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Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis – 2013

Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis: On Saturday 26th October I went to the annual procession to Downing Street by the United Families and Friends Campaign in memory of all those who have died in the custody of police or prison officers, in immigration detention or psychiatric hospitals. Sitting opposite Downing Street were Gurkhas on hunger strike demanding justice. I rushed away to join the IWGB protesting inside John Lewis’s flagship store in Oxford St demanding that the workers that clean John Lewis stores be paid a living wage and share in the benefits and profits enjoyed by other workers in the stores.

United Families & Friends Remember the Killed

Whitehall

Custody Deaths, Gurkhas & John Lewis - 2013

Many from the families of people who have died in police custody, prisons, immigration detention or psychiatric hospitals had gathered in Trafalgar Square along with supporters for the annual procession calling for justice.

Although there have been several thousand who have died in the last twenty or thirty years, some clearly killed by police and others in highly suspicious circumstances, inquests and other investigations have failed to provide any justice. Instead there has been a long history of lies, failures to properly investigate, cover-ups, and perjury.

On My London Diary I quoted the description by the UFFC:

The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who are killed in immigration detention and secure psychiatric hospitals. It includes the families of Roger Sylvester, Leon Patterson, Rocky Bennett, Alton Manning, Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Aseta Simms, Ricky Bishop, Paul Jemmott, Harry Stanley, Glenn Howard, Mikey Powell, Jason McPherson, Lloyd Butler, Azelle Rodney, Sean Rigg, Habib Ullah, Olaseni Lewis, David Emmanuel (aka Smiley Culture), Kingsley Burrell, Demetre Fraser, Mark Duggan and Anthony Grainger to name but a few. Together we have built a network for collective action to end deaths in custody.

Among those holding the main banner as the march went at a funereal pace down Whitehall were Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennet, twin sister of Leon Patterson, murdered by Manchester police in 1992, Marcia Rigg, one of the sisters of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton in 2008 and Carole Duggan, the aunt of Mark Duggan whose shooting by police sparked riots in August 2011.

At the rally opposite Downing Street many family members spoke in turn in a shameful exposition of injustice perpetrated by police, prison officers and mental health workers. You can read more and see most of them in the captions and pictures on My London Dairy at United Families & Friends Remember Killed.

Gurkhas Hunger Strike for Justice

Downing St

Gurkhas were sitting opposite Downing Stree on a serial hunger strike after failing to receive any action from Prime Minister David Cameron to their petition calling for fair treatment for elderly Gurkha veterans who are living in extreme poverty.

On 24th October 2013 they had begun a programme of nonviolent resistance (Satyagraha) with hunger strikes, at first with a “13 days relay hunger strike in the name of the 13 Ghurka VCs followed by a fast-unto-death.“

Gurkhas Hunger Strike for Justice

Cleaners Invade John Lewis Oxford Street

I met the cleaners and their supporters in the café on the top floor of John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street for a protest by their union, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB.)

*Organiser Alberto Durango and IWGB Secretary Chris Ford lead the protesters*

All the other people who work for John Lewis in their stores are directly employed by the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) and are ‘partners’ in the business with good conditions of service and decent pay, including an annual share in the company’s profits, which can amount to as much as an extra two months pay.

But JLP outsources the cleaning of its stores to a sub-contractor, who were paying them ‘poverty wages’, only around 80% of the London Living Wage, and employ them under far worse conditions of sickness, holidays and pensions than JLP staff.

By hiving off the cleaners to another company, JLP can still claim it is a ‘different sort of company’ with a strong ethical basis, but leave its cleaners – a vital part of its workforce – in poverty with minimal conditions of service.

*They stop and let everyone know why they were protesting. The security staff watch but don’t interfere*

In 2013, the cleaning contractor was a part of the Compass Group which had recently declared pre-tax profits for the year of £575 million. And JLP had made £50 million profit from its department stores. Despite their huge profits both were happy to shaft the cleaners.

*A short rally inside the main entrance to the store*

The cleaners were demanding to become employed by JLP, the owners of their workplace, and also to be paid the London Living Wage. JLP told them that this was not appropriate.

*Raph Ashley, a JLP ‘partner’ sacked for supported the cleaners*

Among those taking part in the protest were members of the RMT and PCS trade unions and former John Lewis ‘partner’ Raph Ashley, who like many other partners had supported the cleaners’ claim. He was sacked after he gave a newspaper interview raising concerns about the ethnic diversity at John Lewis and was told that ‘partners’ discussing pay and urging them to join a trade union was a disciplinary offence. The protest also demanded justice for Raph.

*A manager asks the protesters to leave – and they slowly went out*

In the café the protesters got out banners, flags, flyers, drums, horns, whistles and a megaphone and walked noisily around the fifth floor before going down the escalator. At each floor they had to walk around to reach the down escalator, and stopped on the way to explain to the shoppers why they were protesting. Many customers took their leaflets and expressed their support for the cleaners, with some applauding the protest.

They continued down to the basement and then came back up to the ground floor where they held a short rally just inside the main entrance with short speeches from RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley, IWGB Secretary Chris Ford and Chris Baugh, Assistant General Secretary of PCS.

*The protest continues on Oxford Street in front of the store*

By then the police had arrived and they told the JLP managers to o ask the protesters to leave the store, and they did so, continuing their protest on the crowded street outside for another half hour.

More about the protest and many more pictures on My London Diary at Cleaners Invade John Lewis Oxford Street.

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Muslim Veils, Illegal Goods, Murders, Union Busting and London – 2010

Muslim Veils, Illegal Goods, Murders, Union Busting and London: Saturday 25th September 2010 was a day for several fairly small protests around London, involving me in quite a lot of travelling around. As well as photographing Muslim women protesting against a French ban on Islamic face veils, a protest and counter-protest at a shop selling products from an illegal Israeli settlement, families of murder victimes calling for tougher sentences and a protest against a company employing cleaners for their union-busting activities I also took quite a few pictures as I rode buses and walked around between these events.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Women Protest French Veil Ban

French Embassy, Knightsbridge

Muslim Veils, Illegal Goods, Murders, Union Busting and London - 2010

I’ve often commented on how women were normally sidelined – literally – at protests by the now banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain but at this protest outside the French Embassy they were very much at the front, with around 80 women, many with children, and only a handful of men – who did seem to be organising the event.

They were to protest against a law passed by the French Senate on September 14th to prohibit all full-face coverings in public places, clearly aimed at Muslim women who wear the niqab or burkha.

Such garments were then rarely worn in France, certainly outside of Paris and some Mediterranean coastal cities, and of France’s 2-3 million Muslim women the ban is thought likely to only effect around two thousand of them.

Very few of the women at the protest wore veil, most simply covering their hair. The protest in a wealthy area of London close to Harrods was passed by quite a few women who were veiled, but who all seemed to ignore the protest.

I wrote:’ Speakers at the event castigated the French government for taking a measure which they felt limited the freedom of women to make decisions on what they wear while at the same time ignoring issues that degrade and oppress women – such as domestic violence, and “the objectification and sexualisation of women’s bodies in pornography, lap-dancing clubs, advertising, and the entertainment industry, all permitted under the premise of freedom of expression and driven by the pursuit of profit in Western societies.”‘

More at Hizb ut-Tahrir Protest French Veil Ban.

Protest Against Illegal Israeli Goods

Ahava, Monmouth St, Covent Garden

This was one of a series of fortnightly demonstrations outside the Covent Garden Ahava shop which sells products manufactured in an illegal Israel settlement on occupied Palestinian land. These protests were a part of an international ‘Stolen Beauty’ campaign organised by ‘Code Pink’, a women-initiated grass-roots peace and social justice movement which began when American women came together to oppose the invasion of Iraq.

As usual there was a smaller counter-demonstration by a few EDL supporters and a handful of Zionists, handing out leaflets which described the call for a boycott as “bigoted, complicitly and politically antisemitic“.

The protesters say Israel in in breach of international law and Ahava “has openly flouted tax requirements by exploiting the EU-Israel trade agreement and violates UK DEFRA guidelines in respect of proper labelling.” I read the leaflets they handed out and the web sites calling for the boycott and could find no evidence of anti-Semitism. Many calling for a boycott of Israeli goods are Jewish and I reflected that when I began taking photographs in London no Jewish shop would have opened on a Saturday.

More at Protest Against Illegal Israeli Goods.

Families of Murder Victims Call For Justice

Embankment

‘Families Fighting For Justice’, including many families of murder victims, marched through London on Saturday calling for tougher sentences for murder – with life sentences meaning life imprisonment.

The group was formed in Liverpool by Jean Taylor whose sister, son and daughter were all murder victims. She set up a petition which said “Life should mean life, for first degree murder, also tougher sentences for manslaughter” and in 2008 recruited families of other murder victims to join her and march with it to Downing Street.

You can read some of the horrendous stories on the groups web site, and some I was told at the protest were truly heartbreaking and showed why many ordinary people have lost faith in our justice system – and I highlight one of them on My London Diary.

But as I also commented “I don’t feel that the ‘Life 4 A Life’ campaign would actually do much if anything to solve the problem“. Murder is never a rational act where murderers weigh up how long a sentence they might get if caught and draconian sentences would have little or no deterrent effect. Things more likely to help include better social services and policing, but we really need “changes that bring back some of our community spirit and give people a greater engagement.” There really is such a thing as society despite Thatcher’s dismissal and we uirgently need more of it.

Much more at Families of Murder Victims Call For Justice.

Protest Over Initial Rentokil Union Busting

Old St

A short protest by around 20 trade unionists outside the Initial Rentokil offices in Brunswick Place near Old Street on Saturday afternoon marked the start of the campaign against the company for its intimidation and bullying of union members who choose to speak out about pay and employment practices and play an active role in the union.

The cleaners employed by the company at the Eurostar terminals at St. Pancras International were RMT members and the dispute between the union and Initial has continued.

The unions alleged that Initial was deliberately employing workers with doubtful immigration status so they can pay minimum wages and provide sub-standard working conditions, often requiring them to work without proper safety equipment or precautions. They allege that workers who question their rights or attempt to organise have been reported to the immigration authorities who have then raided the workplace.

More at Protest over Initial Rentokil Union Busting.

Around London

One bus I didn’t travel on but photographed outside the former Aldwych Piccadilly Line Station.

‘I am Here’, one of London’s largest art installations overlooking the Regent’s Canal at Haggerston with photographs of former residents on empty flats where people are moved out to redevelop the Haggerston estate – with the promise they will be moved back to new social housing on the estate

Missing letters on an advert beside the canal for Ron’s Shellfish on sale every Saturday at Hoxton Market create a puzzle for those walking by, though this and another picture on My London Diary concentrate on the images and miss out the centre of the sign.

Decoration on the Suleymaniye Mosque on Kingsland Road which mainly serves the British Turkish community.

More at Around London.

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Pride, Paedos & Class War – 2015

Pride, Paedos & Class War: Saturday 27th June 2015 I photographed the London Pride Parade and a protest at it by Class War, as well as a protest at Downing Street against paedophiles in high positions and the activities of the family courts. Of course we now know that the main witness behind the Met’s Operation Midland was a “liar, fraudster and paedophile” who was later sentenced to “to 18 years in prison, having been found guilty of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice, one of fraud, and several child sexual offences.” Even back in 2015 it was hard to understand why the Met police took his fantastic allegations so seriously.

Pride Parade – Baker Street

I photographed people getting ready for the parade in Baker Street, and had a particular interest in Pride 2015 as this was the 30th anniversary of the support that Pride had then given to the Miners Strike.

Because of this there was more interest in the event by trade unions and political groups giving the event a more radical nature than the commercial festival it has now become.

But Pride 2015 was still “dominated by large commercial groups, who also provide large amounts of sponsorship to enable the event as a whole to be dominated by commercial interests. It seems a long way from the event when I first photographed it in the early 90s when Pride was a protest.”

Of course there are still things apart from the large corporate groups and it was these and the more political aspects that I was interested in photographing as you can see from the many pictures on My London Diary.

And as usual, Peter Tatchell was still there with supporters to uphold the radical past of the event, this time marching with posters against the Northern Ireland same-sex marriage ban and the homophobis of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Much more on My London Diary at Pride Parade.

Class War protest ‘corporate pinkwashing’ – Piccadilly Circus and Pall Mall

Class War had come to Piccadilly Circus with a new banner, ‘POOR IS THE NEW QUEER‘
against the corporate sponsorship and takeover of Pride in London. Below was the message ‘F**k the Pink Pound, F**k Corporate Pinkwashing!’ and half a dozen of them held it up in front of Barclay’s at Piccadilly Circus.

Before that some of them, suitably attired, had posed for photos on the street, and then posed and danced with some of those who had come to watch the parade.

They then moved down to Pall Mall where they found a spot where the crowd waiting for the parade was much thinner and leaned on the barriers until the front of the parade had almost reached them. They lifted up the barriers and took to the street walking a few yards in front of it with their bannner for around 50 yards. A smoke flare drew attention to their protest, while Pride stewards and police tried to get them to leave and they were forced back behind the barriers.

The stood behind the barriers holding the banner as the front of the parade moved past, watched closely by police, but then saw a larger group of police approaching and decided “it was time to disappear, running towards Trafalgar Square. I followed half of them down into the subway where they lost the police, emerging from one of the other subway entrances. Most if not all had evaded the police and were meeting up to decide on any further action, but I’d followed them enough and left.”

More at Class War protest ‘corporate pinkwashing’.

Victims & Survivors call for Justice – Downing St,

An angry rally opposite Downing St called for an end to the covering up of paedophilia, particularly the 76 allegations against MPs, as well as others in high positions protected by the establishment whose investigation has been shelved.

Although few outside of the Met Police believed the claims made by “Nick” about MPs, even the wildest allegations may have some truth behind them, and after the rumours and allegations against Jimmy Saville were dismissed for so many years by the establishment it is difficult to dismiss everything as wild rumours and conspiracy theories.

Some had come to protest about the secret activities of the family courts, often taking children away from loving parents and in some cases returning them an abusive parent. Some judges were accused of confusing poverty with abuse. Gagging orders prevent many of the facts becoming known. Problems over transparency in these courts have now become officially recognised and there have been pilot schemes to improve this without harming the children involved.

Victims & Survivors call for Justice

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