Christian Aid, Mordechai Vanunu & Mass Lone Demos. My photography on Saturday 21st April 2007 began with a small event close to home with music and tree planting celebrating 50 years of Christian Aid. I then rushed into London for the start of the Mass Lone Demo initiated by Mark Thomas as a protest against SOCPA, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act which greatly restricted the right to protest in the area around Parliament.
After a short while there I travelled to Hackney where cyclists, some who had begun at the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, were beginning the final leg of the Vanunu Freedom Ride. After they had set off I returned to take more pictures of the Mass Lone Demo, then took the tube to meet the cyclists again close to the IsraelI Embassy in Kensington.
Below is what I wrote in 2007, with the usual minor corrections and links to more pictures from the day on My London Diary.
Christian Aid: Tree Planting – Celebrating 50 Years
Staines, Middlesex
Saturday was another beautiful day, sunny, warm but not too hot, and the quintet with a fine singer created a mellow atmosphere as we gathered to plant two apple trees to celebrate 50 years of Christian Aid. the music included several of my Ellingtonian favourites, there were some interesting home-made cakes, and it was great to relax for a while in the sun.
The trees were given and planted by Colin Squire of Squires Garden Centres, and as he commented, the Cox’s Orange Pippin was an appropriate choice, as not only is it a fine apple, but was first grown by Richard Cox just three miles away at Colnbrook in 1830.
The two trees are in a public area, and we hope that in years to come the public will come and help themselves and enjoy their crop.
More pictures from the event on My London Diary.
Mass Lone Demos – the BIG one
Westminster
Mark Thomas’s latest twist to the Mass Lone Demo was for demonstrators to set out a list of 20 demonstrations they would eaach hold in the SOCPA area on Saturday and to apply for permission for each of them. He was aiming for 2000 demonstrations (and hoping for an entry in the Guinness Book Of Records.) The police figure for the number of demonstrations that permission was applied for was 2,486, but it was actually quite hard to find many of them.
I’d hoped to photograph people at such highly desirable sites for demos as the Mothers Union, the Adam Smith Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia, but nobody was there when I looked. However I did find a few, [and also some Kurds who were not part of the Lone Demos] but unfortunately had to miss the final event to get to Kensington.
The Vanunu Freedom Ride Reaches London
Hackney and Notting Hill Gate
Mordechai Vanunu told the world about Israel’s nuclear weapons – still denied, still secret and still not subject to any international inspection. He worked on the program for 9 years until 1985, and in 1986 blew the whistle, talking to the press. Days later he was lured to Italy and kidnapped from there by the Israeli Secret Service. Convicted of treason in Israel he spent 18 years in jail, 12 of them in solitary.
Released in 2004 he has been under severe restrictions on movement, who he can meet and what he can say. He would like to leave srael but it seems likely he will be sent back to prison. The ride demanded his freedom, the setting up of a nuclear-free Middle East as well as freedom for Palestine.
The riders started at the Faslane base to the west of Glasgow where daily demonstrations are taking place outside the base of the ridiculous UK nuclear deterrent (ridiculous to have it, and in no way independent as we need us permission to use the weapons.) The ride stopped at many places on the way to demonstrate and hold meetings, including Menwith Hill spy station and Lakenheath USAF base.
They were met at Hackney Town Hall by members of Hackney & Islington CND and CNF vice-chair Sophie Bolt. From Hackney they cycled on via Downing Street to Kensington, where there was a rally at which Jeremy Corbyn MP, Kate Hudson, CND chair and Louise Richards of War On Want were among the speakers.
The Israeli embassy in London is on a private street with security lodges at each end. cyclists are not allowed in the street, and demonstrations are certainly not tolerated.
Vananu Freedom Ride at Hackney and Kensington.
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