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News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid – 2006

News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid: On Sunday 11th June 2006 a protest took place outside the News International printing works in Wapping a week after its staff had tricked migrants in East London by making fake job promises and then transporting them by bus to an immigration detention centre. This was one of many outrages by the newspaper, which was finally forced to close in 2011 by the many revelations about its involvement in illegal phone hacking.

Later in the day there was a larger protest at New Scotland Yard against a massive police raid by 250 police on a home in Forest Gate in which one of two men arrested was shot and wounded by police. Police also forcefully raided a neighbouring house, and the whole local area was shut down for several days. Police were acting on a rumour that this was a terrorist bomb factory but no chemical materials were found and the two men were released seven days later without charge.

Here is what I wrote back in 2006 about these with some pictures from the protests.

No Borders Protest at Wapping

News of the World, Wapping

News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid - 2006 — *Demonstrators outside the gate to Fortress Wapping*

Last Sunday the ‘News Of The World’ bragged about how a team of its staff had made fake offers of work to migrants, picking on the weakest and most exploited people living here with us. They had then picked them up in a bus and taken them without their consent to the Colnbrook Detention Centre, where they were handed over to immigration officers and detained.

I hope their actions will be condemned by my union (the NUJ) as a disgrace to journalism, and endangering relations between genuine reporters and migrants. Such deception should not be tolerated by anyone, and the would seem to amount to kidnapping.

All of us should be appalled that this was allowed to happen – and that apparently the authorities connived in it rather than turning the buses away as they should have done.

Colnbrook detainees made their feelings about the person who organised the scam clear “You are a gutless, incompetent, bully” and pointed out that it was such “unfair ill-informed reporting” that was responsible for the adoption of inhuman policies that led to migrants not claiming asylum and hiding from the authorities, which left them open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers, with long hours, low pay and poor and dangerous working conditions.

A few more pictures

Rally For Justice – Forest Gate Raid

New Scotland Yard, Victoria St

A crowd of several hundred demonstrators, mainly Muslim, gathered outside New Scotland Yard on Sunday afternoon, 11th June 2006, to voice their disquiet at the June 2nd police raid in Forest Gate.

Speakers from across the Muslim community as well as Respect MP George Galloway and Lindsey German of ‘Stop The War’ expressed their misgivings at the heavy-handed approach of the police and the targeting of Muslims. There were calls for the resignation of the Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Ian Blair. Many also called for Tony Blair to go.

Certainly there should be some rapid re-thinking of how (and why) any further such raids are carried out. I’d always assumed that when the police kicked down my front door at 4 am they would at least shout out something like ‘Police – get on the floor’ as they stormed in rather than leave me to think they were an armed criminal gang. And while I might expect them to restrain me, shooting me or and kicking me in the head without very good reason surely should result in a criminal conviction?

A rather grudging apology dragged out over a week after the event isn’t good enough. Of course there are enquiries going on, but the police have to show some sensitivity. [Later the officers concerned were cleared of any “criminal or disciplinary offence“.]

Several speakers made the point that ‘police intelligence’ was in almost all respects woefully lacking. All of us are put at danger – as last year’s London bombings showed – because police waste time and resources on false rumours such as those behind this raid. One speaker went through a long, long list of such happenings around the country, including some the police still persist in believing despite having cases thrown out by the courts.

The event attracted major media attention; it was hard to get an accurate estimate of the number of demonstrators because there were so many reporters and photographers etc present. Along with a core of 250, representing the number of police involved in the raid, there were probably a hundred or more others.

More pictures begin here.

Wikipedia states: “The Metropolitan Police revealed under freedom of information legislation that what was known as Operation Volga had cost £2,211,600, including £864,300 on overtime payments for the dozens of police officers involved, £90,000 on hotel bills, and £120,000 for repairs to the damage caused to the houses by the police.”

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Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs – 2006

Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs: Sunday 4th June 2006 was a day for marching and running on the streets of London. In the City, the London Regiments were remembering their fallen comrades, and several thousand women were raising funds for cancer research. In Hyde Park I joined several thousand Sikhs at a rally before they marched in memory of the martyrdom of the Fifth Guru and the Indian genocide of Sikhs, calling for the release of political prisoners and the formation of an independent Sikh state.

I wrote a rather longer piece than usual, ending with a complaint about the police harassment of photographers during the Sikh march. There do seem to be some officers who really have a very negative attitude towards photographers, and at times in particular towards those with UK Press Cards. Though formally these are recognised by all police forces in the UK, that recognition too often means nothing on the street. Below is what I wrote in 2006 – with the usual minor corrections.

London Old Comrades

Bank of England

Old Comrades, Women for Life & Sikhs - 2006

Early Sunday the centre of the real City, around the Bank Of England is generally pretty empty, but today things were going on. Immediately north of the bank a small group of ‘old comrades’ from the London Regiments were preparing to march and lay poppy wreaths at the monument to their fallen comrades in front of the Royal Exchange. Some of those I spoke to had fought in the second world war, though there were also some younger people there. It’s a remembrance that has taken place twice a year since 1919.

It was a solemn and ceremonial occasion, impressive and colourful, with a well-disciplined smoothness. The monumental architecture of the Bank made a good setting, although the area on top of Bank Station itself is too fussy and cluttered.

more pictures

Race For Life London

City

As they marched off, I peeled left in search of 750,000 women, or rather that fraction who were taking part in the Central London event. ‘Race For Life’ for Cancer Research UK, is the UK’s largest women-only nationwide fund-raising day. There certainly were a lot of them, [around 10,000], at times packing even the wider streets full from side to side, making it hard to walk along Cornhill.

Women of all ages, shapes, sizes, races and speeds running, walking or limping or wheel-chairing around the 5km course. There were fewer serious runners than I’d expected and less fancy-dress, but the sheer numbers were impressive.

more pictures

Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally

Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square

The Sikh Remembrance March and Freedom Rally commemorated the martyrdom of the fifth guru, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji 400 years ago, as well as the events of 1984.

Guru Arjan Dev Ji compiled the first version of the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, in 1604, writing many of the hymns within it. He was arrested in Lahore in 1606 on the orders of Mogul Emperor Jehangir, tortured for 5 days and martyred on the banks of the River Riva.

Punjabi speakers at the rally in Hyde Park described the events of 1984. The marchers demanded an acknowledgement of the Indian genocide of Sikhs, the release of Sikh political prisoners held in Indian jails, and for the establishment of an independent secular state of Khalistan in the Punjab.

During the annual celebration of the death of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji in 1984, Indira Ghandi sent her troops to attack Sikh militants in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Many innocent pilgrims – men, women and children – were killed in the brutal assault. Thousands more died around the Punjab, particularly in the riots incited by government TV and radio stations after the October assassination of Indira Ghandi by her Sikh bodyguards.

After the speeches came prayers, and then the march set off for Trafalgar Square and another rally. This was a serious event, with strongly felt grievances, and an impressive display of Sikh tradition and feelings.

The marchers were pleased to find photographers taking an interest in their cause, with many of them encouraging me and thanking me for my presence. Some had heard of this web site [My London Diary] too.

*The march sets off in Hyde Park, with five men representing the original Panj Piare (Five Beloved Ones.)*

Until we were close to Hyde Park Corner, the police were helpful and in good humour too, but then along came one of the rotten apples, someone who just wanted to push photographers around. He came and told me to get off the road, as I was stopping the demonstration. This was clearly absolute nonsense, and I tried to tell him, but reason held no interest for him.

*Police harass a photographer trying to do his job. I and other photographers got the same treatment*

Other photographers got harassed too. You can see one of them in my picture. We are accused of holding up the march, generally nonsense as most of us want to capture action in our images, and if people even slow down, will wave them on.

Of course it’s those at the actual front of the march who would have any effect on its progress. Further back where we were working, small gaps develop and are closed up all the time without affecting the overall progress.

I have respect for the police – some at least of their work is essential, but this kind of petty and stupid behaviour simply makes their job harder for no reason.

It also makes the work of photographers impossible. I can’t work unless I can stand in the right place to take pictures, and that is seldom on the sidelines. At the highest level, the police realise this; it’s about time they got some of the little dictators in the middle to put it into practice.

*The message of love & peace SILENCED BY TANKS*

Of course the policing of many marches is over the top. There were probably ten times the number needed for this event, which was predictably well ordered, good natured and essentially self-policing. Traffic control was really all that was required. Perhaps harassing photographers makes these surplus guys on overtime think they have a purpose.

Twenty minutes later, along with several of the other photographers, I was on my third warning from this guy and he was getting redder and more and more tense. I was interested in how the situation might develop, but I was also tired and it was time for me to go elsewhere.

more pictures

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State Opening of Parliament 2015

State Opening of Parliament: I wasn’t of course attending the Queen’s Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 27 May 2015, but it was a day for protests in Westminster. Class War had come to protest against the monarchy and the political system and were hounded by police, Compassion in Care protested in support of whistle-blowers, students in the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts had organised a rally and march and others including Disco Boy and Ahwazi protesters came to join in. The day ended with a People’s Assembly rally at Downing Street but I was too tired to cover this properly and went home. I wrote about all these in My London Dairy and uploaded quite a few pictures – you can read and view more by following the links in the brief introductions below.

Class War protest Queen’s speech

Parliament Square

Class War only managed to display their ‘political leaders’ banner on the corner of Parliament briefly before police forced them to put it away. Around 50 officers then followed most of them as they went to a nearby pub and continued to watch them from the opposite side of the street for several hours.

Police arrested two other men for simply standing in the square, one holding a video camera and the other a rolled up poster. They were released without chanrge some hours later.

More at Class War protest Queen’s speech.

I am Edna’ – protect whistle-blowers

Downing St

*A woman holds a photograph of her husband who died because of his mistreatment in a care home*

A line of people held up posters and shouted ‘I am Edna’ at Downing St calling for a law which would make it an offence not to act on the genuine concerns of a whistleblower and to protect those revealing scandals in social care and other sectors.

More at ‘I am Edna’ – protect whistle-blowers.

Police arrest man in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

As people gathered for the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts a police squad rushed in and arrested a man. They were surrounded by a crowd who grew angry when police refused to give them any explanation for the arrest and pushed some away roughly

Police pushed a young man standing on the pavement near the police van roughly out of their way, and when he complained, he was assaulted by an officer then arrested for assault.

Later police announced that the arrest in the square was in no way related to the gathering protest but to an earlier offence. Had they made that clear to the crowd when they made the arrest the problems could have been avoided.

More pictures Police arrest man in Trafalgar Square.

Disco Boy plays Trafalgar Square

*Disco Boy at the mike with his mobile rig and crew in Trafalgar Square*

Disco Boy’ Lee Marshall from Kent who runs discos at local events and carries out stunts to be videod and posted on social media brought a mobile rig to Trafalgar Square before the NCAFC protest there and had people dancing around the square before going on to perform elsewhere, including outside Downing St.

Disco Boy plays Trafalgar Square

NCAFC rally in Trafalgar Square

*Class War’s controvesial banner got loud cheers from the crowd*

Students and other supporters of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts met in Trafalgar Square, and there were a few short speeches before they set off on a march.

A banner points out that less than a quarter of the population had voted for the Tory government and called for proportional representation.

Protesting with them were Class War, with several banners including a replacement for their ‘Political Leaders’ banner’ which had been taken by Bethnal Green Police the previous month (and police ‘lost’ it) and also the Hashem Shabani group of Ahwazi Arabs, who later held their own protest

NCAFC rally in Trafalgar Square.

NCAFC March against ‘undemocratic’ government

The National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts set off down Whitehall with police making ineffectual attempts to stop them, arresting several forcefully.

The rest of the protesters remained peaceful and simply walked through the huge gaps in the police line, made larger as they made the few arrests. There seemed to be no reason for the police attempting to stop them.

The protesters complained to police about the violent attacks and arrests. They went to protest outside the DWP and then marched past the now heavily protected Tory Party HQ back to a People’s Assembly rally opposite Downing Street. Some stayed there, others marched on and I went home. It had been a long day.

More pictures at NCAFC March against ‘undemocracy’.

Ahwazi Arabs protest Iran’s war on them

*Our Pens Are Our Swords. Our Voices Are Our Bombs*

Ahwazi protesters joined the mainly student anti-austerity National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts protesters in London to call for an end to the Iranian attacks on their heritage and identity. Their homeland, which includes most of Iran’s oil, was occupied by Iran in 1925

I photographed them in Trafalgar Square with the NCAFC and later when they left the march as it went through Parliament Square to hold a separate protest there.

More pictures: Ahwazi Arabs protest Iran’s war

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Youth Strike for Climate – 2019

Youth Strike for Climate: London, Friday 24 May 2019

As we are expecting record May temperatures in the next few days and a summer with more deaths than ever from excessive heat, it is abundantly clear that the response of governments and politicians around the world to the climate crisis has for many years been woefully inadequate – and continues to be so.

Of course many of us have been pointing this out for many years, stressing the need for drastic changes to move away from the use of fossil fuels. As well as a huge shift to renewable energy this would also have needed dramatic changes in lifestyle in the industrialised countries and a move away from the politics and economics of greed and inequality.

Back in 2019 many young people saw we were heading towards catastrophe and failing globally to take effective steps to ameliorate the unavoidable crisis. They face a future world where temperatures will be generally several – perhaps five – degrees higher and our current global weather systems will be replaced by more extremes, with even more common fires and floods.

The younger you are now, the worse the problems will get in your lifetime, so it is hardly surprising that the young are more concented, and that many thousands around the world took part in a global climate strike against the lack of action by governments worldwide to combat the climate crisis in London in May 2019.

It was a protest with a great deal of energy, with a large crowd of mainly school students meeting in Parliament Square before marching past several ministries and staging a sit-down outside the Ministry of Education demanding that climate change becomes a vital aspect of the curriculum.

*A crowded sit-down on the street at the Education Ministry*

Clearly many school art departments were already getting involved, with protesters carrying an unusually numerous wide range of placards, for once hugely outnumbering those mass-produced by the Socialist Workers Party.

From there they marched back up Whitehall past Downing Street to hold a rally in front of Nelson’s Column, then returning to protest at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and finally going back to Parliament Square.

By then I think some police tempers were getting a little frayed and some students were manhandled rather aggressively off the road – and at least one minor was arrested.

I’d got tired with some often rather fast marching and the protest was still continuing when I decided it was time to go home.

Many more pictures at Youth Strike for Climate.

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6 Music, EDL & Democracy – 2010

6 Music, EDL & Democracy: On Saturday 22 May 2010 I began work outside the BBC with people protesting over the threatened closure of two popular radio networks, 6 Music and the Asian Network. I then covered a march through London by the far-right English Defence League. During the day I walked several times through Parliament Square and took a few pictures of the ‘Democracy Camp’ still there along with the longstanding Peace Camp.

Save BBC 6Music & Asian Network

Broadcasting House

Newspaper reports that the BBC might be planning to axe the digital music channel 6 Music stirred a huge campaign by supporters to save the radio station with #SaveBBC6Music trending on Twitter and a Facebook Group with nearly 180,000 members.

Radio 6 had been launched by the BBC in 2002 as a digital alternative music station and played a wide range of music including many genres largely marginalised by the more mainstream Radio 1 and Radio 2 – Wikipedia lists its output “pop, rock, dance, electronic, indie, hip-hop, R&B, punk, funk, grime, metal, soul, ska, house, reggae, jazz, blues, world, techno, experimental and many others“.

Around five months later “the BBC Trust announced that it was not convinced by the BBC Executive’s plans and that the station would not be closed.”

The very public campaign to save the station led to a significant growth in listeners and this continued, and by 2014 it was attracting more listeners than Radio 3.

The Asian Network which had begun on BBC local radio beofre being launched in 1989, and had later gone nationwide were also under threat. The BBC Trust also rejected plans to close the network but did cut its budget by 50%.

Save 6 Music & Asian Network

EDL In Patriot March in Central London

Westminster

The march through London to pay respect to the war dead at the Cenotaph and then hold a short rally at the Duke of York Steps was officially organised by ‘British Citizens Against Muslim Extremists’, but was largely if not entirely attended by those who had taken part in previous EDL marches, with many carrying EDL banners.

Unlike previous EDL marchers this was a peaceful march and there were few if any counter-demonstrations. The few hundred marchers included quite a few families and many carried St George flags.

Most here happy to be photographed when I met them outside a pub at the start of the march, many playing up for the cameras. And stewards quickly led away one man who seemed about to attack a press photographer.

Stewards also quickly dealt with a man who began an offensive chant about Allah, telling him the EDL was against such racist sentiments and also that the police had told them they would stop the march taking place if there were such racist chants.

There were loud chants against Sharia Law but also against ‘Muslim bombers’ a phrase that stigmatises all Muslims for the actions of a a few extremists which are not supported by the mass of the Muslim community.

The march set off noisily, but as it turned into Whitehall and approached the Cenotaph it became a silent tribute to British troops, which was followed by applause, with the chanting resuming as they came past Downing St, marching on through Trafalgar Square to Waterloo Place for the rally.

*This man had been cautioned by police for wearing this ‘England Till I Die’ t-shirt on the street*

On My London Diary I write more about the march and about some of the marchers I photographed who told me about police harassment and being refused entry to pubs for wearing England shirts. Most who spoke to me were also insistent that they were not racists and they were happy for Muslims to live here so long as they respected British traditions and fitted in with our way of life.

At the rally I was threatened by a few of the protesters who decided to try to prevent press photographers from working. I complained to a couple of the stewards, and one of them accompanied me as I took a few more pictures before leaving.

More at EDL Patriot March in London.

Democracy Camp Continues

Parliament Square

I walked through Parliament Square several times over the day and took a few pictures.

There wasn’t a great deal happening, but the Democracy Camp which had set up there on May Day was still there three weeks later, despite the huffing and puffing from Boris Johnson and others.

Although they claimed their action was supporting the long-term protest by Brian Haw and supporters who were under constant threat by the police and others, the Parliament Square Peace Campaign suspected the Democracy Camp of being promoted by the police.

Democracy Camp Continues

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LSE Cleaners Strike For Equality And Dignity – 2017

*‘Life NOT Money at the LSE’ protesters chalked on the roadway and lay down, blocking the street*

LSE Cleaners Strike For Equality And Dignity: The protest by cleaners at the LSE on Thursday 11th May 2017 was just one more in a long series of weekly one-day strikes demanding parity of terms and conditions with other staff there who were directly employed by the LSE.

The cleaning was outsourced to cleaning contractor Noonan, who employed cleaners under considerably inferior terms – pay, holidays, pensions etc – compared to those workers employed on the site by the LSE. I had been at the meeting in September 2016 when with their union, the United Voices of the World, they began their campaign for parity of treatment and had also photographed their protests.

The UVW were eventually successful after a series of strikes featuring “flashmobs, salsa, zumba, poetry, art sessions, teach-outs” and “after 10 months of struggle, and the then largest cleaners strike in UK history and the highest number of strike days of any group of outsourced workers in UK higher education – outsourcing was ended and all cleaners were brought in-house as LSE employees! Their fight against institutional racism was the first “to force a British university to end the practice of outsourcing cleaners!“

My post told the story of the event in picture and captions which describe the harassment by police and others of some of the supporters, particularly those from Class War. Here is a brief edited version.

*Noonan employs the cleaners at the LSE and the cleaners get low pay, low status and terrible management*

*They work in the same place and deserve equal treatment. Their claims are supported by students and LSE staff. Trenton Oldfield brought his daughter with him to show solidarity with the cleaners.*

*LSE Security have closed the area in front of the library normally open to the public. The road is a public highway*

One police officer starts harassing Sid Skill of Class War who has come to show solidarity. Sid refuses to talk to him and moves away – and eventually fled fearing arrest followed by two police officers, escaping them by jumping on a bus as the doors closed

A woman who works in the LSE comes to tell the cleaners they are making a lot of noise and disturbing her day and then hugs the police officer and smiles when she sees I am photographing her. The cleaners say they have to make a lot of noise as the LSE management refuse to talk with them and their union.

Cleaners make a noise – they want management to talk to them and to recognise their union. They also want to be treated with dignity and respect at work, a living wage and equal pensions, sick pay and other benefits.

A man comes to complain to Class War about their support for the cleaners. He says that they don’t have any right to be there. Jane Nicholl puts him right. He seems to have no idea what class war is and no understanding of class solidarity. And as I suspect Jane put it is a stupid prick. Though she may have been less kind.

The protesters march around the campus to visit a couple of other sites from brief protests in Lincolns Inn Fields and then Sardinia St before going to the Student Union, where there were speeches an poetry from Grim Chip of Poetry on the Picket Line.

Meanwhile Life Not Money at the LSE had been at work, painting their message in chalk on the road and then sitting down on the Portugal St in front of Old Building, stopping lorries entering or leaving the LSE building site.

You can read the full version with more pictures and text at LSE Cleaners strike.

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Cleaners at Clifford Chance – 2013

Canary Wharf, Fri 3 May 2013

Cleaners at Clifford Chance: Clifford Chance is now the third largest UK based law firm and one of the five members of the “Magic Circle” of leading London-based multinational law firms. Trainees there apparently now start on £56,000 and after qualification are on £150,000 a year, though hours are long. But as with many other leading businesses the cleaners there were not employed directly and the cleaning was outsourced to MITIE.

The cleaners complained of bullying, race, sex and disability discrimination and victimisation of trade unionists by cleaning contractor MITIE. Their trade union, the IWGB had been trying to get a meeting with MITIE for a month to discuss the dispute at Clifford Chance without success, so they decided to go there and protest.

*Some manage to enter and protest in the foyer*

The offices are in a tall block on the Canary Wharf estate, a private estate with its own security force, and protests were definitely not allowed there. Nor for that matter is photography, though many tourists are there taking pictures. And although I’ve taken photography students and workshops there in the past without problems (sticking to a strict no tripods rule) I have twice been stopped by security – and once actually escorted off the estate. So both I and the IWGB were a little worried about the reception we might get.

On Friday May 3rd 2013 I travelled with around 30 protesters to Canary Wharf station on the Jubilee Line for a surprise protest, and at the station after a short briefing they quickly got out their union flags and a couple of placards and marched rapidly to the nearby Clifford Chance offices.

There some managed to get through the doors before the building security managed to stop them and I went with them. They were careful to cause no damage and after a few minutes when they were politely requested to leave did so, continuing the protest on the pavement outside.

Canary Wharf Estate security men soon arrived, in uniforms which seemed to me to be impersonating police officers (an offence under the Police Act 1996) and were soon followed by the Head of Security. He tried to speak to the protesters telling them they had to leave.

There were arguments and a few minor incidents, particularly after the security officers began to push the protesters who told them that this was an assault, and particularly when one officer hit a woman and some tried to grab the cleaners’ leader Alberto Durango.

But after this things quietened down. The protesters assured the Head of Security they would leave shortly.

There was a short period of noisy protest and then a speech in which Alberto made clear they were protesting because MITIE were treating the cleaners with disrespect and their only response to the many and lengthy complaints made by the union had been to banning union representatives and victimising union activists.

We then made our way back to the station. Despite my fears I had at no point been asked to stop taking photographs, and you can see many more of them on My London Diary.

Cleaners at Clifford Chance

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Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL – 2009

Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL: Saturday April 18th 2009 was another varied day for me, beginning at the City of London Police HQ with a protest over their policing of demonstrations – including the killing of Ian Tomlinson on April 1st, then a chance meeting with a Shakespeare event close to where he died. In Westminster I photographed a continuing Tamil hunger strike and went on to the Dutch festival in Trafalgar Square before photographing the annual Loyal Orange Lodge Parade, leaving them in Whitehall to finally go home.

Protest Against London Police

City of London Police HQ, Wood St

Police, Shakespeare, Tamils, Dutch, LOL - 2009

The carnival-themed protest in London on April 1st was met with an extraordinary display of police violence “police chiefs and politicians had spent the previous week ramping up the temperature and predicting violence.”

*Three and a half Horsemen of the Apocalypse outside the Police Station on Wood St*

As I reported on the April 1st protest: “Many of the police, particularly the TSG, came along to the event psyched up and spoiling for a fight” and their violence was not restricted to the small number of protesters who had come to cause trouble, but was also directed at the great majority of peaceful protesters – and to the press who were photographing the event.

Many police officers had removed or hidden their ID numbers to avoid being identified by protesters or recorded in photographs, a clear sign that they were intending to break the law.

Videos taken of the police attacks on the crowds show ‘people being attacked simply holding up their arms to protect themselves as police assault them with batons and riot shields used as weapons, people standing there and chanting “We are not a riot” and “Shame, shame, shame on you.” ‘

The protesters called for police to remember they are there to serve the public and for an end to the wholesale “kettling” of protests, the disbanding of the TSG and for proper training of police in handling demonstrations. They called on senior officers to enforce proper discipline and regulations and a complete end to all officers turning a blind eye when their colleagues behave illegally.

More at Protest Against London Police.

Shakespeare’s Birthday Coincidence

Cornhill

At the end of the protest I walked to the display on Cornhill set up around the Cornhill Fountain a few yards from where Ian Tomlinson died, staggering there after being assaulted by a police officer while making his way home after work, with police refusing to give him medical attention until too late.

I was standing there when to my surprise a group of around 20 people, each holding a red flower came towards me, led by a woman with a badge saying ‘Steward.’ They stopped for a short performance exactly where Tomlinson died, where there was a picture of a woman and some flowers

They then stopped and a man read a short piece, which sounded vaguely familiar. As the group left I asked him about it “and found that this was one of around 20 groups each being taken on a guided walk around the city to various sites with similar performances to this of one of the sonnets to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday next Thursday.”

Shakespeare’s Birthday Coincidence

Tamil Hunger Strike Continues

Parliament Square

Eight days earlier I had visited the hunger strike by two young Tamil men over the ongoing genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had begun their hunger strike on 6th April and the hunger strike was still continuing on the 18th, with a dozen of so others joining them each day for a one day fast, and a crowd of around 500 more Tamils beside their pen in support.

They protesters all supported the Tamil Tigers in their fight for an independent homeland and called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka, with full access for the UN, the Red Cross and other agencies, as well as the international press, along with an opportunity for the Tamils in Sri Lanka to have a free and independently observed referendum on their future.”

Not long after, in May 2009, the fight by the Tamil Tigers for independence ended in defeat. Since then Tamils have been subjected to continuing human rights violations although their situation is reported to have improved somewhat since 2015.

Tamil Hunger Strike Continues

Dutch Stereotypes

Trafalgar Square

“In Trafalgar Square, the Dutch were holding a festival to prove their lack of understanding of popular music and to sell cheese, chips and beer. The cheese did look quite attractive. The only thing missing seemed to be a windmill, but I probably just didn’t look hard enough.”

Dutch Stereotypes

Loyal Orange Lodge Parade

Westminster

On My London Dairy you can read more about the Orange Order which takes its name “from William, Prince of Orange who landed in Devon in 1688 to restore parliamentary democracy and prevent the imposition of the Catholic religion by James II. This was the ‘Glorious Revolution’ which forced James II to flee and made William king as William III.“

It led to greater freedom for dissenting nonconformist Protestants but Catholics were denied the right to vote, be MPs, become army officers or marry the monarch. That marriage is still out.

*The Worthy Mistress of Corby First Ladies LOL53 unveils a new banner before the start of the march*

The regular Orange marches in London are largely uncontroversial, but in Northern Ireland they still perpetuate the division between the Protestant and Catholic communities which led to the ‘troubles’.

*Banners are lowered as a mark of respect as they march past the Cenotaph*

I photographed them laying wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and marching past but theen left as they went on to the the statue of of “King Billy” in St James’s Square.

I’ve often been threatened and made unwelcome when photographing Orange marches, because of my political views or possibly those of a photographer who worked for Searchlight magazine which gathers information on the far right they have confused me with. Others taking part in Orange Order marches have congratulated me for my pictures.

More about the parade and many more pictures at Loyal Orange Lodge Parade.

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No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre – 2006

No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre: Twenty years ago on April 8th 2006 I was outside the two large detention centres on the Bath Road at Harmondsworth on the northern edge of Heathrow Airport. A protest there had been called by No Borders and among those protesting with them were the International Organisation of Iranian Refugees,

Detainees were kept way from the front of the building so they could not see the protes, but they could hear they were there.

It’s hard to find the text I wrote back in 2006 or the pictures, so I’ll include the text below along with a link to the start of the pictures.

No Borders: Harmondsworth Detention Centre

Harmondsworth, London

The No Borders demonstration outside Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres – the two are separated only by a narrow road – was at times loud and noisy, so those kept in these secure prisons knew that they were receiving support, even though they were cleared from that side of the building so they could not hear the speeches. [Some who phone the protest clearly could hear them.]

Some demonstrators who went along a public footpath to a field at the back of the building were forcibly removed and detained for around an hour.

[Among those detained and kettled by police was a videographer, a fellow NUJ member, and when he showed his press card, police told him it wasn’t a real press card and refused to let him leave. He called up to me and a few other photographers asking one of us to come down and show them a press card, which is supposed to ensure that police let us get on with our job. I fished mine out from my pocket, then saw it had expired at the end of March, and put it back again. Another photographer went to his aid.

After around an hour the protesters were taken out from the kettle one by one and police demanded their names and addresses – threatending arrest if they did not give them – although the police had no power to do so.]

A number of the detainees actually did speak to protesters on their mobile phones [from inside Harmondsworth detention centre] and their calls were held to a microphone and relayed over the protester’s public address system. The detainees thanked the demonstrators for coming and also told us about the inhumane and arbitrary treatment they were receiving.

Many of those held have fled from violence and repression in their own countries, only to arrive here and find that immigration officials refused to listen to or believe the stories they told. Some have been held in detention for more than 3 years.

Detainees include some who have been living in this country for a number of years, working and paying taxes, setting up lives in this country and contributing to it. Then they are taken without prior warning and imprisoned in these units, sometimes more because the immigration service has targets to meet than anything to do with their case.

Possibly we need an immigration policy, although I’m not actually convinced. It’s an area where I have more faith in those market forces our governments now seem to worship than most. But whether or not we need one, if we have one it should be honest, transparent, just and efficient. At the moment it fails on every count.

Many of us are ashamed of the way our government has decided to let families and children in particular exist without proper support. Ashamed when we hear stories of families who get a knock on the door at 4am and are taken away in a matter of hours.Ashamed that we are sending people back to countries where we know they are almost certain to be imprisoned, tortured and possibly killed

More Pictures on My London Diary.

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Property Developer’s Awards – 2017

Property Developer’s Awards: On Tuesday 4th April 2017 I joined protesters on the pavement in front of the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair where the annual Property Developers Awards were being held .

Property developers largely operate at one of the greedier ends of capitalism, many clearly putting their profits above everything else. Of course we need to build things, but we need to build the right things rather than those that maximise profits for the developers. Capitalism and the market doesn’t serve the interests of the vast majority.

In London we are clearly not building the right things. The desperate need is for social housing, while developers are working together with local councils to destroy this, demolishing council estates and replacing them with largely private developments with rents and prices beyond the reach of Londoners in desperate need of housing. And landlords are making obscene profits for lousy (sometimes literally) accommodation.

London councils have huge waiting lists for social housing and an estimated 210,000 Londoners are homeless and living in temporary accommodation, including 102,000 homeless children. The situation is now even worse than in 2017 and London councils now spend around £5.5 million per day on homelessness.

And yet there are huge developments taking place in London, but so many of these are for student housing and expensive private flats, many bought by overseas investors and remaining empty for all or most of the year. Because these are the kind of developments that make the largest profits for the property developers.

Of course gaining planning permission for many developments require them to include social housing and ‘affordable housing’. “Affordable housing is used by governments to mean 80% of market prices – something totally unaffordable for most people – the term true Orwellian doublespeak.” But if the developers feel they are not getting enough profit when building they can simply ask for a reduction in these and it gets granted.

*Cockroaches crawl around a poster next to the manure*

*which a hotel employee tries to sweep up as Ian Bone walks in front with a siren*

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has funding of up to £11.7 billion for a ‘London Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026-36‘, but it remains to be seen what this will actually deliver – other of course than profits for the developers.

*Jane Nicholl confronts a man going into the Property Developer’s Awards who seems amused by being accused of social cleansing*

Of course both developers and councils who work with them do so in a political atmosphere which since Thatcher has made providing social housing much more difficult. But some councillors and officers have joined with developers in pursuing their personal fortunes rather than public good.

*People from the Property Developer’s Awards came out to have a cigarette and watch the protest*

“The protesters, who included queer coalition the Sexual Avengers and Class War say the developers demolishing social housing and community facilities across London in a process of social cleansing aided by largely Labour councils and led by Savills who sponsor the awards and were nominated for six of them. They are demolishing council estates and replacing most of their social housing with high cost private developments, often largely sold to foreign investors and making obscene profits – and tickets for this event were £396 per seat.”

*Ian Bone directs some of those coming to the Property Developer’s Awards, calling them “rich scum”*

The protesters made their views very clear, calling those entering the Award beanfeast ‘scum’ and ‘parasites.’ A small group rushed up to the hotel entrance and dumped a sack of horse manure and coackroaches in front of it. A hotel employees came out with a bin and broom to try to sweep it up.

*Police hold back a woman giving those coming to the awards the finger*

The protest continued with Class War in particular confronting the developers as they arrived and police ensuring they could walk past and enter, holding back the protesters. Some of those entering appeared to be amused by the idea they were ‘social cleansing’ and a small group came out to watch the protest.

*Class War – Our Estates Are Not for Sale – No Developers, Estate Agents, Gentrifiers or Bent Councillors – We Know What You’re Up to – Keep Away!*

More pictures at Property Developer’s Awards.

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