Wakey Wakey Mr Blair: On Friday 21st October 2005 Fathers For Justice held a march – or rather ‘Pyjama Protest’ – calling for children to be allowed to stay overnight with their fathers after families have separated. They met in Green Park and marched to a rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Here is what I wrote about it in 2005 with some of the pictures from My London Diary and a link to more.
Don’t Shoot, I’m A Dad reads the T-shirt as the Fathers4Justicemarch goes up Piccadilly
Applying law to families that have broken up is difficult, and currently often results in a raw deal for fathers. Even where they are granted access, there is often no way of achieving it. I don’t think there are any easy answers; when relationships break down, people are often very bitter and irrational and any normal relationship can be very difficult to establish.
There does need to be an enforceable legal framework based on the best interests of the children concerned, and where both parents want to be involved in their future this must normally be for their good. Quite how this can be done is hard to see, and sometimes family courts seem to need both the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job.
The march beginsOn the road with a public warning – corrupt courts will violate your life and human right
What is very clear is that many fathers (and a few mothers) get a raw deal at the moment, and the children involved are short-changed too. Fathers 4 Justice are a very media-savvy organisation and have in the past pulled off some clever stunts to bring attention to their case.
A young Welsh ‘marcher’ enjoys his ride in bed with a bear and a monkey
The demonstration on Friday 21st October, ‘Wakey Wakey Mr Blair’ was in support of overnight stays for children with their dads after separation. Advertised as a ‘Pyjama Protest’, those taking part were asked to wear their ‘jim jams’, slippers and dressing gown, and bring their hot water bottles, teddy bears and even their beds.
Fathers for Justice protestors pose briefly on the road in front of the Royal Courts of Justice before police herd them into a pen on the pavement.“Blair & Co Family Butchers – 300,00 Children have lost contact with their fathers under Labout”
It poured on the morning of the march, which perhaps put a few people off coming, and there were only just over a hundred demonstrators all told, with just a sprinkling of pyjamas and beds, but the good publicity had resulted in a reasonable amount of press interest, both on the march and, rather more waiting for their arrival at the Royal Courts Of Justice in Strand.
Fathers 4 Justice supporters penned on the pavement opposite the Courts
I limped along with the march [still suffering from my knee injury a month earlier] which was led by a hired open-top double-decker bus, going the whole distance and taking a few pictures en route, but the arrival outside the Law Courts was disappointingly unorganised.
After listening to the address from the top of the bus for a few minutes I decided it was time to catch a bus.
The European Social Forum took place in London from Friday 15th October to Sunday 17th October 2004 and I covered events on the street on all three days, along with some other events. In this post I’ll include the entire text I wrote in 2004 (with the usual corrections) and just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took with links to the others still on My London Diary.
Friday
The samba band under Waterloo Bridge
The event of the month was undoubtedly the European Social Forum, held in London from 15-17 October. This brought together trade unionists, socialists, peace campaigners and greens from all over Europe to demonstrate that “Another Europe Is Possible“, but apparently left many complaining about how the event had been organised and manipulated. I choose not to attend the more serious sessions but to look at how this conference spilled over more creatively into the streets of London.
It was a generally good-natured event, with an international samba band. From the top of a tourist bus an American voice asked the bill what was on. As he floundered to reply, the woman I was talking to suggested “Hey it’s a fluffy takeover!”
Rising Tide: Global warming will result in much of London being flooded
On the Friday, Critical Mass were out on their bikes, together with Rising Tide and other environmental protesters. On a ‘London Underwater 2050 Tour of the G8 Climate Criminals‘. Starting under Waterloo Bridge, they went on tour, visiting the London offices of several climate change villains, including petrol giants Exxon Mobil and BP and the Canadian government, ending up outside the National Portrait Gallery, site of the annual BP-sponsored portrait award.
Most of the police were good-natured and cooperative throughout, but there were some ineffectual attempts to block the path of the demonstrators. By standing in the road the police blocked traffic, while the demonstrators simply walked around them.
Worrying was the deliberate police use of photography as intimidation, with the police photographer going out of his way to confront demonstrators, aided by two other officers.
Reading the indictment outside BP offices in St James’s Square, London
I worry because I think it is an attempt to attack civil liberties, but also because such behaviour makes all photographers suspect. I can only work effectively if I gain the trust and cooperation of those whose pictures I take. Perhaps it helps that photography is one of the activities that also arouses suspicion and intimidation by the police.
As I walked away at the end of the demonstration, this team ran 50 yards down the road and caught up with me, one calling “Excuse me, sir!” and tapping on my shoulder. I turned to face him, and found myself looking into the lens of the police photographer, who took my picture as his colleague started to question me about who I was taking pictures for. It seemed clear and deliberate harassment, intended to intimidate a photographer acting entirely lawfully, photographing on the public highway.
The samba band and others visited the temple of Mammon. Oxford Street on a Saturday must rank as about the most depressing place on earth, although IKEA – where my wife and son spent the day buying furniture for his new flat – must be a close contender.
Samba band in Oxford St, London
I couldn’t stand a whole afternoon in shopping hell, so left to watch the Rosary Crusade Of Reparation procession leaving from Westminster Cathedral on its way to Brompton Oratory. “The future”, I was assured, “is Latin“, and the event started with Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan from Brazil intoning “Credo in Unum Deum” from the loadspeaker on a police van. The creed was continued by the congregation, led by several Knights Of Malta and the traditional Catholic Family Alliance.
CGT banner at Puma in Carnaby St, London
Later I re-joined the French CGT and British GMB unions who were demonstrating outside Puma in Carnaby Street, over their use of sweated labour. It is an issue that has been highlighted in this country by ‘No Sweat’ who were also there, along with what was by now my favourite samba band, an international group with strong contributions from Sheffield and France.
By the time the band reached the top of Carnaby street, the police were obviously getting restless. I heard one giving the opinion to a member of the public “they’ve been pissing about for six hours and it’s time they went home“. Muscled officers in baggy black fighting gear were flexing muscles and grinning stupidly, obviously relishing the likely opportunity for a little action, as officers and demonstrators argued the toss.
Band in Carnaby St, London
Eventually commonsense and law prevailed and the demonstrators were allowed to keep moving along. On Oxford St we headed towards the goal of the CGT, the Virgin Megastore. There were actually a couple of tempting CDs on special offer, but I managed to leave empty-handed just before security, on police advice, lowered the shutters as the demo arrived, making a very brief stop for a CGT photo-opportunity.
No Sweat news at Niketown, Oxford Circus, London
After yesterday’s harassment, I slipped across Oxford Street at this point, past the police vans that were holding up the traffic and behind a bus before disappearing rapidly down the underground. It saves hassle, and I wanted to get to a great Nepalese meal near Euston Station.
Network Rail chose October weekends to isolate Staines from the rest of the world with extensive engineering works and a replacement bus service. The first I travelled on [on Saturday] got lost several times, taking the wrong route out of Feltham (including a prohibited two point left turn from the station yard) and proved unable to find the station in Hounslow. Getting various directions from other bus drivers and passengers, a mile further on he made a three point turn in the main London road, only to come back and drive past the turning for the station again. Directed by a passenger he then tried some side roads hardly wide enough for the bus to edge its way through, only to arrive at a one-way section leading away from our goal. We finally squeezed through another narrow side road to Hounslow Station.
Next time [on Sunday] the driver only got lost twice, missed out Feltham Station completely, and had to make one U-turn on a major road, but otherwise it was uneventful. I don’t like to knock the railways, but a little organisation would help.
Agit Contre la Guerre (ACG) were one of the liveliest groups on the march.
Sunday was the climax event for the European Social Forum, with a huge anti-war march to a rally in Trafalgar Square, and it was big. Stop The War as usual were trying to control the uncontrollable and mainly succeeding in frustrating the media. Demonstrators simply and entirely predictably surged past the ‘front of the march’ they tried to establish.
I don’t know how many there were on the march, but the police estimate of 15-20,000 seems as usual on the low side, although the organisers 75,000 may be equally too high. The most reliable guess is an average of the two.
Jamal Jumaa, Director of Stop the Wall Campaign in Palestine spoke forcefully
People were still flooding up Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square as I left, some two hours after the rally there was due to start.
Among the speakers I photographed were Tony Benn, George Galloway and Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Che.
Aleida Guevara (Che’s daughter)
Although it was a generally well-behaved and good-natured event, there were a few minor incidents – the police reported nine arrests. I saw two incidents that were sparked by aggressive police behaviour in trying to photograph some of those present, as well as some violent attempts to break through the stewards and access the fenced off platform area in the square, by demonstrators who wanted to raise the problem of several arrests having been made but were not allowed by the Stop The War stewards.
George Galloway: “There is one word in our hearts and our prayers – Falluja. Falluja is going to be a new Stalingrad over the next few weeks”
Domination of the anti-war movement by Stop The War and the SWP must take the blame for its lack of effectiveness. When a few lorry drivers can force a government volte-face, it takes really effective dinosaur socialism to prevent the views of a majority of the British people having any effect at all.
Mother Earth, Greenpeace & Agrofuels: On Monday 12th October 2009 I came to London for a protest over the threat of agrofuels both to the native Latin American people and to the planet. Later there was a protest against the UK subsidising power stations that use agrofuels and research into agrofuels for aviation which would enable that industry to continue to hugely pollute. Going home from Westminster I photographed protesters who were still on the roofs of the Houses of Parliament protesting against the failure to act on climate change.
London Mobilisation for Mother Earth
Embassies of Colombia, Peru & Spain
At the start of the protest opposite the Colombian embassy in Kensington
The Global Mobilisation for Mother Earth, an international day in support of the struggles of Latin American native people and to protest against the increasing threat of agrofuels, was called by the Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas on the day celebrated as a public holiday in the USA as Columbus Day, though it has other names in some South American Countries. It marks the day Columbus landed on Abya Yala (the Americas) in 1492.
The London protest was organised by the Coordinadora Latino-Americana which unites a number of Latin American solidarity groups in support of peoples along the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru who were marching against the European Union’s Free Trade agreements with Latin American countries. These will allow multinational companies to exploit resources on favourable terms, with deals by Colombia and Peru that will destroy the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous peoples. Former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his replacement Cathy Ashton, had played a leading role in these agreements.
On the way to the Peruvian embassy
The UK government was diverting large amounts of funding meant for renewable energy projects to the use of agrofuels which worsen global warming and threaten food security around the world.
Reading the letter to Peru outside the embassy
Large areas of land in Latin America and elsewhere in the global South is being taken over by multinationals for agrofuel production, displacing the inhabitants, and introducing monoculture that destroys biodiversity and rapidly exhausts the soil. Large areas of irreplaceable ancient forests are also being felled mainly to grow these crops, but also as timber and to burn in power stations.
After a protest with speeches relevant to Colombia outside their embassy and the delivery of a letter there, the protesters walked on the the Peruvian Embassy, where we listened to a clear exposition of the link between opposition to agro-fuels and the indigenous struggles in Peru by eco-socialist Derek Wall of Green Left. Another letter was handed on and we moved on to the Spanish Embassy for a further protest. I left them there to go to the protest at the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
The Department of Energy & Climate Change was briefly surrounded by flames – but police said remove them
Around a hundred protesters turned up for a demonstration at the DECC in London calling for an end to government subsidies for agrofuels because of their serious harm to communities and ecosystems and contribution to climate change.
The UK Government is diverting renewable energy subsidies (Renewable Obligations Certificates – ROCs) to subsidise power stations that use ‘agrofuels’. Fuel produced from palm oil was getting twice the subsidy that wind power would get to produce the same amount of energy. The hugely polluting wood-burning power station at Drax in Yorkshire was getting huge subsidies for its climate-wrecking activities.
Agrofuels were once seen as part of the solution to our environmental crisis, but we now know that they cause serious harm to the climate, wreck communities whose land is taken for their growth, destroy biodiversity, replace complex natural ecosystems by agrochemical based monoculture, and by replacing food crops, cause starvation.
Agrofuels allow industrial companies to continue ‘business as usual‘ and export their environmental problems to the non-industrial south, buying up land and creating ‘biofuel refugees‘ of indigenous peoples. A UN source has described this as a ‘crime against humanity.’
John Stewart
One of the speakers was John Stewart, who warned that the air transport industry sees agrofuels as their salvation, allowing them to continue offering cheap flights and increasing air traffic, while pretending to be green.
The Latin American ‘Mobilisation for Mother Earth’ arrives to join the protest
The protesters here were later joined by those who had been on the Mobilisation for Mother Earth protest against the the destructive alliance between multinational corporations and local elites in South America, particularly in mining and agrofuel production, and a speaker talked of their struggle for a dignified future for their children and their communities.
I stopped on my way home as I walked past the Houses of Parliament amd took a couple of pictures. Around 20 Greenpeace protesters who had been on the roof since the previous evening were still there, although they came down shortly afterwards and were arrested.
They held bright yellow banners with the message ‘CHANGE THE POLITICS SAVE THE CLIMATE’ and called on the UK Government to take effective measures to combat climate change, including stopping airport expansion, a refocus of taxes on pollution, fair financing to help pay for low carbon.
Greenpeace say we have to change to green policies rather than simply mouth green rhetoric and listed 12 policies to save the climate and our planet and end the locking of the UK into high carbon lifestyles. They said “The International Energy Agency and leading economists agree that failure to act now will lead to economic as well as environmental disaster” and this is now increasingly becoming obvious.
Although the protest gained considerable media attention, almost all of this in the major news media was about the breach in security on the Parliamentary Estate and not about the much more vital issues raised by the protesters.
Elephants, Football Lads & Stand Up To Racism: On Saturday 7th October 2017 I went to Parliament Square where people were holding a silent vigil against the ivory trade and then to Park Lane to photograph a rally and march by the Football Lads Alliance and Veterans Against Terrorism following terrorist attacks in the UK and Europe. Stand Up To Racism had organised a rally in Whitehall when their march was passing, calling on everyone including the Football Lads, to stand together against racism and Islamophobia.
Silent Vigil for Elephants and Rhinos
Parliament Square
A campaigner wearing a t-shirt ‘Only a Rhino Needs Its Horn’ holds a mock elephant tusk
Parliament Square was filled with carefully lined up protesters in t-shirts against the ivory trade, with some holding mock elephant tusks or rhino horns in a half hour long silent vigil. The event was part of the annual Global March for Elephants and Rhinos taking place around the world.
They called on the UK Government to bring in a full ban on ivory trade, saying that sales by antique dealers in Britain plays a major role in keeping ivory markets open and is driving the poaching that threatens elephants and rhinos with extinction.
Veterans Against Terrorism and football supporters with wreaths at the rally in Park Lane
The protest followed a number of attacks by terrorists across Europe, including the Westminster and London Bridge attacks in London in April and June 2017, and brought around 5,000 from the Football Lads Alliance and Veterans Against Terrorism to a rally and march to lay wreaths at Westminster Bridge.
Many had come with wreaths in their team colours and badges and posed with them before the really began.
Among those at the protest were families of the victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings for which six Irishmen were wrongfully convicted using coerced confessions and fabricated evidence, serving 16 years in prison in one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history. Their convictions led to an end to investigations that might had led to the actual killers being found.
Up the Gas (Bristol Rovers football club)John Meighan, founder of Football Lads Alliance
The event organisers emphasised that they were exposed to all extremism and racism, but some of the speeches were clearly racist and suggested that many thousands of Muslims in the UK were Islamist extremists and should be locked up, and were met with shouts of approval and much applause.
The event demanded the locking up of all terrorist suspects and the deportation of any of foreign origin. As I commented, “It was hard to avoid the impression that it was a meeting to stir up Islamophobia, and there seemed to be a total lack of sympathy with refugees fleeing their countries to seek asylum here.”
What shocked me most was the response of the crowd when a speaker mentioned Diane Abbott, then Shadow Home Secretary. There was a huge and prolonged outcry with a loud shout from a man behind me that she should be raped that met with approval from at least some of the crowd.
On my way to the rally I had walked past several pubs where supporters of the FLA were drinking, with small crowds of them on the pavement outside. Several people had shouted abuse at me and I recognised others from EDL, Britain First and other extreme right events I’ve photographed.
There were a few more I recognised at the rally and again I got a few hostile comments and I quickly moved away, but most of those at the event were keen to be photographed and get publicity for their event. Fortunately I think most of those in the pubs stayed there to join the march as it went past.
A Leeds United fan holds up a message ‘Together we are stronger’ on Whitehall
The Football Lads Alliance and Veterans Against Terrorism marched from Park Lane to Westminster Bridge to lay wreaths where the April terrorist attack had taken place. Among those taking part were groups representing clubs large and small around the country.
It was impossible to get a view of all of those at the front of the march as people kept walking in front of the photographersThe march begins… but I left shortly after and rejoined it at Trafalgar Square
The organisers had billed it as a silent march, and certainly some marched in silence as it left Park Lane, but it was quite loud by the time it arrived at Trafalgar Square. There it was joined by a group of a couple of hundred Gurkhas, many wearing their medals.
A large group of Gurkhas joined in front of the march at Trafalgar Square
The Gurkhas marched in front of the rest for a few yards, but were then soon overtaken by the march organisers including FLA founder John Meighan and Phil Campion former SAS Special Ops from SOFREP (Special Operations Forces Situation Report), a pro-military information site run by veterans, both of whom had made Islamophobic speeches at the Park Lane rally.
Going down Whitehall the march became very noisy, especially as it passed the small group form Stand Up To Racism opposite Downing Street. Police stood on the pavement between them and the marchers as they attempted to hand out leaflets suggesting how people might follow the march slogan ‘Together We Are Stronger‘ in a more inclusive way and to avoid the movement being dominated by the extreme right.
By the time the march arrived at Bridge Street to go onto Westminster Bridge, the numbers seemed to have roughly halved from those who had set out, despite several hundred people having joined it at Trafalgar Square. Some of them had stopped to confront the Stand Up To Racism protesters until police finally persuaded them to move on, but others had stopped off at various pubs.
A man rips up one of the leaflets from Stand Up To Racism
Stand Up To Racism had not tried to organise a large counter-demonstration but instead a small group had come to hold up banners and hand out leaflets to the marchers.
They had been careful not to call the marchers racists, but clearly many of the marchers felt they were being accused of racism and shouted abuse and threats at Stand Up To Racism (and at photographers.) Most from Stand Up To Racism stood well back from the march with banner.
Stand up to Racism supporters try to had out a flier to the marchers, but are largely met by shouted insults
“A few from Stand Up to Racism stood between the police lining the kerb were handing out a flier ‘Some questions for the leaders of the FLA’, which asked them to take steps to ensure their movement was not taken over by racists. Although the FLA strongly denies accusations that they are racist and against Muslims in general, there were many former supporters of far-right groups such as the EDL among those marching.”
A few take the leaflet and read itShow Racism the Red CardPolice eject a FLA supporter from the protest by Stand Up to Racism
A few FLA marchers tried to get into the SUTR protest but were ejected by police, but others were held back by friends.
A woman shouts at me for taking pictures, accusing me of calling her and the FLA racist
A crowd of the marchers stopped and continued to abuse the SUTR protesters. Eventually the police brought up reinforcements and pushed them away down the road.
Labour Party Conference: I’ve almost completely avoided political party conferences, which I find intensely boring. Perhaps if I had been commissioned to cover them I would have done so but I think I’ve never really needed the money that much, and I don’t have one of those long heavy and often white lenses that seem to be de rigeur.
So, while I went to Brighton on 27th September 2009 for the Labour Party Conference it wasn’t to photograph the actual conference but for the protest taking place outside the conference centre, and I also photographed a few other things happening around its edges.
Gordon on the Gravy Train etc
Labour Party Conference, Brighton
The ‘Vote for a Change’ campaign’s Westminster Gravy Train – and David Cameron in a blue tie at the back
Sunday was a splendid day with a clear bright blue sky that contrasted with the mood inside Fortress Brighton, surrounded by armed police and anti-tank obstacles where the conference was taking place.
Labour in 2009 was in a state of political turmoil following the financial crash and had come in third place in the European elections in June behind the Tories and UKIP. Local elections had been disastrous with many seats lost and the Tories taking control of many authorities. Labour had been badly hit by the MPs expenses scandal and some Labour MPs were openly calling on Gordon Brown to resign.
Tricycle-towed protest screens
The ‘Westminster Gravy Train’ by the Vote for a Change campaign was offering free transport to conference delegates. They called for a break with the “voting system that has left parliament unaccountable and unrepresentative” and for a referendum on electoral reform. Unfortunately the change we got in 2010 was to a disastrous coalition between Tory and Lib-Dems with a brutal and damaging programme of cuts.
Others protesting outside the centre included the Shaker Aamer campaign calling for the release of this UK resident from the US illegal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay where he was still held despite having been cleared for release, people calling for a boycott of Israeli goods, a protest against the Kafkaesque anti-terrorist control orders which allowed the government to impose severe restrictions on people relying on secret evidence in violation of their human rights.
And there were other protests about climate change, housing and more, with many people han ding out leaflets to conference delegates as they made their way into the centre, as well as the main demonstration I had travelled to Brighton to cover.
Three orange marine distress flares were set off opposite the Labour Party Conference
The protest had been called by trade unions and pressure groups – the UCU, NUJ, PCS, NUT, CWU and RMT, Right to Work, Stop the War and Unite Against Fascism – to demand a change in direction over proposals to cut public expenditure – and they had chartered a train to take people from London to the event, while others had come from around the country to join around two thousand on the seafront. I’d got up early to make my own way there by normal rail services.
Tower Hamlets College “We Fought & We Won”
For once there was some good news – a month-long strike at Tower Hamlets College had ended in talks at the arbitration service ACAS the previous day with agreement to avoid 25 compulsory redundancies.
Wesex RMT supports Vestas workers
But there was no such relief for the workers at wind power company Vestas Blades on the Isle of White who were at the front of the march, inexplicably abandoned by the government when the management decided to close this vital green industry down in the Isle of White and move production to the USA. As I commented then, “the government seems committed to gamble on the unlikely pipe-dream that the dirtiest of power-generation technologies – coal-fired power stations – can be tamed by 100% carbon capture and storage.”
Before the march started there were short speeches, including from a woman from the campaign waged by cleaners and other low paid workers in London for a living wage, another from Youth Fight For Jobs and a final speech from Brighton and Hove District Trades Council welcoming us to Brighton.
Two rows of barriers a roadway, two rows of police and a hedge between protesters and the conference centre
Despite this being a predictably peaceful event there was a very large police presence, not always helpful. They routed the march some distance away from the conference centre on the promenade rather than on the road outside and then for its return on the lower promenade more or less out of sight of the centre for the final rally.
On the march was an autonomous group of mainly students with the banner ‘STUFF THE MARKET – TAX THE RICH’ who periodically halted to allow a gap to develop in front of them, working up their chanting to a crescendo before rushing forwards scattering the photographers and videographers in front of them.
Taken over my shoulder at left as I rushed forward in front of the marchers
On My London Diary you can read a list of the speakers and an account of the final rally where many speakers expressed their dissatisfaction with the policies of New Labour which had abandoned its working class base. There are also many more pictures both from the march and the rally.
St Matthews Day, Uganda & Mass Lone Demos: A long day for me on Friday 22 September 2006, beginning with a parade in heavy rain in the City of London by students from Christ’s Hospital school which moved out of Newgate to West Sussex in 1902 but return each year for this annual event. I had time to spare for a lunch and then a some rather frustrating and disappointing trips to photography galleries before photographing a protest over the persecution of gays in Uganda. Finally I went to Parliament Square for another evening of mass lone demos.
Below I’ll post a few of the pictures with the text I wrote back in 2006, tidied up as usual, and links to more pictures still on My London Diary.
St Matthew’s Day Procession – Christ’s Hospital School
London
Friday I tried some underwater photography in the city, taking pictures of the annual St Matthews Day march by pupils of Christ’s Hospital School from a service in St Andrew’s Holborn. I kept with them all the way to Mansion House, where they turned down Walbrook before returning for their lunch with the Lord Mayor, but conditions were really atrocious for them and for me.
I kept the camera under my waterproof coat as much as possible, and kept wiping the rain of the lens filter with a microfibre cloth, but eventually the lens misted up inside and stopped focusing. So there are some interesting effects, but not much in the way of pictures.
I lunched on my own, then set off to visit a few photo galleries. The first two were closed, despite being advertised as open, which wasn’t a good start. But the third was open, as was the National Portrait Gallery, though the work there was a disappointment.
Outrage Protests at Uganda House
Trafalgar Square
Peter Tatchell with other demonstrators outside Uganda House
In Trafalgar Square Outrage and others were demonstrating outside Uganda House against the persecution of gays in Uganda. At first I thought the protestors were likely to be outnumbered by the two police, but eventually around 50 turned up, some having travelled a couple of hundred miles to be there.
I missed one picture of a Ugandan inside the building who had come up to the glass doors and was behind their rather fancy bird-shaped handles; as I raised my camera he scurried quickly away. Others were watching through the curtained windows of the upper stories.
The Mass Lone Demo showed solidarity with Brian Haw in his continuing protest opposite the Houses of Parliament
There were two sets of mass lone demos – following the idea of Mark Thomas – arranged for 6.00pm and 6.30pm in Parliament Square, with some demonstrators having also applied for permission to protest in Whitehall outside Downing Street later in the evening.
The Raving Loony Party also I think opposes SOCPA, although Albanian Stalinist leader Enva Hoxha didn’t mention it.
As well as the usual staunch supporters of Brian Haw (and of course the man himself) there were a wide variety of causes, across a whole spectrum from insanely nutty to deadly serious.
At least two commented on the actual nature of placards and signs, and those present demonstrated a wide range of care and skill.
The shortest demo on record was probably achieved by the two protesters who had brought a finely painted bendy bus, but, doubtless due to being held up in traffic, it arrived late and they finished their demonstration almost before it had started.
Mark Thomas, Babs Tucker and Brian Haw
The police stood around the edge of the square, not bothering to check up on what was going on. After all, one or two unauthorised demonstrations weren’t going to make a lot of difference among all those who had permission.
Even cheeky comments from some of the more regularly harassed protesters failed to arouse their interest.
Women Protest Against Rape: I was going to be out of London for the ‘Slutwalk’ which was to take place on Saturday 22nd September – though I had photographed the first Slutwalk in 2011, and was pleased to cover this earlier event organised by by Women Against Rape and supported by other groups including the English Collective of Prostitutes which preceded it and highlighted the issues behind the larger protest.
The protesters demanded justice for rape victims, whose claims are often dismissed or downgraded by the police who often blame the victim not the rapist. Many rapes are not reported to the police and of those that are, only less than 1 in 7 result in a conviction of the rapist.
Women who do report rape have often been accused by police of lying and some have been prosecuted for making false accuesations and sentenced to jail. The great majority of rapes go unreported – estimates vary between 70-95%.
There are seldom any witnesses to the actual crime other than the rapist and victim, and their impressions of the event and certainly the stories they tell may be very different. Most of the cases that result in successful convictions are those when the defendant pleads guilty.
Most rape – outside of war zones – is by men who are known to their victim and has nothing to do with what they are wearing, but reflects the unequal relationship between men and women which is at the base of our society.
The women taking part in the protest stripped to their underwear, holding up placards with the word SLUT and posters against the current failure by the law, police and courts to treat rape seriously. Most had slogans painted on their bodies, and they sang and chanted and spoke, some from their own experience of police failures to respond appropriately.
Women of colour feel they are discriminated against by police, and asylum seekers and refugees are under threat of deportation if they make a complaint. Sex workers are sometimes told that rape is a consequence of their job that they should expect, and police often go out of their way to enforce laws which put them at risk, rather than doing anything to protect them. Cases are often dropped because police or CPS feel the witness ‘lacks credibility’.
The Pope & Apprentice Boys of Derry: Pope Benedict XVI was in the UK on a State Visit from 16-19th Septemnber 2010, the first ever official papal state visit to the UK. There was a large protest in London on Saturday 18th September 2010 against his visit because of his hiding of evidence of child abuse and more widely against religious bigotry. By coincidence the day was also the day of the annual Carson Day parade by the City of London branch of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, also no friends of the Pope.
Apprentice Boys London Parade
Whitehall
City of Westminster Apprentice Boys of Derry Campsie Club
Because of the large protest against the Pope, police made the Apprentice Boys make an earlier than usual start so that they could lay their wreaths at the Cenotaph before the large march arrived.
I was unaware of this and arrived at the published departure time oon the Embankment I found no one there, and had to rush to Whitehall, arriving just in time to photograph them laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, and after to photograph them marching away.
As I wrote in 2010:
“The Apprentice Boys, along with the other organisations taking part in the march are Ulster Protestants, dedicated to upholding the Protestant faith. Several standards were for the London Somme Association, celebrating the part played by Ulster regiments in the First World War, listing some ofthe battles in which they suffered heavy losses – Ypres, Arras, Cambrai, Thiepcal, Fricourt and more. But one of the flags was for the Protestant Action Force, a name used for the Ulster Volunteer Force, formed in 1966 and actively involved in the ‘troubles’ until it declared a ceasefire in 1994 – it only officially ending its armed campaign in 2007.
The Orange institutions in London, though presumably providing support of various kinds for allied groups in Ulster, have always been more about the social and cultural aspects of Unionism, and their marchers through London have never attracted the kind of controversy that exists in Northern Ireland.”
Around 10,000 lined up in Piccadilly to show their opposition to the State Visit by the Pope
Widespread publicity around the Pope’s State Visit clearly swelled the numbers who came to march against his locking away evidence of child abuse by priests and for an end to religious bigotry, and it united many groups who are opposed to the religious fundamentalism of the Catholic church and to its interference in politics.
Both organisers and police were surprised by the number of marchers and the rally had to be moved further down Whitehall to where there was a larger space and the crowd filled the entire street for some distance on each side.
Peter Tatchell at the front of the march
Speakers including some militant atheists, made clear that this was not a march against religion and certainly not against Christmas, but against a particular man and his actions locking away evidence of child abuse and trying to smooth over cases of abuse rather than investigate and bring those concerned to justice.
This woman gave me a surprise when I photographed her
“It was also against a church organisation that meddles in politics at the highest level, pretending that the Vatican is a state (and even persuading the UN to treat it as such.) Of course it isn’t really a country but an NGO and should be treated as such.”
Because of its influence in the UN and on governments around the world, millions have died unnecessarily of AIDs through its opposition to the use of condoms.
Unlike many other churches, the Catholic Church remains an entirely male hierarchy, still insisting on male celibate priests – with predictable consequences. Among those marching were Catholic women calling for the church to ordain women – as have many other churches for many years – and also gay Catholic clergy. The speakers included one priest whose work caring for Aids victims in New York and London had been condemned by the Catholic Church.
Others were survivors of child abuse by Catholic priests, covered up both by the church and even by their own mothers because of their allegiance to the church.
Maryam Namazie
Maryam Namazie reminded the crowd “it isn‘t just the Catholic church that imposes its religious laws on people, but other religions such as Islam.” In Iran under Shariah law stoning is still in use, particularly to keep women in a state of submission.
The rally was cut short when police insisted that the PA system had to be turned off as the area was still covered by the ban on amplification in the area around parliament covered by SOCPA (the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, 2005.)
You can read a longer account of the rally – and far too many more pictures including several of each of the many speakers – on My London Diary: London Protests Against Pope.
I like to bring back to life many of the posts I wrote in the first six or seven years of My London Diary not just because of their interest and that many of the issues are still very relevant 20 or more years later, but also because as the site developed it became harder and harder to locate things and to find both images and particularly the text I had written about them.
These problems with My London Diary were largely resolved with a redesign of the site for new posts in 2008 which kept pictures and text together and a search facility. I also moved away from the lower case only text which had seemed appropriate when the site began around 2000. Revisiting posts from back then on >Re:PHOTO allows me to reunite text and some of the pictures (with links to the rest) and also to correct the many typos and misspellings from them. So here with these minor corrections is what I wrote back in 2006.
The White Rabbit, Alice and her friends were playing snakes and ladders
In Mary Harmsworth Park, waiting for the Christian Aid organised March On The Treasury to start I bumped – literally – into the Archbishop Of Canterbury. He looked even more distracted than usual. A couple of minutes later I returned to take his picture. Moving in his direction I took my eye off him for a second, and he vanished, leaving not even a cloud of smoke. Later we were told he had another appointment and so couldn’t stay.
And the Mad Hatter was having his tea party
However there were plenty of other people to photograph, perhaps a couple of thousand in all. We were there to march on the Treasury, to demand that the government withhold funding from the International Monetary Fund, because of the unfair economic conditions they impose on countries that want loans. When the IMF insists on free trade in agricultural produce for example, cheap EU subsidised tomatoes from Italy can flood local markets and put the local tomato farmers out of business.
Daleep Mukarjee, Christian Aid’s Director was able to tell us (as most had heard on the radio earlier in the day), that Development minister Hilary Benn had announced that we were holding back £50 million for that reason. It would stretch belief to think that this announcement, coming on the day of this major demo, had no connection with the six-month campaign leading up to it. Of course it is only a first small step in what needs to be done.
Among the other speakers was former Boyzoner Ronan Keating, (since going solo he has an impressive list of top ten singles and albums, though I’ve never knowingly heard any of them.) He gave a decent speech and spoke movingly about his trip to Ghana for Christian Aid.
A police woman poses to have her picture taken with Ronan Keating
Then we were on the march, across Lambeth Bridge and up past the Houses Of Parliament to Whitehall, where the two thousand or so of us paused outside Downing Street while a small group went in to deliver an African drum and the Christian Aid petition to Gordon Brown’s door.
People in the Treasury were listening – But will more action follow?
The parade came to a halt outside the Treasury Offices in Whitehall Place, with more drumming and speeches. At least some of those inside took a little interest in what was going on, breaking off from their tea break to listen to the speeches.
The annual Al Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) march in London as usual attracted controversy, with various groups coming out to protest against it. In 2009 these included Iranian democrats, royalists and socialists as well as far right groups including the English Defence League and March For England, but there seemed to be few organised Zionists on the streets.
Al Quds Day was initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini when he became Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989 as a day on the last Friday of Ramadan (the London march is on the following Sunday) to oppose the Israeli occupation and control of Jerusalem, and at least one of the groups involved in organising the event is said to received funding from the Iranian authorities – which accounts for the Iranian protesters.
The march starts under the main banner ‘Justice for the Murdered Children of Gaza’
The march has become a wider protest calling for freedom for Palestine and an end to the Israeli occupation of land which for many centuries was Palestine. For many of the marchers this also means support for those fighting against Israeli occupation, both in Palestine and Lebanon.
A few of the marchers carried Hezbollah flags, the flag of both the Lebanese Shia political party and its military wing. The military wing had been proscribed in the UK in 2008, but it was only in 2019 that this ban was extended to cover the political wing, making carrying the flag an offence. You can see a few of these yellow flags in my pictures. There are also some placards supporting Hezbollah and Hamas for their resistance to Israel.
Demonstrators against the march were gathering earlier at Piccadilly CircusThey included Iranians as well as right wing football supporters
In 2009 the march was carefully policed to keep the marchers and protesters against the march from coming into contact and I saw some from both groups being stopped and searched in the area around Marble Arch where the march gathered.
Neturei Karta marchers
People come to the march in coaches from mosques around the country and many come as families. Although there were separate men’s and women’s blocs the organisers announced that those who wanted to march as families were welcome to do so, and many, particularly the younger marchers, took advantage of this.
Rabbi Ahron Cohen who spoke at the rally at the end of the march
At the front of the march were Muslim clerics and two Neturei Karta Jewish leaders. These ultra-orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist and believe that Jews are forbidden from establishing a Jewish state until the arrival of the Messiah and support the peaceful dismantling of the state of Israel to become a part of Palestine.
The main counter-protest came at Piccadilly Circus, with most of those taking part encircled around ‘Eros’ by a double line of police. They protested noisily as the march went by but most of the marchers followed the advice of the march stewards and ignored them. Some held up their posters and there were minor scuffles when a few marchers tried to leave the march and approach them.
As well as shouting insults at the Muslims, the counter-protesters were also making threats, gestures and shouting at the photographers, and I was glad not to be too close although the police bodies between made taking pictures difficult.
Police had also told the march organisers that they could not march to Trafalgar Square but must end with a rally in the much smaller area of Waterloo Place, which became extremely crowded. I left after listening to the first few speakers.
