repent | >Re-PHOTO

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

National Student Demonstration

Malet St – Kings College

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More pictures on My London Diary at National Student Demonstration.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy of Repentance

Ministry of Defence, Horseguards Ave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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On Wednesday 13th February 2013, ten years ago today, I photographed three protests in Westminster and one on Holloway Road in north London outside London Metropolitan University.

Shaker Aamer – 11 Years in Guantanamo – Parliament Square

Shaker, Screws, London Met & Ash Wednesday

Opposite Parliaments people gathered to mark 11 years since London resident Shaker Aamer was flown to Guantánamo from Afghanistan. He was still being held and tortured there daily despite having been cleared for release by the US over 5 years ago.

Shaker arrived at Guantanamo on 14th February 2002, having been captured by bandits and sold to the US military while working for a charity in Afghanistan. He was still held and routinely tortured in Guantanamo despite being cleared for release five years earlier as there was no case against him. His youngest son had been born the same day in London where his wife and four children were living.

A line of protesters held banners across the whole long frontage of Parliament Square facing the Houses of Parliament, with others around the edges of the square handing out fliers. Many people passing were surprised to find that prisoners were still being held there after Obama’s promise to close the camp down, which he appears to have made little effort to keep.

Continued torture in the camp meant that his health was rapidly failing. Among those at the protest organised by the Save Shaker Campaign and the London Guantánamo Campaign as Green MP Caroline Lucas who held a banner before dashing back to the Commons for Prime Minister’s Questions. The protesters s were still standing there in the freezing cold when I left an hour and a half after the protest had started.

Shaker Aamer – 11 Years in Guantanamo

Prison Officers Protest Against Cuts – Old Palace Yard

A hundred or so prison officers protested against prison closures, overcrowding and privatisation outside the Houses of Parliament after briefing MPs on the dangers of the prison closure programme.

Prison doesn’t work because our prisons are overcrowded and underfunded. It punishes people but almost entirely fails to reform them, to provide them with skills, support and opportunities for when they leave prison – and too many soon return. Our prisons are a training ground for criminality. Government cuts and handing over prisons to be run for profit simply make things worse.

Prison Officers Protest Against Cuts

Victimisation at London Metropolitan University

London Met is a much maligned university largely because it has prided itself on giving chances to many of the more deprived members of the community. It has often ranked high for its teaching quality and giving students greater personal attention than better regarded universities.

The protest outside its Holloway Road buildings in North London was against the suspension of Max Watson, Unison branch chair and Jawad Botmeh, the elected staff governor on false charges. The university had also threatened to de-recognise Unison.

No reasons were given for the suspension which was said to be over a ‘serious matter of concern’ relating to ‘gross misconduct’, but it was thought to relate to the appointment of Botmeh to the staff of the Working Lives Research Institute five years earlier.

Botmeh, a London-based Palestinian science graduate, was arrested in 1995 in connection with a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy the previous year. There was no direct evidence connecting him to the bombing but he was sentenced to 20 years in what was widely seen as a miscarriage of justice. His convictions were declared when he was appointed as a researcher by London Met after his release. The two men, along with another man suspended later were re-instated the following month.

Victimisation at London Met

Ash Wednesday – Ministry of Defence

Christian peace activists and friends held their annual Ash Wednesday liturgy at the Ministry of Defence in London, calling for repentance and taking symbolic actions including some who risked arrest by marking the buildings with charcoal.

During the service in front of the Ministry people tied purple ribbons on a cross and prayers were said for the victims of ware and the warmongers called on to repent and change their ways.

There was then a march around the war minstry before the group returned to write the word ‘REPENT’ in water and ashes on the pavement outside and the liturgy continued,

ending with a large circle in the adjoining Embankment gardens.

As the service ended, police briefly held a woman who had jumped over a fence and begun to write a cross and the word Repent on the Defence Ministry wall in charcoal. She was stopped with the word half written, and after a few minutes was released.

More on My London Diary at Ash Wednesday – Ministry of Defence

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Student Fees & Ash Wednesday – 2009