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Fossil Fools Day – 2008

Fossil Fools Day: Tuesday 1st April was Fossil Fools Day, a day of protests around the world over our increasing use of fossil fuels, despite the effect they are having on global climate.

The ‘greenhouse effect‘ of various gases in the atmosphere had first been described in 1824, although the actual term only dates from 1901. But already in 1856 American scientist and women’s rights campaigner Eunice Newton Foote had shown that carbon dioxide was very effective in trapping the sun’s energy and warming the atmosphere.

Almost all polyatomic gases are ‘greenhouse gases’ with some such as methane much more effective than carbon dioxide. But its great importance is because of the huge amounts of it formed when carbon-containing fuels are used. And burning wood, coal and oil and their use in powering machines of all types and electricity production became the basis of the industrial revolution and our whole civilisation from around the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Wood is not of course a fossil fuel, and in pre-industrial times the carbon dioxide produced by burning it was more or less in balance with the amount that was removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis producing new plants, trees and other organisms. CO2 levels remained roughly constant during human history at around 280ppm until they began to rise more and more rapidly after 1850, and increasingly rapidly since then. They are now around 430ppm and rising steeply.

The full effects of the current levels only become apparent over a period of around 50 years, though we are already seeing some of them already, particularly in the global South – though we too are beginning to see the effects on our climate, not just in terms of temperature but even more as instability.

For well over fifty years it has been obvious that we need to take urgent action to stop burning fossil fuels, but that urgency has not led to any really significant action. Talk, investment in renewable energy – but fossil fuel use, even of coal, is still increasing. If life on this planet is to have a future we need to see a rapid drop in the consumption of coal, oil and gas – and also aathe development of ways to use renewable energy to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, as well as increasing natural ways such as planting more trees.

And there is another reason to end the use of oil for fuel, as I first mentioned in the 1970s. These finite resources are of much greater use as a chemical feedstock for producing other essential materials of our modern life, including plastics.

Everything at the moment is still going in the wrong direction – and the huge energy requirements of AI are making things worse.

Fossil Fools Day: No New Coal

Parliament Square

The focus of the protest by students from ‘People and Planet’ and other climate activists were the plans by E.ON to build a new new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.

The protesters brought three large white ‘cooling towers’ and many had cutout masks of Gordon Brown’s face as they shouted out advice to him over the ridiculous Draft Climate Change Bill which would have resulted in an increase in carbon emissions.

*The launch of ‘ev-eon Unnaturally Carbonated Water’*

They were joined by a group with the spoof launch of ‘ev-eon Unnaturally Carbonated Water’ a new carbon capture technology to be used at E.ON’s Kingsnorth Power Station.

“‘Ev-eon’ uses the CO2 from coal burning to carbonate water which you then swallow. And if you can swallow the governments coal-fired policy you can swallow anything. And of course with Ev-eon, should you burp, breathe or otherwise release that CO2 you’ve swallowed, global warming is all your fault – and not E.ON’s.”

As a result of this and other environmental protests and criticism by a wide range of organisations E.ON eventually dropped the plans.

More on My London Diary at Fossil Fools Day: No New Coal.

Fossil Fools Day: Opencast Coal

Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly

Campaign against Climate Change protest at the offices of Argent Group PLC in Piccadilly over the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, run by Miller-Argent.

*The manager of Albany talks with the demontrators, taking some information for Argent*

As well as the at least 30 million tons of CO2 of carbon dioxide from the coal the mine was expected to produce over the next 15 years, this mine was also only 36 metres from the nearest houses – compared to the Scottish Safety standards of 500 metres. The Welsh Office delayed the implementation of a Welsh safety standard to enable the mine to go ahead.

Locally it produced years of misery and health hazards through air-borne dust, diesel fumes and noise to the 70,000 or so people who live in Merthyr. A Health Impact Study commissioned by the authorities was so damning they refused to accept it.

The initial scheme for the mine had been approved by the Welsh Assembly in 2005 despite huge local objections and residents took it to the High Court which quashed it – but this was reversed on appeal in 2006.

The mine licence expired in 2022 and an appeal for an extension was refused with the mine shutting down in November 2023.

London protest Welsh Opencast Coal

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Jobs Justice Climate – 2009

Put People First: Jobs Justice Climate

Embankment to Hyde Park

World leaders were to hold the G20 London Summit at the Excel Centre in Docklands beginning on April 1st (a date some thought highly appropriate), with the stated themes “Stability, Growth, Jobs“, and chaired by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Countries and organisations taking part, included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the USA, as well as the European Union and organisations including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organisations.

The ‘Put People First’ march was the first of several major demonstrations aimed at influencing the meeting and was backed by a very wide range of over 150 organisations, both from this country and abroad.

As well as trade unions, charities, and pressure groups there were also many other less organised groups and individuals.

Those marching were calling for a new approach to social justice for the world as a whole, and for urgency in action by world leaders not just to find a solution for the current financial problems, but to tackle the even deeper problems of global inequality and of climate crisis.

But the G20 went ahead very much to prop up the banks and financial institutions that had caused the financial crisis, though agreeing on the need for greater regulation, making none of the wider changes that this and other protests demanded. If anything it worsened those deeper problems.

Unsurprisingly it was a very large march with probably several times the official police estimate of 35,000 taking party.

Most police attention was on a relatively small ‘autonomous’ block of around 800 people in the middle of the march which had a strong police escorted. They objected to the police behaviour, particularly very obtrusive photography by FIT teams and some sat down in the road blocking the march behind them for around half an hour.

Police had bullied the front of the march to set off at a cracking pace, hard for photographers to keep up with and the march soon spread out over much of the route.

I wanted to photograph as many of the marchers as I could, walking slowly and letting them go past me as they walked along the Embankment, up Bridge Street and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. Then I rushed to get to the rally in time.

On My London Diary you can read more about the rally, and see pictures of many of the speakers. This protest was “a well ordered event with at times a carnival atmosphere, which made some of the police prognostications look rather silly.“

*Politicicans and Businessmen are not ignorant – they are intelligent and corrupt. They break our legs and expect us to say thankyou when they offer us crutches*

One of my fellow NUJ members filming the ‘autonomous’ block rally was stopped and searched, and he and others reported a mysterious ‘man in black’ rushing into this alternative rally and emptying half a dozen small tightly wrapped packages from a black bin bag at the bottom of the stepladder from which people were speaking before exiting rapidly stage left.

Someone kicked one of these packages open and found it contained a catapult, and all the packages were quickly kicked away under a fence into an area under maintenance behind the speakers. Around 20 minutes later, a policeman entered that area and collected the packages; the anarchists saw what was happening and rapidly dispersed.

As I ended my post on My London Diary: “Earlier in the week a police spokesman had given a widely broadcast media interview in which he predicted that there would be violence – and that some protesters would use catapults. It seems as if someone was determined to make this loony-sounding prophecy come true.”

More at Put People First: Jobs Justice Climate.

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Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus – 2015

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus: Saturday 14th February 2015 was Global Divestment Day, designed by the UN to “to draw attention to the importance of divesting from fossil fuels, which are the main cause of global warming.” But of course it was also St Valentine’s Day, and two events reflected this.

‘Bad Boy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day

London City Hall

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus - 2015 — *One of the Boris bloc at the rally in front of City Hall and Tower Bridge*

The protest at London City Hall, then at More London close to Tower Bridge, called on the Mayor and London Assembly to end their pension fund investments in climate wrecking fossil fuels and lead a fossil-free London.

The event began with a nightmare vision as multiple Mayor Borises arrived, revelling in dirty fuel. They were greeted by a choir singing songs specially written for the occasion and fed with some disgusting looking things supposed to be dirty fuel.

After several speeches the protesters split up around 3 metre tall letters which they eventually lifted up to spell out the word ‘DIVEST’.

They called for an end to investment in fossil fuels which are causing catastrophic climate change.

Two dressed as bishops called on the Church of England to get its act together and take its investments out of fossil fuels. Many churches have already divested, and campaigners were pressing others including the Church of England to do so.

More pictures at ‘BadBoy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day.

Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer

Westminster

*A person in an Obama mask has a message for the President, ‘Free Shaker – Yes YOU Can’*

A march from Parliament Square to a rally opposite Downing Street called for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he arrived has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.

Aamer had been in Afghanistan helping to build a school for an Islamic charity when he was captured by an Afghan militia and sold to US forces for a £5,000 reward. After the US and tortured him, aided by MI5, in Bagram Air Base they illegally rendered him to Guantanamo, on Feb 14, 2002.

*Joy Hurcome holds a Valentine for David Cameron asking him to ‘Show your Love – Free Shaker Aamer’*

There his torture continued – and he was lucky to escape death in 2006 when he was one of four prisoners taken to a special secret interrogation site – and the only one to survive the ordeal.

*Bruce Kent – and a large inflatable Shaker Aamer*

Aamer has permanent resident status in the UK and his British wife and family were living in Battersea, but it was not until 2007 that the UK government began to request his release. And despite doing so, the government also spent over a quarter of a million pounds in legal fees to prevent his legal team gaining access to evidence which might prove his innocence.

The years of torture of him and others at the hands of the US military have failed to come up with any evidence against him, and he was twice cleared for release in 2007 and 2009 – but only if he went to his native Saudi Arabia where he would almost certainly disappear without trace. Both UK and US intelligence agencies are thought to have prevented his release to the UK as the evidence he would give about their use of torture would be highly embarrassing.

*Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign organiser*

The protest was the start of a new ‘We Stand With Shaker’ campaign bringing together groups including the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign, Amnesty International and others. Among the long list of speakers at the rally were Joy Hurcombe of the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, writer Victoria Brittain, Lindsey German of Stop the War, veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent of CND, Katie Taylor from Reprieve, Yvonne Ridley, Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign, campaigner Andy Worthington and Joanne MacInnes of We Stand With Shaker.

More at Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer.

Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros

Piccadilly Circus

*People in the Reclaim Love Meditation Circle in Piccadilly Circys lift up their arms and chant the mantra*

Venus CuMara’s 13th Reclaim Love Valentine Party at Eros in Piccadilly Circus included bands, dancing and a “Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos“.

As usual there was a great atmosphere as people came together to share in love and party together in opposition the the huge commercialisation of Valentine’s Day and indeed of love itself. It is nothing to do with money, just about people.

Venus speaks to everyone and tells them to form the Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle…

beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos and together they chant the mantra: “May All The Beings In All The Worlds Be Happy & At Peace“

After which the music and dancing continued, along with hugging and other activities, and was still continuing when I left for home.

More pictures at Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros.

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Global Climate Change March – 2007

Global Climate Change March: On Saturday 8th December 2007 around 6,000 people came to march through London in an attempt to shake the government out of its complacency and get the real change in direction needed to avoid catastrophe. It was by then totally clear that our world was heading to disaster.

Eighteen years later we are still on course for human extinction, and for taking many other species with us. Although most governments have by now taken some measures to curb emissions together these have only resulted in a slight reduction of our rate of self-destruction. Tinkering at the margins is not going to save us and there will be no magic scientific solution, we need a dramatic system change.

The main driver of our impending disaster can be stated in one word: GROWTH. The incessant demand for more, more, more – when what we really should be valuing is better.

We have a government that is committed to growth – and introducing climate killing policies such as Heathrow expansion. Protests such this in 2007 and many others managed to stop the third runway then but now it and other disastrous projects are back.

Of course it isn’t just our current government, but the whole political and economic system which calls for growth – and is dominated by the rich and powerful people and corporations who control the laws, the media and more. They aren’t our laws and our media but their laws and their media – and they lead to the obscenity of billionaires and to poverty in rich countries and across the world.

Below is my fairly lengthy account of the march in 2007 from My London Diary, where there are many more pictures of the event than the few here.

Global Climate Change March – Parliament – Grosvenor Square

The global climate change march on Saturday 8 December was intended to send a message to government that they need to produce an effective Climate Change bill and put themselves wholeheartedly behind saving the planet rather than backing projects such as the Heathrow expansion that will further increase the chaos.

The march went to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, because America is still refusing to ratify the Kyoto treaty and still sabotaging any progress on getting effective measures to cut carbon and energy use.

Cyclists were also out in force on a tour of central London before the march, visiting a picket at Tesco Metro in Lower Regent Street, where leaflets were handed to customers asking them to shop elsewhere so long as Tesco continues to promote bio-fuels.

It was a lousy day, with strong winds and intermittent heavy showers, but that didn’t stop more than 6000 marchers turning out for the event, many in fancy dress as santas, polar bears, reindeer, elves, penguins and more to highlight the problem of melting polar icecaps. At the front of the march was the ‘Statue of Taking Liberties’ with the Kyoto treaty, followed by the Earth in its greenhouse as in the Campaign against Climate Change logo. And Lucy, our favourite mermaid was there to remind us of the perils of rising sea levels.

It was hardly surprising to see such a great number of protesters and placards opposed to the expansion of Heathrow and the building of a third runway across the villages of Sipson and Harmondsworth. There also appeared to be an increasing realisation that to combat climate chaos we need to put into place changes in lifestyle and politics, with some protesters calling for an end to livestock farming – one of the main contributors to carbon emissions – and others for a revolution.

I tried hard to represent all the different groups on the march, but doubtless I will have missed some. One of the santas carried two placards, the more appropriate of which said “Santa says stop Global Warming. Its getting too wet and windy for Rudolph“; it was certainly too wet and windy for marchers and photographers, but we stuck it out

Many more pictures at Global Climate Change March.

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Climate March 2005

Twenty years ago on Saturday 3 December 2005 the Campaign Against Climate Change organised a march calling for urgent action over climate change. Among groups supporting the march were the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and socialist organisations.

But in 2005 there was no interest from the major charities and mainstream organisations that have since supported some major London marches pointing out the dangers of climate change and global extinction, like most governments they had yet to wake up to the very real dangers facing the future of human life on our planet.

The Campaign Against Climate Change was one of the first organisations in the UK to serilsly begin organising against global warming – and I remember photographing them back in 2002 pushing an attractive ‘Tiger’ on a bed from the Esso headquarters in Leatherhead to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, Westminster. US President George W Bush had put the interests of climate-denying US Oil and fossil fuel companies, notably Esso, above the survival of our species with with his rejection of the Kyoto protocol, agreed in 1997 but only due to come into force in 2005.

Back in 2005, we needed governments to act with urgency, but they failed us and the world. One of those failing then was Tony Blair, whose New Labour government had also betrayed us over the invasion of Iraq as well as over climate change. And now in 2025 we have another Labour government, now under Keir Starmer, pressing ahead with new climate-destroying road schemes, oil exploration and extra runways rather than facing up to the need to change our assumptions and way of life in ways that would reduce CO2 emissions and slow global warming.

Saturday 3rd December 2005 was an international day of climate protest but the march to the US Embassy in London achieved little media coverage – the billionaires who own and control most of our media have little interest in the subject (and probably large financial interests in fossil fuels and other drivers of climate change.) Even the BBC had been a hive of complacency, and have given a totally unwarranted level of coverage to those who continue to refuse the overwhelming scientific evidence. Though now they are perhaps beginning to realise that you cannot have ‘balance’ over scientific fact.

*The ‘Statue of Taking Liberties’ was at the Front of the march to the US Embassy*

Here – with minor corrections – is what I wrote about the march back in 2005 – and a few of the pictures I took at the event – you can see more on My London Diary at the link at the bottom of this page.

Kyoto was the first attempt to at least recognise the problem was global and take some concerted action, even if less than half-hearted. Thanks to George Bush and the oil companies he represents, the ineffectual has been made even more so.

Problems related to growth and pollution are inextricably linked with industry and trade. It is hard to see any possibility of their solution without the imposition of tariffs on the exports of countries that continue to pollute – such as the USA. It’s equally hard to envisage this happening while the USA is so dominant in the world bodies and conferences that set the rules on trade.

There were around 10,000 of us on the streets of London on Saturday, and many more around the world in demonstrations elsewhere, all part of the International Day of Climate Protest, the march in London organised, as previous climate marches and protests, by the UK Campaign Against Climate Change.

*A sit down in pouring rain in Parliament Square is not a good idea*

Here in London the climate smiled on us for an hour or so, then the rain came as the march entered Parliament Square. It was pouring rain rather than the police that persuaded the students who sat down in front of the Houses of Parliament that it was a good idea to get up and move on.

My camera also began to suffer, and I needed to move inside to dry it out. My injured knee was beginning to hurt too, so I decided it was time to take a rest and go home.

More pictures begin here on My London Diary.

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Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest – 2017

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest: On Tuesday 24th October 2017 Safe Passage held a rally outside Parliament on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’ calling for help for the hundreds of refugees still sleeping rough in Calais. Later I photographed a rally by Guardians of the Forest, indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn calling for the rights of indigenous peoples living in forests to be acknowledged and for an end to the destruction of these vital natural resources by mining and cash-crop cultivation.

Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest - 2017

Safe Passage held a rally before going in to lobby MPs on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’.

Although they praised the government for bringing some child refugees here from France they called for them to provide safe routes here for those still in Calais who have family here and to fill the remaining places allocated under the Dubs amendment.

Eighteen months after the Dubs amendment was passed by Parliament there were still refugee children in Calais who were entitled to come here to be reunited with their families and Safe Passage urged the Home Office to station an official there to help to transfer them and work with the French to provide safe accommodation for all refugee children.

The Dubs amendment had originally proposed that the UK offer a home to 3,000 unaccompanied children but as passed it allowed the government to set a number in consultation with local authorities. Shamefully when the scheme closed in 2020 the government stated it had met its commitment with the transfer of only 480 children.

They were given a special status to stay for for five years with the right to study, work, and to access public funds and healthcare, and to apply after this to settle permanently without paying a fee.

More pictures on My London Diary at Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Guardians of the Forest – COP 23

Parliament Square

Indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa held a rally in Parliament Square commemorating those who have lost their lives defending the forests against mining, the cutting down of forests for palm oil and other crops and other threats to the forests and those who live in them.

The Guardians of the Forest held up photographs of a few of the many who have been murdered for the profits of unscrupulous companies including many listed on the London stock exchange. Whole tribes have been forced from their homes and forests where they have lived for many generations, their ancestral rights to their lands ignored and dismissed by governments and occupiers.

They demanded their rights be recognised and for the destruction of the forests they have maintained in a renewable fashion for hundreds or thousands of years to be stopped. These forests have a vital role in removing carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen and play a vital role in opposing climate change and preserving biodiversity. As well as reducing emissions we also need to increase rather than reduce forests and other natural habitats that remove carbon dioxide.

*People spoke in their native languages and were interpreted into English*

The Guardians were on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn to argue that the continuing maintenance of the forests by their indigenous inhabitants is vital in the fight against climate change, and that the clearance and devastation has to be stopped. But they face a difficult task against the huge numbers of well-funded lobbyists and powerful governments who dominate these events and have so far prevented the world taking the actions needed for long-term survival.

More on My London Diary – Guardians of the Forest – COP23.

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Hardest Hit, Biofuels, Tibet and OccupyLSX – 2011

Hardest Hit, Biofuels, Tibet and OccupyLSX: Saturday 22 October 2011 began for me with a protest at City Hall (still then in Southwark close to Tower Bridge) Next in Whitehall I photographed a protest against the pollution, environmental damage and human rights abuses of burning forests produce energy. Also on Whitehall I met Tibetans and supporters marching from the Chines Embassy to Downing Street demanding an end to China’s increasing repression in Tibet. Finally I went to St Paul’s Churchyard for a brief visit to Occupy London a week after their camp there had begun.

Hardest Hit Protest At City Hall

City Hall, More London

Hardest Hit, Biofuels, Tibet and OccupyLSX

The Hardest Hit campaign, organised jointly by the Disability Benefits Consortium and the UK Disabled People’s Council were holding a rally outside City Hall as a part of protests in cities and towns across the country calling on the government to stop the cuts in benefits and services and changes in the assessment of disabilities which have hugely affected their lives.

Of course the Mayor of London was not responsible for the cuts, and I assume this was just a convenient location he had made available for the protest. Of course many services provided by local government had been cut as a result of the government funding cuts. And as usual the government claimed to be concerned with the plight of the disabled and to be trying to help them while at the same time making cuts that really hurt them.

The protest took place in the Scoop, an outdoor sunken amphitheatre next to City Hall, part of the More London development, an events space which can seat around a thousand and it looked a little empty though there were many disabled protesters, some with carers and supporters.

More at Hardest Hit Protest At City Hall.

Environmentalists Protest Against Biofuels

DECC, Whitehall Place

*Protesters against Barton Renewable Energy in Davyhulme, Manchester*

People had come from across the country to protest at continued government support for biofuel energy production despite it now being clear that this is contibuting to climate change, causes deforestation and the loss of valuable forest land, results in a loss of food production and threatens human rights in many areas.

Biofuels were once seen as a green alternative which would help us reduce global warming, but it is now clear that are worse polluters than coal or oil. Despite this, they still receive huge payouts from funding meant to encourage renewable energy sources. The huge wood-burning plant at Drax in Yorkshire in 2024 received £869 million in public subsidies – over £2 million a day for polluting the planet.

At last in February 2025 the UK government has announced a cut in the subsidies for Drax, and the winding down of using imported wood pellets for energy generation. But even when this comes into force in 2027 Drax will still be getting £1.2 million a day. Drax will cut its power production to around half its current level and further reductions are expected from then.

More at Environmentalists Protest Against Biofuels.

Tibetans March Against Chinese Repression

Whitehall

Several hundred Tibetans and supporters marched from the Chinese Embassy to Downing Street in a protest over China’s increasing repression in Tibet, where in March 2011 eight young monks and a nun had set themselves on fire in desperate protests. Five had died.

Protests around the world like this one aimed to get the international community to end their silence over the Chinese abuses of human and civil rights in Tibet. It was supported by the Tibet Society, Free Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, Tibetan Youth UK and the Tibetan Community in Britain.

The held a rally opposite Downing Street and delivered a letter to the Prime Minister calling for the UK Government to take action.

There was to be a world-wide day of action on Wednesday 2 Novemeber, the to call for action from international governments the day before world leaders meet in Nice, France for the G20 Summit.

More pictures Tibetans March Against Chinese Repression.

OccupyLSX Continues At St Paul’s

St Paul’s Cathedral

A week earlier on 15th October 2011 I had been at the protest when around 2000 Occupy protesters had tried to protest outside the Stock Exchange but were prevented by police. They had returned to the steps of St Paul’s and held a general meeting. Police kettled the protesters (and me) there, but I left when a group of them forced their way through the police line. Those that were still kettled decided to stay and occupy the area after police told them they should leave. A week later they were still there and I went back to see what was happening.

There was a full program of events for the day, and a general meeting was taking place with Selma James speaking.

*A mother and daughter concerned about privatisation of the NHS at OccupyLSX*

As I said “the organisation of the camp is impressive, although clearly there are some people around who don’t respect the camp’s ‘no alcohol’ rule. But like the previous camps in central London, the camp attracts a number of the rough sleepers and odd characters who normally wander the streets of our city. It’s a useful service for people who are normally neglected, but does bring some problems.”

More at OccupyLSX Continues At St Paul’s.

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Copyright, McExploitation & The Martydom of Ali – 2006

Copyright, McExploitation & The Martydom of Ali: On Sunday 15th October 2006 I went to look at paintings in the National Gallery. I didn’t take any pictures and I seldom do of the work in art galleries; photography seldom produces decent images of paintings, and other people have done it better than casual exhibition visitors can for reproduction in books, postcards etc that we can buy. And other people holding up phones or cameras repeatedly in front of pictures can be very annoying.

Photographing art work is a skilled job, but I was pleased by a recent UK court decision that made clear it is not one that meets the requirement of originality needed to establish a new copyright, as the aim is simply a mechanical reproduction.

Artworks themselves do have copyright, but this expires 70 years after the death of the artist. So as Picasso died in 1973, his pictures are still copyright until 2043. Of course copyright law is complicated and is different in different countries and nothing that I write should be taken as legal advice!

After that I photographed a protest at Leicester Square outside McDonald’s against their food and in the afternoon went to an annual Muslim religious procession at Marble Arch and on Park Lane. Finally I called briefly at Trafalgar Square where ‘Diwali in the Square’ was just starting. Here with minor corrections is what I wrote about my day in 2006, with a few of the pictures – there are many more on My London Diary.

21st Global Day of Action against McDonald’s

Copyright, McExploitation & The Martydom of Ali - 2006 — *Protestors outside the Leicester Square branch*

Sunday I started off in the National Gallery, looking at the new presentation of their more modern work in ‘Monet to Picasso’. Then it was up to Leicester Square, where I arrived just as the clock was about to do one of its major performances at 12.00. This was also the start time for the demo outside McDonald’s.

While I was there around 15 people held up banners and handed out leaflets, most of them wearing bright red wigs. The leaflets stated that McDonald’s were only interested in making money, and that the food that they claimed was nutritious was “processed junk food – high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fibre and vitamins.”

The leaflet claimed that animals are cruelly treated to produce meat for us to eat and that the workers in fast food industry are exploited, with low wages and poor conditions – McDonald’s have always opposed workers rights and unions.

As the world’s largest user of beef, McDonald’s are also helping to destroy the planet; each “beef burger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 35km and enough water for 17 showers.” Beef cattle produce large amounts of methane, making a major contribution to global warming, and the company’s largely unnecessary packing involves use of damaging chemicals as well as using up forests and, after use either littering the streets if polluting the land through landfill sites.

For once the police – at least while I was there – behaved impeccably. There were 2 women police there, and they stood and watched; when someone from Macdonald’s came to complain he was informed that people had a right to demonstrate, so long as they did so within the law. A few of the public refused leaflets but most took them. Again a few stopped to argue, rather more stopped to take pictures of the event, and several posed in front of the demo for pictures.

21st Global Day of Action against McDonalds

The Martydom of Ali

I left the McDonald’s protest after around 45 minutes to have my lunch – sandwiches rather than a Big Mac – and left for Marble Arch where Hub-e -Ali were preparing to celebrate the Matyrdom of Imam Ali which took place in Kufa, Iraq almost 1400 years ago. The Jaloos or procession began with a lengthy session of addresses and mourning. Although I could understand little of what was said, the voices clearly conveyed the extreme emotion of the event, which had many of those present sobbing. There were tears in my eyes, too, partly from the emotion of the event and partly from the incense fumes that were filling the air.

When the Tarboot (ceremonial coffin) appeared, there was soon a scramble to touch it, at first by the men, then later the women were also allowed to come and touch it.

Many of the men then removed their shirts and started Matam, beating their breasts vigorously, many were distinctly red and bruised, and their backs also showed scars.

The procession led off down Park Lane, with the banners and men being followed by the Tarboot, and the women forming the end of the procession.

The women show their grief too.

Many more pictures of the event on My London Diary.

Diwali in the Square

Having taken a few more photographs, I left for home, stopping off briefly at Trafalgar Square to see the start of the Diwali celebrations there. Diwali In The Square was just starting, but I was tired and continued on my way home.

Diwali in the Square

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Make Them Pay March, London – 2025

Make Them Pay March: Thousands came to the ‘Make Them Pay’ march from the BBC to Parliament Square in London on Saturday 20th September 2025, part of a global week of action on climate justice backed by an alliance of trade unions and campaigning organisations representing millions of workers, citizens and communities across Britain. They say ‘Billionaires have broken Britain – Make THEM pay to fix it‘ and demand the government tax the super-rich, protect workers rather than billionaires and make polluters pay.

The march assembled in nine blocks, in anticipation of this being an extremely large protest given the number of organisations supporting it, but many of these were hard to spot on the march, though they may have been more obvious at the rally that followed.

After a couple of hours photographing before the start and on the first mile or so of the march I was getting rather tired, but also finding that I was beginning to photograph exactly the same people and groups.

It was time for me to take a rest and eat my sandwiches before going to photograph a protest over job losses for cleaners working for University College on the campus and at halls of residence.

Here I’ll try to post a picture from each bloc as well as the list of the organisations involved – although there were many groups I could not identify on the march – and I apologise in advance for any pictures I have featured in the wrong blocs.

Bloc A: Parents, families and kids

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Create a better future.

Parents for Future, Mothers Rise Up and Mothers’ Manifesto.

Bloc B: Economic and social justice

Action Aid UK, Another Europe is Possible, Compass, Debt Justice, DPAC, Equal Right, Equality Trust, Fuel Poverty Action, Greens Organise, Green Party of England and Wales, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, It’s Just Economics, Just Treatment, MenaFem Movement, New Economics Foundation, Patriotic Millionaires UK, Peace & Justice Project, Positive Money, Tax Justice UK, 350.org.

Bloc C: Palestine solidarity

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Ecocide in Gaza.

No named group took part, but there were a few Palestinian flags and a few individuals reminding us of the vast ecocide being inflicted on Gaza

Bloc D: Migrant and racial justice

Black Liberation Alliance, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants,
Migrants Organise, No Borders in Climate Justice.

Bloc E: Workers and trade unions

Bakers’ Union, Equity, Fire Brigades Union, Greener Jobs Alliance, National Education Union.

Bloc F: Billionaires out of fashion

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Billionaires out of fashion.

Labour Behind the Label, No Sweat .

Bloc G: Faith groups

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. No More Fossil Fuels.

CAFOD, Christian Climate Action, Christian Aid, Church Action on Poverty, Faith for the Climate, Muslim Aid, Muslim Charities Forum, Quakers in Britain.

Bloc H: Restore nature

River Action, Take Back Water, Zero Hour. I can’t find a picture featuring these groups, but there were Extinction Rebellion supporters with a large fish.

Bloc J: Climate justice.

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Cut the ties to fossil fuels.

Anticapitalist Resistance, Campaign Against Climate Change, Climate Resistance, Debt for Climate, Ecojustice Ireland, Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth EWNI, Global Justice Now, Global Witness, Greater Manchester Climate Justice Coalition, Green Economy Coalition, Greenpeace, Heat Strike, London Mining Network, Make Polluters Pay, Oxfam, People & Planet, Possible, Stop Rosebank, Tipping Point, Working Class Climate Alliance, War on Want, Yorkshire and Humber Climate Justice Coalition.

Many more pictures in my Facebook album Make Them Pay March including some that didn’t seem to fit in any of the blocs.

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Climate Rush Green Fayre, Aylesbury – 2009

Climate Rush Green Fayre in Aylesbury: I’d met with Climate Rush at the start of their tour of South West England at Sipson, near Heathrow and had photographed both their procession to Heathrow and the Celebration of Community Resistance they held there on the Sipson Airplot. On Wednesday 9th September 2009 I went to Aylesbury, the furthest north of their horse-drawn tour, where they were holding a Green Fayre in the centre of the town.

Although it was September, the day was one of the best afternoons of the summer and there were people sitting outside cafés around the square and walking to the shops in this pedestrianised area.

Along with the Climate Rush the Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas had come to speak at the event, along with celebrity cookery writer and TV performer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I’d photographed Caroline at quite a few events, but this was the first time I’d met Hugh, and have to admit I’ve never watched him on screen, having no interest in cookery programmes.

At the start of the event Tamsin Omond and some of the other Rushers made a tour of the nearby shopping streets with their ‘EQUITY’ banner to try to drum up trade. An actual drum would have helped, or event a megaphone, but Tamsin had a surprisingly loud voice, announcing the opportunity to meet both the TV Cook and one of their Euro MPs.

They went through the busy market square – Aylesbury was a market town in Saxon times – and back to Kingsbury, a triangular open space to the north of the Market Square surrounded by shops and pubs where the Green Fayre was being held. It was I think only my second visit to the town which now has a population of around 65,000.

During the afternoon quite a few people did stop to talk with Hugh and tell him how much they enjoyed his programme. Others just edged towards him, stopping a few yards away phone in hand to take a photo.

There were a few short speeches and people talked with the Rushers and some wrote notes about climate change and other environmental issues, posting these in a box to be sent to the local MP. A few children came to draw pictures.

*The Aylesbury Museum provided some free pears and Aylesbury plums*

Aylesbury Museum had come to join in the event with a stall, and brought apples and rare Aylesbury plums to give away – and these were delicious. Other gardeners also brought fruit and vegetables from their gardens and we all enjoyed eating some of these.

*The screen was a bit blocked and gave an interestingly ‘distressed’ image*

A water feature in the centre of the square came in useful for the screen-printing demonstration, printing a Climate Rush image onto t-shirts and washing the screen afterwards.

And on a hot afternoon a pint of real ale from one of the pubs was very welcome. It was a long, hot afternoon and I was sorry to have to leave.

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