separate entrances

Poor Doors to Rich Gardens – 2015

Aldgate to Tower Bridge

On Thursday 19th February 2015 after a ‘poor doors’ protest at One Commercial Street against the separate entrances for rich and poor residents lit up by flaming torches, Class War marched with these across Tower Bridge to protest at new luxury flats at One Tower Bridge in Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames where social housing residents are to be denied access to the private garden.

It was raining slightly and the ‘poor doors’ protest had started with only the core protesters outside the entrance to the private flats next to Aldgate East Station on Whitechapel High Street (residents to the social housing enter by a side alley.)

A van of police had driven up as Ian Bone was speaking and came to guard the door, though the protesters were not on this occasion attempting to enter the building. An officer tried to talk to Bone but he wasn’t interested. The police had asked Class War to pay for their march to be policed, but had been very firmly told that the fewer police there were the better.

After around half an hour Class War decided it was time to light up ready for the march and torches were handed out and were soon flaming. They cheered up the rather damp night and provided a little more light for photography, but did make things look rather warm coloured.

There was a little light relief for the protesters when a woman who I think worked for an estate agents came to complain about the protest to the police telling them they should stop it. She got a little shouty when police told her that people had a right to protest, but police soon persuaded her to move away.

There had been some discussion about whether the march should take place, but numbers had grown and people were keen to march despite the weather and the march set off down Leman St led by the Class War banners and flaming torches.

There were some disputes about the best route to take, and some small diversions down seriously dark side streets where it was hard to photograph without the help of the torches. On the busy roads the march spread out across the whole carriageway to stop traffic behind it – with much hooting from frustrated drivers, though the delay was only short.

On Tower Bridge the marchers took over both carriageways bringing both the ‘Lucy Parsons’ and ‘Party Leaders’ banners beside each other.

Orange flares were set off and there was a short pause as the flaming torches were refilled with paraffin before the marchers moved onto the pavement and set off again, crossing the road and down an alley into the new luxury flat development where police were waiting for them.

The development here consisted of eight blocks of luxury apartments and one of affordable homes and includes a private garden area. In the original planning application this was to have been used by all tenants, but a few days before this protest Southwark Council had agreed to the developers changing this to deny access to the social housing residents, which led to this march by Class War against another aspect of social apartheid.

More pictures on My London Dairy at Poor Doors to Rich Gardens.

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Against Clerical Fascism, & Women For Choice – 2011

Against Clerical Fascism & Women For Choice: On Saturday 9th July 2011 I photographed a protest against the imposition of religious laws outside a Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in East London and then a larger protest at Westminster against amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill which would severely damage the provisions of the 1967 Abortion Act.

Protest At Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference – Whitechapel

Against Clerical Fascism, & Women For Choice - 2011

Hizb ut-Tahrir were proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation in January 2024 after a protest following the Hamas attack on Israel at which they called on Muslim armies to attack Israel. I had photographed various protests by them for around 20 years and had found them to be a deeply worrying organisation both in their views and in the way their events were run and was surprised that they had been allowed to continue their activities so long. They appeared to many to have some kind of special secret licence from our security organisations for their extremism.

Hizb ut-Tahrir were holding their International Khilafah conference at the former Wickham’s department store in Whitechapel and a small group of protesters including Peter Tatchell had come to protest outside.

On My London Diary I quoted Tatchell’s statement about the group:

“Hizb ut Tahrir opposes democracy and wants to establish a religious dictatorship where non-Muslims and women are denied equal human rights. The group has a long history of anti-Semitism, homophobia and bigotry towards Hindu people. It is also guilty of extreme intolerance towards Muslims who do not share its harsh, fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.”

There were separate entrances to the venue for men and women and photographers who attempted to photograph the women in front of their entrance were approached by security and told they must not photograph the women – and shortly after “a group of around a dozen Hizb ut-Tahrir security men and male stewards came and stood around the women to make further photography difficult.”

I’d earlier photographed a poster advertising the event on a cabinet in the pavement outside, and was photographing Peter Tatchell holding a placard reading ‘Hizb ut-Tahrir = clerical fascism No to Hizb / EDL /BNP‘ when one of the security men came and ripped the poster from the cabinet.

The protest was multi-racial and multi-ethnic and one Muslim woman held a poster stating ‘Hizb-ut-Tahrir does not represent Muslims.’ And, as I reported, ‘A Muslim man in his thirties walking past asked me what was happening and when I told him, described Hizb ut-Tahrir as “absolute nutters.“‘

Protest At Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference

Pro-Choice Rally at Parliament – Old Palace Yard, Westminster

*The crowd, mainly women, applaud one of the speakers at the rally*

Many different groups had come to the rally to oppose the “attempts by right-wing Christians and some Conservatives to turn back the clock towards the position before the 1967 Act, where many women had dangerous illegal back-street abortions, often with disastrous effects on their health. “

That Act, legalising abortion, had “led to one of the greatest single improvements in health for women of the last century.” But the amendments proposed by Nadine Dorries and others to the Health and Social Care Bill being debated in parliament in 2011 would have imposed “a further delay on abortions and would open the door to counselling provided by unregulated and unlicensed organisations including those opposed to abortions on religious grounds, and would remove the current obligations to provide medically sound and unbiased information.”

Under the coalition government a new advisory group on abortion had been set up which excluded ‘the Pregnancy Advisory Service but includes Life, an anti-abortion group which preaches abstinence and, according to its web site, “is opposed to abortion on principle in all circumstances.’

The government was also under strong “pressure from anti-abortion groups to lower the time limit for abortions from the current 24th week of gestation” despite clear medical advice against this from The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

On My London Diary you can also see many of the speakers at the event, including “including those wanting an extension of abortion rights to women in Northern Ireland, along with Labour MP and women’s rights campaigner Diane Abbott, columnist Penny Laurie (Penny Red), Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones, and doctor and former Liberal Democrat science spokesman and MP Evan Harris” – who was the only man who spoke while I was at the rally.

More at Pro-Choice Rally at Parliament.

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Dolce & Gabbana, Sanctions & Poor Doors 2015

Dolce & Gabbana, Sanctions & Poor Doors Thursday 19th March 2015 -protests at a Mayfair fashion store, the Department of Work and Pensions and another of Class War’s long series of protests at One Commercial St, Aldgate.

Dolce & Gabbana Boycott – Old Bond St

Domenico Dolce and his business partner Stefano Gabbana are apparently well known fashion designers and have a range of over 200 shops in plush areas of cities in 41 countries dedicated exclusively to selling their overpriced clothing. In London I think they have one in Sloane Square as well as the Mayfair store this protest took place outside.

For some reason our media treats anything to do with fashion as important news, and there were more photographers and TV crews packing the narrow pavement than protesters when I arrived making covering the protest difficult, particularly for those of us who prefer to work at close range.

The Peter Tatchell Foundation and the Out and Proud Diamond Group had called the protest in support of the international boycott over homophobic statements by the two designers. Almost certainly a much higher proportion of the shop’s customers are gay than in the general population and Dolce & Gabbana have profited massively from sales to the gay community over the years.

More about the protest at Dolce & Gabbana Boycott.

Unite protest against Benefit Sanctions – Caxton House, Westminster

Unite here and at Job Centres around the country were having a day of action against punitive benefit sanctions on over 2m people which had led to increased poverty, misery and even death. They say the are a ‘grotesque cruelty’ and are often imposed for trivial reasons.

People have been sanctioned because postal delays meant they never got notification of an appointment they missed, or because they were 5 minutes late as a bus was cancelled. Often job centre staff are under pressure to issue sanctions and may be penalised if they do not sanction enough of their clients.

At the protest was Gill Thompson, whose brother, David Clapson, a diabetic ex-soldier, died after being sanctioned. She had brought her 211,822 signature petition calling for an inquiry into benefit sanctions to the protest to present to the DWP.

Among others who spoke was Rev Paul Nicholson of Taxpayers Against Poverty.

More pictures Unite protest against Benefit Sanctions.

Poor Doors Protest Blocks Rich Door – One Commercial St, Aldgate

When Class War read a newspaper article about the separate entrances for rich residents and those in social housing in a new block at One Commercial Street in July 2014 they were disgusted and decided to launch a series of weekly protests outside the block every Thursday evening.

I missed the first of these but you can find reports of almost all of the rest of them, at least 29 in all, on My London Diary. For an overview you can read John Bigger’s article on Freedom in which he gives an insider’s view and assesses the impact of these protests, and the ‘zine’ I published Class War: Rich Door, Poor Door with over 200 photographs from 29 protests is still available. But though this is reasonably priced, postage costs roughly double this – so you really need to buy half a dozen copies or more and give or sell some to your friends. Be warned the print quality in what Blurb calls a MAGAZINE is pretty low.

The protest on 19th March was a lively one and the management at One Commercial Street had locked the rich door and were I think telling the rich residents of that section to enter and leave instead through the hotel at the Commercial Street side of the building. Class War held up banners and posters and some stuck stickers onto the glass of door and large windows. Someone lit a red smoke flare and threw it onto the pavement. There was a lot of loud chanting and some short speeches.

Some younger anarchists present took plastic barriers from the works taking place on the pavement and piled them in front of the locked door. Others took them onto the busy Whitechapel High Street and blocked the traffic.

A man and a woman who had been watching suddenly grabbed one of those present, threw him to the floor and handcuffed him, holding up their warrant cards to show they were plain clothes police. I didn’t recognise the man they arrested who was not one of the regular Class War protesters, and as usual they refused to answer questions about why he was being arrested. But their arrest effectively blocked the only lane of the road which the protesters had not already blocked.

More uniformed police arrived and dragged the arrested man away to a police van, removed the barriers and protesters from the road and the protest continued with Class War holding up flaming torches in front of the rich door.

There were a few more short speeches and then the protesters left as usual after about an hour, leaving their posters attached to the glass on the front of the building by Class War stickers.

More at Poor Doors blocks Rich Door.

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