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Alevi, Union Flags, Fuel Poverty & Reclaim Love – 2013

Alevi, Union Flags, Fuel Poverty & Reclaim Love: Saturday 16th Feb was a busy day for me, beginning with a protest by Alevi against religious discrimination in Turkey, on to an extreme right protest in support of Belfast ‘loyalists’. Then a rally over fuel poverty which ended with a road block by disabled protesters. My day in London ended in Piccadilly Circus at the Reclaim Love Valentine Party, though I arrived there rather late.

You can read longer accounts and see more pictures of all these events on My London Diary.

Alevi Protest Discrimination in Turkey & UK

Trafalgar Square

Alevi, Union Flags, Fuel Poverty & Reclaim Love - 2013 — *A woman in traditional costume holds a banner (Semah For Peace) in Trafalgar Square.*

Estimates of the number of Alevi in Turkey vary widely but they probably make around 15% of the population, including many Kurds. Their religion is generally considered a part of Shi’ism, but they worship in their own languages, men and women together; women are not required to cover their hair, and their worship incorporates their rich traditions of poetry, music and dance – Semah.

Turkey is a country ruled and dominated by Sunni Muslims and the Alevi have suffered centuries of religious persecution – sometimes violent, and while Christian and Jewish children in Turkish schools are exempted from the compulsory Sunni Muslim religious classes, Alevi are not.

The rally called for democracy in Turkey, an end to discrimination and persecution, and an end to this compulsory religious education.

They also called for all immigrant cultures in the UK to unite and fight to remind the UK government of its responsibilities towards them, saying they face “ignorance from institutions such as the health, education, police, social and political bodies.” They call for an equal education system which considers the needs of all different cultural backgrounds.

More at Alevi Protest Discrimination in Turkey & UK

Defend the Union Flag

Westminster

Around a hundred ‘patriots’ from the ‘South East Alliance’ marched down Whitehall carrying Union Flags to a rally with speakers from Britain First in support of Loyalist Flag protesters in Belfast.

*Britain First Northern Ireland organiser Jim Dowson with the man carrying the wreath*

Belfast City Council had decided only to fly the Union Flag on eighteen days a year as elsewhere in the UK, resulting in series of protests outside Belfast City Hall organised by a breakaway unionist group which disagrees with the peace process.

Around a hundred people came to the protest, mostly carrying Union flags, though there were a few Ulster and Orange flags also on show.

The marchers became silent at the Cenotaph where two wreaths were laid, one by the Kent Somme Society commemorating the Irishmen who died in the Battle of the Somme. They then marched on to Old Palace Yard for a rally.

*Paul Golding of Britain First, a former BNP councillor in Swanley on Sevenoaks District Council*

There were speeches from Paul Golding of Britain First, Paul Pitt of the South East Alliance and Britain First’s Northern Ireland organiser Jim Dowson who had been involved in the protests there.

*Paul Pitt of South East Alliance, formerly the EDL’s South East organiser.*

A few photographers were threatened by protesters but I suffered only some mainly relatively friendly banter from several who recognised me from other extreme right marches I had photographed, including some who mistook me for a Searchlight photographer.

More at Defend the Union Flag.

Fuel Poverty Rally & DAN Roadblock

Department of Energy and Climate Change Whitehall

A rally organised by Fuel Poverty Action and supported by Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater London Pensioners’ Association, Redbridge Pensioners’ Forum, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group, Global Women’s Strike and others was a part of a national day of action against fuel price rises and the government’s energy policies

Cuts and rising prices now meant one in four families now have had to choose between heating their homes adequately or eating properly. Many children were going to school hungry and we had seen a phenomenal rise in the need for food banks – now even in the wealthier suburbs, with many unable to buy food.

Fuel Poverty Action say that the government was doing everything it could to keep the big six enery companies making profts while “disabled and elderly people are forced into libraries and shopping centres to keep warm and people with cancer freeze in their homes with the heating off” as crucial benefits are slashed.

Many also suffer from benefit sanctions, losing financial support often for trivial reasons or for things beyond their control – such as a cancelled bus making them arrive late for an appointment. There seems to be a particularly vindictive approach encouraged (or mandated) at job centres towards claimants.

At the end of the rally disabled activists, many in wheelchairs went out onto Whitehall blocking the southbound carriageway. Some pensioners joined them, handcuffing themselves to the wheelchairs and others came to stand around them in the roadway. There were some more speeches from some of the protesters.

*Protesters from the Disabled Peoples Direct Action Network move to block the road*

After around a quarter of an hour police came and talked with the protesters asking them to leave. They were still asking 15 minutes later and by then many of the protesters were feeling they had made their point and were ready to go for a cup of tea. When they told police they would leave in ten minutes I left to rush to the Reclaim Love party which had started over an hour earlier.

Much more at Fuel Poverty Rally & DAN Roadblock.

Reclaim Love Valentines Party

Piccadilly Circus

The 11th Reclaim Love free Valentine’s Party – and the 10th organised by Venus CuMara who started the whole thing in 2004 – took place around Eros in Piccadilly Circus, aiming to spread peace and love around the world, and to reclaim love from its commercial exploitation.

I arrived late, after people had joined hands in the large circle around Eros to make their call for peace and happiness around the world, but the party was continuing and I took rather a lot of pictures – here are a few.

*Venus CuMara straightens up the Reclaim Love banner*

*Free T-shirts – for the first time a donation was requested*

I’ve written more about Reclaim Love on My London Diary over the years, and there is some more, along with many more pictures from the 2013 event at Reclaim Love Valentine Party.

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Tibet, Syria, Fukushima, EVF & Lions – 2014

Tibet, Syria, Fukushima, EVF & Lions – Protests in London on Saturday 15th March covered a wide range of issues across the world. Another varied day for me in town.

London March for Freedom for Tibet – Downing St

Around a thousand Tibetans and supporters of the Free Tibet campaign met at Downing Street to march to a rally at the Chinese Embassy on the 55th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising against oppressive Chinese rule.

Before the start of the march they sang the Tibetan national anthem then marched up Whitehall. I left the marchers at Trafalgar Square to cover another event.

It was a colourful march, with many carrying the Tibetan National Flag or wearing items in its colours. In my post on My London Diary I wrote more about Tibet and the brutal Chinese regime there along with many more pictures.
London March for Freedom for Tibet

Syrians March for International Action

Before going to Downing Street I had gone to Hyde Park Corner where Syrians were gathering at the start of their march to Downing St on the third anniversary of the start of their fight for freedom to show their commitment to the cause and their solidarity with fellow Syrians inside and outside Syria.

They were calling for the international community to help them get rid of the Assad regime which had murdered over 150,000, seriously injured 500,000 and imprisoned 250,000 people in Syria. 1.5 million refugees had fled Syria and over 4.5 million were internally displaced and recently Assads forces had started using chemical weapons.

I left Piccadilly as the march was about to leave and met them again as they turned into Whitehall and began their protest opposite Downing Street. Unfortunately the west was not prepared to stand fully behind the Syrian revolution, with Turkey very much opposed to the autonomy it was providing for the Kurds and supporting ISIS and Russia stepping in to support Assad.

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Syrians March for International Action.

Fukushima Nuclear Melt-down Remembered

Also at Hyde Park Corner were protesters on the third anniversary of the nuclear melt-down at Fukushima, including many Japanese, marching to remind the world of the dangers of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

They were led by a group dress as flurescent barrels of roadioactive waste, while others were dressed up in various ways and some carried giant sunflowers. It was a fairly small group but made a colourful impression as it made its way first to the Japanese Embassy.I left them as they arrived there.

I met the group again as it arrived at Downing Street where they stopped for a short protest and photographs in front of the gates before moving on to a rally in Parliament Square. But I had other things to do.

Many more pictures at Fukushima Nuclear Melt-down Remembered.

English Volunteer Force march in London

I met the English Volunteer Force, combining a number of right wing ‘patriotic’ groups outside the Lord Moon of the Mall at the top of Whitehall just a minute or two before their march to Parliament Square began from there.

I had a little trouble getting there through a loose line of police who were there to ensure that the anti-fascist opposition to the march were kept well away. The around a hundred EVF supporters were accompanied by rather more police as they marched down Whitehall, but I was able to walk with the and to talk to a few of the protesters who knew me from earlier right-wing events.

They seemed pleased that I was covering the event, but as I reported in 2014, “one man came over and shouted at me, pushing my camera into my face. I complained to police at this assault but they simply pushed me away. Later the same individual came and threatened me, and a police officer did ask him to stop, though it seemed rather half-hearted given that he was clearly breaking the law.“

The major police effort was directed against the larger number of anti-facists and was largely successful in keeping the two groups apart and enabling the EVF to hold their rally as planned in Old Palace Yard. I saw several arrests of EVF supporters who tried to attack the anti-fascists. Police had kettled some of these briefly but they were soon allowed to leave so long as they went away from Parliament.

You can read more about the event and see more pictures at English Volunteer Force march in London.

Save Our Lions – Ban Canned Hunting – Trafalgar Square

I walked up to Trafalgar Square where several marches from different starting points in London were combining for a protest calling for a ban on the ‘canned’ hunting of captive lions by wealthy trophy tourists.

‘Canned hunting’ is big business in South Africa, with more than 8,000 lions in captivity, bred on lion farms and over 160 lion killing camps. These lions are raised without fear of humans and are often drugged to make them easy kills.

The tourists kill male lions and buy the lions heads stuffed and mounted as trophies. The bones fetch high prices in the Far East for use in ‘medicines’ or ‘aphrodisiacs’ though they have no testable beneficial effects.

Most female cubs are killed at birth with just a few being kept for breeding. The cubs are kept and tourists pay to ‘pet’ and play with them and when they are a little larger pay for the experience of ‘walking with lions’. Once they outgrow this, they are crammed into overcrowded cages in poor conditions until they are mature and can be shot.

Canned hunting also threatens the wild lion population as some are captured to combat the inbreeding in captive lion populations.

More at Save Our Lions – Ban Canned Hunting.

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Our Flag & Olympic Site 2007

Our Flag & Olympic Site – On Saturday 17th November 2007 I had a more varied day than usual, beginning with a march my football supporters, then a walk around the outside of the then fenced off Olympic site followed by an Olympic-related symposium. I can’t remember anything about the symposium, though I think it was almost certainly critical of what was being done to London, its future being sacrificed to a highly commercial sports festival.

March For Our Flag – Westminster

A few months earlier in February 2007 I’d photographed and written about a ‘March for Our Flag’ organised by football supporters, particularly Tottenham fans. The main group backing that – and the repeat march this month through Westminster – was the United British Alliance. There was a suggestion that, although a patriotic event, it was at least trying to detach itself from the racism of the far right.

The UBA web site described itself as “a multi-ethnic, multi-faith organisation with a passionate interest in reclaiming our once proud nation from the grip of international terror and political correctness gone-mad,with a view to re-installing some pride in our communities and way of life.”

As I commented in November 2007:

Although individuals may well be sincere in these attempts, it isn’t so easy to shake off this impression. Some of the links on the [UBA] web site are to people and groups who I would consider as having extreme views, and the discussion you can find on football forums and elsewhere seems clearly Islamophobic.

Although there were even fewer supporters this time – well under 200 – there did seem to be a slightly calmer attitude and a slightly wider range of people attending, although still only one or two black faces.

Curiously enough, on the UBA web site galleries, all the marchers have their faces – or at least their eyes – blacked out. The only people not given this treatment are the police escorting the event.

As I’ve often said, the only way to protect our freedom is by being free. That includes standing up for what you believe – and being seen to do so. So I’m totally opposed to this kind of censorship of the news. Freedom of expression is a part of the British heritage of which I’m proud. As too are Morris Dancing, Association and Rugby football along with the many other things, including the way we have successfully integrated elements from other cultures and religions into our way of life over the years – and continue to do so.

My London Diary

My pictures from the 17th November do show one or two families and their children took part and I can see just one darker face among the young men. In view of recent events and the behavior of Suella Braverman my final two sentences are very appropriate and very relevant: “We all need far more positive messages and actions from our politicians to lead us all – including Britain’s muslims to a new and united vision of our society. Islamophobia needs combating, not encouraging.”

More pictures on My London Diary

Stratford – Olympic Edge

I walked out of Stratford Station and across the footbridge leading to the Carpenters Estate and on to Bridgewater Road, a dead end with a bridge across the tidal Waterworks River.

The road to Hackney Wick is firmly closed and so too was the Greenway just a few yards from the entrance on Stratford High Street.

You could walk down it just a few yards, and I took another picture looking back along the Waterworks River towards Bridgewater Road where I had been standing earlier.

I took a few pictures around the edge of the area, then walked back along the High Street towards the centre of Stratford.

The Log Cabin pub had been here at 335-337 High Street, Stratford as a coaching inn since at least the mid-18th century, though it was known as The Yorkshire Gray before being renamed around 1997 when the hiddeous green excresenes were added. The building was Grade II listed in 2003, almost certainly saving it from demolition and is thought to date from around 1740, and though parts were rebuilt in the late nineteenth century much of the interior had survived more or less intact. It closed in 2001 and is now a hotel.

My final picture was at The Working Mens Hall and Club Rooms on Romford Road, founded in 1865 and rebuilt in 1905, with the motto Labor Omnia Vincit (Work Conquers All). Perhaps it was here that the symposium was held, and I have a very vague recollection of a talk by Iain Sinclair, although that could have been on quite a different occasion.

A few more pictures here.