaceful protesters should they rise to the bait.

more pictures on My London Diary

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Fools Paradise Parade 2006 & Police State 2025

Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone: Another of my old posts on My London Diary that I’ll capitalise appropriately and make minor corrections is on the Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone which marched from beside the London Eye to Parliament Square on 1st April 2006. As well as the few pictures I’ll post here there are many more on My London Diary. And I’ll end with a dramatic illustration of our shift towards a police state as we have moved over my lifetime fromthe welfare state to a warfare state.

April Fools Day was a good day to demonstrate against the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005 exclusion zone, which bans democratic protests within a kilometre of the the Houses of Parliament unless they have previous permission, as well as greatly restricting what protesters can do. It’s a peculiarly foolish piece of legislation, rushed through to try and tidy up Parliament Square and protect the government from the embarrassment of seeing Brian Haw and other peace protesters on their patch of grass in Parliament Square.

Even more foolish in that, at least so far, it hasn’t worked, although the authorities have appealed against Brian’s legal victory to be allowed to remain.

*Attacking the pinata in Parliament Square, Westminster, London*

April Fools were those who stuck their head in the sand and ignored the Calendar Change in 1752, which was accompanied by a shift in the New Year from March 25th (the Feast of the Assumption) to Jan 1st (the Feast of the Circumcision, latterly renamed the Solemnity of St Mary, Mother of Jesus.) The Inland Revenue still celebrates the old date (augmented by the 11 lost days of the Calendar Change and another that got lost in 1900) by starting the new tax year on April 6th.

The Fools Paradise Parade started on the Victoria Embankment next to the London Eye, with police taking only a friendly interest, but an argument with security men who told us we were on private property. Nice to know that its yet another bit of London that someone has flogged off, but it is public right of way, and we weren’t doing anything that could legally be objected to.

*Tony Blair won the vote to lead the march*

The main problem they had seemed to be that people were photographing them, which demonstrated their lack of training in their job, as did their attitude to the members of the public.

*The Queen was soon telling Mr Blair exactly what he could do.*

Eventually the parade made its way along the riverside path and across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, where there was a bit of a party, with a pinata stuffed with presents being attacked and destroyed by the children.

In Parliament Square the parade was greeted by Brian Haw, still continuing his protest despite SOCPA. April 1st also marked the start of our very own FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency which seems likely to be used against political opposition as well as serious crime.

Parliament’s incompetence in drafting the law so it failed to ban Brian Haw was corrected in a rather concerning court appeal decision where basically the judgement said that it didn’t matter what the law said as it was clear what parliament had intended.

*An illegal political placard just somehow slipped out in front of the houses of Parliament*

But the provisions on protests in the area around parliament were later repealed and replaced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which instead “restricts certain “prohibited activities” in Parliament Square garden and the adjoining footways. The police have used these powers to confiscate pizza boxes, tarpaulin and umbrellas from protesters in Parliament Square.” It was rather a case of one step forward, two steps back and almost killed Barbara Tucker who had by then taken over from Brian Haw.

Since 2006 we have seen many further restrictions on our right to protest and draconian prison sentences given to peaceful protesters. Some of the restrictions have been brought in by the Tories prompted by the success of protests by grass roots unions against companies particularly in London paying poverty wages and badly treating workers while others reflect the success of protests in promoting public awareness of issues including climate change and Israeli genocide in Gaza.

More pictures on My London Diary

The move towards a police state we are now witnessing was dramatically illustrated last week when when on 27th March more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into the Quaker Westminster Meeting House, searched the entire building and arrested six young women holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

As the Quakers state:

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalised many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.

Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protesters’ ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power.

Their statement concluds:

“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”

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No Trident Lobby & Rally 2007

No Trident Lobby & Rally: On March 14th 2007 the House of Commons were debating the principle to replace the existing UK nuclear weapons and begin a process to design, build and commission submarines to replace the existing Vanguard-class submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles with updated systems over the coming 17 years. The New Labour government, led by PM Tony Blair and the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett were supported by the Conservatives and one DUP member and won the final division by 408 votes to 160.

Voting against were many Labour MPs and almost all the Liberal Democrats, SNP and other minority parties, although there were a few absentees.

Around Parliament Square there was a day of protest by Greenpeace and others with the main CND rally called for 5pm and continuing into the evening. Here is the account I wrote of the day for My London Diary – with the usual minor corrections and a few of the pictures I posted – more are still on My London Diary

No Trident Lobby & Rally – Parliament Square, London

I missed Bianca and Annie and the others, but I didn’t miss them as there was plenty else going on. As I walked over Westminster bridge there was the banner flying on the crane in front of the houses of parliament, and there were quite a few people stopping to look at it.

Later, Greenpeace activists got on their bikes and cycled across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, where they were stopped by police and threatened with arrest unless they left the roadway and moved onto the square. After a while they all did, many cycling away after a few minutes to cycle around London before joining the ‘fish on a bicycle‘ critical mass that arrived back at the square a few hours later, and got the same ‘off your bike‘ treatment from the police.

*Cyclists are ordered off the road and onto the pavement of Parliament Square under threat of arrest*

The square started to fill up rather more from around 5pm when a silent protest attended by a couple of hundred took place in the far corner of the square. By the time the speeches started at 6.15 there was a respectable crowd, perhaps around 500, but people were still arriving and with the addition of the cyclists there were perhaps closer to a thousand present.

A brief attempt by Greenpeace to protest on the pavement in front of the Houses Of Parliament took the police by surprise, but the group were soon escorted back across the road.

*Greenpeace demonstrators on the pavement outside Parliament*

*Veteran peace campaigner Pat Arrowsmith was among those in the crowd*

Throughout the day there had been plenty of signs of the personal vendetta between some Met officers and the regular protesters in the square. Two hapless officers appear to have been deployed just to stand in front of one fluorescent pink placard, and there were some incidents of minor harassment. The injunction thrown out by the judge at Southwark Court recently showed how the police are wasting our money in this respect.

*Brian Haw: Find Your Courage; Share Your Vision; Change Your World. (T-shirt from Dan Wilkins, The Nth Degree.)*

Apparently the latest approach to try and remove the protesters from the square comes from London Mayor Ken Livingstone who is worried about the grass being damaged by the tents there. As I remarked when this was mentioned, “grass regenerates, dead children don’t.” Perhaps we should start a ‘Brian [Haw] For Mayor‘ campaign.

*We need Trident “like a fish needs a bicycle”*

Several Labour MPs came out from the house to address the meeting, along with many activists. Bruce Kent started his speech by thanking Brian Haw for allowing the demo to use his back garden, and Brian later came from his protest at the front of the square to address the meeting.

This time the government got its vote, but there will be later occasions to oppose Trident, as well as the continuing actions at Faslane which those at the demo were urged to take part in.

Trident replacement is still continuing in 2025, with the government being committed to the building of four replacement submarines by the early 2030s and an extension to the life of the Trident missiles potentially to the early 2060s as well as work taking place now to produce replacement nuclear warheads in the 2030s. It is an important support to the UK arms industry but of little or no military consequence with its obscene cost threatening our ability to defend the country by conventional means and it remains – like all nuclear weapons – a definite threat to the peace and future of the world.

Many more pictures on My London Diary beginning here.

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International Women’s Day – 2004

International Women’s Day: On Saturday 6th March 2004 I photographed an event in Trafalgar Square to celebrate International Women’s Day which was the following Monday, 8th March.

First celebrated in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America, International Women’s Day was established in 1910 by the Second International following a proposal by Clara Zetkin, although the date only became 8 March in 1913 when peace rallies were held on that day shortly before the First World War. IWD rallies led to the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and Lenin made the day an official “holiday”, although it remained a working day there until 1965. The UN adopted it in 1975 and in 2005 the TUC called for it to be made a UK public holiday.

This year, 2025, the 8th March is a Saturday and there will be an all-women march in London, Million Women Rise, demanding an end to male violence to women and girls, beginning on Oxford Street and marching to a rally in Trafalgar Square. I photographed the first London Million Women Rise in 2008 and have covered the event working from the sidelines most years since.

I had photographed International Women’s Day events in some earlier years, and there are also a few pictures from 2003 on My London Diary, but I think 2004 was the first more extended post. Here with the usual corrections to case and spelling etc is what I wrote in 2004.

Woman’s Court Puts Bush and Blair On Trial

There are various events in London around the start of March connected with International Woman’s Day on the 8 March. In Trafalgar Square on Saturday 6th a Woman’s Court put George Bush and Tony Blair on trial for crimes against women, children and men. The event was a part of the 5th Global Women’s Strike.

Events started with a a short play by a group from Crossroads Women’s Centre in North London highlighting the racist immigration policy of Fortress Europe, typical agit-prop, enlivened as always by some individual performances that relied more on personality than script.

All good fun with the villains being George W Bush and our very own Tony Blair.

Good fun if it wasn’t for the fact that the consequences of the actions of these men and the interests they stand for were felt around the world.

Selma James, widow of C L R James, then opened the trial of Bush and Blair, represented in their absence by large puppets. One of the first witnesses was Elsa T, an Eritrean rape victim whose moving testimony was given us in translation.

Another moving speech came from Jocelyn Hurndall, the mother of Tom Hurndall who was shot by an Israeli soldier while trying to protect children in Palestine. The clothing he was wearing to identify himself as a non-combatant apparently made him into a target.

Other speakers included representatives from the Black Women’s Rape Action project, a Native American woman, a woman soldier, Mrs N from Zimbabwe whose son died in a British prison, and several men including Brian Haw from the 24/7 picket in Parliament Square.

A few more pictures on My London Diary.

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