Crowds protest Trump’s Inauguration: On Friday 20th January 2017 I was with a large crowd outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square all of us “appalled at the thought of a president who is a climate change denier, has a long history of racist and Islamophobic outbursts, has boasted of sexually assaulting women and has downplayed the severity of sexual violence.“
No to hate, No to walls , No to Trump who just appalls. Charlie X put it more succinctly
We stood in solidarity at a protest in solidarity with those protesting in the US who had called for protests around the world. This one had been organised by Stand Up to Racism and was supported by many other groups and individuals.
SUTR had set up a stage at the side of the Embassy in a corner of the square and invited a long list of the usual speakers, but the lighting made it difficult to photograph them, with strong lighting shining into the audience and the speakers largely in shadow. I soon gave up as I think they were all people I’d photographed many times and the protesters were far more interesting to me.
Among those protesting were members of the London Guantanamo campaign, some in orange jumpsuits, who have held regular monthly protests outside the embassy for around nine years.
’15 years of Guantanamo is No Joke’
Away from the SUTR bright lights it seemed very dark and I needed to work with flash. Both Trump’s name and his appearance are a gift to protesters as the pictures show.
‘Not with a bang but with a Trump’‘Trump!’
It was good to see Charlie X as Chaplin back again from South Africa.
A group from the Campaign Against Climate Change had an illuminated banner with the message ‘Trump Climate Disaster’.
A woman held up a poster ‘Dear Queen, We’re sorry. Take us back? Love, An American‘.
To one side was a lone woman with a rosary and posters ‘God Bless Trump’. Nobody bothered her.
The statue of President Eisenhower was surrounded by protesters and I felt he looked less confident and happy than usual. Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in WW2, he had stood for president in 1952 against Taft who wanted to undo Roosevelt’s New Deal. But he had also considered using nuclear weapons in Korea and threatened China with them. Under his presidency we had a nuclear arms race, and he might have approved of Trump’s Nuclear Arms Race if not many of his other policies.
A woman holds a poster ‘WHEN ALL IS SAID AND ALL IS DONE WE HAVE BELIEFS, TRUMP HAS NONE’
F**k Trump
I left the Embassy protest to go to Trafalgar Square, where more radical groups were gathering for the F**k Trump protest.
A giant orange Trump’s head in Trafalgar Square
But while the group with the large orange head moved down from the North Terrace into the main Square and ignored the Heritage Wardens order to leave, not a lot seemed to be happening.
Police came and talked with the protesters who largely simply ignored them too, but not a lot appeared to be happening.
I was feeling cold and tired and decided it was time to go home. Later I heard that police had made an unprovoked attack on the protesters.
12 Days of Christmas -some of my favourite pictures from those I made in December 2025.
Various minor problems prevented me from working much in December and with other committments all these pictures are from a single day, 13th December.
London, UK. 13th Dec 2025. Hundreds of riders took part in the 11th BMX Life Santa Cruise London dressed as Santas (with a few elves, snowmen, Christmas trees and reindeer), a charity ride to raise money for the Evelina Children’s Heart Organisation. So far BMX Life have raised over £200,000 through their rides. They stopped for lunch on Horse Guards Parade. Peter Marshall.London, UK. 13th Dec 2025. Anti-racist campaigners came to Downing Street in a protest called by Stand up to Racism and Care 4 Calais to oppose Tommy Robinson and his extreme right supporters and remind us at Christmas that Jesus was a refugee and state that we are one community of love against hate and will not let the far right divide us. They say Jesus preached love not hate. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 13th Dec 2025. People sang and some danced. Anti-racist campaigners came to Downing Street in a protest called by Stand up to Racism and Care 4 Calais to oppose Tommy Robinson and his extreme right supporters and remind us at Christmas that Jesus was a refugee and state that we are one community of love against hate and will not let the far right divide us. They say Jesus preached love not hate. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 13th Dec 2025. You can’t be a good Christian IF… Anti-racist campaigners came to Downing Street in a protest called by Stand up to Racism and Care 4 Calais to oppose Tommy Robinson and his extreme right supporters and remind us at Christmas that Jesus was a refugee and state that we are one community of love against hate and will not let the far right divide us. They say Jesus preached love not hate. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 13 Dec 2025. A large rally in Whitehall opposes the current government’s intention to introduce digital ID. People from across the whole political spectrum say it is an attack on our rights and our autonomy, and that it could be used as an Orwellian system of total control. It would turn us into a highly controlled checkpoint society, would be open to abuse by hackers and foreign powers and discriminate against those with less access to online services. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 13 Dec 2025. A large rally in Whitehall opposes the current government’s intention to introduce digital ID. People from across the whole political spectrum say it is an attack on our rights and our autonomy, and that it could be used as an Orwellian system of total control. It would turn us into a highly controlled checkpoint society, would be open to abuse by hackers and foreign powers and discriminate against those with less access to online services. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 13 Dec 2025. A large rally in Whitehall opposes the current government’s intention to introduce digital ID. People from across the whole political spectrum say it is an attack on our rights and our autonomy, and that it could be used as an Orwellian system of total control. It would turn us into a highly controlled checkpoint society, would be open to abuse by hackers and foreign powers and discriminate against those with less access to online services. Peter Marshall
So this is the end of a little look at my photographs from 2025. If I went though them again I would quite likely come up with many difference choices. I’ve made this selection entirely from the events I’ve covered to submit work to an agency and there are also some interesting images from outings with friends and family.
All of those featured were made with either Fuji-X or an Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III camera. I like the Fuji-X system, but every now and then get frustrated with the cameras which seem to develop random faults. Mostly this year I’ve gone back to using the Fujifilm X-T1 rather than the XT-30, usually with the Fuji 12-24mm. If I need anything wider I do have a fisheye in my bag, but it’s become a little tricky to de-fish images since Fisheye-Hemi went out of business and their plugin no longer works.
You can still do the job – converting from a circular perspective to a Panini (Vedutismo) one – and its even possible but rather tricky event in Photograph, but it lacks the one-click simplicity of the old plugin.
24mm on the Fuji is equivalent to 36mm on full-frame. The reason for carrying the Olympus is the 14-150mm Olympus lens – equvalent to a 28-300 on full frame. It’s a remarkably small and light lens for its specifications and while not wide aperture (f4.6-5) it’s good enough when you can work digitally at higher ISO.
I seldom use very long lenses but hen I first got this lens I was about to go on a job where I knew I neede at least a 300mm. I tested this against a Nikkor lens more than twices a big and probably three times as heavy – and would give me 450mm in DX mode. Rather to my surprise it gave sharper and more detailed results than the Nikkor, and since then as been my choice for longer focal lengths.
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III camera is also perhaps the best camera I’ve ever used. It came out in 2019 and I bought it to replace the very similar Mark II which had suffered an unfortunate impact with a pavement putting it beyond economic repair. I was going to buy a secondhand version, but found a grey import cheaper than the local secondhand price. They are still sold secondhad for only a little less than I paid.
It’s also my holiday camera – with a few other lenses to go with it, depending on exactly how light I want to travel.
London March Against Fascism: Last Saturday, 13th September 2025 I went to the march organised by Stand Up to Racism to oppose the protest by the extreme right, led by Tommy Robinson, taking place on the same day.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025. Around 20,000 marched march through London in opposition to the larger extreme right march also taking place.
The march was backed by around a dozen trade unions as well as groups such as Stop The War, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Jewish Socialist Group and others and around 20,000 came, a respectable number (although at least one media report – I think on the BBC – put it at 500.) It was led by a large group of women from the recently formed ‘Women Against The Far Right’.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025.
But that number on this march was far smaller than the 100-150,000 who marched with Tommy Robinson, far larger than he ever managed to assemble in the days of the EDL, and one that reflects the current dissatisfaction of almost the whole people of our country with our governments, Tory and now Starmer’s Labour.
The Labour landslide last year was a rejection of the successive Tory governments and reflected a need for change, for something better, but what we have seemed to get under Starmer is more of the same.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025. Louise Raw holds a long list of far-right sex offenders.
On Saturday I heard large groups from both marches chanting loudly about the need to get rid of Starmer – it was the only thing the two groups had in common. Their views on what should replace him were very different.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025. Zarah Sultana.
Much of the blame for the rise of Farage and Reform lies with the media, particularly the BBC, who relentlessly promoted Farage because his controversial views made ‘good TV’ at a time when he was an outlier in UK politics, while at the same time largely suppressing the views of those left of centre.
It was no surprise to me – or anyone else who follows events – that the right wing protest ended in violence directed at the police and peaceful anti-racist protesters. Hard to understand why the police were caught off-guard again too.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025. Tommy Robinson – Funded by Billionaires
Also this week it was no surprise to find the assassination of a right wing demagogue in Utah was carried out by someone even further to the right. And no surprise that while the media had earlier trumpeted the unsupported claims blaming the shooting on the left, the truth hardly merited a mention.
I’d decided not to cover Robinson’s protest, partly because I had no desire to give it any attention, but mainly because I knew it would be unsafe for me to do so. I have previously been physically attacked at his protests and have been fortunate to avoid both real injury and damage to my equipment.
I did walk through the crowds gathering around Waterloo for the start of that march – and later walked back through them as they too were going to the station for trains home. But by then the kind of people who would have attacked me were busy fighting with the police around Whitehall. I didn’t feel personally threatened – though I did feel our society was under threat.
Several speakers at the rally before the anti-racist march stressed the need for dialogue, not to simply dismiss all those who marched with Robinson or say they would vote for Reform as fascists and racists. Although there is a hard-core of the extreme right driving their movement most are simply misled by media lies and exaggerations and we need a dialogue to restore the true values which were once at the heart of the Labour movement.
London, UK. 13 Sept 2025. Black Bloc in the rain.
Thanks to a train cancellation and engineering works I arrived late at the rally so didn’t hear all of the speeches. You can see more photographs from the rally and the march between Russell Square and Strand – where I waited for the end of the march to pass me before deciding I was getting too tired and needed to go home – in an album on Facebook – some are also available for publication on Alamy.
Black Lives Matter London: Although there is a long history of Black struggles against racism in Britain the Black Lives Matter movement with its hashtag #BlackLivesMatter only really became established here in 2016, three years after it was first formed in the US in 2013.
This protest, on Friday 5th August 2016, five years and a day after the killing of Mark Duggan by police in 2011, along with those at Heathrow and in Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham were part of a ‘National Shutdown‘ which marked the emergence of Black Lives Matter UK.
The rally took place in Altab Ali Park on Whitechapel Road. Altab Ali, a Bangladeshi textile worker was stabbed to death in a racist attack by three teenagers in the adjoining street on 4th May 1978. In 1998 the park, formerly St Mary’s Park, was renamed in his memory.
Marcia Rigg, whose brother Sean Rigg was killed by police in Brixton in 2008, raises her fist in salute
"The event was called by BLMUK, a community movement of activists from across the UK who believe deeply that #BlackLivesMatter but are not affiliated with any political party. They called for justice and an end to racialised sexism, classism and homophobia and a new politics based on community defence and resilience."
Among those taking part in the rally were activists from Stand Up to Racism, from families of Sheik Bayou and Sean Rigg who had been killed by the police as well as Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennett whose twin brother Leon Patterson was battered to death by police in a Stockport cell in 1992, Movement for Justice and Sisters Uncut.
‘Your Struggle – our Struggle – Ayotzinapa’ London Mexico Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
There were speeches from the various groups including BLMUK and from NUS President Malia Bouattia before the rally split into large groups from North, South, East and West London to discuss further actions.
East London Meeting
Sisters Uncut set up flowers and candles in Altab Ali Park in East London to commemorate the many UK victims of state violence, including Duggan, Sarah Reed, Mzee Mohammed, Jermaine Baker, Sean Rigg, Leon Patterson, Kingsley Burrell and over 1500 others, disproportionately black, since 1990.
I left the rally before the end, when protesters blocked Whitechapel Road outside the park and some went on to block other roads in East London
Stand Up to Racism & Kites Not Drones: On Saturday 22 March 2014, the day following UN Anti-Racism Day (chosen to remember the 69 people killed by police in the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa on 21 March 1960), the TUC and Unite Against Fascism organised a march and rally as a part of a European day of action against racism.
Thousands – perhaps as many as 20,000 – turned up to march the short distance from Old Palace Yard opposite parliament to a long rally in Trafalgar Square – on My London Diary I list 19 speakers, though I think there were a few more on the day, but I didn’t stop to listen to all of them, going instead to Hyde Park where a smaller protest by peace activists tried without much success to fly kites in in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.
Stand Up to Racism – Westminster
No Human is Illegal’ – protesters from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns
This protest stood out for the wide range of people and organisations who had come to join it, “many of whom are sickened by the anti-immigrant policies of successive governments and opposition parties who have long been engaged in trying to outdo each other in the ‘toughness’ of their immigration policies, and have recently moved even further to the right in an effort to neutralise the political threat of UKIP and Nigel Farage.”
And since 2014 the main parties have kept moving to the right. We continue to see this scapegoating of immigrants in the policies both of the current government and its recent Tory predecessors, particularly in the campaigns and legislation against those who cross the channel in small boats, but also in restrictions on those who claim asylum here and the harassment being suffered by many who have made their lives here and contributed to our society but are now threatened by deportation, dragging them away from families and friends. Still we have not set up safe routes for asylum seekers to come to Britain, still we have not offered amnesties to those who have worked here and made useful and essential contribution here for years.
I photographed many of the marchers in Parliament Square, where the march had been planned to start close to the statue of Nelson Mandela who had celebrated “the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities” as the aim of the fight for freedom and equality in South Africa.
A man taking part in unusual dress for a protest
Some posed in front on the grass with ‘Big Ben’ in the background, a name I like to use as it annoys pedants, but is what everyone except them still calls the clock tower which Wikipedia describes as “one of the most prominent symbols of the United Kingdom and parliamentary democracy.”
Among those taking part were people from our Roma and Muslim communities who bear no responsibilities for our country’s current problems and suffer more than most from them while at the same time being blamed by the racist right for them.
“In particular we have seen many promoting fear and hate of Muslims associating the whole community with the acts of a tiny few. Islamophobia is rife and has led to more attacks on the Muslim population, including murder and violent attacks on mosques. “
Kites Not Drones Solidarity with Afghanistan – Hyde Park
This protest by peace activists was part of a weekend of solidarity with the Afghan people who traditionally celebrate their New Year (Now Ruz) on the Spring Equinox by flying kites. (Until 1752 the New Year began at around the same time in Britain and its colonies on Lady Day March 25th.)
Peace activist Maya Evans ties up the Drones on Trial banner ‘EVERY AFGHAN HAS A NAME, WAR IS NOT A VIDEO GAME’
In 2014 I quoted the organisers statement:
‘Kite flying has become synonymous with Afghanistan as a well loved pursuit which was banned under the Taliban, now Afghans are more used to the presence of UK armed and surveillance drones flying overhead.’
‘We are encouraging peace groups, Afghans in the UK and the Muslim community to fly kites in solidarity with Afghans who now have to live under the mental pressure and physical destruction which British drones (currently operated from RAF Waddington, Lincoln) now reap upon Afghanistan.’
None of those taking part appeared to have had any previous experience in actually flying kites, and although the photographers present helped, the gusty conditions only allowed some short and erratic flights, with one kite getting stuck up a tree. For once a police officer was sympathetic, and having come across to tell the protesters that flying kites was not allowed in this or the other Royal Parks told them that so long as they stayed in this empty area of the park and were not a nuisance to others he would not stop them.
Anti-Fascists Oppose the Far Right: Last Saturday, 1st February 2025, I photographed one of two marches taking place in London, kept well separate by a large force of police who had restricted the protests to widely separated routes though ending close to each other.
The march says fascists are not welcome on our streets and is against all forms of racism including antisemitism and Islamophobia
Supporters of “Tommy Robinson” (Stephen Yaxley Lennon) currently in jail after pleading guilty to contempt of court had called a protest to demand his release, in a march they described as ‘Unite The Kingdom’ and ‘Stop the Isolation’. Robinson is apparently in solitary confinement in HMP Woodhill for his own safety, and has refused to remove the video he was sentenced for sharing which is pinned to the top of his ‘X’ account. They began their march at Waterloo Station, marching across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square.
In response Stand Up to Racism had called a counter-demonstration to oppose this march and more generally the rise of the far-right in Britain. This met in St James’s Street just off Piccadilly and marched to a rally in Whitehall.
According to press reports both marches were of a similar size, perhaps between five and ten thousand marchers, though some at the extreme right event claimed a hundred thousand had marched.
Weyman Bennett, Stand Up to Racism.
During the Covid lockdown there were no protests for me to photograph and I began to post here on >Re:PHOTO much more frequently about my older work, both protests I had covered in earlier years and also my walks in and around London photographing buildings and urban landscape in the previous century.
So for some months there was nothing for me to add to my posts in My London Diary web site. Which was just as well as I was getting uncomfortably close to the limit of the number of files and folders I could host on the web space I have – which hosts this blog and a number of other small web sites. That limit is 262,144 and currently My London Diary has 194,257 Files and 2,938 Folders, with >Re:PHOTO taking up most of the rest. So even when I was able to cover protests again I had to change my ways, posting the images in Facebook albums with just a link and one or two pictures on my own web space. Finally I gave up new postings on My London Diary in January 2022, though the site remains in place and I think is an important archive.
Jewish Socialist Group
Time moves on and although I’m still photographing protests I am attending rather fewer than in earlier years and taking things easier. While ten years ago I might sometimes work on my feet for five or six hours, now after around three I’m often feeling too tired to continue, pack up and go home. And while back then I might go our five days a week, now its generally one or two, mainly on Saturdays. And while in past years I would certainly have tried to cover both marches, this year I chose just one, the counter-protest by Stand Up To Racism.
Over the years I have covered quite a few extreme right events, but I decided to leave this one to younger photographers. At many previous events I’ve been threatened, pointed out as someone who should be attacked, spat at and more, despite trying to cover them and report them fairly even though I disagree with their views. People have tried to stop me photographing and have tried to grab my equipment and police haven’t always been ready to help.
At the Stand Up To Racism event there was a far more positive atmosphere. Generally people were happy, sometimes even eager, to be photographed and I was able to walk freely through a packed crowd before the march began making pictures, as well as inside the march itself.
Of course the people at the protest were angry at the way the country (and the world) seems to be drifting towards the right, with more draconian legislation restricting our right to protest, long sentences for peaceful protesters and the kind of political policing we have seen over demonstrations calling for an end to the killing in Palestine. And some at least would be ready to fight the fascists on the streets as people did in the 1930s at Cable Street and elsewhere – and Jewish groups did after the end of the war.
Anti-fascists from the IWW – Industrial Workers of the World were being watched closely by a squad of police
But while being determined to stop the drift to the right in Britain – which appears to have been accelerated by the coming to power of Labour with a large majority – this was a march of the reasonable, the kind of people who will look at evidence rather than believe the lies and manipulations of the right wing media, people who embody the kind of values which I feel are important and which gave Britain hope after defeating the Nazis and led to the setting up of the welfare state, with the NHS and an Education Act that tried to provide a free and fair education. The kind of British values which I think the majority of us still believe in although they have been seriously eroded by successive governments for the benefit of that small minority – the 1% in what is becoming an increasingly unequal society.
Police arrest a man after several flares were set off.
My pictures tell something of the story of the march. It was entirely peaceful. I missed seeing the handful of the extreme right who had come to try to disrupt it and were arrested for breaching the restrictions that police had laid down. I saw only one person arrested, for setting off a smoke flare. I saw the smoke from several flares around a hundred yards away and rushed towards it, but the crowd of marchers across the whole of Piccadilly made this difficult and by the time I arrived a young man was being held by police surrounded by a crowd yelling for them to release him.
NEU marchers. Many trade unions supported the march
I stayed with the march until the end of it went into Whitehall where there was to be a longer rally than that before the start. Suddenly I felt rather tired it decided it was time to go home.
March Against Far Right Hate: Last Saturday, 26th October 2024 I joined thousands of others marching ine London in response to a far-right march called by ‘Tommy Robinson’ under the title ‘Unite the Kingdom’.
Police had imposed conditions on both marches, ensuring that they kept a long way apart and there was very little trouble, with only four arrests at the Robinson march and two at the Stand Up to Racism event.
Organisers of the counter-protest say that 20,000 came to march and the Robinson march was reported to be a little smaller. But certainly the large turnout for the Stand Up to Racism event showed that the kingdom was not united behind the far-right racists.
One person significantly not present at the racist march was the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, generally known as ‘Tommy Robinson’, who was remanded in custody the previous day to attend Woolwich crown court on Monday for his alleged breach of a 2021 high court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. He was also separately charged for a mobile phone offence under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Police restricted Stand Up to Racism for meeting on Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, while Robinson’s protest had to muster at Victoria around a mile and a quarter to the south though rather more on the ground.
The far right were marching to a rally in Parliament Square, while Stand Up to Racism’s rally was at the north end of Whitehall, with around 400 metres of blocked off road between the two.
I spent around 45 minutes photographing at Piccadilly Circus before walking down to Trafalgar Square for another event, catching up with the march later on Cockspur Street roughly halfway on its short march to the rally.
As the band of logos along the bottom of the main banner indicate the the Stand Up to Racism protest was supported by a huge range of organisation is including almost every trade union as well as groups who work with refugees and asylum seekers and there were many trade union banners carried on the march.
As well as the mass-produced placards from the organisers, many on the march had come with their own, and my photographs include some of those I fondud more interesting.
Some of the banners including those from the Latin-American and Jewish Bloc also indicated their support for Palestine, and there were quite a few others on the march with Palestinian flags. Tommy Robinson has also made clear his support for the genocidal actions of the Israeli State as a part of his anti-Muslim stance.
I stayed in Trafalgar Square as the march went by, mainly to see all of the marchers, or at least a good proportion of them in the crowds going past so I could pick out those who seemed more interesting to photograph, either from the side or by rushing into the crowd. But also because this seemed the most likely place where some might try to divert from the approved route and try to reach the racist rally.
And at the very end of the march a large group behind a black banner ‘NO TO TOMMY ROBINSON – NO TO FASCISM’ paused and then made what seemed to be a rather half-hearted attempt to do just that, but were easily held by a thin line of police at the entrance to The Mall. Only a small group at the centre of the banner seemed to be making any real effort to push through the police and those at the end where I was standing just stood holding the banner – and the crowd behind was standing watching and not joining in.
A stand-off ensued, but after some minutes a small police snatch squad came and pushed one of the protesters past or rather through where I was standing, pushing me forcefully to the side. I managed to recover and take a few pictures as he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. But I don’t know why they had decided to arrest this man.
I took a few pictures after this, but decided not to go through the packed crowds towards the stage and photograph the rally now taking place but took the tube from Charing Cross to begin my journey home.
‘Tommy Robinson’ & Poland: Five years ago today, Saturday 24th August 2019 I covered two protests in London against the extreme right. Anti-fascists opposed a protest outside the BBC after far-right activist Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson was jailed for violating a court order, and there was a protest at the Polish Embassy in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in Poland whose lives are under threat from the right-wing Law & Justice Party and the Catholic Church.
Anti-fascists outnumber ‘Free Tommy’ Protest
Robinson was sentenced to 9 months for 3 offences outside Leeds Crown Court which could have led to the collapse of a grooming gang trial, and has previous convictions for violence, financial and immigration frauds, drug possession and public order offences.
The claim by his supporters that he was imprisoned for ‘journalism’ and in some way is a defender of free speech is simply ludicrous. He knew he was breaking the law and pleaded guilty.
Free Tommy supporters shout at the opposition
All journalists know that they have both rights and responsibilities and we are governed by the laws of the country, particularly with respect to the publication of material. Good journalists often publish material that some people would not want published, citing the public interest in doing so, but in this case Robinson’s actions were clearly against any public interest and could have led to a serious criminal prosecution having to be abandoned.
Two groups of protesters came to oppose the protest outside the BBC by Robinson supporters. I met the London Anti-Fascist Assembly and others at Oxford Circus and accompanied them as they marched up Regent Street towards the BBC.
Police marched with them too, and stopped them a few yards from the Robinson protest. When we arrived there were only a handful of ‘Free Tommy’ supporters waiting on the steps of All Souls Langham Place. They shouted back as the Anti-Fascists shoted at them and a police officer warned one of the women about her language as the police moved the Anti-Fascists back to the other side of the road
After some considerably shouting at the extreme right they were pushed by police into a pen on the opposite side of the road. Here they continued to shout at the extreme right protesters and a long list of EDL and Far Right convicted sex offenders was handed out.
Shortly after a large group of Stand Up to Racism supporters arrived to stand beside the Antifa protesters. A couple of police horses came as well as a few more Free Tommy supporters who had marched from Trafalgar Square protected by a police escort.
But theirs was still a small protest, greatly outnumbered by those opposed to them.
The stand-off shouting match continued, with police largely keeping the two groups apart. I left for 45 minutes to cover another protest, and returned to find little had changed, but saw one anti-fascist being led away to a police van after being arrested for refusing to get off the road when ordered by police.
Solidarity with Polish LGBTQ+ community – Polish Embassy
Conveniently the Polish Embassy where protesters had gathered to show solidarity the LGBTQ+ community in Poland is only a few minutes walk from the BBC
LGBTQ+ people in Poland are currently living in fear, their lives threatened under the rule of the right-wing Law & Justice Party which together with the Catholic Church have accused them of being a threat to children and to Poland itself.
Some local authorities have declared ‘LGBT Free Zones’ and nationalists groups have actively attacked members of the LGBTQ+ community and Pride events.
Among those who came to speak at the rally alongside Polish gay rights activists were Nicola Field of Lesbians and Gays Support The Miners, Peter Tatchell and Weyman Bennett of Stand Up to Racism
Against Austerity, Cleaners Flash Mob, EDL & Falun Dafa: The main event on Saturday 16th July 2016 was a well-attended march and rally against austerity and racism following the Brexit referendum, but on the way there I came across a Falun Dafa march, and while people were marching manged to cover a ‘Flash Mob’ by cleaners and a small protest by the far-right EDL.
End Austerity, No to Racism, Tories Out!
The People’s Assembly and Stand Up To Racism had organised an emergency demonstration following the Brexit referendum against austerity and racism and calling for the Tories to be defeated at a General Election.
The protest assembled outside the BBC in the hope that they might for once notice and report on a large protest in London, but as usual they ignored it. It also showed huge popular support for then Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn – who only failed to defeat Theresa May the following year because of sabotage by Labour party officials and the right wing of the party.
Immigration had been a major issue in the Brexit referendum, exploited by the Leave campaign and this had resulted in an upsurge in racism and hate attacks. Brexit did result in lowering migration from the EU and since 2017 the number of those born in the EU living in Britain has slowly but slightly declined. But this has been more than matched by an increase of around a million in those born in non-EU countries.
Of course we need these people who fill many useful jobs here and pay taxes. We also need those who work in the shadow economy, estimated in total to be around 10% of the total economy. Although this is often said to be important in attracting undocumented migrants to the UK, our shadow economy is significantly smaller than the average for developed nations, and at a level around half that of Italy, Greece and Spain and a little below Germany and France according to free-market ‘think tank’ the Institute for Economic Affairs.
The UK had been one of the leaders in the establishment of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, and in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) adopted by the Council of Europe, signed in 1950 which came into force in 1953, with a court to enforce it. Many felt that the Tory government’s proposal in 2022 to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 and replace it by a Bill of Rights was reprehensible. Liz Truss’s one good thing was to stop its progress and in June 2023 Rishi Sunak’s Justice Secretary Alex Chalk confirmed it had been dropped.
As the end of the march left down Regent Street I rushed off to photograph a breakaway group from the march who had left to take part in a flash mob. Following that I trotted along Oxford Street to Park Lane where I photographed a short march by a few EDL supporters before rushing to the tube to make my way to the People’s Assembly and Stand Up To Racist rally in Parliament Square.
The Fire Brigades Union had brought their fire engine to the square to provide a platform for the speakers at the rally chaired by rally chaired by Romayne Phoenix of the People’s Assembly and Sabby Dhalu from Stand Up to Racism.
Islington councillor Michelline Safi Ngongo brought a message of support from Jeremy Corbyn. Other speakers included Green Party London Assembly member Caroline Russell, Weyman Bennett from Stand Up to Racism, Lindsey German of Stop the War, Sam Fairbairn the National Secretary of the People’s Assembly, Zita Holbourne of BARAC and PCS, Rob Williams of the NSSN, NUS Vice President (Further Education) Shakira Martin and Antonia Bright from Movement for Justice who brought an asylum seeker with her to speak.
Falun Dafa march against Chinese repression – Regent St
Practitioners of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), an advanced Buddhist practice of moral rectitude, meditation and exercise founded by Mr Li Hongzhi in 1992, marched through London to protest the continuing torture and repression they have experience in China since 1999.
When the People’s Assembly / Stand Up To Racism march set off, a small group of striking cleaners from 100 Wood St and supporters left to stage a flash mob protest at the nearby HQ Offices of CBRE in Henrietta Place. The United Voices of the World strike at Wood St for the living wage and reinstatement of sacked workers was then in its 38th day.
Less than a hundred EDL supporters had turned up at Marble Arch to march a few yards down Park Lane and then into Hyde Park for a rally. A few anti-fascists who had turned up to oppose them had mainly left to join the People’s Assembly-Stand Up to Racism march by the time I arrived.
Croydon, Abortion & Windrush – I began work on Saturday 5th of May with a late May Day march in Croydon, then came to Westminster where abortion rights protesters were meeting to oppose a ‘March for Life’ anti-abortion march and rally. At Downing Street there was a rally against the racist attacks by Theresa May against the Windrush generation, which later marched to continue at the Home Office, where I ended the day after photographing the anti-abortion march.
Croydon march for May Day – Saturday 5th May 2018
Although International Workers Day is celebrated internationally on May 1st, in Croydon there was a march and rally on the following Saturday.
Croydon is just 15 minutes by public transport from the centre of London, and those who were able to do so had probably joined the main London march on May Day, while others will have had to wait for the weekend to celebrate, so the march and rally on Saturday made sense.
It wasn’t a huge march, though doubtless more made their way to the rally later at Rusking House, where the speakers were to include Ted Knight, once the leader of Lambeth council and then one of the best-known Labour politicians, derided in the press of the day as ‘Red Ted’. One of the largest groups on the march was the supporters of the local Keep Our St Helier Hospital campaign fighting against proposed cuts there.
Women protest anti-abortion march – Parliament Square
Feminists in the abortion rights campaign held a rally in Parliament Square before the annual March for Life UK by pro-life anti-abortion campaigners was to arrive for their rally.
They opposed any increase of restrictions on abortion and called for an end to the harassment of women going into clinics and called for women in Northern Ireland to be given the same rights as those in the rest of the UK, as well as supporting the Irish referendum to repeal the 8th amendment to the constitution dating from 1983 which effectively banned abortion in Ireland.
I walked up Whitehall to meet the several thousand anti-abortion campaigners, mainly Catholics, marching to their rally in Parliament Square.
They argue that even at conception the fertilised egg should be awarded an equal right to life as the woman whose body it is in, and call legalised abortion the greatest violation to human rights in history.
This was the first London march by ‘March for Life UK’ who had previously held marches in Birmingham and came a few weeks an Irish vote was expected to repeal the 8th amendment and allow abortion in Ireland, and some posters and placards called for a ‘No’ vote in this.
I remained on Whitehall to join a rally at Downing St organised by Stand Up to Racism calling for Theresa May’s racist 2014 Immigration Act to be repealed and an immediate end to the deportation and detention of Commonwealth citizens, with those already deported to be bought back to the UK.
It demanded guaranteed protection or all Commonwealth citizens and for those affected to be compensated for deportation, threats of deportation, detention, loss of housing, jobs, benefits and denial of NHS treatment and an end to the ‘hostile environment’ introduced by Theresa May.
Speakers also condemned the unusual moves by the Tories in ways that threaten the normal working of Parliament to try and keep information about the Windrush scandal secret. Aong those speaking were Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, trade unionists, and people from organisations standing up for immigrants and opposing immigration detention including Movement for Justice who brought two women who had been held in Yarl’s Wood to speak.
After the rally at Downing Street protesters marched to the Home Office for a further rally there.
