Tag: cleaner

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia – 2017

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia: On Monday 6th November 2017 I photographed striking Picturehouse staff picketing the cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue before going on to the LSE where students, supporters and cleaners were protesting the homophobic abuse of one of the cleaners.

Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage

Shaftesbury Avenue

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017

Staff working of Picturehouse cinemas in London had been campaigning for over a year to be paid a living wage, and on 6th November 2017 they were striking at Crouch End, Hackney, and East Dulwich Picturehouses and the Brixton Ritzy as well as at Picturehouse Central close to Piccadilly Circus.

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017

It was Living Wage Week and the new London Living Wage of £10.20 per hour had been announced earlier that day. As I noted on My London Diary, while the cinema staff were living on poverty wages, “the post-tax profits of Cineworld, the parent company of Picturehouse were £93.8m last year in UK and Ireland and the CEO is paid £2.5m.”

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017

In the short time I spent with the picket a number of people “decided not to cross the picket line. Some went to the cinema a short distance down the road instead.” The strikers were expecting more people to join the picket later when there would be more customers but I had to leave to cover a protest elsewhere.

Just a few more pictures at Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage.

Protest against Homophobia in the LSE

London School of Economics

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017
Protesters outside the New Academic Building where ‘LGBT Rights: what next?’ was taking place

That evening the LSE were hosting a talk, “LGBT Rights: what next?” and students and others including some cleaners were protesting outside over the homophobic abuse which Daniel, one of the LSE cleaners, had been subjected to over the past 10 months.

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017

The cleaners who work at the LSE were then not employed by the LSE but the work had been outsourced to cleaning contractor Noonan. They were eventually brought back into direct employment after over a year of protests led by their union, United Voices of the World – I photographed most of these protests beginning with the launch of the campaign – on My London Diary.

Daniel’s abuse came from his managers at Noonan. Complaints by him and his union had been brushed aside and he had been threatened with him disciplinary action for making some of them. Crowd-sourcing and support from the UVW enabled his case to go to an employment tribunal and in April 2018 it found he had been harassed on multiple occasions at the LSE merely for being homosexual.

Members of the IWGB had come in solidarity with their fellow cleaners in the UVW

The tribunal heard that Daniel had been told “homosexuals were not human“, and that he should “sleep with women to cure his problem“, and that he was “a woman” for complaining about his treatment. It found that a culture existed at the LSE that made making such comments acceptable.

The tribunal vindicated the students accusation of hypocrisy against the LSE, which while hosting talks and boasting about its promotion of gay rights had refused to take any action when confronted by a clear case of anti-gay discrimination on its site. The protest pointed out that while Noonan employed the cleaners the LSE still had full control over their hiring and firing, and Noonan would have had to take action over the complaints if they had ordered them to do so.

Security stop protesters entering the building

The protesters called on the LSE to apologise and commit to zero tolerance of homophobic and racist behaviour at all levels throughout the institution and to sack all homophobic bullies.

Security tried unsuccessfully to stop some protesters coming onto the site to protest, pushing the SOAS Unison banner into the road but were unable to prevent LSE students to come onto the site, though they they did a few who tried to enter the building.

After some minutes of noisy protest the protesters marched around to the Kingsway entrance to protest there, then returned for further protests at the main entrance before moving off again to protest outside the New Academic Building.

More at LSE against Homophobia.

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Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists – 2012

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists: On Saturday 9th June 2012 after a rally against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement outside Europe House in Smith Square I went to Hyde Park Corner where cyclists were preparing for the London World Naked Bike Ride, an environmental protest against a society based on oil and the domination by cars.

Rally Against ACTA

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

Current debates on intellectual property in 2025 are mainly concerned with protecting the rights of individual creators from being used without permission or compensation by companies developing AI which could then use the data taken to create new works which would mimic their work, essentially producing counterfeit works.

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

Back in 2012 the protests were against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement put together in secret talks between the USA, Europe, Japan and some other major governments to protect the copyrights, trademarks and patents held by major multinational companies.

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

Wikileaks had released the secrets of these talks, deliberately set up in private to exclude the views of civil society and developing countries. They proposed putting draconian powers in the hands of major corporations without the need for allegations of abuse to be properly tested.

Now in 2025 the government is attempting to put into law an act which would legitimise the production of ‘fakes’ by the major AI companies, though the fight against this is being carried on largely in the House of Lords rather than on the streets or on the web. As usual laws are largely about protecting and advancing the interests of the rich and powerful – whose donations and lobbying keep our legislators on side.

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

As well as preventing much sharing of material on the web – some legitimately – ACTA would also disrupt much-needed generic medicines to majority world countries, where indiscriminate raids had already disrupted some legitimate supplies. And many musicians and other content creators feared it would be used by the major corporations to prevent or inhibit their ability to profit through distributing their own work via the Internet.

Intellectual Property, Naked Cyclists - 2012

On 4th July 2012, 478 MEPs in the European Parliament voted against ACTA, 39 in favour, and 165 abstained, meaning the agreement did not enter into force in the EU.

More about the protest and about ACTA, along with more pictures on My London Diary at Rally Against ACTA.

Naked Cyclists Ride Against Oil

Around a thousand cyclists in various states of undress, some wearing nothing but shoes, took part in the World Naked Bike Ride, an annual environmental protest touring central London, much to the astonishment of many tourists. Shoes are required, but otherwise the dress code is “as bare as you dare.”

People gathered at Hyde Park Corner for the start of the ride

Public nudity is not illegal in Britain and the ride seems to cause a great deal of hilarity from some onlookers but little or no offence. Most of those on the pavements were tourists and eagerly taking photographs of the event.

Although there had been many earlier naked bike rides organised as naturist or political demonstrations, the first World Naked Bike Rides were organised in 2004 and now take place in many cities around the world. The rides are a protest against dependence on oil and other forms of non-renewable energy and “expose the unique dangers faced by cyclists and pedestrians” in modern cities.

In 2012 there did seem to be a rather clearer environmental message than in some other years, and my pictures here – and in the many more on My London Diary concentrate on this rather than the nudity, and on the many with body paint, sometimes solely for decoration but often expressing an environmental message, contributing to the purpose of the ride to “deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world.”

Back in 2012 there were similar rides in 20 countries around the world ands well as others in Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester, Portsmouth, Southampton and York.

After photographing the riders on the grass at Hyde Park corner I set off with them on foot, rather dangerously as other traffic was still driving around the busy roundabout and along Piccadilly. But I soon got out of breath and had to rest.

Later I took the tube to Westminster and met the cyclists again coming down Whitehall, going with them across Westminster Bridge. I left them to go to Waterloo Station on their way to the City and then back trough Holborn to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park Corner.

Many more photographs at Naked Cyclists Ride Against Oil.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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