Old War Office | >Re-PHOTO

Student Fees & Ash Wednesday: After photographing the National Student March on Wednesday 25th February 2009 I went to the Ministry of Defence where Pax Christi and Christian CND have held an Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance every year since 1982.

National Student Demonstration

Malet St – Kings College

Student Fees & Ash Wednesday - 2009 — *Students listen to speakers at the rally outside SOAS*

The National Student March was rather smaller than some this year as it was not supported by all student organisations but still around 750 took part, including many who had come from around the country.

In 2009 there were a number of student occupations of colleges and universities around the country over the Israeli army attacks on Gaza; some were still continuing and this may also have meant fewer people came to the march.

In 2009 I pointed out how financially things had changed since my student days, when UK students did not pay course fees and those like me from low income families got grants which gave us enough to live on.

Back then students were expected to study and generally not allowed to have jobs during term times – now many need to do so to live.

The grants were means-tested and those like me who got a full grant were better off than some from wealthier families who often failed to give their sons and daughters the full expected parental contribution.

The marchers demanded an end to course fees and a living grant for every student, calling for a higher education systems based simply on need and not on the market.

There were speeches before the march giving support from school students, the youth parliament, university teachers and others as well as from students.

At the junction of Southampton Row and Theobalds Road some of the marchers sat down blocking the road, but most got up and marched on after a few minutes when a steward told them that police intended to surround them, move them off the road and possibly arrest them.

A smaller group, mainly the autonomous block, remained, but got up quickly and moved on when a large and vigorous looking squad of police approached.

Student fees were capped at £1,000 per year when first introduced by New Labour in 1998 but had been increase to £3,000 in 2004 and were £3,225 a year, rising to account for inflation. But after the Browne review there was a huge rise to £9,000 in 2012, with almost all courses at all universities charging the maximum allowed new rate.

More pictures on My London Diary at National Student Demonstration.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance

Ministry of Defence, Horseguards Ave

*Black and purple ribbons were tied to a cross and prayers offered for victims of war and violence.*

I left the student march before it ended to rush to the Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance at the Ministry of Defence in protest against the continued reliance on nuclear weapons. Pax Christi and Christian CND have held this service every year since 1982.

I met the in Embankment Gardens where around 70 Christians, also including members of Catholic Peace Action, were in a circle. Sticks of charcoal were blessed and the heads of those taking part marked with a cross of ashes.

They then processed behind a white cross for a short service at the Old War Office where black and purple ribbons were tied to a white cross while prayers were said for those killed in wars.

Police surrounded the building to stop the protesters marking the walls with charcoal crosses, though I think some did so later after the police had moved away. There was also a large police presence when the worshippers moved to the Ministry of Defence.

Here they held a longer service, in which sackcloth was laid on the pavement and the letters R E P E N T marked out on it with ashes. Others taking part came and added more ashes.

Police kept a narrow passage to allow people to leave and enter the building. The protesters offered them leaflets but nobody took one.

More pictures on My London Diary: Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice – pictures from Ash Wednesday in London on 6th February 2008, with an Ash Wednesday Witness and prayer against War at the Ministry of Defence and a Downing Street protest against a visit by US warmonger and then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. A week tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday Wednesday 14th February 2024, Pax Christi together with Christian CND and others will again be meeting at 3.30pm for a similar witness against war.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance – Ministry of Defence, Whitehall

Pax Christi, Catholic Peace Action and Christian CND began their an annual liturgy of Repentance and Resistance around the Ministry of Defence in protest against the continued reliance on nuclear weapons on Ash Wednesday 1982, 42 years ago, and the 2008 event was their 26th.

Looking back at the pictures I made in 2008 has a particular resonance for me, in that two of those in them are people that I knew who have died in the past couple of years. One was the well-known peace campaigner Bruce Kent who I’d photographed at various events since around 1990 if not earlier and though I didn’t know him well we often exchanged a few words when I took his photograph and had a little joke in recent years. Bruce died in June 2022 and in March 2023 I photographed Jeremy Corbyn planting a memorial tree to him in Finsbury Park.

The other was a family friend who died recently and we were disappointed other appointments meant we were not be able to go to his funeral last week. He also appears in a some of my photographs of this and other peace events, sometimes singing in the Raised Voices choir.

Here is the description of the event I wrote in 2008, although the story is mainly told in the pictures and their captions on My London Diary:

Although the ministry and nearby buildings such as the Old War Office were surrounded by police – rather as if they were expecting a massive attack, the police made no attempt to disperse what was undoubtedly an illegal unauthorised protest under the terms of SOCPA. They did hold a couple of people they caught writing on the walls of the Old War Office, and were at least threatening to charge one of them with causing damage to the building, but otherwise watched benignly, at least until I left to catch my train shortly before the liturgy had finished.

The most moving part of the liturgy was outside the Defence Ministry, where a wooden cross was laid on sackcloth. Ashes were sprinkled on it, and then while those present chanted a ‘litany of the martyrs’, including the names of Franz Jaegerstaetter, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero and Mary Lampard, 21 ‘Theses for today’s church’ by Philip Berrigan were read and then nailed to the cross.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance

Protest at Condi Rice’s London Visit – Downing St

A couple of hundred ‘Stop the War’ demonstrators were on the pavement facing Downing Street. They had come with a clear message to give Condoleezza Rice, that it was time for the US to get out of other people’s affairs in other countries.

However there was no sign of Condi, who had obviously avoided using the front entrance to miss the protesters, either entering by the back entrance or through another Government building, possibly making use of the extensive network of tunnels underneath Whitehall.

A large crowd of press photographers were also waiting impatiently opposite the front door of Number 10, waiting for her to appear for a press call along with Gordon Brown, but I think they were waiting until after the protesters dispersed.

I could have joined them, but although the press likes to use pictures taken in front of the famous door I find the great majority of them supremely boring. And I don’t carry the long heavy lenses you really need for the situation to take the one in a million images that has some interest. It’s been years since I bothered to go through the security check and into Downing Street.

Welcome for Condi Rice

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

Tag: Old War Office

Student Fees & Ash Wednesday – 2009

National Student Demonstration

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance

Ash Wednesday, Charcoal and Condi Rice – 2008

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance – Ministry of Defence, Whitehall

Protest at Condi Rice’s London Visit – Downing St