Palestine & Syria: On Saturday 13th January 2018 I photographed a protest at the London US Embassy in Grosvenor Square against the continuing imprisonment of children in Palestine and another opposite the Russian Consulate over their continuing support for the Assad regime in Syria including the bombing of civilians.
Free Ahed Tamimi & All Child Prisoners
Teenager Ahed Tamimi was in prison in Israel for slapping an Israeli soldier who came into her family’s garden shortly after she had learnt that a relative had been shot by Israeli forces.
Her detention made the news and prompted this protest, but she was only one of the thousands of Palestinian children have been detained by Israel since 2000 in a systematic policy which the UN has said includes abuse and ill-treatment. Many Palestinian children have been kept for many days in solitary confinement in small underground cells in Israeli jails.
Israel is an apartheid state, with very different laws and police treatment for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are subject to Israeli military law and dealt with in military courts which offer little or no chance of justice. Many are held without any real trials in ‘administrative detention‘ which can be essentially indefinite, with prisoners being released at the end of one sentence and immediately re-arrested for another period of detention.
A number of those taking part were relatives or friends of Tamimi’s family, including her father’s cousin Nana Hourriyah, or of other prisoners in Israeli jails. One man who spoke had recently spent 3 months in Palestine and had stayed with the family of another child prisoner. He had then been deported for taking part in a peaceful protest.
During the hour I stayed at the protest a single Zionist protester in a pen at the end of the street waved an Israeli flag, shouting insults at the protesters and accusing them of supporting Hamas, which they firmly denied.
Protesters lined the street opposite the Russian Consulate calling for an end to the massacres taking place in Syria. Protests are not allowed in the private road a few yards away outside the Embassy.
Russia and Assad’s forces were bombing civilians in Idlib, Hama and Eastern Ghouta, specifically targeting medical workers and facilities, with 8 hospitals in Idlib bombed since the start of December.
Many of those still living in Idlib had fled there from other towns and cities previously bombed by Assad and his Russian allies who were attempting to complete the destruction of all groups opposed to the Assad regime and bomb or starve to death the civilian population in areas held by opposition forces.
Only now after the fall of the Assad regime has the full scale of their human rights abuses become widely known with over 150,000 people thought to have been tortured and killed in his infamous prisons. As many as 620,000 were killed in the 14 years of civil war – around 1 in 35 of its prewar population, with around half these being civilians.
More than 14 million – almost two thirds of the Syrian population – were forced to leave their homes in the civil war. Half remained elsewhere in Syria, around 5.5 million in surrounding countries. Around a fifth of the countries pre-war population made their way to Europe, with the majority of these going to Germany. The UK set up a scheme to take Syrians but the numbers here remain relatively small at around 40,000.
Guantanamo Day – 11th January: Today is the 23rd anniversary of the setting up by U.S. President George W. Bush of the illegal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay inside the US Naval base on Cuba.
Bush had issued a military order in November 2001 “for the indefinite detention of foreign nationals without charge and preventing them from legally challenging their detention” and to their shame the US Department of Justice claimed that the principle of ‘habeas corpus‘ did not apply to the camp as it was not on US territory.
At first a temporary camp called ‘Camp X-Ray’ was set up at Guantanamo and the first twenty detainees arrived there on 11 January 2002. Later they were moved to a more permanent Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
The US administration argued that the site was not US territory as it was only held under a lease from Cuba last updated in 1934 “under which Cuba retains ultimate sovereignty but the U.S. exercises sole jurisdiction.” Cuba since the 1959 revolution has argued that the US presence there is illegal and has called repeatedly for them to leave and return the territory to Cuba.
The USA also argued that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to ‘unlawful enemy combatants’, and went ahead holding prisoners there in cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions and torturing them. The Wikipedia article gives some details of the condemnations by the Red Cross and human rights organisations as well as the testimonies of released prisoners.
There was little if any evidence against great majority of the at least 780 men who were held in Guantanamo and most were finally released without charge, although today 15 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay. Nine died while being held there. Only 16 detainees have ever been charged by the U.S. with criminal offences. Most were just foreigners who were in Afghanistan for various reasons and were captured and sold to the US forces by bounty hunters.
The last detainee with a British connection to be released was Shaker Aamer, born in Saudi Arabia but with British Resident status and a wife and family in Battersea, London who had gone to Afghanistan as a charity worker. He was captured by bandits and sold to the US in December 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo on 14 February 2002 after having been interrogated and tortured in the prison at the US Bagram air base. He was eventually released in October 2015 having been held for over thirteen years.
Green MEP for London Jean Lambert
Some large protests against Guantanamo took place in London over the years, as well as smaller regular vigils at the US Embassy and in front of Parliament. I photographed many of these over the years, putting accounts and pictures on My London Diary as well as sending them to agencies. The pictures here come from my post about a small protest by active campaigners against the camp at the US Embassy on Monday 11th January 2010, Guantanamo Bay – 8 Shameful Years.
Uganda Anti-gay Law & Guantanamo: Wednesday 8th January 2014 I photographed two protests in central London, the first in front of Uganda House in Trafalgar Square against the Anti-Homosexuality Act which had been passed by the Ugandan parliament but was awaiting signature by the President, and the second in Parliament Square calling for the closure of the illegal Guantanamo torture camp and the release of UK Resident Shaker Aamer.
Against Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law – Uganda House
A crowd filled the pavement outside Uganda House on Trafalgar Square in a protest organised by the African LGBTI Out & Proud Diamond Group and Peter Tatchell Foundation and supported by other groups including Queer Strike, Movement for Justice, Lesbian Gay Christians, Rainbows Across Borders, the RMT, Nigerian LGBTIs and Women of Colour.
They called on President Museveni not to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, (often referred to as the ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill.) Originally the Bill had called for the death penalty for what it described as “aggravated homosexuality”, but this was reduced to life imprisonment when it was passed by an inquorate Ugandan Parliament in December despite not being on the day’s order of business.
Peter Tatchell
Museveni eventually signed and the Act became law on 24th February 2014. The bill, under consideration by the Ugandan parliament since 2009 had provoked a huge amount of international condemnation and in June 2014 the US announced various sanctions against Uganda.
This Act was annulled by Uganda’s Constitutional Court in August 2014 as it had been passed without the necessary parliamentary quorum.
But in 2023, the Ugandan Parliament passed a new Anti-Homosexuality Act. Museveni passed it back to them for reconsideration when it was passed with minor amendments by a vote of 348 to 1 and he then signed it into law. It provided life imprisonment for homosexual acts and the death penalty for acts involving various groups of vulnerable people including those under 18 or over 75, disabled or mentally ill and repeat offenders or acts which transmit serious infectious diseases.
In 2024, the Constitutional Court upheld the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, making a few minor changes, asserting “In defiance of international law, the judges ruled that the act does not violate fundamental rights to equality and nondiscrimination, privacy, freedom of expression, or the right to work for LGBT people.”
The Save Shaker Aamer campaign mounted its first vigil in 2014 opposite Parliament calling for the Londoner’s urgent release. Held there without charge of trial since Feb 14, 2002 he was first cleared for release in 2007.
A dozen protesters in orange Guantanamo-style jump suits and black hoods lined the pavement opposite Parliament with posters and banners, occasionally walking slowly up and down to remind MPs of the need to press the US for his release. Although there has never been any evidence against him, his release and evidence of his continuing torture and the complicity in this of the British security service MI6 would greatly embarrass both the UK and US
You can read more about his case in my account on My London Diary. Eventually after years of public pressure and protests such as this he was finally released to the UK on 30 October 2015.
Fathers, Turkey, Routemasters, a Christmas Market and Ethiopia: Text and pictures from a busy day in London on Friday 9th December 2005, exhumed, corrected and slightly polished from the depths of ‘My London Diary‘ with links to the many more pictures of each event there.
Fathers4Justice: 24 Days of Christmas Chaos – Westminster
Santas and Mama Santas protest at Church of England and Dept of Education & Skills, Westminster
I’ve photographed Fathers4Justice on several previous occasions. Today they were taking advantage of Christmas and the Father Christmas idea to protest against the Church of England. Being on a Friday, there were rather fewer father and mother Christmases (and Santa’s little helpers were mainly at school, though some of their dads behind the whiskers were pulling a sickie.) It was still an arresting sight to see so many figures dressed in red on the street, including some rather inflated figures in inflatable suits.
After rather a slow start events warmed up a bit outside the offices of the Church of England, and, a few yards down the road, the Department for Education and Skills. Of course our ‘serious crimes’ law now forbids the use of amplified sound in demonstrations, so the Fathers simply had to shout rather loud. The next place for a stop was of course opposite Downing Street, where there were more shouted comments. I left the march as it turned down Whitehall Place on its way to the Law Courts on Strand. more pictures
Free Mehmet Tarhan – Turkish Airlines, Pall Mall
Tahan is a gay conscientious objector held and tortured in aTurkish jail
Outside Turkish Airlines at the bottom of Haymarket there was a picket protesting against Turkish imprisonment of protestors, in particular Mehmet Tarhan, a gay conscientious objector. Recently, his 4-year sentence for refusing military service was overruled on procedural grounds, and he is to be retried for ‘insistent insubordination with the intent of evading military service.’
London Transport – Last day for the Routemaster
The last proper bus service to use London’s signature Routemaster double-decker buses, route 159, ceased today, with its buses being replaced by more modern designs. I caught one of the last to run to take me down to Westminster, then photographed it. Although the official ‘last bus’ had already run, there were several others following on, with the final pair passing Big Ben 28 minutes after I made my picture.
Transport for London continued to use a few Routemasters running in London on two special short ‘heritage routes’ both running past Trafalgar Square, thus retaining one of our tourist attractions.
[Routemasters were first introduced in 1956 and the two ‘TfL heritage routes’ were ended in 2019 though you still see them operated by private companies in a variety of guises. Routemasters jolt, rattle and jerk on London’s streets but I do very much miss the ability to jump off and board them at the many halts and delays in the increasingly congested streets.] more pictures
Victorian Christmas Market – Chrisp St, Poplar
Hat Trick – Jim and Bev James Singing Chimney Sweeps
Chrisp Street Market was part of an early post-war public housing redevelopment, the Lansbury Estate, built for the 1951 Festival Of Britain in a Docklands area that had suffered considerable bomb damage. Fifty or so years later it was beginning to show its age and there has been some tidying up and its pedestrian precincts are now rather tidier than a few years ago.
The market is bustling with life, more so than usual when I visited, as there were two days of a special Victorian Christmas event. There were various special stalls in the market, and also entertainers wandering around and performing on a small stage. Kids from two local schools had also come to perform but unfortunately I had to leave before they had really started.
I’d hoped to return on the following day, Saturday, when things would have been livelier, but in the end i just couldn’t make it. more pictures
The Ethiopian Tragedy – Stop UK Support – Marble Arch
At Marble Arch there was a crowd gathering of Ethiopians from across Europe, come to protest at the British government’s support of an oppressive communist regime in their country. [Others describe Ethiopia as an authoritarian regime with poor civil and human rights.]
More than 70,000 people are detained by the regime, being tortured and dying in concentration camps. Britain is spending £30 million of our money to support the regime that is violating human rights there. The protestors want the British public to urge their MPs to support motions on the situation in Ethiopia and demand an end to these crimes. more pictures
St Paul’s, Lord Mayor’s Show, Somalia, Egypt & Abortion: Occupy London were still encamped at St Paul’s Cathedral on the day of the annual Lord Mayor’s Show which made the day a little more interesting than usual. But also on Saturday 12th November 2011 I visited the cathedral, went with Occupy to protest against UK arms supplies to the Egyptian Army and covered a protest about the continuing war in Somalia and a ‘500 crosses for Life’ anti-abortion procession.
The Lord Mayor’s Show & Occupy
After blessing the Lord Mayor, St Paul’s Canon in Residence Rt Revd Michael Colclough came at their request and blessed Occupy LSX in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. Later the camp hosted a ‘Not the Lord Mayors Show‘ festival of entertainment.
Occupy had set up a polling booth close to the route to point out the uniquely undemocratic nature of the City of London, where ordinary voters are outnumbered 4 to 1 by the votes of corporations which results in it promoting “a radical bankers’ agenda at odds with the interests and democratic desire of the British people.”
Occupy also received many more visitors than usual because of the crowds who had come up for the procession and after the official event had ended put on their own ‘NOT The Lord Mayor’s Show’, “a festival for the people, which aims to place the celebratory atmosphere of the traditional event in a non-hierarchical and community-focused environment.”
On the web site a supporter stated “We will not have golden carriages, we will not have military costumes, we will not have a marching band, but we are going to enjoy ourselves. This is about valuing people and community, rather than privileging the undemocratically elected Lord Mayor of the City of London.”
Before I left there was a show with comedians, spoken word artists and singers in a show compèred by stand-up comedian Andy Zaltzman. Later there was to be a special general meeting with speakers including John McDonnell MP. And as it was also Remembrance weekend, in the evening the camp was hosting the UK première of ‘The Welcome’, an award-winning US documentary film about a project for dealing with post-traumatic stress involving ex-soldiers and their family members.
I took some time away from Occupy to photograph the rather strange mix of floats and walking groups that make up the Lord Mayor’s Show.
There were the various groups from London’s guilds – including the Launderers in the picture, though the only laundering that goes on in London these days is of money with London being the world capital for making dirty money seem respectable.
And floats for a wide range of organisations – and there were some which it was rather harder to know quite what they represented with more carnival costumes.
Together with many of those at OccupyLSX who were also watching, I found the marching servicemen, military vehicles and weapons and military bands that are a major element of it disturbing. Like much of the celebration they look back to when Britain ruled the world.
The City of London is of course an anachronism, though now one that hides the ruthless pursuit of profit by any means it can get away with, including the now clearly immoral support of highly polluting industries such as fossil fuels which now threaten the future of many species on Earth including our own.
Entry to St Paul’s Cathedral except to attend services normally costs what they describe as a “small fee”, now £25 per adult, though only £14.50 in 2011. But entry is free on the day of the Lord Mayor’s show (though slightly restricted) and I took advantage of this to go the ‘Stone Gallery’ around the bottom of the dome where photography was allowed.
And I took full advantage of this, making rather a lot of pictures in every available direction, a few of which I’ve put online.
International Day to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian Revolution had begun with high hopes as a part of the Arab Spring and toppled the Mubarek regime, but since then things had not gone well for the coutry, with the army taking charge.
Since then there had been over 2000 trials in military courts, without the ability to call witnesses or access to lawyers in a programme of repression against any opposition. Many have been sentenced to death, and torture remains widespread. Many of those imprisoned are underage and women have been subjected to rapes and sexual assault.
The UK government supported the Egyptian military and UK arms manufacturers supply the army and police there with the weapons needed to maintain their repression.
A group of protesters from OccupyLSX as well as some Egyptians and Sam Weinstein of the US Utility Workers Union left for a ‘march of shame’ to the offices of 3 arms dealers, Qinetiq, BAE and Rolls Royce, who had gone to Egypt with Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011 to sell arms to the Egyptian army.
The protesters condemned the violence against the people of Egypt and called on the UK government to withhold support to Egypt and stop arms sales until a civilian government dedicated to freedom and civil rights is in power in Egypt.
I left them at Ludgate Circus on their way to the offices.
Somalis Protest Obama’s War – Old Palace Yard, Westminster
I paid a brief visit to Old Palace Yard opposite the House of Lords where a protest had been announces against the US-backed proxy war by Ethiopia against Somalia.
But when I arrived at the time the protest was supposed to start I found only three men and a boy there, with a number of placards. The men assured me more would arrive later, and I did return two hours later but found the place deserted. I think by then the protesters might have left to protest at the Ethiopian embassy in Kensington rather than outside an empty Parliament.
But my return to Westminster was not fruitless as I came across another protest, with several hundred people carrying white crosses in an anti-abortion ‘500 crosses for Life’ prayer procession.
This had started at Westminster Cathedral and when I met it was leaving Old Palace Yard and walking towards its end at Westminster Abbey.
I went with them in the fading light around 4.30pm and took some pictures. As I wrote back in 2011, “I don’t share the views of the Catholic Church on abortion and find the use of the term ‘pro-life’ by those opposed to abortion to describe themselves offensive. It’s an area where we need clear and unpredjudiced thinking and where all – whatever their view on abortion – are concerned with life and the quality of life.”
A speaker at the rally gave thanks for the activities of those in Germany who were protesting outside abortion clinics. I’m pleased by the recent announcement that these activities are now to be severely restricted in England and Wales with safe access zones.
In 2011 I commented “isn’t harassing women who go to clinics at what is almost certainly for them a very stressful time morally offensive, a demonstration of an un-Christian lack of love as well as a statement of lack of faith in the power of prayer?”
HP, Poor Doors & Anonymous: On Wednesday 5th November 2014 Guy Fawkes was obviously on our minds, and from a protest against HP’s support of the Israeli army and prisons I went on to a protest where a guy with a Boris Johnson mask was burnt and then joined Anonymous with their march on Parliament.
Boycott Hewlett Packard – Sustainable Brands – Lancaster London Hotel
Hewlett Packard, now known as HP, though that’s still a name that makes me think of brown sauce in bottles with a picture of the Houses of Parliament, were the sponsors of the Sustainable Brands conference taking place at the Lancaster London Hotel at Lancaster Gate.
Protesters from Inminds came there to protest against the company’s role in IT support for Israeli forces who had killed 521 Palestinian children in the then recent attack on Gaza, as well as in running the Israeli prison system. They handed out fliers to those going in and out of the hotel and others spoke about the HP’s deep involvement in Israeli war crimes and persecution of Palestinians.
They point out that young Palestinian boys as well as other prisoners have been kept for long periods in solitary confinement and tortured in Israeli prisons supported by HP. Many older Palestinian men and women are also locked up in ‘administrative confinement’ without any proper charges or trial, often being released and then immediately being confined again in what amounts to infinite imprisonment.
[HP Sauce is definitely a long-lived brand, having got its name in 1895, five years after it was first produced in Nottingham as ‘The Banquet Sauce’, though in 1988 like most things British it was sold off to foreigners. Currently it is owned by Heinz and made in the Netherlands and still tastes much the same. ]
Poor Doors Guy Fawkes Burn Boris – One Commercial St, Aldgate
I met Class War in a nearby pub before they marched to yet another of their weekly protests against the ‘social apartheid’ in this large block with a plush foyer and concierge for the ‘luxury’ flats for the wealthy and a bleak side entrance down an alley for the poor in social housing in the same building.
They had with them two effigies of Boris Johnson, one a BJ placard, one hand holding a bottle of ‘Boris Bolly’ and the other fanning out a wad of notes, and a life-size ‘guy’ in a suit and tie with a Boris facemask and a mop as hair, who was dragged along the the protest holding one end of the Class War Womens Death Squad banner.
Class War had brought along sparklers for the protest, and at some point the inevitable happened and ‘Boris’ was set alight, eventually burning to a small heap of burning material in the middle of the wide pavement. As you can see in the picture there was plenty of space around so no-one was in any danger.
The police called the Fire Brigade, who when they arrived, looked, laughed and walked away. But police insisted they deal with the fire. It took one fireman and one bucket of water.
After the fire was put out, police grabbed Jane Nicholl and told her she was being arrested for having set light to the guy.
A large crowd surrounded her and the police, calling on them to release her, but eventually they managed to take her and put her in the back of a van, which was then surrounded by people.
More police arrived and there were flashing blue lights everywhere, as police tried to clear a path for the van. Eventually police managed to drive away.
They then grabbed another of the protesters, handcuffed him and carried him away, though I think he was later released without charge. The CPS had agreed that burning the effigy was legitimate freedom of expression but Jane was charged with lighting a fire on or over a highway so a person using the highway was injured or endangered. But the CPS were unable to produce any evidence that burning Boris ‘injured, interrupted or endangered’ any passerby – it clearly hadn’t – and the case was dismissed.
Guy Fawkes ‘Anonymous’ Million Mask March – Parliament Square
Hundreds had met in Trafalgar Square for the world wide Million Mask March against austerity, the corporate takeover of government and the abuse of power, but by the time I arrived from Aldgate had marched down to Parliament Square. Some were on the ground under a police van with another standing on its read bumper with a placard.
Here there were a mass of barriers and large groups of riot police threatening the protesters, who called on them to put their batons away and join their Guy Fawkes party without success.
Many of the protesters wore ‘Anonymous’ masks but there were relatively few with placards and nobody seemed to have much idea about what they should do. They stood around, then marched around the square a bit before some decided to march to Buckingham Palace where I learned later that things did get a bit more lively. But I’d had enough by then and had gone home.
Kashmiris and Cows: On Saturday 10th August 2019 I photographed three events, two of them by Kashmiris after the article of the Indian Constitution which guaranteed some autonomy for their state was revoked. Completely unrelated was a small protest by vegans against diary farming.
Kashmiris protest at India House and Trafalgar Square
When the partition of India took place at independence from Britain in 1947, the state of Kashmir was an anomaly. Although this was a majority Muslim state it was not included in Pakistan as the then ruler decided it should become a part of India.
Kashmir has three regions, Jammu and Kashmir the largest, became a part of India, the Northern areas are under Pakistani administration and a smaller region on the east is controlled by China. The whole area has been disputed by India, Pakistan and China since 1947.
The special status of Jammu and Kashmir was recognised by Article 370 of the Indian constitution. This gave it “the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.“
Many Kashmiris objected to becoming a part of India and campaigned for independence with a brief rebellion leading to war between India and Pakistan in 1948-9. Various other conflicts came in later years and in 1989 an armed insurgency began, at first calling for independence but soon taken over by groups calling for merger with Pakistan.
The uprising has been suppressed over the years by a huge Indian military presence in Kashmir with an occupying force of around 800,000 military and paramilitary personnel and extreme levels of human rights abuses, including torture, deliberate blinding and killings.
In August 2019, under the government of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Presidential Orders were made revoking Article 370, making Jammu and Kashmir a part of India on exactly the same basis as the rest of the country. They also split Jammu and Kashmir into two different areas, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Like many, the Kashmiris say Modi is a Hindu fascist and his action has united the country against India.
A large and noisy protest took place on the pavement in front of the Indian High Commission, after which the protesters marched to continue their protest in Trafalgar Square.
Protesters stood in a small block wearing cow masks in Trafalgar Square calling for an end to diary farming which they claim is inherently cruel, with milk being stolen from cows and male calves being slaughtered soon after birth.
Vegan protesters call cows ‘mothers‘ and calves ‘babies‘, and they say that we ‘steal‘ the milk that the cows produce for their calves, failing to tell people that dairy cows have been bred to produce far more milk than their calves can consume, perhaps 7-10 times as much. And we only have cows in our fields because farmers breed them to produce milk for us to drink. We need to get away from emotional arguments and concentrate on the facts.
Traditional farming treated animals with care and respect – they were (and are) important assets. Some modern intensive practices are certainly cruel and should be condemned, both here and in other countries which mainly have even less strict animal welfare regulations. We could have a dairy industry which treated animals better and many of us would be prepared to pay more for the milk it produced.
There are good reasons to eat less meat and less diary products, but protests like this trivialise the issue. Good reasons why some people become vegans, but also good reasons why we should farm some animals to produce milk and meat. It would be a disaster for the environment if we all became vegan.
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.
Streatham, Spain and Guantanamo: Three events in London on Saturday 15th July 2006, a festival, a commemoration and a protest.
Streatham Festival Children’s Parade – Streatham
Streatham Festival held it’s first ever Children’s Parade, children working with artists from Arts Community Exchange and Kids’ City to create sculptures, banners and puppets for all to see.
The parade was led by drummers Ancestral Hands and a cycling stilt-walker brought up the rear as it went along Streatham High Road to St Leonard’s Church.
One of my pictures from this parade was used in the remarkable The Streatham Sketchbook by Jiro Osuga and Mireille Galinou with photography by Torla Evans which was published in 2017 by Your London Publishing. Still available, this was described by Graham Gower of The Streatham Society as “superb and one the best books to be published on Streatham as a place – if not the best.”
International Brigade Commemoration – Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo
I’ve attended and photographed a number of the annual commemorations of those who went to fight the fascists in Spain in 1936-9, but this 2006 event was the most memorable. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2006.
Jack Jones
Several hundred people attended the annual commemoration at the International Brigade Memorial in Jubilee Gardens London Organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust on Saturday 15 July.
Bob Doyle
Between 1936 and 1939 over 35,000 men and women, from more than 50 countries, volunteered for the Republican forces. Of the 2,300 who came from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, over 500 were killed.
Sam Lesser
Volunteers came largely from working class areas across the country. most were members of communist organisations or otherwise active in the trade unions and other socialist bodies, and their average age was 29.
Jack Edwards
Seventy years later there are relatively few still alive and active enough to attend the commemoration, but it was good to see seven there. They were Jack Jones who chaired the event, Sam Lesser who spoke and read, as well as Bob Doyle, Paddy Cochrane, Lou Kenton, Jack Edwards and a surprisingly spry Penny Feiwel. As usual there was a reading of the names of those known to have died since the previous year’s meeting.
Penny Feiwel
Rodney Bickerstaff’s address raised the problem of keeping alive the memory of those who responded to the call to help the Spanish republic, but attendances at this annual event seem to have increased over recent years.
Lou Kenton
There was certainly more media interest than on previous occasions, in part because of the attendance of the Spanish Ambassador and his wife, reflecting the increasing interest from Spain; he also gave a brief speech. As was pointed out, it would have been nice to have a representative of the UK government also present.
Paddy Cochrane
As usual, the event concluded with the singing of the ‘Internationale’.
The National Guantanamo Coalition had called for a national demonstration in London to protest the deaths of three Guantanamo detainees earlier in the month.
A group of protesters, mainly from the ‘Save Omar Deghayes’ campaign, but also representing other organisations, walked across London from Marble Arch to the new Home Office building in Marsham Street to hand in the petition calling for an independent enquiry into the three recent deaths at Guantanamo. The petition also calls for the immediate sending of all detainees to countries where their basic human rights would not be abused, an immediate closure of Guantanamo and other prisons where those held were denied proper legal process and for proper access to detainees by family and medical personnel.
It was a long, hot and dusty trek across London, particularly tricky for those with pushchairs as we navigated the Hyde Park subways, and we were all glad to arrive (thanks to helpful directions from the police) at the Home Office. The front of the building was like an oasis, shade, green grass, water and trees.
The police did make us get off the grass and also made some effort to stop the display of placards and banners, but most of these remained visible. They had also attracted some attention from the crowds around Buckingham Palace as we passed by.
Cable Car, Victoria Dock, Olympic Site & Torture: I was coming to London to photograph the ‘Say No to Torture‘ protest on the evening of Wednesday 26th June, but as it was a nice day and I came up a few hours earlier to take a ride on London’s cable car and then to take a few pictures around Victoria Dock and Silvertown before making quick visit to the Greenway to see what progress was being made in opening up the former Olympic site.
Emirates ‘Airline’ – Arab Dangleway – North Greenwich – Victoria Dock.
Now known officially since 2022 as the IFS Cloud Cable Car, the dangleway was never a viable transport system, with longer journey time and costing more than alternative routes on almost every conceivable journey.
It doesn’t quite connect up with the rest of Transport for London’s system, the south terminal being a short and slightly confusing walk from North Greenwich Jubilee and bus station, and another fairly short walk on the North bank to Royal Victoria DLR. Completed in June 2012 its cost of £60m made it the most expensive cable car system ever built.
As I noted “it should be promoted as one of London’s cheaper and more interesting tourist attractions” giving great views along the River Thames, although the journey is a relatively short on at 7-10 minutes. with London in the distance, Canary Wharf and the Olympic site a little closer and Bow Creek, Silvertown and the Dome both nearly underneath.
To my surprise, 11 years later the service is still running and TfL say that with the sponsorship deals it actually makes a profit.
I think the more interesting parts of the Thames shoreline here are not yet publicly accessible, but you can – at least most of the time – walk along by Royal Victoria Dock and across the high level bridge for some more interesting views. The area and bridge get closed off when they are flogging illegal arms at the Excel Centre fairs (if you represent a despotic government you’ll have a ticket to that anyway.)
Most of the pictures here were taken from that high level walkway across the dock, but I think I walked on to the stations on the DLR line to Woolwich (then only to North Woolwich) which are elevated and also give some interesting views.
I took the DLR to Canning Town, changed to the JUbilee to Stratford then back to the DLR for the short ride to Puddling Mill Lane, and walked up onto the Greenway, where I’d photogaphed many times in the past.
Progress in releasing the Olympic site to the public appeared to be very slow and there sre still routes closed off in 2024.
It was the ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture‘, the anniversary of the UN Convention Against Torture on 26 June 1987, and the London Guantanamo Campaign had organised a protest in Trafalgar Square.
The London Guantanamo Campaign had been active in calling for the closure of Guantanamo and other torture prisons including Bagram in Afghanistan since 2006. In particular the protest was to draw attention to Shaker Aamer, one of the 166 prisoners still held in Guantanamo. A London resident he was captured by bandits in Afghanistan where he was working for a medical charity and sold to the American forces, who tortured him – with the cooperation of the British Secret Service in Bagram, before illegally rendering him to Guantanamo where he continues to be tortured despite having been cleared for release.
In 2013 he was in very poor health having been – along with the majority of the other prisoners there – on hunger strike for 141 days. It was not until 30 October 2015 that he was finally released to the UK.
The US response to the hunger strike had been regular beatings, keeping those taking part in solitary confinement in bare cells and to use forcible feeding, strapping them into a special chair and forcing a feeding tube up a nostril and down into their stomach. The procedure is extremely painful and both this and the sensory deprivation of solitary confinement in bare cells also constitute torture under the UN definitions.
Many of those taking part wore orange Guanatanamo-style jump suits and black hoods and they held up banners an placards saying ‘No To Torture‘ in 30 languages. Some of those taking part were regular protesters with the ‘Save Shaker Aamer Campaign‘ which has been holding daily lunchtime vigils opposite the House of Commons to put pressure on the UK government to release him. Many think his continued imprisonment is because his testimony would embarrass both the UK and US security services who were clearly involved in his torture.
Others were also protesting against torture, with Balochs in Pakistan being subject to arrests and other human rights violations including torture by the Pakistan authorities for campaigning for independence. The protesters held pictures of a number of Baloch activists who have simply disappeared, believed to be held or possibly killed by Pakistani forces.
And protesters also drew attention to the US treatment of award-winning British poet and translator Talha Ahsan who suffers from Aspergers syndrome. He was extradited from the UK and was currently awaiting trial in solitary confinement in a high-security state prison in Connecticut because of alleged association with an Islamic web site and publishing house said to have links with terrorism. He was eventually released after 8 years following a plea bargain in December 2013 when time already served in the UK and US prisons was ‘time already served.’
