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Sex Workers Masked Parade – 2009

Soho, London

Sex Workers Masked Parade: Sunday 19th July 2009 was the day of the annual Soho Festival which I’ve occasionally attended. In 2009 it included a masked parade around Soho by sex workers and supporters, stopping at several locations for short speeches and ending with one of the organisers speaking on the stage in St Anne’s Gardens. They were welcomed by the Soho Society and there were several speeches of support from others including he Rector of St Annes, Soho, Fr David Gilmore.

Sex work has been a part of Soho life for over 200 years and while people in the area may have differing views on its morality the community seems united in wanting to keep their friends and neighbours safe. Currently selling sex is legal in the UK, though there are many restrictions on how it can be carried out, including those that make it illegal for more than one woman to operate in a flat, or to employ a receptionist or security staff.

Various laws have largely taken women off the streets of Soho and most now work singly in women-run ‘walk-up flats’. But working alone is dangerous and many apparently ignore the law to have another person, usually a female ‘maid’, on site as a safety measure.

Westminster police had carried out a number of raids on these flats, and earlier in 2009 their attempts to close down some of them were defeated with the help of local people.

Such raids however continue – and for example in January 2014, Rupert Everett wrote in The Observer (quoted here on the English Collective of Prostitutes web site) about a raid he had seen about a raid by around 200 police.

“They broke down doors, intimidated girls into accepting cautions (ie criminal records) and served civil-eviction papers that, unless you were a lawyer, you would not know had hidden in their depths (20-odd pages) the time and date you were to appear in court if you wanted to appeal.”

As Everett stated, “There is a land grab going on in Soho under the banner of morality.” He gives an entertaining account of the trial which makes clear that the magistrates and police had little concern for justice. Large sums can be made from redeveloping many of the old properties in which these flats are mainly found.

Much of the time the police justify their actions as being about human trafficking – but after another highly publicised raid on 20 flats in 2013, “no trafficking victims were found in the operation“. “Scotland Yard said the raids were authorised by Westminster council and adhered to legal procedure.”

In 2009 the parade organisers, ‘Soho Working Girls‘ and the ‘English Collective of Prostitutes‘, pointed to recently published research from the Economic and Social Research Council which “proves that most sex workers are not trafficked. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, grannies, aunties struggling to support ourselves and our families, just like other women.”

More recently the women working in these flats have suffered a number of attacks by gangs of young people who come to film attacks on them to post on social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Police have failed to protect the women.

More about the parade and many more pictures on My London Diary: Sex Workers Masked Parade.

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Spain & Pride – 2009

Spain & Pride: A few days ago I watched online what was apparently the first full UK showing of Basilio Martín Patino’s 1974 film ‘Caudillo‘, produced in secret in Spain while Franco was still in power.

It’s a powerful documentary on the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9 and the rise of Franco, not surprisingly rather ragged around the edges, with some poor sound and seriously deficient subtitles but with an incredible amount of contemporary footage from both sides of the war.

It made me aware again of the terrible failure of Britain along with the other non-fascist powers to support the Spanish government and of the bravery of many thousands of individuals on the left here and elsewhere defy their governments and go to fight for freedom. Until 31st July 2026 you can still watch the Sands Films presentation of Caudillo here. There are some short sections from the over two hour-long film on You Tube.

Back on 4th July 2009 I attended the annual International Brigade Commemoration at Jubilee Gardens in London, rushing away from Pride London to so.

International Brigade Commemoration

Jubilee Gardens

Spain & Pride - 2009 — *In 2009 there where are still a few alive who had gone to Spain – Lou Kenton, now 101, was an ambulance driver.*

This month, July 2026, is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War and this commemoration in 2009 was 70 years after it ended. As I commented, “Every year there are fewer and fewer of those who went to Spain to fight or work in the medical services, all now in their 90s or older. And every year a list of those who have died in the past year. “

Sam Lesser remembers Jack Jones, one of the great men of the twentieth century who had died in the previous year.

Wreaths came from the Spanish Ambassador, the Catalonian representative and others

There were women who went as well as men. While our politicians stood to one side and let Germany and Italy join the fight against the elected government of Spain and much of the Spanish people, many ordinary working people supported the Republic, particularly the communists and anarchists. Over 40,000 went to fight, mainly in the International Brigades and a further 10,000 as civilians, mainly as nurses and other medical staff.

The only two nations to support the Republican cause were Mexico and the Soviet Union, with Stalin sending large amounts of weapons – though many promised failed to arrive and others were antiquated.

But it was Stalin and the communists his advisers controlled who scuppered the chances of a Republican victory by attacking, imprisoning and disbanding the other groups successfully opposing Franco’s forces, freeing the poor to take over the land. A real revolution was anathema to Stalin who feared it might give his peasants ideas.

The consequence of losing the war were dire for the Spanish people (except the Catholic Church and the wealthy) with many years of repression and dictatorship – and for much of the world as it led to the Second World War.

More at International Brigade Commemoration.

Pride London 2009

Baker St to Trafalgar Square

Earlier in the day I had photographed the 2009 Pride London March. I commented “Things have changed pretty dramatically over those 15 or more years [since I first attended], and Pride is largely a very different event, much more of a corporate than a personal or political one. Of course the LGBT community being what it is there is still plenty of room for the unusual, the eccentric,the flamboyant, the spectacle. And even, though perhaps rather more at the edges, the political.”

*Outrage protest the ban on gay marriage – Sarah Brown was on the march*

Here I’ll post a few of the more political, but I think the pictures on My London Diary cover the whole range described above.

And there was the usual small group of Christian bigots who had come to share their carefully selected texts

*The United Protestant Council *“annual witness against New Sodom, parading its shame on the streets of London*.”*

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Pride London.

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International Women’s Day – 2002

International Women’s Day: I’m not sure if this march on Friday 8th March 2002 was the first International Women’s Day event that I photographed, but it was the first that I published on My London Diary.

Back then all the pictures I published were in black and white, though I was also taking pictures in colour but was unable to easily digitise them. I still have to do so for many of the colour pictures I made on film, though I did make prints of a few of them in my darkroom.

Looking through these pictures I recognise quite a few faces I still photograph at protests, among them the founder of the Global Women’s Strike and the the International Wages for Housework Campaign Selma James.

International Women’s Day - 2002 - Selma James

Selma and other women from the Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town are still there at many of the protests I photograph, with banners from some of the various women’s groups based at the centre.

International Women’s Day seems to have become much more widely celebrated since 2002, or at least getting more media attention, though this seems still very much around the very real problems faced by middle class professionals (including of course women in the media) than those faced by by working class women, refugees, asylum seekers, poor women being targeted by social services, those with disabilities, sex workers, victims of domestic violence, rape etc which are at the centre of this event and continuing protests.

Back in 2002, I didn’t write much about this march, at least in partly due to ignorance, but also I seldom wrote much about the events I was covering as I had a full-time job writing about photograph on the web, as well as my own photography – where the pictures I submitted had only brief captions.

“The 8 March is a World Woman’s Day and was celebrated by some as a Global Women’s Strike. The march in London stopped outside key sites including the War Office and World Bank for speeches.”

This was the full set of textt and images I posted in 2002 on My London Diary.

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Sex Workers, Gurkhas, Cannabis & Shaker

Wednesday 9th October 2013 was another day of varied protests in London.

Police & Developers Evict Soho Working Girls – Greek St, Soho

Although the immediate cause of this protest was the eviction of sex workers from flats in Romilly Street where they were operating within our laws restricting prostitution, the evictions were not at base about the activities of the women concerned but a result of property developers seeing enormous profits to be made by emptying properties in the area and redeveloping them.

Soho is particularly at risk from hugely profitable development as hotels and luxury flats because of its reputation and unique ambiance, which has largely derived in the past from its association with such risqué activities as strip clubs and models offering personal services as well as its restaurants and shops offering foreign delicacies unknown in the UK outside its boundaries.

Of course times have changed, and much of Soho is now Chinatown, but still its old reputation and some of those old activities remain, though many are fast disappearing. And while the tourists flock in, much of what attracts them is no longer there.

Sex remains a powerful attraction, and it was noticeable that there was far more media attention to this protest than most. Most of the masked women taking part in the protest were supporters of the ‘working girls’ from groups including the organisers of the event, Women Against Rape and the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) who I knew from other protests.

The police who issued notices to the property owners alleging that the properties were brothels are widely seen as working on behalf of the prospective developers, and owners Soho Estates whose managing director came out to speak at the event also have a financial interest. They could have stood up to the police intimidation and investigated the situation so they could assure the police that the activities in the flats were within the law, but failed to do so.

A speaker from the Soho Society told the protest that the activities of the women were one of the oldest traditions of the area, and were causing no problems with their neighbours and the many other trades of the area. Previous similar evictions have attracted local petitions signed by thousands and the ECP press release stated “Many express fears that gentrification is behind attempts to close these flats and that if sex workers are forced out it will lead the way for other small and unique businesses and bars to be drowned out by major construction, chain stores and corporations.”

More at Police & Developers Evict Soho Working Girls.

Gurkha Veterans Demand Justice – Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Elderly Gurkha veterans living in the UK did not benefit from earlier campaigns for fair treatment and most living here are in extreme poverty.

This was one of a number of protests every Wednesday and Thursday opposite the Houses of Parliament inviting the government to hold talks with them and if there was no progress by later in October they said they would begin a programme of nonviolent resistance (Satyagraha) with hunger strikes, beginning with a “13 days relay hunger strike in the name of the 13 Ghurka VCs which would then be followed by a fast-unto-death” if there was no progress.

Gurkha Veterans Demand Justice

Vigil for Shaker Aamer – Parliament Square

I paid a short visit to the campaigners from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign who earlier in the year been holding a lunchtime protest on the pavement in Parliament Square facing the Houses of Parliament, standing out in their orange jumpsuits and black hoods on every day parliament was in session.

Shaker Aamer, a British resident still then held at Guantánamo was one of the first to be sent there after having been handed over the the US authorities for a cash reward. Although there was no evidence against him he had suffered years of torture in which the UK intelligence services had been implicated. Despite being cleared for release in 2007 and again in 2010 he was still being held, probably because his testimony when released would cause severe embarrassment to both US and UK intelligence agencies.

This protest was the start of a new series of regular weekly vigils seeking to draw attention to the failures of both President Obama and David Cameron, as well as demanding a full Parliamentary debate about Shaker’s case.

Vigil for Shaker Aamer

Cannabis Hypocrisy Protest – Westminster

Campaigners had come to College Green, close to the Houses of Parliament to call for reform of the laws about cannabis, in particular to allow its medical use for MS sufferers. Legal medical cannabis is mainly available here to MS sufferers who can afford to pay its very high price.

Unsurprisingly it was a rather laid back protest, beginning rather late and not really getting started the whole 90 minutes I was there before giving up and going home as they were still waiting for the megaphone or PA system to arrive.

By the time I left there were quite a few people sitting around on the grass smoking. As I commented in a caption, the photographs don’t show what they were smoking, but the smell was unmistakable, and after I while I began to feel just a little unusual. Perhaps the two police officers who strolled over to take a look had no sense of smell or perhaps they simply felt that there was little point in taking any action.

Years ago I had to give lessons against drug use to 16-18 year olds as a part of a ‘personal and social education’ programme, and was aware that many of them had rather more experience in the area than me. But the materials from the Home Office that I relied on made clear that cannabis was considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. Addiction to anything is a bad thing, but so too is the criminalisation that results from our current drug laws, which also fuel an illegal and highly profitable drug business. Appropriate reform, which would certainly include easier access for medicinal use, is long overdue.

Cannabis Hypocrisy Protest

More From May Days: 2019

2019 was a rather disappointing May Day for me in terms of the number of events I photographed, and I only covered the annual May Day March from Clerkenwell Green.

Before the march began there were several speeches outside the Marx Memorial Library. This year was the 100th anniversary of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar when British troops opened fire on a peaceful protest, killing at least 379 people and injuring many others. A speaker from the Indian Workers Association talked about the massacre and called for the UK to fully apologise. It seems to me surprising that Labour governments have never made an apology for this appalling incident, but it seemed rather unlikely that our current Conservative government would have any thought of doing so.

Our government too was heavily involved in the seizure of power in Venezuela by Juan Guaidó, actively supporting his coup attempt and siding with the USA in forcing companies to impose sanctions and preventing the Bank of England releasing Venezuelan gold to the legitimate government, while urging it to grant Guaidó access to the £1.2bn of Venezuelan gold reserves. He came to London for talks in January this year and it has now emerged that the Foreign & Commonwealth office has a specialist unit dedicated to the ‘reconstruction’ of Venezuela, and that the Department for International Development has also pledged some £40m of ‘humanitarian assistance’ for undisclosed activities – perhaps including the recent failed US-backed landing by mercenaries on May 3rd intending to kidnap President Maduro. May Day 2019 saw a defiant speech by the Venezuelan ambassador to the UK defending Maduro and calling on the UK government to defend the legitimate government of Venezuela rather than attempt to undermine it.

As usual I photographed the marchers on their way to Traflagar Square, including a lively group representing the English Collective of Prostitutes calling for changes in the law to keep all women safe and for workers rights for sex workers.

Unwelcome on the march were a pair of women holding a banner against trans women, and I understand they were later forced to leave.

I decided I couldn’t face another Trafalgar Square May Day rally and left. The weather was fine and I went for a walk and to eat my sandwiches by the river in Wapping, where I was to meet with some friends for a May Day celebratory drink later.

Wapping and the Thames
London May Day Banners
London May Day

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

More from May Days: 2010

Perhaps because in 2010 May Day was a Saturday and an election was coming up in five days time there were more things than usual happening as well as the usual Trade Union & Socialist May Day March from Clerkenwell Green. This had its usual mix of communist and socialist groups from London’s various communities along with trade unions, campaign groups and others but with a strong anarchist bloc, including the Black Horse of Anarchy and an executioner.

Among the trade union groups were the National Union of Sex Workers.

While the official TUC rally took place in Trafalgar Square I joined the May Day ElectionCarnival in Parliament Square. There the Black Horse of Anarchy which had marched from Clerkenwell with an effigy of Nick Griffin was joined by the three other Horses of the Apocalypse which had made shorter journeys from the Westminster campaign headquarters of the three political parties, bringing with them effigies of Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

There was an extremely crowded and rather confused series of executions with plenty of gore, not easy to photograph, though I took rather a lot of pictures.

The sky turned black but the storm held off for the heads of class traitors to be exhibited on poles

and the Space Hijackers to finally arrive with their ‘Spoil Your Vote Campaign Bus‘, which had been touring London. Their message was clear:

“If voting actually changed anything they would ban it. Did you get to vote on the Iraq war? Did you get to vote about regulations on banking? Did you get to vote on MP’s expenses? Is this a democracy or a bad joke?

Why play by the rules in this farce of an election?

Every spoilt ballot gets counted and shown to the candidates in that constituency, so why not reject the lot of them and tell them what you think with your ballot paper?”

Rhythms of Resistance had made their way from Parliament Square to the Leake Street graffiti tunnel, where the Rave Against The Machine continued in the dry as the storm broke overhead.

Rave Against The Machine
Spoil Your Vote Campaign Bus
May Day Election Carnival
Trade Union & Socialist May Day March

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Home Office on Trial

This wasn’t a normal protest on the wide pavement in front of the Home Office, but a theatrical piece in which the Home Office was represented in the dock of a court by a mysterious figure in blue, and I found it a little difficult to photograph with its rather different structure. It was good to have some better than usual props but I think perhaps it was an event more suited to video than still photography.

There is of course no doubt that the Home Office, in particular under recent ministers Theresa May and Amber Rudd, is guilty as charged, and has set up a vicious and racist system of rigged justice, indefinite detention, ill-treatment and arbitrary arrest and deportation under the name of the ‘hostile environment’, though this has longer and deeper roots.

The UK’s modern immigration laws have always been set up in response to racist popular sentiments, beginning with the 1905 Aliens Act, responding to fears about the numbers of poor Russian and Polish Jews arriving in the country. The huge increase in immigration detention began under New Labour, using PFI schemes in 1998 to build Yarl’s Wood, Dungavel, Oakington (which closed in 2010) and greatly expand Harmondsworth.

This huge expansion was needed because New Labour led a great programme of immigration enforcement within the UK, particularly of failed asylum seekers along with others who had overstayed their visas or entered the country illegally. Under Labour the first enforcement teams were set up, the Immigration Service transformed into a law enforcement agency, and new stricter laws on marriages and employing workers without legal right of residence were brought in.

Labour had begun the hostile environment, but it was Theresa May who gave it the name and ramped it up, with Amber Rudd following closely in her footsteps. After she was forced to resign over lying about the Windrush scandal, her successor Sajid Javid made some minor changes (mainly to the language used) and has suggested the UK ignore international laws on asylum.

Its racist immigration policies and enforcement was not the only only crime with which the Home Office was charged. There was a strong presentation of its policies on sex work, which have resulted in the deaths of many sex workers.

More pictures from the trial at People’s Trial of the Home Office .

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