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Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham – 2007

Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham: On Saturday 15 September 2007 I went to Brent for a march against gun and knife crimes. Next I was in the City of London, usually deserted on a Saturday, but this was Open House Day and cleaners were taking the opportunity to protest at Lloyd’s of London where people were queueing to visit the buildings. Finally I travelled to New Cross where an event was taking place to remember the Battle of Lewisham on 13th August 1977, a month after its 30th anniversary.

Below are my three posts from My London Diary in 2007 (with usual corrections) and a few of the pictures and links to those I posted back then.

Not Another Drop – March against Gun and Knife Crime

Stonebridge Park, Brent

Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham - 2007 — *White doves were released just before the start of the march*

Brent has suffered more than most London boroughs from gun and knife crimes resulting in the deaths of far too many young men (and women) on its streets.

The annual police march was started in 2004 by Patsy Hopwood, whose son, Kavian Francis-Hopwood was shot dead on the Stonebridge Estate in 2003, and is part of the ‘Not Another Drop’ campaign organised by the Met and Brent Council.

Around 250 people including two large church groups set off on the march across the borough to South Kilburn.

More pictures on My London Diary at not a drop more

Cleaners picket Lloyd’s Building

City of London

Cleaners at Lloyd’s Of London – a bastion of wealth and privilege in the City – are among the lowest paid workers in London and don’t get sick pay or holiday pay.

Open House Day provided a good audience for the London Citizen Workers Association to publicise their appalling treatment.

[The cleaning at Lloyd’s – and almost all other office buildings is outsourced with cleaners being employed by contractors, notoriously poor employers.]

More pictures at Picket at Lloyd’s.

Remembering The Battle of Lewisham

New Cross to Lewisham

*Photographer Red Saunders talks about his experiences in Lewisham on 13 Sugust 1977*

It is now just over 30 years since the battle of Lewisham in which protesters humiliated the National Front when they attempted a march through the area.

*The event began outside the New Cross Inn*

Having escorted the National Front home, the police then turned on the anti-racist protesters, using horses, batons, and, for the first time on the British mainland, riot shields.

*Batwinder Rana describes what happened to him in 1977*

At this incredible outbreak of police violence, the community came out onto the streets and the police lost control. Lewisham now has a massive police fortress.

*Our route took us past Mr Brenton Pink’s painted house on Loampit Hill*

On a walk around the area, a number of those present [in 1977] talked about the event and their own experiences on the day.

*and on to Lewisham High Street where the police used riot shields for the first time on the UK mainland*

*Here more people shared their experiences and the event ended.*

On My London Diary you can see many more pictures including of others who spoke at the event at Lewisham77

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DSEi Arms Fair & Sotheby’s 2 – 2015

DSEi Arms Fair & Sotheby’s 2: On Monday 7th September 2015 I went to the protests outside the world’s largest arms fair which was takes place in East London every two years and on my way home went to a protest in Battersea Park at Sotheby’s international car auction calling on the company to reinstate two sacked cleaners.

DSEi Arms Fair protest Israeli Arms Sales

Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock

DSEi Arms Fair & Sotheby's 2 - 2015 — *Protesters stopped a lorry going to the DSEi arms fair with a military vehicle for around 2 hours*

Protests were taking place on the first of six days outside the world’s largest arms fair, sponsored by the UK government at the Excel Centre. Occupy Democracy had set up a protest camp close to the East Entrance to the Excel Centre.

The theme of this day’s protest organised by the Stop The Arms Fair Coalition and Occupy Democracy and supported by Campaign Against The Arms Trade and a broad coalition of protest groups was ‘Stop Arming Israel’.

Israel also has a large arms industry and they were selling their arms at the fair which were said to be ‘battle-tested’, having been used against the Palestinian people in Gaza as well as in Syria.

When I arrived protesters were setting up a couple of stalls, one to ‘sell’ mock Israeli arms – with arms dealers D. Eath and C. Arnage, who were later joined by two enthusiastic sales representatives apparently from a proudly Israeli firm ‘Killing Machines Unlimited.’

Excel had fenced in the roundabout at the gates, claiming they owned it, so that protesters were unable to camp there. Later it was found that it belonged to Newham Council and that they had not given permission for the fence, but it did provide a good place to put up a huge banner with the message ‘Stop Arming Israel.

When a large low-loader arrived carrying a military vehicle protesters rushed into the road to block it and one in an orange jumpsuit and Tony Blair mask locked on to it. Others jumped up on to it. A woman who used a white-board marker to write ‘ARMS TESTED ON CHILDREN’ was arrested for ‘criminal damage’ although the slogan would easily wipe off without trace.

*‘Tony Blair’ locked on. Protesters still hope to see him tried for war crimes onver the invasion of Iraq*

After around 45 minutes police warned the protesters they might be arrested unless they moved away and most did, but then began a Dabke Arab folk dance workshop in front of the lorry. The police then called for reinforcements and when they arrived they pushed the protesters off the road, allowing the bemused Hungarian driver to move on.

*Police come and warn the protesters on the lorry, asking them to leave*

*The Dabke dance workshop in front of the lorry. Police watch but don’t dance*

*Eventually police lose patience and a large group come and push or drag eveyone from the road, watched by the photographers*

In 2026 the UK still sells arms to Israel which are being used in the genocide of the Palestinian people and some of those protesting against this have been given long prison sentences as ‘terrorists’.

More on My London Diary at DSEi Arms Fair protest Israeli Arms Sales.

Reinstate the Sotheby’s 2 at car auction

Battersea Park

*A line of police stopped the protesters at the entrance to the auction site*

Barbara and Percy, two cleaners at Sotheby’s in New Bond Street had been sacked after they took part in a protest calling for proper sick pay, holiday pay and pensions, and their trade union, the United Voices of the World had organised a number of protests including this one to demand their reinstatement.

Along with members of the UVW the protest was supported by Class War, SOAS Unison and Unite the Resistance and I met them outside Battersea Park Station from where they marched to the Sotheby’s auction site, Battersea Evolution inside Battersea Park, where police prevented them from entering.

Although they were some distance from the actual auction, the noisy protest could clearly be heard there, as one of those present at it, the mother of UVW General Secretary Petross Elia, came to tell us across the gates.

The protest continued for some time and I was tired and left before the end, missing a a spectacular performance of fire breathing by one of the protesters.

The campaign by the UVW eventually resulted in all outsourced workers there including cleaners, security guards and caterers becoming the first group of outsourced workers in the private sector to receive occupational sick pay – at a significantly enhanced rate to statutory sick pay.

More at Reinstate the Sotheby’s 2 at car auction.

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Justice for LSE Cleaners – 2016

Justice for LSE Cleaners: Cleaners at the London School of Economics, one of the UK’s most prestigious universities, had begun their campaign to get decent working conditions at the end of September 2016. On 2nd December there was a protest at the LSE in support of this.

The LSE itself could not possibly have been seen to employ the cleaners under the exploitative terms and bullying management they were working under, but were turning a blind eye to what was happening to workers on their site who were employed under a contract between the LSE and cleaning company, Noonan.

Outsourcing contracts such as these are always a bad deal for workers. At the LSE they were getting only the statutory minimum holidays, sick pay and pension contributions, while workers on similar grades directly employed by the LSE have more generous terms.

The cleaners had also lost rest facilities and were not allowed in the canteen with other workers. They were being exposed to dangerous chemicals without proper protection and were not allowed to use lifts to move heavy equipment between floors were are generally treated like dirt.

At the start of the campaign one of the cleaners, Alba Pasimo, had shocked the meeting by standing up and describing how she had been sacked this week by the cleaning contractor after 12 years of service at the LSE.

Their campaign, led by their union the United Voices of the World, was widely supported by LSE students, some teaching staff and others from the trade union movement.

A series of protests, including this on December 2nd 2016, supported the campaign for the re-instatement of sacked cleaner Alba, better management with achievable workloads and the same conditions of service including sick pay, pensions and paid leave from contractor Noonan as those of equivalent grade staff directly employed by the LSE. They were also calling for union recognition of the UVW.

Considerable building work taking place at the LSE meant that the only direct route between the Old Building in Houghton Street and the rest of the campus was through that building, and after a rally outside, the protesters marched into the building, ignoring attempts by security staff to stop them, to make their way through.

They marched around the rest of the campus and then to the offices used by both the LSE and the cleaner’s employers Noonan on the corner of Aldwych at No 1 Kingsway where they held a rally on the wide area of pavement.

They then went back onto the campus for a final rally outside the LSE Library, warning the LSE management that actions like this will continue until Alba is reinstated and the cleaners get an offer of equal treatment from Noonan and the LSE.

In August 2017 the UVW were “proud to announce that the LSE cleaners will be BROUGHT IN-HOUSE and become employees of the LSE from Spring 2018! This will ensure they get, among other things, 41 days annual leave, 6 months full pay sick pay and 6 months half pay sick pay, plus proper employer pension contributions of up to 13% of their salary.”

*UVW’s Petros Elia photographs a LSE manager who has been photographing the protest*

Alba had been reinstated following an industrial tribunal hearing in July 2017 which declared her “dismissal not only unlawful but profoundly and manifestly unfair.”. The UVW then stated “Alba was the 5th sacked cleaner we have got reinstated at the LSE in the last year.”

The UVW continues to fight for the LSE cleaners. In 2023 it forced the LSE to back down and reinstate a UVW strike leader and migrant cleaner from Colombia who had played an important role in a fight over the underpayment of holiday pay. And they forced the LSE to repay a significant part of the holiday pay which workers are owned, though a legal fight continues to get the rest. At the LSE and in many other workplaces and sectors the UVW continues to struggle for justice for low paid workers.

More on the protest on 2nd December 2016 at Justice for LSE Cleaners.

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Low Pay, Lousy Conditions. 3rd Aug 2013

*IWGB are harassed by Westfield security after their protest in John Lewis*

The two events I covered on Saturday 3rd August 2013 both concerned the fight to get decent wages and conditions for low paid workers in London, something which has largely been left to the left wing and grass roots unions to fight for rather than the big trade unions or the Labour Party.

The two major ways that low paid workers are cruelly exploited in modern Britain are through zero-hours contracts and outsourcing, and these were at the heart of the two protests.

*Security stop protesters from going down the escalator in Sports Direct*

The first, at Sports Direct in Oxford St called on the company to abandon the use of zero-hour contracts which deprive all their 20,000 part-time workforce (over 85% of staff) sick pay, holiday pay and other employment rights.

*The protest continues inside Sports Direct*

Zero hours contracts, as I explained on My London Diary “are a peculiar legal casuistry that in essence denies the whole concept of a contract as normally understood, agreements without substance which gravely disadvantage workers … Although they give no guarantee of any income, they oblige the workers to be available for work at the employer’s whim, making it impossible for them to take on other work.”

*IWGB get out flags,* *placards and banners on the top floor of John Lewis*

All the advantages are for the employer who has a contract which imposes great constraints on workers while denying them the employment rights which are a part of normal employment and leaving them open to the whims of managers as to whether they work or not. A limited reform in 2015 prohibited terms in them which prevented people working for other employers, but if that leads to them being unable to work when the employer demands them to, they may still find their hours very much reduced in future or their contracts terminated.

*And begin their protest in John Lewis in Stratford Westfield*

The protest was a noisy one and after around 50 minutes handing out leaflets and speaking to shoppers on the street outside, they surged into the small street level area of the shop, where they made no attempt to push post security men who stopped them at the entry to the escalator leading down to the main store. They continued the protest inside the store being careful not to cause any damage. After around five minutes one of the police officers who were watching came to talk to one of the leading protesters and was told they would leave shortly, and after a few more minutes they did, ending the protest on the pavement a few minutes later.

*They take the escalator to continue the protest on the floor below*

I made my way to Stratford to join the IWGB union who were making a surprise visit to protest inside the John Lewis store in Stratford Westfield. The cleaners there are outsourced to sub-contractor ICM of the Compass Group, who had recently announced pre-tax profits for the year of £575 million. They pay the cleaners £6.72 per hour, considerably less than the London Living Wage of £8.55 an hour set by the GLA and backed by the London Mayor.

*Everyone in John Lewis could hear the protest and stopped to look and listen*

Outsourcing enables John Lewis to distance itself from the low pay and poor conditions of service of these workers who share the workplace with the much-lauded John Lewis ‘partners’, who as well as higher pay and better benefits, also get a share in the company’s profits, enabling John Lewis to claim it is a ‘different sort of company’ with a strong ethical basis, but still leave its cleaners – a vital part of its workforce – on poverty wages.

I met the cleaners outside Westfield and walked with them through the shopping centre to John Lewis at its far end, trying with them to look inconspicuous. In the store we went up to the cafe area on the top floor where they got out banners, placards and a large megaphone from their bags and then proceeded to walk around in a noisy protest.

They then took the escalator to the floor below and walked around that making the case for a fair deal for the cleaners to management and customers. Among those protesting (centre, above) was a man who had been a ‘partner’ in the Westfield store and was dismissed after he gave an interview to The Guardian supporting the cleaners’ case for equal treatment, and he was greeted by many of his former colleagues on the shop floor.

After protesting on each floor of the store, there were a numbber of final speeches, including one by the dismissed ‘partner’, on the ground floor before the group left, going out into the Westfield Centre in front of John Lewis. Here they were met by the centre manager and security staff who tried to stop the protest, with some pushing them (and me) around. Here I was told I was not allowed to take pictures, but took little notice. Very slowly we all made our way out of the centre by the nearest exit, still followed by Westfield security, and were met by two police officers who were told the protest was finishing.

Many more pictures at:

Cleaners in John Lewis Westfield
End Zero Hours Contracts – Sports Direct

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.