World Heritage Site

Tigers, Class War at Harrods – 2017

Tigers, Class War at Harrods: On Saturday 7th January 2017 I photographed a rally in Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel against a planned coal-fired power plant and other threats to the world’s largest mangrove forest, then went to Harrods where the United Voices of the World were protesting with the help of Class War calling for better wages and conditions for waiters and for them to get all of the tips given by customers.

Save the Sunderbans Global Protest – Altab Ali Park

Tigers, Class War at Harrods - 2017 — *Many of the protesters had black ‘tiger stripes’ on their faces – the Sunderbans are the home of the Bengal tiger*

This protest in East London organised by the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh was a part of a global day of protest to save the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest.

The Sunderbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site threatened by the planned Rampal coal-fired power plant and other commercial developments are the home of many species including the Bengal Tiger, and many at the protest had ‘tiger stripes’ on their cheeks.

The power plant is a joint project of the Bangladesh and Indian governments and would endanger the livelihoods of over 3.5 million people and make around 50 million more vulnerable to storms and cyclones, against which the Sunderbans serve as a natural safeguard. Coal would be brought up from India on one of the rivers through the forest and there would be industrial development on areas around it where this is currently banned.

Huge protests against it in Bangladesh have resulted in a number of protesters being killed, but the protest in London was entirely peaceful and ignored by the authorities.

Save the Sunderbans Global Protest

Harrods stop stealing waiters’ tips – Harrods, Knightsbridge

Grass roots trade union United Voices of the World which represents chefs and waiters working at Harrods protested outside together with Class War calling for 100% of the service charges to go to staff rather than the vast profits of the owners, the Qatari royal family, who were denying staff of around £2.5 million per year.

*Class War came to Harrods to support the UVW union*

A month earlier I had been there when UVW General Secretary Petros Elia had talked with Class War celebrating Christmas in a pub in Wapping about what was happening at Harrods. The company was keeping between 50-75% of all tips for itself and the UVW were going there to protest against this on January 7th. Class War were keen to come and lend their support.

The protest was robust but essentially peaceful, and was heavily policed with the protesters being warned they would be charged with aggravated trespass if they entered the store. A few individuals had gone inside earlier and had left fliers about the low wages and lousy conditions of the chefs and waiters for shoppers to find but their activities had not been noticed but the protest took place on the pavement and street outside.

*Class War hold up a banner in front of the doors to stop police filming from inside*

There were a few arrests during the protest for trivial offences – including one for letting off a smoke flare, but after the protest ended and I had left, police arrested four of the organisers – including Petros Elia – as they were packing up and held them for up to 18 hours before they were released on police bail.

No charges were ever brought, though one person who let off a firework unwisely accepted a police caution. The police action in making the arrests appeared to be a deliberate abuse of the law to both apply a short period of arbitrary detention and to impose bail conditions that they were not to go within 50m of Harrods to protect the company from further legitimate protests.

Harrods and their owners, the Qatari royal family, have many friends in high places including the Foreign Office and presumably these were able to put pressure on the police to take action against the protesters.

The campaign – and the protest – received tremendous support from the public and even from some of the right-wing press (perhaps because Harrods is owned by foreigners) and Harrods quickly announced that 100% of tips would be shared under an accountable system. You can read more and watch a five minute video of the protest on the UVW web site.

And of course see many more of my pictures and captions at Harrods stop stealing waiters’ tips.

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Brasilia, Capital of Brazil – 2007

Brasilia, Capital of Brazil – in December 2007 I was fortunate to be able to go to Brasilia as a guest of the British Embassy who were backing an exhibition of my pictures of environmental protests in London as a part of Foto Arte 2007, a huge photography event that stretched on for 3 months with over 20 international shows and more than a hundred individual and group shows from Brazil, apparently in 57 locations across the city.

Unfortunately I was unable to stay there long as I needed to be home in plenty of time for Christmas, but the three days I spent there I was extremely busy. As well as attending the opening of my exhibition and some other shows and giving a lecture I was on the go from shortly after breakfast to late at night, being given personal guided tours.

My guide for much of this was a daughter of one of the city planners in a team led by planner Lúcio Costa (1902- 1998) and architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) and with an inside knowledge of the city and its development.

Planning for the new city in the interior of Brazil began in 1956 and the city was developed remarkably quickly, officially opened in 1960, though much had still to be completed.

Brasilia incorporates many of the key aspects of modern architecture and 20th century city planning, Costa, an architect and planner adopted the modernist ideas of Le Corbusier around 1930 and Niemeyer worked with him from around that time.

Niemeyer was one of the twentieth century’s most renowned architects, developing modernism in new directions with his “free-flowing, sensual curves” in a remarkable use of reinforced concrete, and constructing buildings is cities around the world.

*Memorial to the Indigenous Peoples (Memorial dos Povos Indigenas)*

He was invited to design the civic buildings of the new capital, most of which I was able to see and to photograph during my visit. In 1987 his work there was internationally recognised when Brasilia was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

*Congress. The left dome and tower is the senate, the right the house of representatives*

Politics intervened when Brazil became a military dictatorship and Niemeyer had to move to Paris to continue his work, including buildings in France, Spain and other countries, but not in the UK, where his only building was a temporary pavilion in Hyde Park in 2003.

*Panteão da Pátria (Pantheon) dedicated to the heroes of Brazil. Niemeyer designed it to resemble a dove*

I travelled to Brazil light, and took only a small pocketable camera, a Fuji Finepix F31fd 6.3Mp compact, still highly regarded and producing images that were almost as good as those from my current DSLR. The main limitation – and one that I found something of a problem was its lack of any real wide-angle view, with an equivalent of a 36-108mm zoom lens. It performed fairly well in low light with using the fairly useless built in flash and an excellent battery life.

*Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro (National Theatre – Oscar Niemeyer)*

You can see the pictures from my Brasilia show here and many more of the pictures I took in Brazilia at Pictures of Brasilia, though I think there are more I should put on line.

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More from Belper – 2015

More from Belper – In 2015 we stayed with my younger son and family in Belper for a few days after Christmas, and on 30th and 31th December I took some time going around the town and taking pictures.

Belper was important as a bridging point on the River Derwent and it was the power from this river that led the Jedediah Strutt, a partner of the better-known Richard Arkwright to build the world’s second water-powered cotton mill here around 1781. He build another mill, the North Mill three years later. When this burnt down in 1803, his son William Strutt replaced it by the current ‘fireproof’ North Mill. Its iron frame and brick arches with brick and tile floors made it one of the most technically advanced buildings of its age.

The Strutt’s built up Belper tremendously, providing housing for their workers, including the listed terraces of Long Row where I was staying as well as three churches of different denominations as the climbed the social ladder.

The mills and other buildings here are a part of the World Heritage Site, and the North Mill houses the Derwent Valley Visitor Centre, and adjoining this is a soft play centre and a restaurant, but at least in 2015 part of the mill complex were still in use by Courtaulds making stockings.

Belper played an important part in the industrial revolution in the UK, but also kick-started large-scale manufacturing in the USA. Samuel Slater who had worked in the mill here from a young age and was apprenticed to Strutt in 1782 learnt all the secrets of the trade and in 1789, when he was 21, crossed the Atlantic to Pawtucket in Rhode Island and began the US textile industry, becoming known as “The Father of the American Industrial Revolution” – or in Belper as “Slater the Traitor”.

Belper’s most famous landmark is the Accrington red-brick East Mill with its distinctive tower, built by the English Sewing Company in 1912. The buildings across the Ashbourne Road from this are all more modern.

Strutt put weirs across the river to hold back the water and provide a supply for the mills, also producing a lake beside which are the Riverside Gardens. Water from close to this first weir was still in use to power turbines for the electrical supply to the mill. The larger Horseshoe Weir was built in 1797 and raised in height in the 1840s but is apparently unchanged since then.

Jedediah had built a Unitarian Chapel when he first came to Belper in 1778 still in use today, but later the family built a Congregational Church with a spire and finally the Anglican St Peters, with a tall slender tower to make them stand out. The Congregational church became unsafe and was closed around 1981, but was later converted into housing.

Other industries came to Belper too, but most or all have now moved away, including a chocolate factory and another making Swafega.

Our final morning before catching the train from home – at Strutt’s insistence the line through the town was in a cutting with every street having its bridge over it so as to disturn the town as little as possible – began with a visit to Belper to buy food for our journey at Fresh Basil before going to another of the town’s many tea rooms, worth a visit both for the cakes and the impressive loo.

Although Belper’s Christmas lights were not impressive, its guerilla knitters had been hard at work decorating the town centre, and I still had time to photograph some of their impressive works before going to the station.

Many more pictures from our 2015 visit on My London Diary at Belper – World Heritage Site.

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