Class War | >Re-PHOTO

Police Farce at Poor Doors – 2015

Police Farce at Poor Doors: The protest outside the ‘rich’ door of One Commercial St on Thursday 26th February 2015 was just another in the regular series of weekly protests by Class War against the separate entrances to the building – one into a spacious foyer with a reception desk, comfortable seating, flowers and works of art on the walls for those in the privately owned flats and the other a long empty corridor from a door down a side alley for those in social housing.

But a larger contingent of police had turned up than usual and they had come determined to show they were in charge.

As soon as Class War arrived and unrolled their banners a police officer, Sergeant C, came to tell them that the ‘Party Leaders’ banner was offensive and they must remove it.

They were told that nobody had objected to it and so according to the law it was not an offence to display it, and it remained on display. Sergeant C and a woman police officer then began stopping people passing by and entering and leaving through the rich door and trying to get them to say it was offensive.

It seemed to me unacceptable behaviour for police to try and manufacture an offence in this way, and I was pleased when person after person responded with either ‘No’ or ‘Not particularly’ or words to that effect or said they found it amusing rather than offensive. But eventually after around ten minutes of asking people they found three young men going into the rich door who were willing to be prompted to agree that they found it offensive, and came back to the protesters.

Triumphant, Sergeant C then returned to those holding the banner and told them that unless they put the banner away they would be arrested. The protesters rolled it up and continued the protest.

The police should have known better. In 2010 police had raided the home of a photographer a mile of so away for displaying the posters the banner was based on in the windows of his house, forcing him to take them down. He did, then replaced them with the word ‘wanker’ replaced by ‘onanist’. Later the police apologised for their action, upholding the right to to freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act and paid compensation for the raid on his home.

*For some reason police don’t find the Lucy Parsons banner offensive*

Sergeant C also warned Ian Bone he would be arrested if he continued to use offensive language, in particular the ‘f’ word. As Bone told him, this this was now commonly heard in almost all situations, but perhaps his contributions became just a little more muted.

But Martin Wright took up the challenge, giving a spirited discourse on the words he found offensive such as ‘poverty’ and ‘war’ and using various terms related to sex and bodily functions which were not. The police took no action.

Class War had brought out their posters with the message ‘YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALDGATE’ and they invited the police to leave, offering them safe conduct out of the PRA. The police failed to take up the offer.

As the protest was coming to an end there was “a moment of pure farce after an orange flare had been set off, when Sergeant C and another officer tried to put it out in a puddle.

Unsurprisingly this had little effect. It was burning out fairly harmlessly in the puddle on the pavement, the red smoke mainly blowing along the pavement parallel to the road when the sergeant decided to pick it up and carry it to a bin at the side of the traffic lights.

Red smoke continued to pour out of the bin, now being blown into the traffic, and some of the rubbish in the bin appeared to catch fire, though fortunately it went out.”

One of the protesters then mime the police action in dealing with the flare in the puddle and the others were soon in stitches, along with the security man; some of the police were unable to hide their amusement, trying desperately hard not to laugh.

It was time to go home, and I left with the impression that Class War had rather decisively beaten the police on this occasion.

But clearly the local police had an obsession with the ‘Political Leaders’ banner – and a few months later – as I wrote here in Police nick Class War banner – seized it at another Poor Doors protest, arresting one of those holding it. They took the banner back to the police station and then ‘lost‘ it.

More pictures on My London Diary at People’s Republic Of Aldgate Free Speech Fight.

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Class War’s Lambeth Walk & More London – 2018

Class War’s Lambeth Walk & More London: On Saturday 24th February 2018 Class War celebrated their win in the High Court against the Qatari royal family over their right to protest outside the Shard, where ten £50 million apartments remain empty. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures around the 13 acres of London around the then City Hall, now private land owned by the State of Kuwait, the inappropriately named More London.

Class War’s Lambeth Walk for housing

Southwark

Class War's Lambeth Walk & More London - 2018

Class War and friends met at Potters Fields next to City Hall and facing Tower Bridge, for a protest celebrating their court victory and a part of their ongoing campaign for more social housing to meet the needs of the people of London.

London councils have huge waiting lists for homes, private rents are hugely expensive and house prices out of the reach of those even in many professional jobs let alone most working people.

But increasingly London councils – particularly in boroughs including Southwark, Lambeth and Newham but across the city are carrying out schemes with private devlopers to demolish council estates – such as the Heygate and Aylesbury estates in Southwark and replace these with expensive private developments with token amounts of affordable properties – which at up to 80% of market cost – are not affordable to the mass of London’s population.

Many properties on these new developments are sold across the world to private investors, many even before they are built, advertised and strongly promoted particularly in the Far East. The rapid increases in London property prices makes them a highly profitable investment. Many of these investment properties are left empty, or perhaps visited for a few weeks a year.

London desperately needs more housing, but not empty boxes. As the speakers at the rally in front of City Hall pointed out, what it needs is social housing that Londoners can afford.

The campaigners called for the thousands of empty buildings in London – and across the country – including those empty £50 million flats in the Shard – to be taken over and used to house the homeless.

’10 Floats at £50 Million each sit empty in The Shard. 26,000 flats over £1 Million each about to be built in London … while thousands are sleeping on the streets – NO MORE HOMES FOR THE RICH – Class War’

Class War had brought their ‘Lucy Parsons’ banner with the message from the famous American anarchist “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live“, but they were instead calling for them to be used to house the poor. Among those who joined them were the the RCG – Revolutionary Communist Group – with their banner banner with its message ‘HOUSING IS A RIGHT – NOT A PRIVILEGE‘.

Among the speakers was Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright who pointed out that the coming cold snap next week will probably be “another Grenfell“, likely to kill at least 80 people of the thousands who are sleeping on the streets.

The protesters had intended to dance the Lambeth Walk from the rally at City Hall to another at the Shard, led by ukuleles, but only one ukulele player turned up and so they simply marched with banners.

Because of the cold, the rally opposite the Shard was a short one and ended with Class War amusing themselves by mounting a mock charge on the offices of Murdoch’s News UK, publishers of The Times and The Sun, pulling up sharply just in front of the row of security staff on its steps.

More pictures at Class War’s Lambeth Walk for housing.

More London?

Southwark

Property developers named the large area once occupied by warehouses and wharves a few yards upstream from Tower Bridge on the Southwark bank of the river ‘More London‘ although the site is owned by Kuwait and the public is allowed to use it, but under some restrictions they set down – as our royals do for London’s Royal Parks.

Their large real estate interests in London are run by the English sounding St Martins Property Group – it was founded in 1924 as the St Martins-Le-Grand Property Company Limited but is now wholly owned by the Kuwait sovereign wealth fund, Future Generations Fund.

Among their rules are bans on photography and protests. But with thousands or tourists walking its open pathways the photography ban is seldom enforced, though should you look too commercial you are likely to be approached by security personnel who will tell you to stop.

And while they have prevented some protests from taking place and have imposed restrictions on others, protests such as the one on this day by Class War have continued.

*At least Tower Bridge is still owned by the City of London*

City Hall, in More London was leased from the Kuwaitis from 2002-2021 as the former home of London government, County Hall at Westminster, had been stolen from it by the Thatcher government back in the ’80s. I wrote that I found it shameful that London did not own its own seat of government, and at least the move to The Crystal in the Royal Docks has put that right, unsuitably remote though it is.

But in 2018 I commented “Also shameful that many if not most of the government buildings in Whitehall now have overseas owners, some of them by UK tax dodgers in overseas tax havens. ‘Taking our country back’ from the EU will certainly have little effect at restoring Britain to British ownership.”

More pictures at More London.

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Police Protest & Lay Wreaths – 2008

Police Protest & Lay Wreaths: On Wednesday January 23rd 2008 around 20,000 police marched through London to demand more pay. As ‘crown servants’ rather than employees they are not allowed to take strike action or work to rule or any other collective action, but apparently organising a demonstration like this doesn’t count. As a part of their protest police officers and families of officers laid wreaths in a dignified ceremony at the National Police Memorial. I photographed the events and wrote about them in some length on My London Diary back in 2008, and here I’ll post that again – with some minor corrections, mainly of typos.

Police March for More Pay

Westminster

*Police on the march – along with BNP and Liberal Democrat candidates for London Mayor*

more pictures

Along with what seemed like a thousand other photographers, I had decided that the police demonstration against their recent pay award was one that I had to cover. (We did wonder idly whether it was also being a good day out for burglars and other crimes across the country – though of course all those attending the demo were off-duty.) But although it showed the ability of the Police Federation to motivate officers on the issue of pay, bringing coachloads from over the country, it was a drab event on a drab day.

For perhaps the one and only time, I’ve absolutely no reason to think that the figure given by police of around 20,000 attending was seriously in error. It was a significant size, although rather smaller than many other demonstrations I’ve photographed in current years. I think a more normal police estimate would probably have put it at 10,000! [Or rather less.]

Of course it’s axiomatic that the public services get screwed by governments, although, along with the armed forces the police have over the years got a relatively easy ride compared to teachers and others, and I’m pleased to see a current trend to reverse that.

*Most of the police came in coaches, but this group cycled from Exeter to London*

The ride by some Devon and Cornwall police from Exeter to be with the demonstration was one of the few point of interest – just a pity the demo wasn’t a couple of days later so they could have joined up with Critical Mass.

*Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick retired from the Met in May 2007*

The Evening Standard gave the event the headline ‘BNP Chief On Police March‘, and yes, the the Barking & Dagenham councillor and BNP Mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook was there – as too was the Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick. Unlike Barnbrook, Paddick came to see the press at the beginning of the march for interviews and photographs, although it seemed to me that none of the police wanted to talk to him, though many had been his former colleagues. It may be OK now to be gay and out in the police, but if you have liberal views best hide them under your helmet.

The press and photographers aren’t too popular with the police either, and at one point when I walked along with the demonstration I was jostled and sworn at, told to get out. But 99% of the demonstration was well-behaved and just rather dull. How many pictures can you take of a crowd in white baseball caps?

As a crowd it really stood out in London for the very few black faces it contained – certainly very few compared even to the proportion among those policing the event, let alone those watching as it went through the streets around Victoria station.

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*The professional protest stall offers advice to the police on making placards and more*

Fortunately a few left-wing groups turned up to give the police some advice and examples on demonstrating. The Space Hijackers had a Professional Protesters Stall at Hyde Park Corner, offering advice on making placards (and materials – although I don’t think anyone took up their offer), handing out leaflets on ‘Your Rights as a Protester’ as well as some suitable chants.

Their
What do we want?
More Money!
When do we want it?
Backdated from Spetember 2007!
did draw a few smiles and even the occasional cheer from those walking past, but most officers showed a total lack of humour, and there was quite a lot of abuse and offensive language directed at them.

*Some officers allowed themselves to smile, but others were abusive, some using language that could have got them arrested if there were any police around*

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Earlier, a group of around twenty from ‘Class War’ had made their opposition clear at the start of the march; the slogan on one cartoon showing four pigs in police uniform reading ‘Bacon’s pricy enough’ [sic]. Another showed a member of the riot police being hit on the back of the head by a brick.

*A ‘FITwatch’ demonstrator is arrested when she refused to move out of the road*

Some FITwatch protesters gave out leaflets and then attempted to block the march by standing on the roadway. Their protest held up the start of the march for almost half an hour until the police on duty for the day made a couple of arrests.

Surrounded by a media scrum, police tried hard to keep things relatively calm and made repeated attempts to the two to go back onto the pavement before making the arrest.

more pictures

Police Honour Colleagues Killed on Duty

Police Memorial, The Mall

*Preparing to lay wreaths at the National Police Memorial*

I think there are many, many problems with the police, some of which arise from our problems with governments, but in some respects ours are still some of the better police forces around the world. Despite often having minor issues with them while working – and having once been threatened with a conspiracy to fit me up that was serious enough for me to make a complaint (and receive some kind of apology) there are still times I’m pretty glad they are there. Particularly when they drove up and rescued me from a vigilante attack.

Police – like firemen – frequently put themselves at risk through their work, at times requiring considerable bravery; and several thousands have lost their lives serving us over the years. Although this is something that deserves public recognition, I was not sure it was entirely appropriate to make use of the National Police Memorial as a part of the demonstration over pay. But the ceremony that took place was certainly solemn and dignified and expressed deep feelings among those taking part.

*The service was led by a police chaplain*

Officers and families from around the country made their way to the Police Memorial at the top of the Mall. There was a short service, including the laying of wreaths and a two minute silence, followed by the playing by two pipers.

more pictures.

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Dance Against Cuts & Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4 – 2011

Dance Against Cuts & Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4: Two protests on Friday 14th January 2011 had little in common except that both were in part against the violence, lies and deception of the authorities, both here in the UK and in Greece.

Dance Against The Deficit Lies

Royal Exchange, Bank

Campaigners against the savage cuts in arts and community funding by the Tory-led coalition government in the UK came to perform outside the Royal Exchange and Bank of England in a way deliberately planned to avoid confrontation with police, limiting their protest to exactly and hour and making it “playful with purpose, (so) that any aggression whatsoever (police kettles or the tiny few protesters who throw stuff) will simply look preposterous.”

The location was one “with resonances for many protesters, where some of the worst excesses of police violence and over-reaction took place at the protests against the G20, and close to where Ian Tomlinson was attacked by a police officer and died.”

At the centre of the City of London it was also appropriate for cuts that reflected the huge rescue package given to bail out the banks after their irresponsible behaviour, and to protest about their continuing excessive salaries and indecent bonuses.

It was a relatively small protest, with almost as many spectators and photographers as the hundred or so taking part, and enlivened by performances and dance rather than angry chanting. And the police for once simply stood back and watched.

The organisers pointed out that Britain is still revered for around the world, and that it brings in money to the country. “Cuts to the arts are idiotic and short sighted.” They questioned why the levy on banks was “being reduced, and why the government is not imposing measures such as the Tobin or Robin Hood tax on financial transactions that would not only being in much-needed income to reduce the deficit but would provide a beneficial stability by dampening speculation.”

Dance Against The Deficit Lies

Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4

Greek Embassy, Holland Park

Back in June 2003, a number of protesters were arrested in a violent police attack on an anti-capitalist protest against an EU summit in Thessaloniki, Greece. They included the English anarchist, Simon Chapman, a supporter of various anarchist groups including Class War.

Seven of them, including Chapman, had later gone on hunger strike against their arrests and were finally released at the end of November 2023, following a huge solidarity campaign across Europe. Among those calling for their release were 28 EU MPs and Amnesty International. All charges against the prisoners were dropped and Simon came home to England.

Photographic and film evidence proved beyond and doubt that Chapman had been framed, charged with having three black bags containing Molotoff cocktails and dangerous weapons (a hammer and a pickaxe handle.) Photographs showed that when arrested he was carrying a blue bag, and a film clearly showed Greek police planting these black bags on him after his arrest.

But despite this the Greek state was not prepared to drop the cases, and after “repeated appeals from the Greek state prosecutor the charges against four of the original seven were re-instated.” And despite the evidence in 2008 all of these four were found guilty.

“Under the threat of a European Police Warrant … Simon was forced to return to Thessaloniki in 2010 to appeal the conviction.” But this time the evidence resulted in all the major charges being thrown out, with all four instead being found guilty of a “minor defiance of authority” to justify the time they had previously spent in jail. And Chapman came back to England and Class War.

But the Greek experience had scarred Chapman and he never really recovered from being arrested and his treatment in prison, and the health effects of the lengthy hunger strike, dying at only 40 in 2017.

*Class War with their banner in memory of Simon Chapman – May 1 2017*

Class War came to the May Day march that year at Clerkenwell Green with a new banner in his memory, and also copies of a new Class War newspaper to sell. When the march set off for Trafalgar Square they “marched only the few yards back to the pub, where I joined them later” to celebrate Simon’s life.

Solidarity With the Thessalonaki 4

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Grenfell – 2017 & Hong Kong

Grenfell – 2017 & Hong Kong: On Wednesday 6th December 2017 I photographed two protests outside Kensington Town Hall in both of which people demanded answers from Kensington & Chelsea council about the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower almost six months earlier.

The protest had been approved earlier at a public meeting and was supported by the Justice4Grenfell campaign and the Revolutionary Communist Group who both came with PA systems.

J4G refused to let the RCG speak at their protest and tried to persuade them to move away, but they refused.

But they did pause their protest and turn off their sound system for the J4G’s main speakers, MPs Kate Osamor and Emma Dent-Coad.

After that the RCG resumed their protes as J4G appeared to have stopped – but soon they also began again and there were two protests taking place a few yards apart. A small group from J4G came to shout angrily at the RCG, and there were threats of physical violence with one man having to be held back by his friends after he tried to start a fist fight.

Also protesting with the RCG were some from Class War, who stood with posters of disgraced Councillor Rock Feilding-Mellen, who as deputy council leader and cabinet member responsible for housing and for the flammable cladding and other cuts which had created a disaster waiting to happen. Since the fire he had fled the area and hidden away – and under the large image of his face was the single word ‘WHERE?’

I tried hard to photograph both protests, moving between the two groups.

Both shared the same aims, both condemning the failures by the council which had led to a small fire turning rapidly into a major disaster and, after the fire its failure to respond adequately and in a timely way to the needs of the survivors, both calling for criminal charges against those responsible in Kensington and Chelsea council, the TMO and the cladding company and others.

Both calling for a real role for the local community in the official inquiry into the fire which they feel has already disrespected local residents and fear will be a cover up.

Now eight years later the inquiry has told us very little that was not already covered in the report by Architects for Social Housing published 5 weeks after the fire and there have still not been any criminal charges made against those responsible.

There have been some related cases, with people being prosecuted who have fraudulently tried to profit from the disaster – which were discussed in a blog post by Steve Tombs of the OU, The Poor Get Prison… Grenfell as a Site of Crime?, but none for those directly responsible for the tragedy.

Many will have noticed the enormous contrast between this and the recent fire at the Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong where Reuters report at least 156 people died in a fire rapidly spread by substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam.

The first reports in the UK media over the fire also included that police had already arrested a number of people in connection with the fire. Reuters reported 15 on suspicion of manslaughter as well as another 12 arrests in a corruption investigation.

Grenfell protests outside council meeting.

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Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘Museum’ 2015

Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘Museum‘: Another of the series of protests by Class War at the so-called museum glorifying the gory murders of working-class women took place on Saturday 5th December 2015.

I photographed most if not all of the protests they organised in a campaign they kept up for some years, showing their disgust at this fake museum, which the owner, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe got planning consent to open claiming it was to celebrate the powerful history of the women of London’s East end, not their bloody dismemberment by a homicidal maniac.

Class War were always interesting to photograph – and always fun to be with, as well as supporting important campaigns, particularly those around housing problems, bringing both a clear and informed anarchist perspective and a great deal of street theatre.

And their publications including the Class War magazine were always a good read, with often penetrating analysis as well as some distinctly black humour, truly black and red and read. You can see many earlier editions online at The Sparrow’s Nest.

Ian Bone’s autobiography, Bash the Rich: True Life Confessions of an Anarchist in the UK is certainly an interesting read and the 1991 Class War: A Decade of Disorder he edited comes with the ‘Publishers’ Warning! This book contains explicit language and illustration which may offend yuppies, police officers, members of the royal family and people who think the world can be changed by holding hands and singing “We shall overcome.” ‘

As I wrote back in 2015, “Class War re-enacted a murder outside the Jack the Ripper tourist attraction, women hacking and decapitating a dummy wearing the mask of owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe with a plastic scimitar and liberally spattering fake blood as others played kazoos“

Class War is more of a loose association of like-minded people than an organisation and its actions often gain support from many others, including on this occasion and others fourth-wave feminists.

After Jane others took their turn in attacking the dummy which proved remarkably resistant to the plastic scimitar, but finally Jane could triumphantly display the bloody severed head of Palmer-Edgecumbe,

and others came to kick its body.

Women showed their bloody hands,

and Ian Bone came carrying the rolled-up banner and his walking stick to inspect the corpse.

Police wanted Class Wat to remove the Palmer-Edgecumbe ‘guy’ but they declined, saying they were donating it to the museum as one of the few genuine exhibits for their display. Police followed Class War as they walked away to the pub, and it seemed for a moment they might make and arrest – perhaps for littering – but they thought better of it and walked back to guard the shop. They were still there when I left the pub around an hour later.

Ten years later the tacky tourist attraction remains open, though my conclusion to this protest had hoped for a different conclusion:

“Thanks at least in part to Class War’s publicity and vigorous protests over around five months others have taken up the fight against the so-called museum, and the fight to get a real museum celebrating the powerful history of the women of London’s East End. It’s a rich heritage with powerful and colourful figures in which the bloody murders by the Ripper are only an insignificant and entirely negative episode. Perhaps it’s now time for others to take up a long-term if probably lower-key campaign here and continue it until this bloody blot on our heritage is closed down.“

More of my thoughts about the ‘museum’ and about the protest – with many more pictures – on My London Diary at Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘museum’.

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Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum – 2015

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum: On Saturday 21st November 2015 I spent an hour covering a lunchtime rally and march about the housing problems in the London Borough of Waltham Forest before rushing to Whitechapel where Class War were holding another of their protests outside the sensational tourist attraction celebrating the horrific acts of ‘Jack the Ripper’.

Homes for All against social cleansing

Leyton & Walthamstow

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum

People met in Abbots Park Leyton for a rally organised by Waltham Forest Housing Action before they marched to a longer rally in the centre of Walthamstow. over the severe housing problems faced by those living in the borough of Waltham Forest.

The council has a housing waiting list of over 20,000 families, and although there is considerable home building taking place in the borough only 400 of 12,000 homes planned in Walthamstow in the next 5 years are for low earners.

As in most of London’s boroughs, mainly held by Labour councils, the ‘regeneration’ schemes begun under New Labour has led to the loss of social housing, pricing most local people in the many lower paid and middle-income jobs which are essential for the city to run. Regeneration has led to social cleansing with poorer residents being forced out to areas further from the centre.

The campaigners called for an end to housing evictions in the area – then taking place at twice the average rate for London, and the capping of private rents which are on average much higher than the maximum set by housing benefit, as well as a huge increase in social housing.

Housing benefit acts as a huge public subsidy for landlords, passing money to them. The public and those who live in rented accommodation would be much better served by money being spent of building social housing which would give a return to local councils from the rents.

Private rents allow landlords to get housing benefit and the excess rent paid by the tenants to pay off the loans they take out so they can buy property and get the benefit of increasing their capital – at our and the tenant’s expense.

Rising rents have increasingly made it impossible for many key workers – teachers, firefighters and others – to afford to live in the boroughs they serve.

*Press TV interviewed one of the campaigners who holds a placard ‘I have moved 4 times in 3 years! I want secure affordable housing’*

Although Press TV covered the event there was (as usual) no interest shown by mainstream UK media

Among the trade unions supporting the march were the National Union of Teachers and the Fire Brigades Union – who provided their fire engine as a platform for speakers and to lead the march.

Local politicians also came for the event along with Green Party Deputy Leader Dr Shahrar Ali. Among local groups with banners were residents of Residents of Fred Wigg and John Walsh towers on the edge of Wanstead Flats in Leytonstone., where the 234 social housing units are to be replaced by only 160 and new private flats were to be sold to raise £30 million.

I left as the march was on its way to Walthamstow to go to Whitechapel.

More on My London Diary at Homes for All against social cleansing.

Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’

Cable St, Whitechapel

I met Class War as they arrived outside the Jack the Ripper tourist attraction in Cable St with their ‘Womens Death Brigade‘ banner for another in their series of protests against the ‘museum’ which celebrates the brutal and macabre killings of working class women in Whitechapel in 1888.

*Owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe’s partner Julian Pino and an employee in the shop*

The murderer was an insane serial killer who ripped open the bodies of his victims, removing the uterus and heart and a whole industry has arisen over trying to establish his identity, spurred on by the particularly gory details of his crimes.

*An officer tells Puno to stop phoning ‘999’ as the police are already here*

Although the police at the time were unable to solve the case, they appear to have given up after Montague Druitt drowned himself in the Thames shortly after the final one of these murders. But those aiming to profit from the whole series of articles, books and films have done their best to build up doubt and uncertainty, putting forward others, often very unlikely such as painter Walter Sickert, as the criminal.

The protest was noisy but peaceful with many of those taking part wearing masks of the shop’s owner – who had lied about the site becoming a museum to celebrate women’s history to gain support and planning permission.

It was enlivened by the arrival of activist singer/guitarist Cosmo who performed three appropriate songs which raised everyone’s spirits, and even the police obviously enjoyed the protest.

Shop owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe had left a shop worker and his partner Julian Pino inside the ‘museum’ to face the protesters and their was one spot of farce when a police officer went inside to tell him to stop continually phoning ‘999’ as the police were already there.

A man claiming to be a local resident and seemed to be a friend of the ‘museum’ came to complain to Class War against them protesting against a business that was bringing investment to an area that was so obviously in need of it. He was told that this kind of investmentglorified violence against women and was clearly detrimental to the area and offensive to many – including the living descendants of the victims.

It was hard to avoid the conclusion that his intervention had been prompted and possibly funded by the owner of this tacky tourist attraction, which noticeably attracted no customers while the protest was taking place.

More on My London Diary at Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’.

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Brexit Now, Save the Sunderbans, Close Ripper ‘Museum’ – 2018

Brexit Now, Save the Sunderbans, Close Ripper ‘Museum’: Saturday 10th November 2018 I began at a small protest by extreme right ‘Leave’ supporters against the lack of progress in leaving the EU. From there I went to a rally in Whitechapel which was part of a global day of protest to save the the world’s largest mangrove forest and then met Class War for another protest against the misogynist Ripper museum in Cable St.

Leave Voters say Leave Now!

Trafalgar Sq

Brexit Now, Save the Sunderbans, Close Ripper 'Museum' - 2018 — *Several had sticky tape over their mouths claiming they had been gagged*

Only around a couple of hundred people had come to Trafalgar Square for a protest by extreme right wing groups led by what I think is the now defunct group UK Unity (their domain address is now for sale) and backed by others including the For Britain Movement and UKIP. There were faces familiar from other extreme-right protests.

They were angered by the lack of progress in exiting the UK and the concessions that they said Theresa May was making to the EU. This was one of five protests taking place that day, in Coventry, Norwich, Cardiff and Leeds as well as London.

They called for a 5 point plan:

Britain should leave the EU entirely without payments;
An end to mass immigration;
to properly run and fund our public services;
to scrap the House of Lords and reform democracy;
to put British Laws, British Culture and British People first.

Many also held posters calling for London Mayor Sadiq Khan to resign, though this appeared simply to be Islamophobia. I listened to a couple of speeches which I felt “reflected some irrational views on Brexit, fired by emotion and ignoring the realities.”

As I commented in 2018, “It was always the case that the kind of break with the EU that many voted for was impossible, and that if we are to leave there will be many unpalatable consequences. The best possible deal was always going to be a poor deal in many ways, and no responsible politician thinking about the future of the nation rather than their own personal fortunes would be campaigning or voting for leaving without a deal.“

Leave Voters say Leave Now!

Global Day to save the Sunderbans

Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel

The UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh, supported by others including Fossil Free Newham were taking part in a global day of protest to save the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

*Among animals threatened with extinction is the Bengal tiger*

The Bangladesh and Indian governments were building the giant Rampal coal-fired power plant, which would become the largest power station in Bangladesh. Clearly this will be disastrous for climate change, producing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, but it also threatens the nearby wetlands, and is in violation of the Ramsar Convention for the conservation of wetlands which Bangladesh has signed up to.

The power plant will take huge amounts of water from the river which flows through the Sunderbans, and release hotter water containing toxic materials which will endanger the mangroves, marine animals and the people living in the area.

The 4.72 million tons of coal per year to the plant on ships through the shallow rivers will seriously disturb the Sunderbans and will also result in considerable pollution.

The development “will also make around 50 million people more vulnerable to storms and cyclones, against which the Sunderbans serve as a natural safeguard.” Global warming and climate chaos is already making such climate events more frequent and more severe – and the extra greenhouse gases from this plant will add to this.

Bangladesh is already one of the countries most under threat from frequent flooding. There were huge protests against the plant with numbers of protesters being killed. Despite huge opposition in the country and around the world, construction at Rampal continued and the first stage of the plant was commissioned in October 2022.

More on My London Diary at Global Day to save the Sunderbans

Class War picket the Ripper Museum

Cable St, Whitechapel

Class War had come once again to protest outside tacky misogynist tourist attraction which gained planning permission by pretending to be a museum of the history of women in London’s East End after it had failed to comply with some of Tower Hamlet’s Council’s planning decisions about its frontage.

One protester walked into the shop but was pushed out by one of the shop staff and they then called the police who arrived in a few minutes, having been waiting for the protest a short distance away. An officer tried to persuade the protesters to move away from the front of the shop and hold their ‘Womens Death Brigade’ banner on the opposite side of the road, but the took no notice.

A woman officer, CE3200, her name carefully hidden, complained to Class War about their language and told them they can be arrested for swearing. They told her the law. Swearing isn’t an offence in itself, it has to offend people – and you are particularly unlikely to be found guilty of swearing at the police, who are not generally supposed to be easily shocked.

This was intended as a short protest and Class War were rolling up their banner when a small group arrived to enter the shop. Class War talked with them politely, making clear the disgusting nature of some of the displays which glorify the gory nature of the crimes and denigrate the poor working class victims in a brutally misogynist fashion, causing offence to some of their still-living relatives.

They listened, but still went into the museum, with police ensuring they could enter safely. Class War then left for a nearby pub and I went with them.

More on My London Diary at Class War picket the Ripper ‘Museum’

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Battle of Cable St – 75 Years On

Battle of Cable St: On Sunday 2 October 2011 well over a thousand trade unionists and anti-fascists celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street when Mosley’s fascists were prevented from marching into London’s largely Jewish East End.

Since 2011 we have seen other celebrations of this famous event and the people of the East End have also come together to stop other racist organisations marching into the East End, notably the EDL.

In 1936 Oswald Mosley led the ‘British Union of Fascists’, an organisation modelled on Mussolilni’s Italian fascist paramilitary groups on a march designed to intimidate the large Jewish community in the East End.

Although various groups tried to get the march banned the Home Secretary sided with the fascists insisting their democratic right to march had to be upheld by the police. The fascists were also supported by the right wing press, particularly the Daily Mail, while more liberal newspapers urged people to stay away from the counter demonstration.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews had condemned the march as anti-Semitic, and they had advised people to stay away from the march as did the Labour Party. The opposition to Mosley was led by local members of the Communist Party of Great Britain including Phil Piratin who nine ears later became Communist MP for Mile End. They eventually persuaded the party to back the counter-demonstration.

Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people turned out to stop the fascists. Many were Jewish, and many were members or supporters of the Communist Party but the call brought out many others from the East End, including “Irish Catholics, Jews, Orthodox Jews, dockers and Somali seamen” in a huge mobilisation across the community.

There are three routes leading into the East End from the City of London where Mosely and people gathered at key points on them, particularly at Aldgate, where most of the fighting between police and protesters took place, particularly around Gardiner’s Corner – where a ten years ago Class War carried out their long series of Poor Doors protests against social apartheid in housing.

Police decided to try and force a way through at Cable Street a little to the south and tried to force a way through the crowds and remove the barricades they had set up.

According to Wikipedia, police managed to take and dismantle the first barrier but the anti-fascists set up another a few yards down the road.

“The police attempts to take and remove the barricades were resisted in hand-to-hand fighting and also by missiles, including rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots thrown at the police by women in houses along the street … children’s marbles were also used to counter charges by mounted police.”

Eventually the police gave up and told Mosley to march with his followers back to the West End, where they held a rally in Hyde Park rather than those they had intended in Limehouse, Bow, Bethnal Green and Hoxton.

Seventy five years after the battle the crowd was rather smaller, but the well over a thousand who met at Aldgate included several veterans of the 1936 battle, among them 96 year old Max Levitas who led the march and spoke at the rally. He was also there and spoke at the 80th anniversary event in 2016.

The oldest person on the march was 106 year old lifelong political activist and suffragette Hetty Bower who had also been at the 1936 demonstration and was later one of the founder members of CND. I photographed her on several occasions at CND and other protests, the last at the Hiroshima Day commemoration in 2013 where she spoke briefly, a few months before her death.

*Beattie Orwell, 94, was another of the veterans of 1936*

You can read more about the Cable Street 75 event on My London Diary, where there are also many more pictures.
Battle of Cable St – 75 Years

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Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford – 2015

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford: Housing activists marched through Stratford on Saturday 19th September 2015, with a short occupation of estate agents Foxtons by Class War ending with a rally by Focus E15 outside the flats on the Carpenters Estate they had occupied a year earlier.

Focus E15: Rally before March – Stratford Park

Housing Crisis Protest in Stratford - 2015

Two years earlier Newham Council had tried to close the Focus E15 hostel housing young mothers in Stratford, but they had fought the eviction which would have seen them dispersed across the country into private rented flats with no security of tenure and in some cases hundreds of miles from family and friends.

The Focus E15 campaign had attracted wide support and gained national headlines when they had occupied a small block of flats on the Carpenters Estate in Stratford. They succeeded in getting rehoused in London but continued with a much wider ‘Housing For All’ campaign for proper housing for the people of London who are facing being replaced by a new and wealthy population.

The campaign has continued, with a weekly stall on Stratford Broadway and protests to stop evictions in the borough. Their actions enraged the then Mayor of Newham Robin Wales and led to various attacks by him and council officials including the issuing of penalty notices and the farcical “arrest” of the table they used as their stall. These almost certainly played a part in his downfall in 2018 when local party members in this Labour stronghold turned against him.

The march brought together housing activists from around 50 different groups around London including many from council estates under threat of development under the guise of regeneration, private tenants facing eviction or huge rent hikes, and some political groups. Fortunately not all spoke before the march. You can read a long list in my account on My London Diary at Focus E15: Rally before March.

Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’ Stratford

It was a large and high-spirited march from Stratford Park and around the busy centre of Stratford with banners, placards and much loud chanting, demanding Newham Council end its policy of gentrification and use local resources to house local people and an end its policy of social cleansing, moving them out of London.

Housing has always been a problem in London, at least since the industrial revolution led to a great increase in the population and enlargement of the city. From the late Victorian period various charities and philanthropically minded commercial enterprises began to construct housing – mainly blocks and estates of flats – for the working poor, and from around 1900 they were joined by local municipalities and importantly the London County Council.

After the First World War, the Addison Act in 1919 to build “homes for heroes” and later housing acts led to 1.1 million council homes being built in the years before the Second World War.

From the 1950s, London Councils led by all parties built large amounts of council housing, with many finely designed estates, providing much higher quality homes than those in the lower end of the private sector, where much of the population was housed in poorly built and maintained overcrowded slums. At least rents were relatively low – until rent control was abolished in 1988.

That was only one of the changes made under Margaret Thatcher that hugely worsened housing for the majority. Council housing, earlier seen as a way of providing decent housing at reasonable cost for that majority became seen as simply a provision for the failures in our society who were unable to get onto the “housing ladder” and buy their own homes.

Her introduction of ‘right to buy’ was a disaster for public housing and new council building was almost entirely ended – 5 million council houses were built between 1946 and 1981, but only 250,000 have been built since. And her abolition of the GLC largely ended any overall planning for housing in London.

The march stopped in front of Newham’s Housing Offices where they put up the banner ‘Newham Stop Social Cleansing – Keep us in London’ banner on Bridge House and held a short rally before continuing to the Carpenters Estate.

More pictures at Focus E15: ‘March Against Evictions’.

Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons

Housing policy under New Labour and since has been largely determined by estate agents including Savills and Foxtons who have been leaders in the gentrification of many areas of London.

Class War seized the opportunity to rush into Foxtons as the march went past and I followed them before the police managed to stop others joining them.

‘*Fuck Food Banks – Eat the Rich’ and the Class War banner ‘We have found new homes for the rich’*

They caused no damage and left shortly after police came inside and talked to them, rejoining the march.

More pictures at Class War Occupy Stratford Foxtons.

Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation

It was two years after the Focus E15 campaign had begun and a year since they occupied 4 flats on the Carpenters Estate.

For the event the pictures of people from Focus E15 put on these flats with the message ‘This home needs a family‘ in June 2014 were up again

*Jasmin Stone of Focus E15 speaks at the rally*

I had gone into the flats with them that afternoon and seen perfectly good properties in fine condition which had been simply closed up and left after the tenants were moved out. On one wall was a calendar from 2004 they had left behind.

Despite a huge housing shortage in the borough they had remained unoccupied for ten years. Since the occupation by Focus E15 these four flats now have residents, but only 28 empty properties on the had been re-let a year after Newham had been shamed by their action.

There were a few speeches and then a party began. Some people had climbed up to the roof of the shops with the ‘These people need homes’ banner, but it was time for me to go home, stopping briefly at the pub with Class War on the way.

More at Focus E15: Anniversary of Carpenters Occupation.

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