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Darfur – International Day of Action – 2007

Whitehall, Sunday 29 April, 2007

Darfur – International Day of Action: There have been protests in London against the continuing bloodshed in Sudan in recent months and the situation there is increasingly desperate. But as Wikipedia points out, there have been civil wars in Sudan “intermittently ongoing for more than 70 years“.

The War in Darfur began in 2003 with two groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fighting against the Sudanese government of Omar-al-Bashir. They accused him of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs in Darfur, and his response was to ramp up a campaign of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

International Day of Action for Darfur: London © 2007, Peter Marshall

One of the major forces on the government’s side was a militia group, the Janjaweed and this has since developed into a coalition, the Rapid Support Forces, which is now fighting the Sudanese Army. The Holocaust Encylcopedia states “Between 2003 and 2008, armed conflict and targeted killings in Darfur caused about 300,000 civilian deaths and displaced about 2.7 million civilians.”

The Sudanese government and the JEM signed a ceasefire agreement in 2010, although this was soon violated by government forces and the fighting continued. After the Sudanese Revolution of 2018 which led to the removal of al-Bashir from power in April 2019 there was a peace process that lead to a peace agreement in 2020.

Unfortunately conflicts continued in Sudan and in 2023 resulted in a still continuing civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese Army. By February 2026 more than 40,000 people had been killed, with aid agencies suggesting a much higher figure. Again according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia “The violence has led to the displacement of more than 12 million people, or one in three Sudanese. Nearly half of the population lacks access to adequate food, and famine has been declared in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.”

In 2007 I wrote:

“Sunday was the International Day Of Action For Darfur, and although the demonstration in London was a relatively small one – perhaps a thousand people – the organisers had really managed to capture media attention. While anti-war or other marches of this size or even 50 times larger don’t usually even rate a mention, this was a lead item on the morning’s radio news – and listeners were even perhaps uniquely told when and where it was happening.

I don’t begrudge the publicity in any way. The situation is a world scandal and disaster and one that the nations are avoiding effective action on. As the posters, and the hour-glasses large and many small insist, time is running out, the blood is running out and time is up for Darfur.

“It’s just a shame that the media in general choose to turn their backs on other events. But today you could hardly move for TV cameras and photographers from what used to be Fleet Street. those freelances who cover the other demonstrations, small and large, that the papers and TV don’t want to know about were also there of course.

“For me the most interesting aspect of this actual event was the arrival of the group of students and others who had marched from Oakington detention centre near Cambridge to raise awareness about Darfur (and about refugees held there who are from Darfur.) By the time they arrived, most of the media had left. Perhaps they were too much like ordinary demonstrators (and too much like those cyclists who came from Faslane earlier in the month to publicise the treatment of Mordechai Vanunu.)”

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Ealing Hospital, Free Shawki Omar, Hizb ut-Tahrir – 2013

Ealing Hospital, Free Shawki Omar, Hizb ut-Tahrir: On Saturday 27th April 2013 I made my way to Southall Park for the rally at the start of a march to save A&E departments at hospitals in West London, then went into central London. Outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square I met and photographed the wife and daughter of Shawki Ahmed Omar, arrested in Iraq in 2004 and still held and tortured there. Finally I attended a rally and march up Brick Lane by the now banned Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir calling for he replacement of the Awami League government of Bangladesh by an Islamic caliphate.

Save Ealing Hospital & the NHS

Southall Park, Southall

A&E departments at Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Central Middlesex and Ealing Hospitals were under threat of closure in a move that would greatly reduce cover for around two million people in West London, leaving three large London Boroughs without a major hospital.

Local councils were firmly opposed to the closures along with the whole community. Public transport in the area is relatively poor (as I found getting to Southall) and roads are often extremely congested so the closures would lead to dangerous delays for those needing urgent treatment.

Ealing Hospital, Free Shawki Omar, Hizb ut-Tahrir - 2013

Among speakers at the rally were Councillor Julian Bell, the Leader of Ealing Council, other local councillors who have led the opposition to the cuts and the two local MPs, John McDonnell from Hillingdon and Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, as well as representatives from some of the many faith groups in the area.

The proposals were widely seen as part of a move towards increased privatisation of the NHS as well as wanting to sell off much hospital owned land for housing and other development.

Largely as a result of the huge local opposition, the closure plans were reduced, but Central Middlesex Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital both closed in September 2014.

Save Ealing Hospital & the NHS

Lonely Vigil at US Embassy

Grosvenor Square

I called in briefly at the US Embassy to talk with Narmeen Saleh Al Rubaye, wife of Shawki Ahmed Omar, and their 7 year old daughter who were on one of their repeated protests calling for his release.

They stood quietly in front of the embassy with posters showing his injuries from US torture in Iraq after his arrest in 2004. Omar, born in Kuwait has dual Jordanian/US nationality. Despite legal attempts in the USA to free him, when the USA left Iraq they handed him over to the Iraq authorities.

Omar began a hunger strike in Al Karkh prison on February 4th 2013, protesting the ill treatment and torture of himself and fellow detainees. You can read more about him in my post on My London Diary.

Lonely Vigil at US Embassy

Hizb ut-Tahrir protest Bangladeshi Regime

Altab Ali Park and Brick Lane

Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir (banned in the UK in 2024) held a rally and march in Whitechapel, an area of London with a large Bangladeshi community against the government led by Sheik Hassina in Bangladesh.

The reject all current governments of Muslim nations and call for their replacement by an but were also protesting against anti-Muslim measures Sheik Hasina has introduced in Bangladesh and the return of Rohinga Muslim refugees to Burma where they are discriminated against and persecuted.

They also protested against the corruption in Bangladesh which was responsibel for the deaths and injury of workers when the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed three days earlier. The search for survivors was continuing when this protest was held, only ending on 13th May, when the confirmed death toll was 1,134 and around 2,500 injured had been rescued.

There were around a hundred Muslim men at the protest, and around half that number of women in a separate group a few yards away. Only men spoke at the rally, though some of the women did hold placards. After the rally the protesters marched up Osborne Street and Brick Lane past the mosque where I left them.

Hizb ut-Tahrir had been banned in Bangladesh in 2011, alleged to have been involved in a failed coup attempt. When New Labour were in power, Tory leader David Cameron urged them to ban the UK group, but a review then and in the early days of his coalition government concluded that they were a non-violent group with insufficient evidence to justify a ban, and that “a ban may do more harm than good and could have serious implications for freedom of speech and assembly in the UK.”

Nothing had really changed when they were banned in January 2024 following a protest against Egypt and Israel following Israel’s attack on Gaza, except for a failing Tory government venting hate on anyone seeming to support the Palestinian cause. Something that was continued by Labour in banning Palestine action.

More on My London Diary at Hizb ut-Tahrir protest Bangladeshi Regime.

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Palestinian Prisoners’ Day – 2014

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day: In 1974 the Palestinian National Council approved April 17th as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, choosing the date as the anniversary of the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel – when Fatah militant Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi who had been captured by Israel six years earlier was released.

In 2008 the 20th Arab Summit adopted it for all Arab countries as a day in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained by Israel. Human rights organisations say many prisoners are denied visits, subjected to mental and physical tortures and denied proper medical care. Many are held without trial under ‘administrative detention‘ while Palestinians “are tried by Israel’s military courts and often held in Israel, in conditions that violate international humanitarian and human rights conventions“.

In 2014 the World Council of Churches had issued a Palestinian Prisoners Day call to churches worldwide to pray and act for justice which “resolutely confirms our solidarity with the nearly 5000 Palestinian men, women and children languishing in Israeli prisons” and called for churches to press UN Member States to put pressure on Israel to end arbitrary detention, meet its obligations over human rights, provide apt medical care and end athe use of torture.

Bill Gates End Support Of Israeli Child Torture

Cardinal Place, Victoria

On 27th April 2014 I photographed the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest in Westminster, where protesters met on the plaza outside Westminster Cathedral for a ‘mystery protest’.

There they put together a mock prison cell and gave a briefing that the protest was to be at the Europe and Middle East Office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Portland House, just across the road inside the Cardinal Place shopping centre.

We crossed the road with the prison cell and some protesters, one with a Bill Gates mask and they tried to deliver a petition from the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO based in Ramallah which monitors and provides legal support to Palestine prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian jails.

“By holding shares in G4S, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is complicit in Israel’s detention without trial and torture of Palestinians.

As people that share your belief that every life has equal value, we call on you to divest from G4S immediately.”

The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest shareholders in G4S and Addameer say it “is legitimising and profiting from Israel’s use of torture, mass incarceration and arbitrary arrest to discourage Palestinians from opposing Israel’s apartheid policies.”

Addammer point out that their investment makes a mockery of the foundation’s aim to use its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives“.

A few protesters who tried to enter the building were quickly ejected by security and the protest continued outside with speeches, chanting and music. They promised to leave after someone came down from the Gates Foundation office to receive the petition, but no one came in the 20 minutes while I was there before leaving to cover another Palestinian Prisoners’ Day protest at the G4S offices a short walk away.

More at Bill Gates end support of Israeli child torture.

G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day

Victoria St

The Inminds Palestinian Prisoners Campaign – which began twice-monthly London protests against companies supporting Israel’s prisons in 2012 – had arrived outside the G4S offices before me and set up their banners. They were handing out leaflets about the terrible conditions under which prisoners are held and calling for the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

British multinational G4S is the worlds largest security contractor and provides security services for many prisons in Israel where Palestinian men, women and children are tortured and caged.

After around 25 minutes we were joined by some of the protesters who had been at the Gates Foundation and their cage.

After a few minutes some of the protesters walked into the foyer of the offices and I followed them to take photographs.

They brought in the ‘cage’ as well.

And there was soon a prisoner in the cage with a smiling ‘Bill Gates’ and another protester holding it. There were some short speeches about why they were there protesting against G4S and some chanting, but the foyer is large and the protest did not interfere with people entering and leaving the building – which contains other offices as well as that of G4S.

Eventually a couple of police arrived, and took a look at what was happening and decided just to watch. More protesters arrived and some brought their banners into the foyer.

Outside the protest also continued, with people handing out detailed leaflets about the conditions in ‘G4S Israeli Dungeons’ in which men, women and children are tortured.

You can read some of the details and in particular about the case of the 5 Hares boys on My London Diary.

G4S Occupied on Palestinian Prisoners Day

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World Health, Syria & a Pillow Fight – 2012

World Health, Syria & a Pillow Fight: Saturday 7th April 2012 was World Health Day and health campaigners protester against the increasing privatisation of the NHS. It was also International Pillow Fight Day which was celebrated by hundreds in Trafalgar Square. Between these I photographed Free Syria supporters calling for the UK government to do more over the atrocities by the Assad regime against their relatives still in Syria.

World Health Day: Lansley’s Bill

Dept of Health, Whitehall

World Health, Syria & a Pillow Fight - 2012 — *Lansley’s Bill – Lansley lies to the media in the play performed outside the Dept of Health*

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was now law, having gained royal assent on March 27th 2012. Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley had pushed through the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the NHS despite the united opposition of the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners and many campaigning groups.

The Act led to a greater marketisation of the NHS with an greatly increased role for private companies who mainly ‘cherry picked’ the simpler and so more readily profitable areas of service, and its structural reforms were damaging, with new complex systems of governance and accountability, while removing the system leadership needed to cope with major changes. And it didn’t give any more choice to the public – unless they went private.

Lansley’s Act failed, largely because it tried to introduce a system based on competition into a an NHS where care and cooperation was the bedrock, but it did succeed in diverting much needed funds to the private sector. By 2019 the policy of competition was effectively abandoned. Labour in 2024 commissioned a report led by Lord Darzi which called it a “broken system” and conclude it “was a calamity without international precedent – it proved disastrous. The result of the disruption was a permanent loss of capability from the NHS“.

Nurse Gail Lee began the protest by explaining that the Act was designed to lead eventually to the NHS being converted to an insurance-based healthcare system that will provide high-cost medical services for those who can afford it while retaining only a basic provision for others. So far this has not happened but there are still politicians – Labour as well as Conservatives – who are urging this.

After her short talk there was a performance of the play ‘Lansley’s Bill’ by Mike Hart, based on the facts of the planning by McKinzey Consulting and the Tories which led to the Lansley Bill, a bundle of Tory lies which opens up healthcare to the market under the misleading mantras of ‘choice’ and ‘efficiency’.

Based around the problems of a cleaner who needs the help of the new version of the NHS but is told to wait, and wait – until she dies, it makes the point that “you have a choice. You can fight for the NHS, become rich, or you can make sure you are never ill. The least worst case is to get out there and fight.”

World Health Day: Lansley’s Bill

Syrians Continue Protest Against Assad

Downing St

Free Syria Supporters protested aaginst the continuing killing, torture, imprisonment and abductions of their relatives by the Assad regime, calling on the UK government to take greater action

Some held up placards ‘For My Sister’, ‘For My Mum’ and for some at least of those wearing gags with the words ‘Freedom’ or ‘Tortured’ it was there own family who was tortured or missing or held in jail. Their protest over human rights violation was personal.

Some held family snapshots, blown up to A4, and others were taped to the railings along with lists of names, and roses dedicated to the missing and dead.

Many also called for the release of human rights activist Noura Aljizawi, who had led protests against the Asad regime, worked in hospitals to support women and children and written for the Syrian underground newspaper Hurriyat. Arrested on 28th March she was tortured and denied access to family and lawyer; an international campaign led by Reporters without Borders eventually led to her release and she fled to Turkey, continuing her campaign against the Assad government, finally relocating to Canada.

My final paragraph on the protest on My London Diary:
“On a pillar behind and on the leaflets handed out were the grim statistics. 12,460 Syrians killed since March 2011; 65,000 innocent Syrians are missing; 882 children and babies murdered, 773 women slaughtered; 212,000 men women and children are detained; 30,627 refugees fled in fear of their lives. And the numbers are still rising.”

Many more pictures at Syrians Continue Protest Against Assad.

International Pillow Fight Day

Trafalgar Square

*Feathers soon began to fly in the square*

It was International Pillow Fight Day with fights arranged in 111 cities around the world in an event promoted by the urban playground movement.

*A whistle signalled the start of the fight*

As well as London there were fights in cities from Amsterdam to Zürich, with the majority being in the USA, but they were also in virtually every European country, as well as in Canada, Greenland, Turkey, Bahrain, South America, Cape Town, Australia, Hong Kong and China.

The organisers had set out a list of nine rules, some of which were adhered too, but others were clearly ignored – such as “6) NO FEATHERS, let’s not make a mess”.

Another that was often ignored was “4) Do not swing at anyone without a pillow or holding a camera”, though some did apologise after hitting me.

As I commented, it “was half an hour of glorious chaos as people of all ages – though mainly in their teens and twenties – rushed around attacking anyone with a pillow.”

Generally the attacks were random, but there were occasional cries to “attack the panda, or the guy in stripes or spiderman or one of the others in identifiable costumes”.

After around 20 minutes when the air (and my lungs) was full of dust and feathers the council cleaners began to pour buckets of water and sweep the dampened feathers away, but the fighting continued until a whistle blew to end the fight at the end of 30 minutes – with just a few continuing to fight.

Many more pictures at International Pillow Fight Day.

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London University & Israeli Prisons – 2014

London University & Israeli Prisons: On Friday 28th February 2014 I went with students as they hunted in and around Senate House for a meeting of University of London Vice Chancellors to protest against the attacks on students and the idea of a university as these managers have called in police onto the campus rather than engage with students and staff.

From there I went to a protest outside the London offices of security firm G4S who supply services to Israels notorious prisons where many Palestinians have been tortured and prisoners including many children are kept under inhumane conditions.

Students tell Vice Chancellor to Resign

Senate House

London University & Israeli Prisons - 2014

Students and many academic staff have been appalled by the actions of London University (UoL) managers under Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Adrian Smith who have called in police to subdue student protests, and were calling on him to resign.

This has led to mass arrests, injuries and blood on the streets. The UoL was shutting down its student union, exploiting and intimidating low-paid staff, leading the lobby for a huge fees increase fees and attempting to prevent protests, taking out an injunction against any student occupation of the University.

One student earlier in the week had been convicted of criminal damage for chalking “sick pay, holiday, pensions now” on a foundation stone at a protest in support of low paid staff last July. She was was ordered to pay £200 towards prosecution costs and £810 to cover the cost of repairs to the stone – almost certainly the most expensive wipe with a damp cloth in history. Fortunately a video of her arrest made clear that police were lying when they accused her of assaulting an officer when she was arrested.

The protesters met outside the University of London Union (ULU) and then walked towards Senate House, where security guards locked the gates to the area under the building in front of the entrance.

After a short and noisy protest there, they decided to walk to the pavement outside the south side of Senate House as they thought the meeting would be taking place in one of the rooms there. After another short protest there they walked back to the east side of Senate House where again the gates were locked.

A few students were inside the building and they managed to unlock one of the side doors into the building and I went inside with some of the students.

We wandered around the corridors without finding the Vice Chancellors, although the building was in use for various other meetings and events. Eventually the protesters came to the balconies above the Crush Hall where some other conference delegates were taking lunch and explained to them from above why they were taking action.

Security were standing in front of the Vice Chancellor’s Office, possibly the most likely location for the Vice Chancellors to be meeting. One of the security men assured them it wasn’t there and they did not try to push past.

They went down the the lobby in front of the main entrance and managed to hold the gates open as security officers tried to close them so more of the protesters could come inside, managing to push their way back into the building for another tour. But again they could not find the meeting.

Some students climbed through a window to a balcony at first floor level around the side of the building; I didn’t go with them but made my way out of the building. The main entrance was closed and anyone wanted to leave had to make a long detour through a basement corridor to neighbouring Stewart House.

Students were still walking along the balcony when I arrived at street level outside, and were walking back into the building through an open window that I was told led into one of the Vice Chancellor’s rooms.

It seemed unlikely I would be able to get inside the building to take more pictures and I left to photograph another event.

More about the protest and many more pictures on My London Diary: Students tell Vice Chancellor to Resign.

G4S & Israeli Prison Torture

Victoria St

It was International Israeli Apartheid Week and Inminds Human Rights Group were protesting outside the offices of G4S, the worlds largest security firm, complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and gross human rights abuses, including torture of men, women and children.

One of their banners gave details of the tiny cells in which child prisoners are held, about 2 metres by 1 metre, with a just a mattress and behind a low concrete wall a hole in the ground toilet. There are no windows, and food is delivered through a flap in the door. The light is kept on 24 hours a day and the walls have sharp protrusions to prevent them being leaned on.

Children as young as 12 have been kept in solitary confinement in these cells for up to 65 days, being taken out only to be interrogated while shackled hand and foot for up to 6 hours at a time. Some complain of having been sexually assaulted.

This mistreatment is continued until they confess to such crimes of throwing stones at Israeli army vehicles – for which they can be sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Placards showed the five Hares boys, and leaflets were handed out telling their story. After Israelis from an illegal settlement complained that stones had been thrown at them when they stopped their car to change a tyre, 50 children from Hares were arrested by Israeli soldiers with attack dogs, and 19 of them taken to the G4S secured children’s dungeons at Al Jalame, locked in solitary for up to 2 weeks.

There they were violently tortured and threats made against female members of their families to force confessions from them. Five of the boys were then each charged with 25 counts of attempted murder, despite the occupants of the car being unharmed. At the time of the protest their trial by military court had been postponed month by month, probably because of a lack of any evidence.

In January 2016 the five Hares boys were each sentenced to 15 years in prison following a plea deal “that involved ‘fines’ of NIS 30,000 (appr. €7,100 or $7,750) per boy to be paid to the settler driver as ‘compensation’” Otherwise they would have received longer sentences despite the only evidence against them being their ‘confessions’ extracted under extreme torture.

More at G4S & Israeli Prison Torture.

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Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus – 2015

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus: Saturday 14th February 2015 was Global Divestment Day, designed by the UN to “to draw attention to the importance of divesting from fossil fuels, which are the main cause of global warming.” But of course it was also St Valentine’s Day, and two events reflected this.

‘Bad Boy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day

London City Hall

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus - 2015 — *One of the Boris bloc at the rally in front of City Hall and Tower Bridge*

The protest at London City Hall, then at More London close to Tower Bridge, called on the Mayor and London Assembly to end their pension fund investments in climate wrecking fossil fuels and lead a fossil-free London.

The event began with a nightmare vision as multiple Mayor Borises arrived, revelling in dirty fuel. They were greeted by a choir singing songs specially written for the occasion and fed with some disgusting looking things supposed to be dirty fuel.

After several speeches the protesters split up around 3 metre tall letters which they eventually lifted up to spell out the word ‘DIVEST’.

They called for an end to investment in fossil fuels which are causing catastrophic climate change.

Two dressed as bishops called on the Church of England to get its act together and take its investments out of fossil fuels. Many churches have already divested, and campaigners were pressing others including the Church of England to do so.

More pictures at ‘BadBoy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day.

Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer

Westminster

*A person in an Obama mask has a message for the President, ‘Free Shaker – Yes YOU Can’*

A march from Parliament Square to a rally opposite Downing Street called for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he arrived has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.

Aamer had been in Afghanistan helping to build a school for an Islamic charity when he was captured by an Afghan militia and sold to US forces for a £5,000 reward. After the US and tortured him, aided by MI5, in Bagram Air Base they illegally rendered him to Guantanamo, on Feb 14, 2002.

*Joy Hurcome holds a Valentine for David Cameron asking him to ‘Show your Love – Free Shaker Aamer’*

There his torture continued – and he was lucky to escape death in 2006 when he was one of four prisoners taken to a special secret interrogation site – and the only one to survive the ordeal.

*Bruce Kent – and a large inflatable Shaker Aamer*

Aamer has permanent resident status in the UK and his British wife and family were living in Battersea, but it was not until 2007 that the UK government began to request his release. And despite doing so, the government also spent over a quarter of a million pounds in legal fees to prevent his legal team gaining access to evidence which might prove his innocence.

The years of torture of him and others at the hands of the US military have failed to come up with any evidence against him, and he was twice cleared for release in 2007 and 2009 – but only if he went to his native Saudi Arabia where he would almost certainly disappear without trace. Both UK and US intelligence agencies are thought to have prevented his release to the UK as the evidence he would give about their use of torture would be highly embarrassing.

*Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign organiser*

The protest was the start of a new ‘We Stand With Shaker’ campaign bringing together groups including the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign, Amnesty International and others. Among the long list of speakers at the rally were Joy Hurcombe of the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, writer Victoria Brittain, Lindsey German of Stop the War, veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent of CND, Katie Taylor from Reprieve, Yvonne Ridley, Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign, campaigner Andy Worthington and Joanne MacInnes of We Stand With Shaker.

More at Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer.

Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros

Piccadilly Circus

*People in the Reclaim Love Meditation Circle in Piccadilly Circys lift up their arms and chant the mantra*

Venus CuMara’s 13th Reclaim Love Valentine Party at Eros in Piccadilly Circus included bands, dancing and a “Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos“.

As usual there was a great atmosphere as people came together to share in love and party together in opposition the the huge commercialisation of Valentine’s Day and indeed of love itself. It is nothing to do with money, just about people.

Venus speaks to everyone and tells them to form the Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle…

beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos and together they chant the mantra: “May All The Beings In All The Worlds Be Happy & At Peace“

After which the music and dancing continued, along with hugging and other activities, and was still continuing when I left for home.

More pictures at Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros.

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Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration – 2007

Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration: A protest on Thursday 11th January 2007 outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square marked the 5th anniversary of the setting up of the illegal US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay where almost entirely innocent prisoners were held and tortured without trial for many years. Over the years around 780 men were brought to the prison and by 2025 almost all had been released without charge. Around nine have died there, most alleged to have committed suicide, but 15 are thought to still be held there at the end of 2025, largely because there is no country to which they can safely be released.

Every year from 2006 to 2019 I photographed protests against the camp, particularly on 11th January, but also on other occasions through the year, particularly covering the long-term campaigns for the release of those British prisoners held there. Protests here became less regular after the release of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident to be held there on 30 October 2015.

*The flag was flying but American Embassy staff kept hidden away from windows throughout the event*

The protest I photographed on 11th January 2007 was the first I knew about on the actual anniversary of the establishment of the camp, and the pictures here and the text below are from that. Then we naively thought that the USA could sink no further, but current events are proving how wrong we were. As usual I’ve made some minor corrections to the text including restoring normal capitalisation and I’ll give a link to the original post were you can find more pictures

Close guantanamo 5th anniversary demonstration

Amnesty International: US Embassy, London. Thur 11 Jan, 2007

*American guard’, ‘Prisoners’, Police and Embassy.*

*Amani Daghayes, sister of Guantamo captive Oscar Deghayes, a British resident*

Orange seems to be a colour fatally linked to America’s disgrace in the modern world through human rights and related abuses. Agent Orange spread dioxin-related birth defects over the vast tracts of south-east Asia it was used to defoliate, and orange boiler-suits have become the symbol of the fatal American own goal in the fight for freedom, the illegal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Amnesty International marked the fifth anniversary of this blot on the free world with a world-wide series of protests, in New York, Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Tunis, Tel Aviv and London. I entered Grosvenor Square to see a long line of around three hundred people in orange boiler-suits spreading a quarter of the way around the large square. They were soon formed into groups and marched by those dressed as camp guards into a small pen in the road directly in front of the US Embassy.

In a re-creation of the Guantanamo Bay camp more or less on the embassy doorstep, the ‘guards’ patrolled, issuing arbitrary orders and generally abusing the prisoners, subjecting them to the infamous kneeling ‘submission posture’ with the occasional incident of casual ‘violence’ thrown in for greater authenticity. The hour-long vigil there ended with a display of defiance as the ‘prisoners’ joined together in clapping.

Other amnesty supporters held placards and banners calling for an end to the travesty of justice at Guantanamo Bay and other illegal detention centres and the illegal rendition of prisoners. They called for the release of all those held illegally, and in particular the British residents still in Guantanamo. These included Omar Deghayes, whose sister Amani Deghayes was present at the demonstrations. The lack of any effort by the UK government to press for the release of these British residents is a continuing and senseless disgrace.

*Detainees’ clap at end of demonstration.*

This was a high-profile media event, although I didn’t hear it mentioned on the BBC radio news later in the day, press and TV from London and abroad were covering it. Unlike some earlier events I’ve covered at the same location, the policing was a model of good practice, allowing the press to get on with the job, and proportionate to what was happening.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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12 Days of Christmas – November

12 Days of Christmas -some of my favourite pictures from those I made in November 2025.

London, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Unite Community hold a Budget Day protest in Parliament Square as a part of a national day of action to protest against the ongoing cuts and sanctions to people’s benefits. They say sanctions which penalise people already struggling to feed, pay rent and heat homes, particularly the disabled, are now at record levels under this Labour government and are driving working people, disabled people, and children further into poverty. Peter Marshall

London, UK, 26 Nov 2025. Anti-Brexit campaigners including Steve Bray protested at the crossroad leading into Parliament Square with loud music and EU flags, as well as a Brexit elephant. They reminded people of the huge financial impact of Brexit on us all and the failure of any of the promised benefits to materialise – except for some of the super-rich and called for Britain to rejoin Europe. Peter Marshall

London, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Blind wheelchair user Mike Higgins wants to be arrested again. Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall.

London, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Charlie X – Only Obeying Orders.Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall

November turned out to have been a slighly confusing month for me and I managed to date some of my captions wrongly – thanks to careless “copy and paste”. I think the actual album dates for the Facebook albums are all correct.

Finally the 12 day of Christmas tomorrow – pictures from December 2025.

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End Slave Auctions in Libya – 2017

End Slave Auctions in Libya: On Sunday 26th November 2017 a large protest outside the Libyan Embassy in Knightsbridge called for an end to the slave auctions of Black African migrants in Libya.

The protest came following a number of reports earlier in the year showing migrants being sold as slaves in Libya. The situation had worsened since the EU clampdown on migration across the Mediterranean, working with the Libyan authorities to intercept and tow migrant boats back to be detained in Libya.

This clampdown had resulted in around 20,000 people, mainly from the Afgrican continent being detained in inhumane conditions in Libya, where many were being held with ransom demands being made from their families and others sold into slavery.

As Wikipedia notes, Libya has a history of slavery dating back into antiquity with slaves from across the Sahara being sold there along with Berbers (the pre-Arab residents of the area), Jews and Europeans captured in Barbary slaving raids around the Mediterranean and as far north as Ireland, Scotland and even Iceland.

The slave trade was made illegal by a decree in Tripoli in 1857, but this had little practical effect for many years and it was only under Italian rule in the 1930s that it was largely brought to an end.

As I wrote in 2017, “Many at the protest saw the situation in Libya as part of a continuing neo-colonialist attempt to control Africa’s natural resources which results in the instability and mass migration from African countries, and that the current Libyan regime are western puppets installed though Western intervention to replace the genuinely nationalist Gaddafi regime and are engaged in a process of de-Africanisation and elimination of Black Libyans, of which slave auctions are a logical extension.”

*Glenroy Watson of the Global African Congress and RMT*

As Wikipedia points out, since Gaddafi was brought down in 2011, Libya “has been plagued by disorder, leaving migrants with little cash and no papers vulnerable.“

Slaves in the past were kidnapped by raiders, but now they pay people smugglers to be brought to Libya, lured by the promise of being taken to a new life in Europe, but once in Libya are detained by the smugglers and local militias and subjected to torture, forced labour and sexual violence.

If ransoms are not paid they may be left to starve to death in detention. State security forces are also responsible for similar crimes against humanity for those returned from boats setting out across the Mediterranean, and the EU contributes by giving support to these forces.

Although the fate of migrants has seldom featured in our news media since 2017, little if anything has changed, as the 2025 report, The Scandal of a Slave Market in Libya from the Human Rights Research Center makes clear.

Sukant Chandan, a coordinator at the Malcolm X Movement, speaks from his experience in working with the opposition forces in Libya, and says how those currently in power in Libya have long carried out a policy of getting rid of Black Africans. He calls them a puppet government put into power to protest Western interests in Libya’s mineral wealth.

The area outside the Libyan Embassy soon became very crowded, with people lining the pavement for some distance in each direction and some spilling out onto the busy road. When I had to leave after approaching an hour and a half there were people still arriving and it took me several minutes to make my way through the crowd. I took a final picture of a woman holding a large poster on the edge of the protest on my way to Hyde Park Corner.

On My London Diary you can see more pictures, including some of the other speakers at the event.

End Slave Auctions in Libya

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Sudan & Hong Kong Protests – 8 Nov 2025

Sudan & Hong Kong Protests: Last Saturday, 8th November 2025 I photographed a London rally and march against the horrific killings in Sudan before going to the Chinese Embassy where people were protesting for freedom of expression in Hong Kong, where three pro-democracy advocates were to go on trial this Tuesday for “subversion”.

End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Gloucester Road Station

Sudan has been a divided country more or less since it gained independence in 1956, suffering a long civil war which eventually led to independence for South Sudan in 2011 and a brutal 30 year military dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir which included an ethnic genocide in Darfur from 2003 -2020. Al-Bashir was finally ousted by a coup early in 2019 following huge protests. Since 2023 the country has been devastated by a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war is partly one over resources and access to the Red Sea, but also has a strong ethnic dimension with the RSF being “violently Arab supremacist or ethno-fascist“. They are backed financially by the United Arab Emirates who also supply them with arms. In return the RSF has taken control of Sudanese gold mines and illegally smuggles gold to Dubai.

The RSF also control the major gum arabic producing areas of the country. Sudan’s acacia trees produce around 80% of the world total of this vital ingredient used in many consumer products from Coca-cola to lipsticks and pet food. The RSF smuggles this out to be sold on world markets.

The war between the RSF and the SAF has resulted in more than 200,000 people being killed, mainly civilians with huge numbers – perhaps 14 million -being displaced and according to the UN, “2025 will see 30.4 million people in Sudan in need of humanitarian aid due to the military conflict in the country.“

Both the RSF and the SAF are reported as carrying out war crimes. The ‘London for Sudan’ leaflet states:

“The RSF are burning villages to the ground, recruiting child soldiers, poisoning water supplies, attacking hospitals & targetting journalists.

“The SAF are carpet bombing indiscriminately, wiping out markets and other vital infrastructure in their bid for control over the region.”

In the continuing El-Fasher massacre by the RSF, “an estimated 2,500 or more civilians have been executed or murdered since 26 October 2025.” though some analysts believe the actual numbers are in the tens of thousands. The RSF are known to use rape as a weapon and have have committed executions, torture, mass displacement and deliberate starvation, armed by weapons sold by the UK to the UAE. In May Sudan took the UAE to the International Court of Justice for complicity in genocide.

The protesters pointed out the British complicity in supporting the RSF by selling arms to the UAE which are then smuggled to the RSF. They demanded that the UK government designate the RSF a terrorist organisation and called on them to impose sanctions on the UAE for their support as well as ending arms sales to them.

After a short rally with several speeches and a moving poem in English by a Sudanese woman poet the march set off along the Cromwell Road heading for a final rally. I left them at South Kensington to go to a protest at the Chinese Embassy.

More pictures in the Facebook album End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

Chinese Embassy, Portland Place

Trade unionists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in solidarity with the three Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders charged with inciting subversion under Beijing’s National Security Law for organising protests and vigils whose trial begins on 11 Nov.

They called for Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and all political prisoners to be released.

One man who continually tried to disrupt the event by shouting pro-China comments through a megaphone was finally pushed away across the road. Police argued with him and he was later arrested when he refused to obey police requests to stop.

More pictures in the Facebook Album Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

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