The London School of Exploitation

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia: On Monday 6th November 2017 I photographed striking Picturehouse staff picketing the cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue before going on to the LSE where students, supporters and cleaners were protesting the homophobic abuse of one of the cleaners.

Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage

Shaftesbury Avenue

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia - 2017

Staff working of Picturehouse cinemas in London had been campaigning for over a year to be paid a living wage, and on 6th November 2017 they were striking at Crouch End, Hackney, and East Dulwich Picturehouses and the Brixton Ritzy as well as at Picturehouse Central close to Piccadilly Circus.

It was Living Wage Week and the new London Living Wage of £10.20 per hour had been announced earlier that day. As I noted on My London Diary, while the cinema staff were living on poverty wages, “the post-tax profits of Cineworld, the parent company of Picturehouse were £93.8m last year in UK and Ireland and the CEO is paid £2.5m.”

In the short time I spent with the picket a number of people “decided not to cross the picket line. Some went to the cinema a short distance down the road instead.” The strikers were expecting more people to join the picket later when there would be more customers but I had to leave to cover a protest elsewhere.

Just a few more pictures at Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage.

Protest against Homophobia in the LSE

London School of Economics

That evening the LSE were hosting a talk, “LGBT Rights: what next?” and students and others including some cleaners were protesting outside over the homophobic abuse which Daniel, one of the LSE cleaners, had been subjected to over the past 10 months.

The cleaners who work at the LSE were then not employed by the LSE but the work had been outsourced to cleaning contractor Noonan. They were eventually brought back into direct employment after over a year of protests led by their union, United Voices of the World – I photographed most of these protests beginning with the launch of the campaign – on My London Diary.

Daniel’s abuse came from his managers at Noonan. Complaints by him and his union had been brushed aside and he had been threatened with him disciplinary action for making some of them. Crowd-sourcing and support from the UVW enabled his case to go to an employment tribunal and in April 2018 it found he had been harassed on multiple occasions at the LSE merely for being homosexual.

*Members of the IWGB had come in solidarity with their fellow cleaners in the UVW*

The tribunal heard that Daniel had been told “homosexuals were not human“, and that he should “sleep with women to cure his problem“, and that he was “a woman” for complaining about his treatment. It found that a culture existed at the LSE that made making such comments acceptable.

The tribunal vindicated the students accusation of hypocrisy against the LSE, which while hosting talks and boasting about its promotion of gay rights had refused to take any action when confronted by a clear case of anti-gay discrimination on its site. The protest pointed out that while Noonan employed the cleaners the LSE still had full control over their hiring and firing, and Noonan would have had to take action over the complaints if they had ordered them to do so.

*Security stop protesters entering the building*

The protesters called on the LSE to apologise and commit to zero tolerance of homophobic and racist behaviour at all levels throughout the institution and to sack all homophobic bullies.

Security tried unsuccessfully to stop some protesters coming onto the site to protest, pushing the SOAS Unison banner into the road but were unable to prevent LSE students to come onto the site, though they they did a few who tried to enter the building.

After some minutes of noisy protest the protesters marched around to the Kingsway entrance to protest there, then returned for further protests at the main entrance before moving off again to protest outside the New Academic Building.

More at LSE against Homophobia.

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LSE Cleaners Protest, Lisa Arrested: Wednesday 15th March 2017 was the first day of a two-day strike by cleaners at the LSE in support of their campaign demanding equal sick pay, holidays and pensions etc to similar workers directly employed by the LSE and an end to bullying and discrimination by their employer Noonan.

I had photographed the start of their campaign at a meeting led by their union, the United Voices of the World, as a part of the LSE’s 3-day ‘Resist’ Festival on 29th September 2016 and a number of protests at the LSE since then.

On 15th March the cleaners had a picket line since the early morning – cleaners start work while most of us are still in bed – and I joined them for a lunchtime rally. Their campaign had a great deal of support from students at the LSE and had a large banner ‘L$E: The London School of Exploitation‘.

Others who had come to support the cleaners included Grim Chip of Poets on the Picket Line and LSE academics Lisa McKenzie and David Graeber and a few from Class War. But there were passionate and effective speeches from a number of the cleaners, including Mildred Simpson, one of the LSE cleaners and others in the UVW.

At the end of the rally, the protesters marched through the campus and across Kingsway to the building which houses the LSE Estates Office where a large group walked into the foyer demanding to see the Estates Manager. Some were carrying mops and buckets to show their support for the cleaners.

Security came to talk with the protesters, though the protesters were making too much noise to hear them and the protest continued with a short speech from UVW General Secretary Petros Elia to explain when the foyer was being occupied.

Eventually the protesters sat down and waited, still making a lot of noise . People working in the building were still able to leave or enter the building unhindered walking past the protest – but would hear and read why the noisy protest was taking place.

Eventually police arrived and talked with the building security and some of the protesters who soon began dancing in the foyer to music on the public address system the UVW had brought.

More police arrived and decided to stop people entering or leaving the offices. They talked with UVW General Secretary Petros Elia who told them it was a peaceful protest and they would leave after they had made their point to the LSE facilities manager – if the police could persuade him to talk to them.

Eventually this talk did take place, though some way back from the foyer where we could only see them from a distance. The talk went on for around five minutes, and Petros then returned smiling to tell the protesters that the LSE who had until now been refusing to talk to the cleaners had agreed to a meeting.

The protesters then walked out to join those who had been continuing to protest on the pavement outside, and they prepared to end the protest.

But unexpectedly police moved in and surrounded Lisa McKenzie telling her she was under arrest.

They pushed her roughly to the wall of the building and handcuffed her pushing away excessively roughly those who tried to stop the arrest and taking her to a waiting police van.

Apparently Lisa was being charged with assault on the receptionist when the protesters entered the building. I was close behind and neither I nor the other protesters saw any evidence of assault by her as she entered the offices holding one end of the banner with others.

Everyone was shocked, both by the arrest and by the police violence. The fact that none of the others holding the banner were arrested strongly suggested that her arrest was politically motivated, probably due to pressure from the LSE for her support for the cleaners – she had organised the ‘Resist’ Festival where the cleaners campaign had been launched.

Lisa had previously been the subject of a clearly political arrest when she was wrongly charged with three offences at a protest in February 2015 while she was standing in the General Election against Iain Duncan Smith. Perhaps the police were still feeling aggrieved after failing signally to achieve a conviction. This time they were not stupid enough to take her to court.

Much more from Wednesday 15th March 2017 on My London Diary:
LSE cleaners strike and protest
Police arrest Lisa again

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Tag: The London School of Exploitation

Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia – 2017

Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage

Protest against Homophobia in the LSE

LSE Cleaners Protest, Lisa Arrested – 2017