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.
DPAC Court Vigil, a Poet Arrested, Musical Poor Doors & More: Wednesday 22nd October 2014, ten years ago today was a busy day for me. You can read my full accounts of the various events I photographed on the links to My London Diary, along with many more pictures, but here I’ve only space for a short outline. Below is my day more or less in order.
DPAC High Court Vigil for ILF – Royal Courts of Justice,
When disabled people won a court case over withdrawal of the Independent Living Fund the government simply put back the closure of the fund. Today’s protest by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) supported a second case against the closure. Speakers at the vigil included three MPs, John McDonnell, Andy Slaughter and Jeremy Corbyn, as well as many from various disability groups.
At the end of the protest, DPAC carried out their usual direct action, blocking Strand outside the court with their wheelchairs.
End UK shame over Shaker Aamer – Parliament Square, London
Protesters were continuing their regular vigils opposite Parliament for Shaker Aamer, imprisoned and tortured for over 12 years and cleared for release in 2007. They believe he was still being held because his testimony would embarrass MI6 as well as the US.
I took the tube from Westminster to Canary Wharf to visit the Bridges exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, later returning to Westminster. I paused in Westminster Station to take some panoramic images of the interior, designed as Piranesian, though sometimes I get more of the feeling of Escher as you seem to walk endlessly up escalators and around the interior.
I found the show a little disappointing, but took advantage of my visit there to take a few more panoramic images.
I made a couple of visits to the Democracy Camp in Parliament Square both before and after going to Canary Wharf. Although the camp had been ejected from the main grass area workshops and rallies were still taking place throughout the day, and Danny, the ‘Plinth Guy‘ was still up there with Churchill since the previous day – and there were cheers when he completed 24 hours.
Earlier someone had been arrested for throwing him a bottle of water, and when performance poet and activist Martin Powell arrived with a plastic tub of food he was warned he would be arrested if he tried to give it to Danny.
He replied it could not possibly be a crime to feed a hungry person and threw it extremely accurately over police heads and into Danny’s waiting hands. Arrested and marched away he loudly recited his poem ‘The Missing Peace’.
Danny was still in place when I returned at 5pm but the police had called in their climbing team. I listened while its leader talked with him, and Danny told him he would not resist arrest if they came to take him down peacefully. But I had to leave before they started to do so.
This was Class War’s 14th weekly protest at the ‘rich door’ of Redrow’s One Commercial St flats and it was a lively affair with the banners dancing to the music of Rhythms of Resistance, a poetic performance and some rousing speeches against social apartheid.
There ws strong police presence but there was no trouble, with a carnival atmosphere and banners dancing up and down the wide pavement in front of the rich door. Most of the police appeared to be enjoying the event too.
As usual after an hour of protesting people dispersed and I went into Aldgate East station to begin my journey home.
Master Butcher Salman & LouLou’s: The protests I photographed on Wednesday 2nd October 2019 were conveniently close to each other in London’s Mayfair. I went to photograph a candlelit vigil for Saudi journalist Jamal Khasnhoggi at the Saudi Embassy (and also found a counter-protest) and then joined the IWGB protesting at exclusive Mayfair club LouLou’s a few yards away.
Justice For Jamal Khashoggi
Representatives of English PEN, Writers at Risk, Reporters Without Borders and PEN International had come to hold a candlelit vigil outside the Saudi Embassy on Curzon Street on the first anniversary of the horrific murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel.
Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he had gone to get papers for his planned marriage. Inside the consulate he was met by a team of possibly eight men sent by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to assassinate him. He was strangled and then his body was cut into pieces using a bone saw so it could easily be removed from the building and disposed off.
Turkish intelligence bugs in the building recorded both the planning of the murder and its execution. MbS denied any knowledge of the plans prior to the murder, but few if any believe it could have happened without his authorisation.
Opposite the silent vigil was a noisy protest with music and speeches funded by the Saudi Embassy with banners and expensively produced placards as well as large LED illuminated screens in support of the Crown Prince.
They denied MbS had any involvement in the killing and held huge pictures of him as well as others lauding his achievements in giving aid to Yemen, supporting charitable foundations and fighting Islamic radicalism and extremism. The didn’t mention the war in Yemen, his support for Wahhabism, the ridiculous kidnapping of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri (intended to weaken him, the country united behind him and MbS was forced to release him), and certainly not the barbaric torture, murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi.
One placard stated ‘SAUDI CROWN PRINCE WORKING TO BUILD A MODERN NATION AND MAKE HIS PEOPLE MORE CIVILISED. Barbaric practices like torturing and sawing up your opponents hardly seems a way to make his people more civilised. MbS now to many means Master butcher Salman.
I joined the Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain (IWGB) Cleaners and Facilities Branch who had come to protest at exclusive Mayfair private club LouLou’s for kitchen porters to be paid a living wage, be treated with dignity and respect and given decent terms and conditions including proper sick pay, holidays and pension contributions.
Police and security men had closed off the section of street with the entrance to the club and the protesters were harassed by police and pushed roughly by security staff employed by the club during the protest.
Few of the wealthy customers being escorted into the club took the leaflets the protesters were offering or seemed to have any sympathy with the exploited workers at the club.
After protesting for some time on Trebeck Street at one end of the blocked section of Shepherd’s Market they marched noisly around the block to the other end in Hertford Street and continued the noisy protest there.
In December 2019 LouLou’s made an offer to the IWGB including paying its kitchen porters the London Living Wage from January 2020, 5 days sick pay, and regular quarterly consultations with the union on terms and conditions. Although it didn’t meet all of the unions demands further planned strikes were called off.
Sean Rigg Memorial – 4 Years – Brixton Tuesday 21st August 2012
There is a lengthy piece on Wikipedia about the death of Sean Rigg whic states that his “case became a cause célèbre for civil rights and justice campaigners in the United Kingdom, who called for “improvement and change on a national level” regarding deaths in police custody and the police treatment of suspects with mental health issues.”
It goes into some detail of the circumstances of his death and the various enquiries that followed but fails to properly represent the huge effort investigating and campaigning by his family, particularly by his sister Marcia Rigg, which brought to light the many lies and failures of the police.
In 2023, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) made an unprecedented apology in a letter to Marcia Rigg which you can read in full with her response on the Inquest site.
The Inquest post also has a clear brief summary of Sean’s arrest and the detention that killed him ad the failures of the IPCC investigation, along with a comment by Inquet’s director Deborah Coles, as well as the background to the case.
Mona Donle, Sean Rigg’s mother and his sisters Marcia and Samantha lead the march
I’ve written on a number of occasions about the case – and of other suspicious deaths in police custody, including others involving Brixton Police Station, in particular the death of Ricky Bishop in 2001. Here I’ll simply write about the events in Brixton on the evening of Tuesday 21st August 2012.
Fortunately I did not want a seat in the Assembly Hall inside Lambeth Town Hall as every one was filled for the memorial event four years to the day after his death. By the time this was over people were standing around the side of the hall and others waiting outside for the vigil.
Around 200 people lined up behind Mona Donle, Sean Rigg’s mother and his sisters Marcia and Samantha to march with the Sean Rigg banner to the memorial tree outside Brixton Police Station. Some held placards and carried flowers with his sisters carrying a framed portrait of Sean.
People laid flowers and lit candles at the memorial tree and put up Sean’s portrait and there were some speeches.
Mona Donle, a Brixton resident described a disturbing incident the previous Sunday in Windrush Square when three police officers violently assaulted a man who was clearly disturbed and acting unpredictably: “One officer choked him by holding his forearm across the man’s throat. Then another officer stamped on him. The foot was on his face and then the man passed out – we kept telling them to call an ambulance.”
As I noted, “The police account reads differently, making no mention of the violence and suggesting that the ambulance arrived ‘approximately’ five minutes after the arrest.” An eye witness told me it was around 20 minutes before the ambulance came and that the man had only just come round.
Sean’s mother spoke briefly and then Mona Donle went in to take in a formal complaint about the incident she had seen. At first I watched them from the doorway but when others piled in I joined them.
It was very crowded inside the police station lobby. The complaint was handed in, and a signed and dated copy was returned to the complainant.
But they demanded to hear from a senior officer about what had happened, and after a few minutes Superintendent David McLaren came out, gave a short statement and tried to answer some of the questions, though clearly no-one was satisfied with his answers. The lobby was very crowded and getting hot and it was soon time for me to leave.
It didn’t seem likely that there would be much more happening. One of two people had tried to stir up a little trouble but the Rigg family had made it clear that they wanted this to be an occasion where respect was show for Sean and with others had helped to quieten things down.
Rev Billy, Chelsea Manning & Global Racism – On Saturday 27th July 2013 I followed the amazing Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir into a branch of HSBC to protest over their support for fossil fuels, went to a vigil supporting whistleblower Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning and then a march and rally against Global Racism and Injustice
Rev Billy at HSBC Victoria,
If you’ve not come across Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, a radical performance community based in New York City led by Billy Talen you have missed something. They perform guerrilla theatre actions which amuse and entertain while also highlighting the serious problems the world is facing and calling for action.
The performance in London was one of many at various JP Morgan Chase and HSBC banks in 2012 and 2013 which had begun in New York, a “radicalized midsummer cloud forest dream” against the support given to fossil fuels and climate chaos by the banks and the City of London.
Golden Toads had become extinct in their home in Costa Rica, one of many species that have already become extinct because of climate change. The message of the performance “was a simple one. Fossil Fuels are killing life on this planet. Already many species have suffered extinction, and the continuing huge investment in fossil fuel use backed by the banks and the stock exchange is driving climate change, threatening us all with extinction.“
As I wrote “London’s banks and the London Stock Exchange are playing a key role in the destruction of life on the planet, with over £900 billion of Fossil fuel shares on the London Stock Exchange – a quarter of the value of all the holdings and representing fossil fuel reserves of over 200 time the UK’s annual carbon emissions. Burning of all these reserves would create catastrophe. Between 2010-2012 … the top five UK banks raised £170 billion for fossil fuel companies, and the largest of these was the HSBC.”
On My London Diary you can read how I met the group as they trained for the performance opposite New Scotland Yard and then more about the performance which as well as the Golden Toads people also played moneys, eagles and jaguars and were joined by a gorilla. with the Rev Billy preaching about the need for the banks to repent and change their ways as the animals dropped dead on the branch floor.
One member of the team was there to reassure the bank staff and customers that there was no threat to them or property and that the performers would leave as soon as the event finished. And they did, leaving behind only some leaflets and small pools for water on the floor from the large ice eggs the Golden Toads had brought with them to help cool the planet down.
After leaving the bank the performance carried on for a few minutes on the wide pavement outside. A couple of police officers arrived and went inside the Bank to talk with the staff, and by the time they came out the Rev Billy and others were leaving to celebrate a successful action at a café and bar in Victoria station.
Free Bradley Manning Vigil – St Martin’s, Trafalgar Square
People were begining to arrive to take part in a silent vigil on the steps of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square as a part of the international day of action by the Bradley Manning Support Network.
Bradley – now Chelsea – Manning’s court-martial for passing classified documents to Wikileaks had begun over a month earlier and an inevitable ‘guilty’ verdict was expected shortly.
The documents had exposed a great deal of illegal and immoral actions by the US and other governments and Manning had been celebrated in countries across the world and awarded the Sean MacBride Peace Prize.
On July 30th 2013 Manning was sentenced to 35 years in the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, but in 2017 her sentence was commuted by President Obama to seven years and she was released. In 2019 she was again imprisoned for a year for contempt of court after refusing to testify at a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Against Global Racism and Injustice – US Embassy to Whitehall
Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK organised a march and rally against Global Racism and Injustice in solidarity with families of Trayvon Martin, Stephen Lawrence, Azelle Rodney, Jimmy Mubenga and many others to highlight the reality of racism and seek justice, both in the UK and US.
The event began with a rally outside the US Embassy, then still in Grosvenor Square, led by Zita Holbourne and Lee Jasper, founders and national co-chairs of BARAC, an anti-austerity, anti-racist campaigning organisation, with various other activists and poets speaking.
The event was supported by a wide range of anti-racist groups including Operation Black Vote, the National Black Students Campaign, Global Afrikan Congress, PCS, RMT Black Members, Counterfire, UAF, Love Music Hate Racism, Lambeth TUC, Lambeth People’s Assembly.
The protest was in part because of the global outcry over the acquittal in Florida of the murderer of Trayvon Martin under the Florida ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. But it was a protest against global racism and injustice, with a particular emphasis on several well-known cases in this country.
One was the attempt by the Metropolitan Police to smear both the Lawrence family and its supporters through a covert police surveillance unit while failing to properly investigate the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Lee Jasper stated “We march for Jimmy Mubenga, Mark Duggan, Kingsley Burrell, Smiley Culture and Azelle Rodney. We march for justice and equality in the 50th anniversary year of Dr Martin Luther King’s 1968 March on Washington. The truth is that his dream is a threadbare vision here in the UK where racism is on the rise amplified by austerity.”
Guantanamo Day – 11th January. It was on January 11, 2002 that George W Bush set up the detention camp on the disputed US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, after he had been advised by lawyers that the US courts would be unable to offer detainees held there the normal legal protection that detention in the US would have enabled.
Camp X-Ray, a temporary facility, began with 22 detainees on that day, and others were soon filling this and the other camps which make up Guantanamo the largest of which was Camp Delta. At first the details of those sent there were kept secret, but eventually the US Department of Defense was forced to respond to a Freedom of Information from the Associated Press and to say that 779 prisoners were being held there.
The world got to know considerably more about what had been going on inside the torture camp in 2011 with the publication of documents by Wikileaks including 779 secret files on the prisoners. Among other revelations was “that more than 150 innocent Afghans and Pakistanis, including farmers, chefs, and drivers, were held for years without charges.”
The US government asserted that those held there were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions, though later they lost the case in the US courts which found that they were entitled to protection under Common Article 3 which applies to armed conflicts “not of an international character”.
From the start the US had claimed to be treating “all detainees consistently with the principles of the Geneva Convention.” This was of course a complete lie. Guantanamo was set up as a torture camp and detainees were routinely abused and tortured, humiliated and kept under inhumane conditions in what an Amnesty International report ‘called the “Gulag of our times.“‘ As various reports by them and others including the Red Cross state it was a human rights scandal. There is much more about this in the Wikipedia article.
When President Obama came to power he had promised to close the camp, but his efforts to do so in 2009 were opposed by the military at Guantanamo and funds to transfer or release the prisoners were blocked by the US Senate. Further opposition from the US Congress against moving prisoners to the US for detention or trial prevented Obama from clearing the camp, but by the end of his administration only 41 men remained detained there.
By the end of 2023, 30 men were still being held at Guantanamo, with over half having been cleared for release. 11 of them have been charged with war crimes and are awaiting a military trial and 1 has been convicted. Some are still there because if sent to their home country they are likely to be subject to further imprisonment or death despite their innocence.
British interest in Gunatanamo decreased sharply after the release in October 2015 of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident there. A Saudi national who had permission to stay in the UK he was able at last to return to his wife and children in Battersea after having been held and tortured since 2002. He had never been charged or faced trial.
The Guardian reported following the publication of the book ‘The Secret History of the Five Eyes‘ by Richard Kerbaj in 2022, that in 2004 “Tony Blair’s government was given special access to US intelligence files on Guantánamo Bay which revealed there was no credible evidence against the British detainees“. Yet Aamer was held for another 11 years.
Since Aamer’s release protests on the anniversary of the setting up of Guantanamo have continued, but on a rather smaller scale as you can see from Vigil marks 17 years of Guantanamo torture in 2019. The pictures on this post are from 2008 when I photographed four different events in London on January 11th.
A Table, COP21, Refugees and Santas On Saturday 12 December 2015 I started at the ‘Free the Focus E15 Table’ protest in Stratford, came to Westminster where climate activists were protesting on the final day of the COP21 Paris talks, then to a solidarity vigil for refugees at Downing Street. Since Christmas was approaching there were also santas on the streets, including some on BMX bikes taking part in a charity ride as well as others taking part in the annual Santacon.
Free the Focus E15 Table – Stratford
Focus E15 had since they began over two years earlier been a major irritant for Newham Council, drawing attention to the failure of Newham Council to sensibly address the acute housing problem in the borough, which has around 5,000 people living in temporary accommodation.
At the same time 400 council homes in the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford have remained empty, some for over ten years as the Labour council under Mayor Robin Wales have been trying to sell it off.
Focus E15 have opposed, at first on their own behalf and later for others in their ‘Housing For All’ campaigns the council policy they label ‘social cleansing’, which attempts to force those needing housing out of London and into private rented property in towns and cities across the country- Hastings, Birmingham, Manchester etc – and even in Wales.
As well as organising protests, opposing evictions, demanding the borough meet its statutory obligations to house homeless individuals by going with them to the housing office they had for over two years held a weekly street stall every Saturday on a wide area of pavement on Stratford Broadway, speaking, providing advice and handing out leaflets.
On the previous Saturday in a clearly planned operation, Newham’s Law Enforcement officer John Oddie assisted by several police officers, confronted the campaigners and told them they were not allowed to protest there, and that unless they immediately packed up their stall, sound system, banners and other gear it would be seized. Council and police cited legal powers that were clearly inapplicable to this situation and this was clearly an illegal act.
When Focus E15 stood their ground, police took the table they were using and threw it into the back of their van and drove away with it. It was probably on the advice of their lawyers that a couple of days later the council wrote a letter to the protesters asking them to reclaim the table; Focus E15 asked them to return it to them on Stratford Broadway this Saturday – but it didn’t arrive.
But there were plenty of tables there when I arrived with several groups coming to show solidarity and defend the right to protest including Welwyn Garden City, South Essex Heckler, Basildon and Southend Housing Action, Clapton Ultras, East London Radical Assembly, Anarchist Federation, Carpenters Estate, Aylesbury Estate Southwark, Squatters & Homeless Autonomy and more. Some came with tables and Focus E15 had also brought a replacement.
The protest was lively with speeches, singing and dancing, and although the local paper, too much in the council’s pocket, was ignoring ‘Tablegate’ a BBC local crew did come and film a few interviews. Police and Newham Council seemed to have learnt from the previous week’s farce and kept away.
Climate Activists Red Line protest – Westminster Bridge
Campaign against Climate Change protested by carrying a ‘red line’ across Westminster Bridge against the inadequate response to global temperature rise reached at COP21 which was on its final day.
Many climate activists were still in Paris, so the protest was rather smaller than usual. They met for a sort rally opposite Parliament in Old Palace Yard before marching behind the Campaign against Climate Change banner and a trumpeter on to the pavement across Westminster Bridge.
There they unrolled a 300m red length of cloth, carrying it above their heads across the bridge as a ‘red line’. For many countries, a maximum global temperature rise of more than 1.5°C will mean disaster, and the Paris talks have not committed to this nor have they set up any real mechanism for holding countries to the more limited commitments they have made.
The world needs a far more urgent change to renewable energy, with fossil fuels being left in the ground – or only extracted for use a chemical feedstock. But huge vested interests in the fossil fuel lobby are still dominating the thinking of most governments – and the annual COP meetings.
The protest called for the UK government to reverse the anti-Green measures introduced since the 2015 election, and to get behind green jobs, energy use reduction measures and renewable energy and t abandon its plans for carbon burning technologies and fracking in particular. Vital for the future of the world, these changes would also aid the UK economy.
Christmas Solidarity Vigil for Refugees – Downing St
As darkness fell refugees, solidarity campaigners and Syrian activists came to a Downing St vigil demanding justice for refugees, opening of EU borders to those fleeing war and terrorism and a much more generous response from the UK government.
A strong and gusty wind made it hard to keep candles alight and they had to be pushed through the bottom of plastic cups to provide windshields to stay alight.
As well as Syrians, there were other refugees from around the world, as well as some of the many British who are disgusted at the miserable response of the Tory government. Despite much lobbying which forced David Cameron to increase the UK response, the UK still only agreeing to take 20,000 refugees in the next five years, while Canada will take more – 25,000 – in a single year.
While I was photographing the climate ‘red line’ on Westminster Bridge a large group of Santas rode past on BMX bicycles on a charity ride and I rushed across in time to photograph a few of them. These BMXLife ‘Santa Cruises’, in 2023 in their 9th year, have now raised over £135,000 for Children’s Heart charity ECHO. The 2023 ride starts from Leake Street at 11am on 16th December.
After the Refugee Vigil I walked up to Trafalgar Square where santas were beginning to arrive at the end of a long day walking around London in the annual Santacon, an alcohol-fuelled annual fun event which describes itself as “a non-profit, non-corporate, non-commercial and non-sensical parade of festive cheer.” This year’s event was last Saturday, 9th December.
Pollution, Corporate Greed & Cycle Deaths: Protests in London on Thursday 12th October 2017.
Roadblocks against Air Pollution – Trafalgar Square
On the day the the London Assembly were discussing the problem of air pollution in London, campaign group ‘Stop Killing Londoners’ carried out a series of short protests holding up traffic in London to draw attention to the problem. They had begun the day by a briefly blocking Tower Bridge, close to City Hall, in the morning rush hour, too early for me to easily cover. Many had criticised the group for these protests which hold up traffic, but it proved effective for getting some media coverage for the issue, when almost all protests go unreported.
Their message was simple. The early deaths each year of almost 10,000 Londoners due to air pollution is a health emergency and the politicians need to prioritise the lives of Londoners over the special interests of the car and oil companies.
As well as early deaths, air pollution is also the cause of health problems that make life miserably for many as well as being a drain on the resources of our health system. And road traffic is a major source of pollutants including nitrogen oxides and particulates that cause most of these health problems.
As I rushed down Whitehall later I came across this long row of banners along the whole frontage of the protest pen opposite Downing Street. They relate to the case of John Marshall (no relative) a former nuclear engineer who alleges he is a victim of corporate greed which has ruined his career and his family since around 2010, naming Amec, Sellafield and others involved including Derek Twigg MP and calling for justice. Twigg has been Labour MP for Halton in Cheshire since 1997.
There had been an earlier protest with the same banners here a few months before but there was nobody present to ask more about the case when I made these pictures and it remains something of a mystery.
Cyclists Kensington Vigil & Die In – Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall
Campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists held a die-in vigil outside Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall in protest after a young 36 year old woman died at Chelsea Bridge last week when the driver of a heavy goods vehicle turned left crushing her, the second cyclist killed by a HGV in the borough this year.
The point out that Kensington & Chelsea is one of the worst London boroughs in opposing plans for protected cycle lanes, bus-stop cycle by-passes and 20mph speed limits. The borough had failed to build even a single metre of protected cycle lanes, and cyclists in the borough including children and pensioners have to share the roads with lorries, cars and buses.
Nicola Field
The protesters demanded that the borough end its opposition to safer cycling schemes and provide suitable infrastructure to make cycling safe in the area. They also called on TfL to redesign the Chelsea Bridge roundabout where 36 accidents had been reported in the previous year.
Many of the cyclists who die each year do so when lorries turn left at junctions with the driver unable to see a cyclists on the left of them who gets crushed under their heavy vehicle. The protest demanded that the Transport Minister legislate urgently to introduce the long-demanded regulations for safer HGV design which would eliminate the huge blind areas and get older unsafe vehicles off the road.
TfL had made plans to fine lorries and other vehicles which illegally drive into mandatory cycle lanes, but have been held up by doing so as the Transport Minister has not issued to order to allow them to do so. Protesters demaned this be issued immediately.
Victoria Lebrec
Among those who spoke at the event were Victoria Lebrec, a cyclist who had to have a leg amputated after a skip lorry failed to see her, Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder Nicola Field, other cyclists who had survived accidents and Cynthia Barlow OBE whose daughter was killed by a concrete lorry in 2000. She had become chair of the charity RoadPeace which empowers and support the families of those who are killed and injured on the roads and fights and fights to improve vehicle safety.
Cynthia Barlow OBE
Cycling instructor Philppa Robb said that Kensington & Chelsea has a good cycle training programme but the borough has totally failed to proved a safe infrastructure for cyclists and so few residents feel safe to use their bikes.
Philppa Robb
After the die-in Stop Killing Cyclists co-founders Donnachadh McCarthy spoke and Nicola Field read out one of the posters that someone had brought to the protest, “Why does Kensington & Chelsea give rebates to rich f**kers yet cheapskates vulnerable suckers? Safe Streets 4 All’“
The council implemented a partially segregated cycle lane in Kensington High Street in 2020 but it was removed after vocal complaints from some motorists. In 2023 they consulted on proposals to restore the cycle lanes there and on Fulham Road and found a large majority were in favour of some restoration. However this was only for a dashed line advisory lane rather than one properly segregated from traffic, although this may later be upgraded.
Open House, Sewol, Iran, Sabah, Sarawak & Orange Order: Saturday 16th September 2017 was another busy and varied day for me in London, beginning with two visits on Open House Day and continuing with four protests.
Open House – Banqueting House – Whitehall
Though I’d often walked past the Banqueting House in Whithall, usually on my way to protests at Downing Street or Parliament Square, I’d never before been inside the building. But when I came past on Open House Day there was only a short queue and entrance was free. I had time to spare as a protest I’d hoped to photograph had failed to materialise, so in I went.
Inigo Jones designed (or copied from Andrea Palladio) the Banqueting House for the Palace of Whitehall, built 1619-22, and it is the only remaining building from the palace. It was the first neo-Classical building in England.
I went to Peckham to see a few things in the Peckham Festival including the Open House showing of the Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye station which was housing a photographic exhibition of old pictures of Peckham.
The building itself turned out to be more interesting than the exhibition which lacked any real examination of the more recent past of Peckham. But there were other things to see in Peckham, and a short walk around Rye Lane and the Bussey Building is always interesting.
Back in Central London, my first protest was in Trafalgar Square where a small group mainly of SOuth Koreans was continuing their series of monthly vigils in memory of he Sewol victims, mainly school children who obeyed the order to ‘Stay Put’ on the lower decks as the ship went down.
They continue to demand the Korean government conduct a thorough inquiry into the disaster, recover all missing victims, punish those responsible and enact special anti-disaster regulations.
Overthrow the Islamic Regime of Iran – Trafalgar Square
Also in Trafalgar Square the 8 March Women’s Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan) were protesting on the 29th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iraq following a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the death of all Mojahedins and leftists as ‘fighters against God’ and ‘apostates from Islam.’
The fatwa led to over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) being executed, largely hanged in groups of six and buried in mass graves.
The protesters call for the overthrow of the Islamic regime as necessary for the ‘litigation movement’ can achieve justice and build a society where such executions cannot occur and no one is suppressed, imprisoned or tortured for their ideas.
A short distance down the road at Downing St, Sabahans and Sarawkians were protesting on Malaysia Day, which they say is a ‘Black Day for Sabah and Sarawak’, calling for a restoration of human rights and the repeal of the Sedition Act and and freedom for Sarawak and Sabah.
Among them was Doris Jones, the leader of the Sabah Sarawak Keluar Malaysia secessionist movement in London.
When Malaysia was founded on 16th September 1963 the two independent countries in North Borneo joined with the Federation of Malaya and Singapore and were given promises, assurances and undertakings for their future in the federation. These included ’20 points’ of an Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, which the prrotesters say have been cast aside, and anyone raising them is being detained under a draconian Internal Security Act.
The annual Lord Carson Memorial Parade, one of several annual parades by lodges of the Orange Order came to the Cenotaph for wreaths to be laid. As well as various lodges dedicated to the Apprentice Boys of Derry there were others remembering the Ulster regiments that fought on the Somme. As well as members of lodges in the Home Counties and London, these parades also include some who come from Ulster and Scotland.
Lord Carson (1854-1935) was a leading judge and politician in the UK becoming Solicitor General and First Lord of the Admiralty. He had joined the Orange Order at the age of 19, and in 1911 became the leader of the Ulster Unionists, determined to fight against home rule for Ireland by “all means which may be found necessary“, becoming one of the founders of a unionist militia that became the Ulster Volunteer Force.
But in later years he warned Unionists not to alienate the Catholics in the north, something which parades such as this clearly do in some areas of Northern Ireland. In London they are much less controversial, although I have at times been threatened by those taking part for photographing them. But on this occasion I received just a few hard stares and even some faintly welcoming grins from some who recognised me.
International Day in support of victims of Torture: The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment came into force internationally on 26 June 1987, and in 1998 the UN declared the 26 June of every year to be the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
Over the years I’ve photographed a number of vigils and protests marking the day in London by various groups concerned with human rights, mostly organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign but often joined by others.
No to Torture Vigil – Trafalgar Square, London. Tue 26 June 2012
Supporters of the The London Guantánamo Campaign and other human rights activists held up placards saying “NO to torture” in over 30 languages. Other protesters against various human rights violations joined in the protest, including campaigners calling for an end of the Iranian executions of the Baloch people, those against the extraditions of Babar Ahmer, Talha Ahsan and others to the US and the Free Mumia campaign.
Say No To Torture – Trafalgar Square, London. Wed 26 Jun 2013
The London Guantanamo Campaign which has been active in calling for the closure of Guantanamo and other prisons including Bagram in Afghanistan since 2006 again held a vigil in Trafalgar Square.
Some wearing orange Guanatanamo-style jump suits and black hoods, they stood in a lin in front of the National Gallery, calling for the release of London resident Shaker Aamer and the other detainees held and tortured without trail. Shaker, along with most of the other prisoners was on the 141st day of a hunger strike, being subjected to regular beatings, being brutally forcibly fed and held in solitary confinement – which also constitues torture under the UN definitions.
Among those taking part in the vigil was veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent. The ‘Say No To Torture’ protest overlapped with another human rights protest over Balochistan, a ‘nation without a state.’ Balochs live mainly in Pakistan and have been subject to arrests and other human rights violations including torture by the Pakistan authorities for campaigning for independence.
In 2014, Kashmiris wore black hoods and headbands with messages ‘Mutilated’, ‘Raped’, ‘Tortured’, ‘Executed’ and waved Kashmiri flags to protest at the widespread human rights abuses by the 7,000 custodial killings and torture of prisoners by the Indian state Indian state in Kashmir- 1 in 5 Kashmiris is a torture victim.
Also in Trafalgar Square was a vigil by the The London Guantanamo Campaign with people holding posters and blindfolded or gagged, calling for the release of prisoners from the US prison camp and an end to impunity for torturers.
The UK has failed to take proper action over allegations of prisoner abuse by the British military in Iraq and Afghanistan and has continued to be involved in the “rendition” and torture of British and foreign nationals abroad. Our government prevents violations becoming public knowledge, relying on secret courts and partial and biased investigations.
UN Day for Victims of Torture – Trafalgar Square, London. Fri 26 Jun 2015
The London Guantánamo Campaign and others were back again in Trafalgar Square in a solidarity vigil in recognition of the suffering and rights of victims and survivors of torture, calling on those in positions of power able to put an end to the use of torture.
Obama had promised in 2010 to end the shame of Guantanamo, but the detentions and torture continued throughout his presidency, though there were some releases.
