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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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Howls of protest for death of the NHS 2016

NHS campaigners came to Downing Street on Friday 23rd December 2016, the day that contracts were signed for 44 areas covering the whole of England to implement the government’s ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans’ (STP).

Including many health professionals the campaigners saw these plans as the last nail in the coffin of the NHS, effectively handing over the NHS to private companies without any public engagement of consultation, ending a public service whose vision which has long been the envy of the world, signing the NHS over for private profit.

A series of speeches was interrupted every 15 minutes by three long and loud ‘howls of protest‘, timed to coincide with three social media ‘Thunderclaps’ across Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr by several hundreds unable to be there in person.

Among speakers were Paula Peters of DPAC, Ealing Councillor Aysha Raza, trainee nurse Anthony Johnson of the Bursary or Bust campaign, trainee mental health nurse Gina, a patient and campaigner and retired Paediatrician Tony O’Sullivan, Co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public.

*People start a ‘Howl of Protest’ for the NHS*

At the end of the rally, a small group of those present, led by DPAC and a banner listing of few of those who had died because of government cuts marched down Whitehall holding up traffic for a final howl outside Parliament and a speech there by Paula Peters.

*The police got a little aggressive and started pushing the protesters and threatening arrest*

As they came to the end of Parliament Street police came to harass them, threatening them with arrest if they did not get onto the pavement. Like many such police interventions this only prolonged the traffic holdup as the protesters were about to cross the road to the wide pavement outside Parliament but were delayed by police arguing with them.

Sustainability and transformation plans were fortunately short-lived and soon morphed into ‘sustainability and transformation partnerships‘ which by 2018 were becoming known as ‘integrated care systems‘, and then were expected to evolve into ‘accountable care systems‘. It all reflected an increasing half-baked emphasis on managers and management changes which damaged the ability of the NHS to actually treat patients.

Many feel that government policies – under both Tories and Labour – have been designed to wreck the NHS so it can be replaced by an insurance-based system – with great profits for the mainly US-based healthcare companies who make large financial contributions to leading politicians and in which many also have a direct financial interest.

More pictures at Howls of protest for death of the NHS.

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Defend All Migrants

Defend All Migrants. June 24th 2016 was the day after the Brexit referendum when by a narrow majority – 3.78% – the British population voted to leave the European Union. Although it was a non-binding referendum, the government had unwisely promised they would implement the result and eventually did so in the worst way possible, leading to many of our current problems.

Of course it’s done and although we were lied to and tricked in many ways it is a decision which cannot be reversed in the foreseeable future, though hopefully a new government will abandon the current excessively combative approach and try to negotiate some more sensible ways to live with our neighbours. On many levels we remain a part of Europe and need to find policies which recognise the facts of culture and geography.

One important aspect of the campaign to leave Europe was the encouragement of racism and xenophobia particularly by the UKIP-linked Leave.EU, but also by the official Vote Leave campaign. London Mayor Sadiq Khan was one of few politicians at the time to accuse Vote Leave of promoting ‘Project Hate’ but academic research as well as Parliament’s own Digital, Culture, Media & Sport committee has shown clearly how they used TV adverts and social media to use racism to promote the Brexit vote. You can read more in Truly Project Hate: the third scandal of the official Vote Leave campaign headed by Boris Johnson.

So on the day following the referendum Socialists and anarchists held a rally in East London before marching to the offices of News International on a roundabout route for migrant rights and against racism and fascist violence. Migration and immigrants have been attacked and scapegoated not only by both Remain and Leave campaigns but by mainstream parties and media over more than 20 years, stoking up hatred by insisting immigrants are a “problem”.

As I stated on My London Diary, “The event was called by Movement for Justice, rs21, London Antifascists and Jewdas, and supported by other groups including Brick Lane Debates, National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), Right to Remain, Radical Assembly, Clapton Ultras, the Antiuniversity, English collective of prostitutes, sex workers open university, lesbians and gays support the migrants, Razem Londyn, London Anarchist Federation, Kent anti-racist network, dywizjon 161, colectivo anticapitalista Londres and Plan C London as well as others who brought banners and many individuals.“

Despite the large number of organisations, the actual number of people who turned up for the protest wasn’t huge, though there were probably well over a thousand in Altab Ali Park by the time the speeches began. As I wrote, ” People stood around in groups bemoaning the result of the referendum; most had either voted to remain or chosen not to vote – or had not been eligible as EU citizens or foreigners working here. They represented much of mainly young London, very few of whom voted to leave the EU, and most like me who were shocked and bitterly disappointed by the Brexit vote.“

A group of three people interviewing people to camera for a right-wing US website had clearly come to provoke people, asking silly questions and appearing to gloat over the Brexit result. People told them to leave but they persisted and eventually the woman interviewer complained to police that her jokey Brexit hat had been stolen and her cameraman had been punched, though it seemed more a performance to camera than a genuine complaint. Although police talked to a few nearby protesters who failed to back up her complaints they also made sure the crew left the park rather than continue to stir up trouble.

After a number of speeches the march formed up and moved off, with the organisers apparently taking a tour of the East End and the City on the way to London Bridge. A number of smoke flares made its progress colourful and there was considerable noise from slogans and some loud music. When the march turned north rather than south on Houndsditch I decided I’d walked far enough and left it to go home and file my story.

Much more on My London Diary: Defend All Migrants.