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Vedanta AGM Protest – 2010

Vedanta AGM Protest: Westminster, Wednesday 28 July 2010

The protest outside Vedanta’s AGM held in Westminster on Wednesday 28th July 2010 was the first time I really became aware of the company and its mining activities. This protest concentrated on its plans to displace and wipe out an ancient civilisation in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa, India by bauxite mining.

The hills which would have been destroyed by their mining are sacred to the region’s Adivasis, primarily the Dongria Kondh tribes. By 2010 Foil Vedanta who organised the protest were saying that Vedanta had caused more than 100 deaths in the area though accidents, police shooting, forced displacement, injury and illness.

More than a thousand people have already been displaced, with 8000 under threat, moved away from their traditional sources of income and dumped into shanty towns where there is no work. Thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land have been destroyed, rivers and streams disrupted and drinking water contaminated by fly ash and toxic red mud.

Anil Agarwal is CEO of Vedanta

Vedanta Resouces is an Indian company founded and still run by the Agarwal family, but in 2003 was listed on the London Stock Exchange following a two year ban by the Securities Exchange Board of India from accessing capital markets after they were found guilty of cornering shares and rigging share prices.

Police push back security who assaulted activists who tried to enter the building

A damning report, Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory failure, environment and human rights‘, issued by Foil Vedanta in 2018 accuses “the City of London and the Financial Conduct Authority” of minimising the risks associated with Vedanta’s legal violations and human rights and environmental abuses’ and failing to investigate or penalise any London listed mining company on these grounds.”

Among other crimes, the report names Vedanta as “the latest in a string of London listed mining companies linked to the murder or ‘massacre’ of protesters, including Lonmin, Glencore, Kazakhmys, ENRC, Essar, GCM Resources, Anglo Gold Ashanti, African Barrick Gold and Monterrico Metals.”

As well as Foil Vedanta the campaign against them was supported by Amnesty International, Survival International and Action Aid, and a number of campaigners had become shareholders so they could attend the meeting and attempt to question the company’s activities – and these included Bianca Jagger. Her presence and that of two bright blue aliens from the tribe destroyed in the James Cameron film ‘Avatar’ ensured that the protest for once got some press coverage. Also supporting the protest were the South Asia Solidarity Group, South Asian Alliance, Brent Refugee and Migrant Forum and London Development Education Centre.

The campaign against Vedanta had already been successful in getting various shareholders to end their investment, including the Church of England, the Joseph Rowntree Trust and the Dutch pensions company in ending their investments due to concerns about its approach to human rights and the environment. And continued protests by Foil Vedanta undoubtedly played a part in the company’s decision to de-list from the London Stock Exchange in 2018.

The company was helped to list in London by the British Government’s Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for International Development (DfID), and was getting continued support from the DfID Building Partnerships for Development programme and the Orissa ‘Drivers for Change’ research project, and former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and High Commissioner of India David Gore-Booth had been a directory.

Its billionaire CEO Anil Agarwal was said to have close links with the extremist umbrella group for Indian Hindu right-wing organistions, Sangh Parivar, said to be responsible for many attacks on Muslim and Christian communities in Orissa, Gujurat and other parts of India.

The Foil Vedanta report has a “special focus on illegal mining in Goa, pollution and tax evasion in Zambia, as well as illegal expansion and pollution in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, industrial disaster at Korba in Chhattisgarh, land settlement and pollution issues in Punjab, displacement and harassment of activists in Lanjigarh, Odisha, and a mineral allocation scam in Rajasthan.“

You can see and read more about the 2010 protest on My London Diary at Vedanta AGM Protest.

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Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party – 2017

Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party: Saturday 24th June 2017 was a long day for me, beginning with a march by the English Defence League and the anti-fascists who came to oppose it, moving on to another extreme right protest by the Football Lads Alliance on London Bridge then returning to Whitehall for a protest against the ongoing talks between Theresa May and the Ulster DUP to provide support for her minority government. In Parliament Square there was a picnic and rally against our ‘unfair first past the post’ voting system. From there I went to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square where supporters of North Korea were calling for the US to withdraw its troops from South Korea. Finally I went to Burgess Park in South London where cleaners from the LSE were celebrating a successful end to 8 months of campaigning.

EDL march against terror – Whitehall

Racists, Anti-Fascists, PR, Korea and a Victory Party - 2017

The EDL march followed closely after the 3 June event when three Islamists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge killing eight people and injuring many more before being shot by police. Earlier in the year a police officer had been stabbed at the Houses of Parliament and a suicide bomber had killed 22 and injured over a thousand at the Manchester Arena.

Tempers were running high and just five days earlier a right-wing activist had driven a van into a Muslim crowd at the Finsbury Park Mosque. The Met were taking no chances and had issued strict conditions on both the EDL for their march and rally and for those who had come to oppose them, and had the police on the ground to enforce them.

The EDL were meeting outside (and inside) the Wetherspoons close to the north end of Whitehall and I joined them on the pavement. There were quite a few police in the area and the protesters were mainly happy to talk and be photographed. Eventually they were escorted by a large group of police to the starting point of their march, the police taking them through some back streets to avoid the counter-protesters who had previously been restricted to the corner of Northumberland Avenue.

EDL march against terror

Anti-fascists oppose the EDL – Northumberland Avenue

Several hundred Unite Against Fascism supporters had come to protest against the EDL march but although there were a few minor scuffles as EDL protesters made their way to the pub, a large police presence kept the two groups apart.

Police again handed out copies of the conditions opposed on their protest. A small group of protest clowns taunted the police but there was no real attempt to break the police conditions. Eventually the UAF held a rally opposite Downing Street kept by police well away from the EDL rally taking place at the same time on the Embankment.

Anti-fascists oppose the EDL

Football Lads Alliance at London Bridge

Well over a thousand supporters of the recently formed Football Lads Alliance marched to the centre of London Bridge to protest what they see as the UK government’s reluctance in tackling the current extremism problem. I arrived late when the march was over but was able to photograph some of those taking part as they posed with wreaths at the centre of the bridge.

I went on to photograph the many flowers and messages that had been put their by people in the days since the attack.

Football Lads Alliance at London Bridge

Women protest DUP/Tory talks – Downing St

Back at Downing Street women concerned over abortion rights, housing activists and others had come to protest against the talks taking place with the Democratic Unionist Party and the concessions Theresa May would make to get their support for her government after the 2017 general election had resulted in a hung parliament.

Many protesters were in red for the blood of lives lost without access to reproductive rights, but others came to protest about those who lost their lives at Grenfell tower because they were considered too poor or black to need safe housing, for the disabled who have died because of cuts and unfair assessments, for innocent civilians bombed overseas and by terrorists here, for the blood shed in Northern Ireland before the peace process and for the decision to gamble the rights, health and safety of LGBT+ people.

Women protest DUP/Tory talks

Time for PR – Save Our Democracy – Parliament Square

At the end of the rally at Downing Street I walked down to Parliament Square, where Make Votes Matter and Unlock Democracy had organised a picnic and rally after the recent election had again demonstrated the unfairness of our current voting system. The rally used various colours of balloons to represent the percentage of the vote gained by different parties.

Prime Minister Theresa May had called a snap election but failed to get the 326 seats needed for an overall majority with only 317 Conservatives elected. Her party had received 42.3% of the total votes. Labour under Jeremy Corbyn had improved its position and had gained 30 seats but was still well behind at 262 seats and 40% of the total votes. They had failed to gain some key marginals where the party right had managed to stop the party giving proper support to candidates or probably the party would have won the election. By making promises to the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP who had won 10 seats in Northern Ireland, May was able to remain as Prime Minister.

Time for PR – Save Our Democracy

Withdraw US troops from Korea – US Embassy

The UK Korean Friendship Association marked the 67th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, never officially ended, by a protest outside the US Embassy calling for the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea and an end to sanctions on the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, one of the least democratic countries in the world, a highly centralised authoritarian state ruled by the Kim family now for over 70 years, according to its constitution guided “only by great Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism.”

Withdraw US troops from Korea

LSE Cleaners Victory Party – Burgess Park, Southwark

*Mildred Simpson shows off the ‘Masters of Arts’ certificates that were presented to the cleaners at the protest*

Finally it was good to meet with the cleaners from the LSE and other members and friends of the United Voices of the World and Justice 4 Cleaners who were celebrating the end of their 8 months of campaigning at the LSE. I had been at the meeting when the campaign was launched as a part of the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival organised by Lisa McKenzie, then a research fellow at the LSE, and had photographed many of their protests and it was great to celebrate their success with them.

*Class War had supported the cleaners in their protests and some came to celebrate*

Their actions, including 7 days of strike, had achieved parity of terms and conditions of employment with directly employed workers and a promise that they would be brought in-house by the Spring of 2018.

Several of the cleaners spoke at the party and the cleaners were “presented with ‘Masters of Arts’ certificates with First Class Honours in Justice and Dignity.”

*Petros Elia, UVW General Secretary runs to organise everyone for a group photo*

The final part of the dispute was settled a month later in July 2017 when Alba became the 5th cleaner to be reinstated at the LSE in a year with the UVW “winning a groundbreaking, precedent setting tribunal hearing today which declared Alba’s dismissal not only unlawful but profoundly and manifestly unfair.”

LSE Cleaners Victory Party

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LSE Decorated Against Inequality & Corruption – 2017

LSE Decorated Against Inequality & Corruption: On Tuesday 25th April 2017 students and workers in the ‘Life Not Money’ campaign took part in “a colourful nonviolent direct action calling on the LSE to change from what they say is thirty years of growing neglect, cruelty and outright corporate greed towards workers and staff at the school to something beautiful and life affirming.”

The main organiser of the protest was Roger Hallam, currently serving time in jail for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for organising protests to block the M25 motorway in 2022, sentenced to five years, but marginally reduced on appeal to 4 years. At the time of the protest he was a Ph.D student at nearby King’s College London, “researching how to achieve social change through civil disobedience and radical movements.” I knew him from photographing him carrying out practical work on the subject on a number of occasions, mainly against air pollution from London’s traffic.

At this protest, Hallam was one of a number of people who decorated the wall of the LSE Garrick Building with water-soluble chalk including the slogan ‘CUT DIRECTORS PAY BOOST WORKERS PAY WE ALL KNOWN IT MAKES SENSE’. They also blu-tacked some small posters resembling £50 notes to the wall.

The group then sat around in a small circle on the pavement in front of their work holding a party, talking and joking and eating sandwiches. Four of them had decided they would wait and hope that they were arrested to show up the LSE and its failure to live up to its stated aims.

They pointed out to the police that they had caused no real damage and offered to remove the markings with the damp sponges that they had brought with them for the purpose, but the LSE security manager refused to let them touch the wall.

Police then handcuffed the four and took them away one by one. They offered no resistance, but Hallam went limp and police had to drag him away. I don’t think any of my pictures from the protest were used by the mainstream press at the time, but one of my pictures of the arrest did appear in quite a few newspapers at the time of his trial for the M25 incident and at his earlier trial after he was found with a toy drone without batteries close to Heathrow – in breach of bail conditions.

Earlier when I arrived at the LSE I met Lisa McKenzie who took me to the shop to show me the t-shirt with LSE written in currency symbols, pound, dollar and Euro, £$€.

This was said by the protesters to show the true face of LSE management – an institution which values money above all else and students soon fixed posters and flowers to the shop window. After this protest the t-shirt was removed from display at the shop and is no longer on sale.

This, they said was an example of the ‘Student-Led teaching‘ the LSE prides itself on, condemning the LSE’s attitude to its key low paid workers. The also said that the cleaning contractor Noonan was an exemplar of spectacularly bad management, alleging among other things that “Women have to sleep with management to get extra hours…”

The protest was in support of the campaign launched in September 2016 by the United Voices of the World during the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival organised by McKenzie to bring the outsourced cleaning workers back into direct employment by the LSE.

I left shortly after the arrest, but returned 3 days later to view the alleged criminal damage, finding no trace of it but several security men guarding the wall.

More on My London Diary at LSE decorated against inequality & corruption.

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LSE Cleaners Protest, Lisa Arrested – 2017

LSE Cleaners Protest, Lisa Arrested: Wednesday 15th March 2017 was the first day of a two-day strike by cleaners at the LSE in support of their campaign demanding equal sick pay, holidays and pensions etc to similar workers directly employed by the LSE and an end to bullying and discrimination by their employer Noonan.

I had photographed the start of their campaign at a meeting led by their union, the United Voices of the World, as a part of the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival on 29th September 2016 and a number of protests at the LSE since then.

On 15th March the cleaners had a picket line since the early morning – cleaners start work while most of us are still in bed – and I joined them for a lunchtime rally. Their campaign had a great deal of support from students at the LSE and had a large banner ‘L$E: The London School of Exploitation‘.

Others who had come to support the cleaners included Grim Chip of Poets on the Picket Line and LSE academics Lisa McKenzie and David Graeber and a few from Class War. But there were passionate and effective speeches from a number of the cleaners, including Mildred Simpson, one of the LSE cleaners and others in the UVW.

At the end of the rally, the protesters marched through the campus and across Kingsway to the building which houses the LSE Estates Office where a large group walked into the foyer demanding to see the Estates Manager. Some were carrying mops and buckets to show their support for the cleaners.

Security came to talk with the protesters, though the protesters were making too much noise to hear them and the protest continued with a short speech from UVW General Secretary Petros Elia to explain when the foyer was being occupied.

Eventually the protesters sat down and waited, still making a lot of noise . People working in the building were still able to leave or enter the building unhindered walking past the protest – but would hear and read why the noisy protest was taking place.

Eventually police arrived and talked with the building security and some of the protesters who soon began dancing in the foyer to music on the public address system the UVW had brought.

More police arrived and decided to stop people entering or leaving the offices. They talked with UVW General Secretary Petros Elia who told them it was a peaceful protest and they would leave after they had made their point to the LSE facilities manager – if the police could persuade him to talk to them.

Eventually this talk did take place, though some way back from the foyer where we could only see them from a distance. The talk went on for around five minutes, and Petros then returned smiling to tell the protesters that the LSE who had until now been refusing to talk to the cleaners had agreed to a meeting.

The protesters then walked out to join those who had been continuing to protest on the pavement outside, and they prepared to end the protest.

But unexpectedly police moved in and surrounded Lisa McKenzie telling her she was under arrest.

They pushed her roughly to the wall of the building and handcuffed her pushing away excessively roughly those who tried to stop the arrest and taking her to a waiting police van.

Apparently Lisa was being charged with assault on the receptionist when the protesters entered the building. I was close behind and neither I nor the other protesters saw any evidence of assault by her as she entered the offices holding one end of the banner with others.

Everyone was shocked, both by the arrest and by the police violence. The fact that none of the others holding the banner were arrested strongly suggested that her arrest was politically motivated, probably due to pressure from the LSE for her support for the cleaners – she had organised the ‘Resist’ Festival where the cleaners campaign had been launched.

Lisa had previously been the subject of a clearly political arrest when she was wrongly charged with three offences at a protest in February 2015 while she was standing in the General Election against Iain Duncan Smith. Perhaps the police were still feeling aggrieved after failing signally to achieve a conviction. This time they were not stupid enough to take her to court.

Much more from Wednesday 15th March 2017 on My London Diary:
LSE cleaners strike and protest
Police arrest Lisa again

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King’s College Divest Oil & Gas Now! Strand, London – 2017

King’s College Divest Oil & Gas Now: On Thursday 9th February a colourful protest on the pavement in front of the college’s main buildings on London’s Strand called for the college to disinvest from fossil fuels.

The world desperately needs to move away from burning coal, oil and gas for energy production and transport, as has been clear for at least the last 30 years and recent temperature rise and increasing incidence of disruptive fires, floods and other extreme weather events make impossible to ignore.

Yet governments around the world largely continue to ignore this, or make attempts which are far too little and far too late, with the recently elected demented US president even determined to increase his countries emissions, led by the lobbying of the US industry only interested in its own short-term profits.

Let the world burn seems to be the message from the “ultra-wealthy stakeholders” while they plan their doomsday bunkers in the USA, Alaska or the Antarctic complete with military security forces to keep out the raiders and angry mobs.

Yet the UK financial sector still enables to extraction of more fossil fuels which endanger the future of our civilisation and human life on the planet. Banks still bankroll them, insurance companies still insure their climate destroying activities and many respectable organisations still invest in them, including pension funds, though increasingly investors are divesting.

And one that has now divested is King’s College, who state: “In 2017, King’s committed to full divestment from all fossil fuels by the end of 2022. We achieved this target in early 2021. King’s also does not invest in tobacco and armaments. In 2023, we reached the target to invest 40% of our endowment in investments with socially responsible benefits two years early.“

Although I suspect King’s would say that this protest had no effect on their decision, I’m sure that this campaign and this very public protest was a major factor in moving them in this direction.

And it was successful because it was noisy, public and colourful, employing the kinds of methods that led the Tories to bring in new laws restricting our rights to protest and giving the police new powers to try to prevent effective protest. We still have the right to protest but are now expected to do so discretely.

The one arrest of those taking part in the Stand Up to Racism protest a few days ago on February 1st was of one of those who lit a smoke flare, and similar arrests have been made at other recent protests. Setting off of fireworks on our streets has been illegal since 1875, but only recently have police begun to enforce this against the use of distress flares in protests.

People have been arrested for sticking things on walls and windows, even though they can be readily removed without damage.

In this protest police attempted to take the names and addresses of those who had made small blobs of colour using washable paint on a concrete pillar. This was done as a gesture of solidarity with PhD student Roger Hallam, one of the leading campaigners aat King’s who was suspended by the college for writing “Divest From Oil and Gas Now. Out of Time!” in washable paint at an earlier protest. Like the blobs this had washed off easily without trace, as was other painting I photographed him doing and being arrested for in the ‘Life Not Money’ protest at nearby LSE a couple of months later

*Roger Hallam is arrested at Life Not Money protest at LSE, April 25th 2017*

Roger Hallam, one of the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, is now serving five years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy for organising protests to block the M25, a draconian sentence for a peaceful campaigner. Sixteen Just Stop Oil protesters were given jail sentences last year for peacefully protesting in response to the climate crisis and at their trials were prevented from defending themselves by explaining their motives to the jury. Others are being held on remand for long periods. We now have political policing, political trials and political prisoners in the UK.

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Guantanamo, National Gallery, Elephant, Aylesbury & Lisa – 2015

Guantanamo, National Gallery, Elephant, Aylesbury & Lisa; Ten years ago Thursday 5th February 2015 was a long and interesting day for me, with a couple of protests, a short walk around London, an estate occupation and a memorable book launch.

Close Guantanamo – 8 Years of protest – US Embassy

Guantanamo, National Gallery, Elephant, Aylesbury & Lisa - 2015

A small group from the London Guantánamo Campaign was celebrating 8 years of holding monthly protests at the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

Among those protesting were four people who had been taking part in the protests there for 8 years.

Close Guantanamo – 8 Years of protest

No Privatisation At National Gallery – Trafalgar Square and DCMS, Whitehall

The National Gallery had told 400 of its 600 staff who are responsible for the security of the paintings and the public, provide information about the collection, organise school bookings and look after the millions of visitors each year that they are no longer to be employed by the gallery and will instead become employes of a private company.

A private company had already taken over “temporarily” to run services in a third of the gallery.

Workers at the gallery had staged a 5 day strike against the privatisation and were incensed when Candy Udwin, one of the senior PCS union reps and a member of the team taking part in negotiations with management at ACAS, was suspended, accused of breaching commercial confidentiality, and they demanded her re-instatement.

The National Gallery was then the only major museum or gallery in London still not paying the London Living Wage. Staff were already living on poverty pay and the privatisation would threaten pay and worsen the conditions – sick pay, holiday pay, pensions, hours of work etc – of these loyal and knowledgeable staff.

When nobody came to the door as they tried to deliver their 40,000 signature petition against privatisation a group went into the Sainsbury Wing to tray and deliver it. Security tried to get them to leave. Nobody from the gallery would come down to recieve the petition and eventually the strikers handed it over to the Head of Security who promised to deliver it to management personally.

The strikers and their supporters then marched through Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport, then in Parliament Street, where the minister concerned had agreed to receive a copy of the petition and three of them were allowed to take it in. Here there was a short rally with speakers including Jeremy Corbyn MP.

No Privatisation At National Gallery

Around the Elephant – Elephant & Castle

I made a few pictures as I walked from the Bakerloo Line station at Elephant & Castle to the Aylesbury Estate and afterwards on my way back to the station. The shopping centre has now been demolished and new buildings have sprung up on its site,

This strange building is an electricity substation which is still there, although there is no longer a roundabout around it. It was built as a memorial to Michael Faraday, ‘The Father of Electricity’ who was born a few hundred yards away in 1791.

More pictures at Around the Elephant.

Aylesbury Estate Occupation – Walworth

*Chartridge occupied since the previous Saturday in a protest for housing in London*

Southwark Council’s Aylesbury Estate was one of the UK’s largest council estates, built between 1963 and 1977 with over 2,700 homes. Lack of proper maintenance by the council and its use by them as a sink estate had led to it getting a reputation for crime, exaggerated by its use in filming TV crime series and films there not least because of its convenient location.

*Access to the occupied block – I didn’t attempt it*

It was on the Aylesbury Estate that Tony Blair got in on the act making his first speech as Prime Minister promising to fix estates like this and improve conditions for the urban poor through regeneration of council estates.

*‘Respect Aylesbury Ballot – Stop the Demolition Now!’ Residents voted overwhelming for refurbishment not redevelopment*

The buildings were actually well-designed and structurally sound on a well-planned estate with plenty of green space, but having been built in the sixties and 70s needed bringing up to date particularly in terms of insulation and double glazing. Southwark Council had also repeatedly failed to carry out necessary maintenance, particularly on the district heating system which they had allowed to become unreliable. But many residents liked living on the estate and when given the choice voted by a large majority for refurbishment rather than redevelopment. I visited several homes on other occasions and was quite envious, and the residents clearly loved living there.

Southwark Council responded by claiming the refurbishment would cost several times more than independent estimates suggested and went ahead with plans to eventually demolish the lot. Given the large number of homes involved the process was expected to last 20 years (later increased to 25 and likely to take even longer.) The first fairly small phase was completed in 2013, and the homes that were occupied in 2015 were in Phase 2.

I wasn’t able to access the flats that were occupied as it would have meant a rather dangerous climb to the first floor which I decided was beyond me, but I did meet some of the occupiers and went with them and some local residents to distribute leaflets about a public meeting to other flats in the estate.

Many residents support the occupiers and knew that they would lose their comfortable homes in a good location when they are finally forced to move. Some will be rehoused by Southwark, though mainly in less convienient locations and smaller properties, but many are on short term tenancies which do not qualify them for rehousing and will have to find private rented accommodation elsewhere. Those who have acquired their flats will only be offered compensation at far less than the cost of any similar accommodation in the area and will have to move much further from the centre of London.

While the volunteers were posting leaflets on one of the upper floors of the largest block on the estate, Wendover, I took some pictures to show the extensive views residents enjoyed. This was hindered by the fact that the windows on the walkways were thick with dust, possibly not cleaned since the block was built and not opening enough to put a camera through. Then fortunately I found a broken window that give me a clear view.

Much more at Aylesbury Estate Occupation.

Getting By – Lisa’s Book Launch – Young Foundation, Bethnal Green

*Ken Loach, Jasmine Stone and Lisa McKenzie, author of ‘Getting By’ talk at the book launch*

Lisa McKenzie’s book ‘Getting By‘ is the result of her years of study from the inside of the working class district of Nottingham where she lived and worked for 22 years, enabling her to view the area from the inside and to gather, appreciate and understand the feelings and motivations of those who live there in a way impossible for others who have researched this and similar areas.

*Jasmine Stone speaks about Focus E15 and Lisa and others hold a Class War banner*

On the post in My London Diary I write much more about the opening – and of course there are many more pictures as well as a little of my personal history.

Getting By – Lisa’s Book Launch.

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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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IWGB Protests to the Princess – 2017

IWGB Protests to the Princess: The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and supporters protested outside Senate House while University of London Chancellor Princess Anne was visiting on Foundation Day. They called for all workers in the university to be directly employed by the university and IWGB members in the security staff had held one of a series of one-day strikes.

Although many of those who were attending the event with the princess had to walk in past a noisy protest, she was brought in by another entrance, and although they marched around when they heard this was happening they missed seeing her. But she will certainly have heard the protest.

The protest was one in a long series by outsourced low paid staff at the University to gain the same conditions of employment as directly employed staff in what was known as the ‘tres cosas campaign’ – sick pay, pensions, holidays. They wanted to end the University outsourcing their jobs in the University to private companies who employ staff on far worse conditions and pay than those they employ directly.

The protesters say the use of outside contractors to employ staff is discriminatory as outsourced workers including security, cleaning and catering staff are predominantly migrant and BME workers and it results in them being on far worse terms and conditions than other staff and also subjected to harassment and bullying.

A fairly large crowd had come for the protest to support the out-sourced workers. Among them were students from the University of London, including students from the LSE who were campaigning for their cleaners to be properly treated and brought in house. They also included members of other trade unions including the UCU London Region, strikers from the Picturehouse cinemas and McStrike fast food workers demanding a living wage.

There were also speakers from other IWGB sector branches and Sandy Nicholl from SOAS Unison who has led a ten year fight there against out-sourcing. A samba band made sure the protest was heard both outside and inside the building so the princess will have been very aware of what was happening.

In 2020 the IWGB web site recorded that “After almost 10-years of fighting with the IWGB to be brought in-house, cleaners, porters, and security guards at University of London won their ‘tres cosas’ campaign in a historic victory. Workers fought tirelessly to achieve their demands, which were aided by the Senate House Boycott movement and the support of many students and staff across University of London.” I’m pleased to have been able in my small way to have helped the union to achieve this result.

But the IWGB went on to state “Although the University of London still refuses to recognise us, we continue to be the majority union at the university, representing all workers – from cleaners to professional services staff.” Under current unfair employment law employers can continue to recognise the larger and less effective trade unions rather than those who the workers chose as they are more effective in getting results such as the IWGB.

More text and pictures about the evening’s protest at IWGB protest London Uni outsourcing.

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LSE Resist – Working Class, Kidbrooke & Cleaners

LSE Resist – Working Class, Kidbrooke & Cleaners: in September 2016 then LSE research fellow Lisa McKenzie and a couple of students organised a series of discussions, films, lectures and exhibitions in the 3 day campus-wide 3-day free ‘Resist: Festival of Ideas and Actions’. The festival explored how political resistance is understood within academic research, the arts, grassroots activism campaigns, student debate and mainstream politics.

As a part of this festival LSE cleaners began a campaign for parity of treatment with other workers at the LSE. I had contributed some protest pictures to be used in publicity for the festival and attended some of the events on 28-29th September 2016.

The success of this festival was perhaps one of the reasons why Dr McKenzie was not given a further contract at the LSE. She has since worked at Middlesex University, Durham University and the University of Bedfordshire and is Board Chair of the Working Class Collective.

Working Class debate at LSE Resist – Wednesday 28th September 2016

There was a lively open debate around ideas of the working class at lunchtime on the steps in front of the LSE building in Lincoln’s Inn Fields led by LSE Professor of Anthropology David Graeber and Martin Wright of Class War with contributions from others including LSE research fellow Lisa McKenzie and Class War’s Ian Bone.

I arrived late, partly because the LSE then was a huge building site and the Facebook invitation to the event had included a map incorrectly suggesting it was taking place in Houghton Street, so unfortunately missed the some of the opening remarks by Graeber.

He was followed by Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright, a working-class activist from East London who told us he was proud of his record of not working. He now regularly broadcasts his pithy comments on current affairs on the ‘Red and Black’ channel on You Tube.

Ian Bone, the founder of Class War, once described by the gutter press as the ‘The Most Dangerous Man in Britain‘ gave a typically witty and thought-provoking contribution.

And of course Lisa McKenzie spoke at some length and depth, and there was a great deal of discussion among the main speakers, with contributions from many of those sitting around on the steps, mainly LSE students. I took a great many pictures some of which you can see on My London Diary, but think I managed to keep my mouth shut and listen rather than speak.

More pictures at Working Class debate at LSE Resist.

Simon Elmer of ASH indicts LSE

The following day I was back on the same steps to hear Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing (ASH) give a lengthy and detailed indictment, ‘The Intellectual Bloodstain’ on a report by a group of LSE academics on Kidbrooke Village, a development by Berkeley Homes and Southern Housing, on the site of a council estate which was demolished between 2009 and 2012.

The Ferrier Estate had been built for the Greater London Council in 1968-72 on the site of a former RAF base. The first section had five 12 storey towers and three years later a second section six more were added. The estate had around 1,900 flats.

When the GLC was abolished in 1986 for having opposed the Thatcher government it was a sad day for London in general, with the capital being left without its essential city-wide authority, something it has not yet recovered from despite the setting up of the GLA in 2000. But for the Ferrier estate in was even worse news as the estate was transferred to the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Greenwich made Ferrier a sink estate and failed to maintain the estate properly; its population were markedly multi-ethnic, including many refugees while most of the rest of the borough’s estates were predominantly white.

You can read Elmer’s talk in full on the ASH web site and it makes interesting reading. Perhaps the key fact is that the estate still had 1732 flats which were housing council tenants at social rents, but in the replacement Kidbrooke Village although there will be 4,763 new apartments, only 159 will be at social rent. Some of the others will be ‘affordable’, meaning at up to 80% of market rent, but that means completely unaffordable to those who previously lived there – or to almost all of the 15,000 on the council’s housing waiting list.

As a former member of Greenwich Council was quoted by Elmer as stating, ‘Ten years ago residents on the Ferrier Estate were told that they would have the right to come back. What Greenwich Council didn’t mention is that they would need to win the Lottery to do so.’

Elmer uses the case of Ferrier to ague about a key tropes behind the LSE produced report, the idea of ‘urban villages’ and also points out some of the omissions and inaccuracies of the report as well as attacking their use of inadequate and often misleading concepts such as ‘human scale‘, ‘unique identity‘, ‘social interaction‘ (which means going to shop at Sainsbury’s), ‘locally driven‘, ‘mixed communities‘ and more as well as pointing out some simple lies lifted directly from the developers’s marketing book.

His report points out “the white elephant standing in the middle of the living room of every one of these luxury apartments – that is, their complete failure to meet the housing needs of the local community” and went on to look more widely at housing issues in the UK before concluding his talk by convening a People’s Court for the indictment of the LSE Four, listing four charges and calling for their suitable punishment “in the name of Architects for Social Housing and on behalf of the former residents of the Ferrier Estate.” I think they were unanimously found guilty.

At the end of the meeting Petros Elia, General Secretary of the United Voices of the World trade union spoke briefly about the failure of LSE management to protect the interests of the LSE cleaners in outsourcing them to a cleaning contractor with no insistence on decent working conditions and conditions of service and inviting all present to a meeting later that do to discuss further action.

More pictures at Simon Elmer of ASH indicts LSE.

LSE Cleaners Campaign Launch

Later on Thursday I went to the meeting where cleaners at the LSE began their campaign for parity of treatment with other workers at the university.

The cleaners, employed by Noonan on a LSE contract, are paid the London Living Wage, but have only the statutory minimum holidays, sick pay and pension contributions, while workers directly employed by the LSE have more generous terms. They also complain they have lost rest facilities, are not allowed in the canteen with other workers, exposed to dangerous chemicals, not allowed to use lifts to move heavy equipment between floors and are generally treated like dirt.

We were all shocked when one of the cleaners stood up and told how she had been sacked by Noonan after 12 years of service at the LSE. The UVW will fight her unfair dismissal as well as pursuing their other claims.

Others attending the meeting included most of the students from a new graduate course at the LSE on issues of equality, something the LSE has a long history of campaigning for outside of the institution but seemed rather blind to on its own campus. Support for the cleaners was expressed by the LSE Students Union General Secretary and by several LSE staff members, and Sandy Nicoll from SOAS Unison told the meeting about their 10 year fight to bring cleaners there in-house.

Several of the cleaners spoke in Spanish, and their comments were translated for the benefit of the non-Spanish speaking in the audience,

There were suggestions for further actions to improve conditions and fight the unfair redundancy, and I was to photograph some of these in the months that followed, eventually leading the them being taken back in-house as LSE employees in 2017.

More pictures at LSE Cleaners campaign launch.

LSE Cleaners Protest, Police Arrest Lisa

LSE Cleaners Protest, Police Arrest Lisa: On Wednesday 15th March 2017, students and supporters joined cleaners on the picket line at the London School of Economics for a lunchtime rally on the first day of the 2 day strike by members of United Voices of the World union.

Cleaners at the LSE have felt let down by management at least since January 2012 when the contractor who the LSE had outsourced them to cut their hours and was bullying them into signing new contracts.

As I wrote back then, “Outsourcing – as doubtless research by the LSE will have shown – almost invariably leads to lower wages and poorer working conditions for the staff involved. And although the cuts and alleged bullying is being carried out by Resource Group, the responsibility for it must lie with the LSE who are responsible for the contract with them.”

In September 2016 the cleaners with the United Voices of the World trade union launched a new campaign for parity of treatment with other workers at the university with a meeting which was a part of the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival organised by LSE research fellow Lisa McKenzie which had featured talks and debates often critical of the LSE, with contributions by LSE Professor of Anthropology David Graeber and Martin Wright of Class War and in particular a damning indictment by Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing (ASH) of a report by a group of LSE academics on the redevelopment of the Ferrier Estate, deliberately run-down, demonised and emptied by Greenwich Council from 1999 onwards, as Kidbrooke Village.

The protest on 15th March 2017 began with a rally on the LSE campus demanding equal sick pay, holidays and pensions etc to similar workers directly employed by the LSE and an end to bullying and discrimination by their employer Noonan.

Grim Chip of Poetry on the Picket Line performed and there were several speeches by UVW members including LSE cleaner Mildred Simpson.

The protesters then marched the short distance across Kingsway to the LSE Estates Division where cleaning contractors Noonan have their LSE office. They walked in and occupied the foyer there for over and hour, only leaving after being promised that Allan Blair LSE Director of Facilities Management would talk with the cleaners union the United Voices of the World.

As they left the foyer, police jostled some of them before assaulting and arresting LSE academic Lisa McKenzie, charging her with assault and then bundling her into a waiting police van.

Apparently the receptionist at the estates office had complained that she had been assaulted by McKenzie as the four people holding the UVW banner pushed past her on their way into the office. I had been following close behind them and neither I nor the other protesters had seen any evidence of assault.

None of the other three holding the banner were arrested and it seemed fairly clear that the arrest was not for any offence. Perhaps the police were still aggrieved after a case against her when she was wrongly charged for three offences at a protest in Febnuary 2015 was thrown out of court. That had taken place at the time she was standing in the General Election against Iain Duncan Smith and was an arrest that appeared clearly politically motivated.

But on this occasion it could well have been that the LSE management had pointed her out as a trouble-maker. McKenzie, a working class academic and author of a highly acclaimed study of class and culture on the Nottingham estate where she lived for more than 20 years has been the a subject of constant criticism from others both inside the LSE and in the wider academic community, and when her contract there came to an end it was not renewed.

The protesters were left angry and confused. Why was Lisa being picked on? The protesters felt it must be politically motivated and it was difficult to see any other reason. I think she was later released without charge, possibly because there was CCTV evidence that showed there was no case to answer.

More on My London Diary:
Police arrest Lisa again
LSE cleaners strike and protest