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Give Our Kids A Future – 2011

Give Our Kids A Future – Dalston to Tottenham. A week after the police killing of Mark Duggan and the disturbances which followed in Tottenham, across London and in other towns and cities, community groups in North London came together on Saturday 13th August 2011 with around 1500 people marching from Dalston to Tottenham Town Hall pleading “Give Our Kids a Future.”

These disturbances were seen by many without surprise as tensions were rising in the more deprived areas of London and across the country as a result of the cuts to youth services and other support begun under New Labour and continued more savagely by the Coalition government.

Local Authorites were being starved of resources and had little choice but to make cuts where they could, cuts which disproportionately affected young people, the elderly and the disabled who rely more on their services. In particular many youth clbbs and other facilities had been closed.

Young people had also been hit by the announcement that the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) which enabled many in lower icnome homes to continue their eduction was to end this summer. Many school students had been radicalised and had taken part in sometimes disorderly student protests, joining in the protests over university fee rises and other changes in education.

On these protests they had seen and suffered from heavy-handed policing with kettling, excessive use of batons and charges into crowds by police horses. And on the streets where they lived many had experienced police harassment, with racially discriminatory stop and searches and being moved away from areas where they met with friends.

People in these areas were becoming more aware of unexplained deaths in police custody, with anger and resentment “multiplied by the lies told by police to the press, and the various cover-ups and white-washing by the IPCC, CPS and other authorities that have been used to prevent bringing those responsible to justice. “

Some saw the shooting of Mark Duggan as an execution by police, and the undisguised glee of some of our right-wing media at his death, having taken the police lies and convicted him, clearly raised tempers. It was the total failure of Tottenham police to engage with the family members and others who held a peaceful vigil last Saturday and the police attack and beating of 15 year old girl that sparked the outbreak of rage that spread rapidly.

The march was not organised to condone any illegal behaviour but was an attempt by a long list of local organisations with the support of some wider political groups (a long list on My London Diary) “to bring all sections of local communities together to promote unity and to urge for positive action working together to find solutions to some of the long-standing problems of the area which made it fertile ground for the disturbances.“

“They want an end to the cuts in public services and for investment to be made into regeneration of the communities, with housing, jobs, education and leisure facilities and a restoration of all the youth services that have been cut”.

“More specifically about the riots they want a community led regeneration of the damaged areas and support for those affected, including the immediate rehousing of those made homeless and grants for small businesses.”

“But perhaps the most important of their demands was one for a cultural change, moving away from the demonisation of youth and the unemployed towards a culture of valuing all people.”

Their leaflet ended with the statement:

“Let’s work together for a decent society, based not on greed, inequality and poor conditions, but on justice, freedom, sharing and cooperation.“

More, including many more pictures, on My London Diary at Give Our Kids A Future.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Welfare State & Tar Sands Party – 2010

Welfare State & Tar Sands Party: On Saturday 10th of April 2010 pensioners led a march to defend the welfare state and oppose cuts in public services and later I went to a party at a BP garage in Shepherds Bush against the company’s plans to exploit Canadian tar sands.

Defend the Welfare State – Temple

The National Pensioners’ Convention, which represents over a thousand local regional and national pensioner groups with a total of 1.5 million members had organised a march and rally in London to defend the public services they are particularly dependent on ahead of the 2010 general election. The march was supported by the TUC and all major unions.

Age Concern has predicted that over 40% of votes in the next month’s election would be made by those over 60, and had identified five key issues which particularly impact pensioners. In particular they said that the basic state pension was seriously inadequate and the pension rise of only £2.40 was far too low. A quarter of all pensioners were living in poverty.

But all three major parties were making plans for cuts in public expenditure and moving away from the consensus Britain had come to during and after the Second World War, the welfare state with pensions, a free NHS, free education and other public services. Over the years some of these provisions had been eroded (and in a few areas such as dental care, never fully implemented) but now they were increasingly under threat, whichever party wins the general election.

Huge deficits had come from handouts to the bankers and the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the NHS had been hit particularly hard by the costs of privatisation under the huge debts from the Private Finance Initiative.

Cuts to local authorities who many pensioners rely on for social care and support services such as meals on wheels, as well as housing benefit, threaten the daily life of many and are leading to the closure of day centres and other provision.

It was pressure from protests such as this, as well as the presence of the Lib-Dems in the coalition with the Tories that was elected that led to the introduction of the “triple lock” on pensions in 2010. In 2020 the state pension was around 16% of average earnings and by 2025 it had risen to around 25%. But pensioners have been badly hit by cuts in care.

More at Defend the Welfare State.

Tar Sands Party at the Pumps – BP, Shepherd’s Bush Green

The UK Tar Sands Network, Rising Tide and the Camp for Climate Action had organised a ‘Party at the Pumps’ as a part of a ‘BP Fortnight of Shame’ trying to get BP shareholders to reverse the company’s decision to take part in the exploitation of the Canadian Tar Sands which environmental activists say is “the dirtiest and most desperate attempt yet to profit from – and prolong – humanity’s crippling addiction to oil.“

*Whistles signal its time to follow the flags and get on the Central Line*

Extracting usable crude oil from tar sands always results in between three to five times the amount of carbon dioxide production as normal oil wells. Deposits close to the surface are strip mined, destroying ancient forests and peat bogs to dig up around 75 metres depth of sand and oil with huge trucks and mechanical shovels.

*At the previous stop we were told to alight at Shepherds Bush*

In Alberta four-fifths of tar sands are too deep to be mined in this way and are brought to the surface by the injection of high pressure steam – which uses around twice as much energy and pollutes twice as much highly toxic waste water which is already leaking into drinking water.

Indigenous people living in the area have very high cancer rates and their staple moose meat has been found with 300 times the acceptable level of heavy metals from the tar sand extraction.

*People on the canopy roof with a banner*

BP only got involved in the Canadian tar sands in 2007, probably because they had cheaper sources of oil elsewhere. They signed up with Canadian company Husky Energy for a large-scale tar sands project they called the ‘Sunrise Project’ and for other tar sands projects. This was put on hold when oil prices crashed in 2008, but BP shareholders were expected to approve it going ahead at their meeting in April 15th.

Protesters were told to meet at Oxford Circus with a Travel Card and after an hour or so we all – including a few police – went down into the station following those with green and yellow (BP’s colours) flags, at least some of whom knew our destination and boarded a west-bound Central Line train.

At Shepherds Bush the message came to alight. We rushed behind those carrying the flags along the busy shopping street, across the green to the BP garage on the south side, which had already been occupied by a smaller advance group of demonstrators.

Some of them had got onto the roof from scaffolding on a neighbouring block of flats and were fixing a banner there, while others blocked the forecourt entrance with a large ‘CLOSED’ banner. The protesters occupied the area and put tapes and stickers around the petrol pumps and elsewhere with the messages ‘DANGER GLOBAL WARNING‘ and ‘BP TAR SANDS – BACK TO BLACK?’

The Rhythms of Resistance band had also arrived and was drumming loudly and there was also a bicycle trailer sound system and the protesters were dancing. A live band and a caller played for more dancing and the protesters sat on the pavement and talk, eat sandwiches and snacks and drink, while some handed out leaflets to the passers-by and explained why the protest was taking place.

When I left after a couple of hours the protest was continuing. Police and a man from BP had earlier asked them when they would be leaving and were told ‘sometime later in the day‘ and assured that they would cause no permanent damage and although the police were still watching the protest, filming and taking notes but not otherwise taking any action. I presume BP had asked them to avoid more publicity for the event by trying to force it to an end or make arrests.

More at Tar Sands Party at the Pumps.

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Hands Off Our Schools 2016

Hands Off Our Schools – For around 30 years I was a full-time teacher and a part-time photographer, then spent a few years as a photographer and writer and part-time teacher before giving up the teaching completely. Most of the time I liked teaching – and even went on doing some after they stopped paying me – but at times it was extremely taxing.

All of my teaching, apart from a few photography workshops, was within our public education system, beginning in one of the largest comprehensive schools in the country, then moving on to a sixth form and community college where I taught students from 16 to 90 years old.

Over the thirty-odd years I taught a wide range of subjects and levels, though my main interest was in photography, and our A-Level results – thanks to some great colleagues – were probably the best in the country. Starting with science and chemistry I soon branched out into photography and later into various computer-related courses, including setting up a Cisco Network Academy as well as several administrative roles. O Levels, A Levels, AS Levels, CSE, City and Guilds, RSA, CEE, BTEC and probably a few more I’ve forgotten, as well as non-exam course including the dreaded PSE which had me teaching about sex, drugs and more, though not rock’n’roll.

Schools and teaching changed dramatically over the years of my career. When I began teaching was a profession, but by the time I left we were largely just cogs in the machine administered by punitive inspections and governed from the Ministry of Education. In my early career I worked long hours during term-time, preparing lessons and marking work as well as the actual class contact time but all of it – often more than 60 hours a week – was directed at the students I was teaching. By the time I left most teachers were slaving long hours to meet the dictates of Ofsted and the National Curriculum as well as teaching students.

Of course we had inspection in the old day, but it was conducted with a very different intention and by Her Majesty’s Inspectors who all knew the education system and were colleagues whose role was largely to make helpful suggestions for improvement. Ofsted brought in inspectors with tick boxes and often no knowledge of education other than as students in earlier life whose job was to catch teachers out, often for trivial things. Rather than to help and improve, their role was to penalise.

I had also been the NUT Rep where I worked for many years and am still a Retired Member of the union (now the NEU) so I had a particular interest in a protest by the NUT and ATL on Wednesday 23rd March when they met in the yard in front of Westminster Cathedral to march past the Education Ministry and make their views clear to Education Minister Nicky Morgan.

The teachers were marching against government plans to convert all schools to academies. There is no evidence that academies improve the educational results of children and the plans remove all democratic controls from education as well as side-lining parents.

Many of the protesters stopped outside the Department for Education to shout and to call for Nicky Morgan to resign before marching off for a rally in the nearby Emmanuel Hall on Marsham St. I didn’t join them there as I had other things to do that day.

More pictures at Hands Off Our Schools.

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Housing Awards – 2016

*A resident of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark speaks about the council’s terrible record*

Most people have never heard of the annual Municipal Journal Local Authority Awards, a kind of self-congratulatory back-slapping beanfeast for local authorities on the lines of the Oscars and a dinner at the Hilton, doubtless on our council tax.

*Protesters ignore hotel staff and police who tell them they must move*

The news in 2016 that two of London’s councils with the worst records for housing were nominated for awards angered London housing protesters and Focus E15, the Revolutionary Communist Group, Class War, Architects 4 Social Housing and others organised a protest outside the Park Lane Hilton including a rather different awards ceremony.

*Protesters from Newham blame Labour Mayor Robin Wales ‘Robin the poor’*

They pointed out that Southwark had by 2016 demolished 7,639 units of social housing, sold off public land to developers, and evicted people unlawfully and accuse Newham of social cleansing, rehousing people in distant parts of the country while council properties remain empty, and of causing mental health problems through evictions, homelessness and failure to maintain properties.

*Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing objects to being assaulted by a police officer.*

Police tried to move the protesters away from the hotel entrance and across the service road, but most resisted and held their ground, with police keeping the entrance clear, A few did move across the road were they could hand out flyers people arriving by taxi. There were a a few minor incidents when police pushed a protester holding a banner and again when several protesters held banners and placards in front of the restaurant windows.

Class War had brought their banner with a quote from US anarchist Lucy Parsons “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live” particularly appropriate for a protest in Mayfair and outside the Hilton. Police made a rather unwise and ineffectual attempt grab this from them but soon gave up.

People continued to arrive for the event and to walk past the protesters. Many had come from towns and cities across the UK for the event and where probably not particularly away of the situation in London boroughs.

I played around a little with the reflections in the polished metal canopy above the Hilton entrance, which was doing a good job in keeping the light rain off most of the protesters, though I was getting a little wet.

Looking up from the service road we could see those attending the awards ceremony talking and drinking before the dinner, while outside the protesters were beginning their own awards.

There were quite a few speeches from various of the activists, and Southwark won the award as London’s worst council, with Newham a close second.