{"id":1677,"date":"2012-07-15T22:44:12","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T22:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2012-07-26T20:44:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T20:44:57","slug":"june-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=1677","title":{"rendered":"June 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last day of June was a busy one for me, though perhaps not especially productive. The main event I wanted to cover was a march in London’s East End against the siting of missiles there during the Olympics. There seems to be an assumption behind this that in the unlikely event of an aircraft getting through the air exclusion zone to target the Olympic site it would be preferable to shoot it down so that it lands on East Londoners rather than those attending the Olympics, and that isn’t something Londoners are comfortable with. Many also feel that these missile sites – including a couple on the roof of residential buildings – could themselves become terrorist targets. It would certainly have been less contentious if the sites chosen had been office buildings – and there is no shortage of those around – rather than homes.<\/p>\n

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Kids on scooters with other things to do go past the front of the march<\/small><\/p>\n

Previously there had been a well-attended and widely reported protest meeting about the issue, and the march itself had been given some publicity in the evening newspaper and on the air, so I went expecting a large event. Arriving at the area of parkland where it was gathering I was surprised to find relatively few people there, with the media almost outnumbering the participants. I think almost every photographer I know in London must have been there, along with a number of videographers, including some filming for major channels.<\/p>\n

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A couple listen to the speeches<\/p>\n

There were some points of interest, and speakers included Brian Whelan, whose revelation of the missiles that were being put on his roof in the ‘Bow Quarter’ led to the missiles becoming public knowledge – and to him being given notice by the landlord.\u00a0 There were a small group of protesters from Occupy London I’ve photographed at various events, carrying or wearing ‘Anonymous’ masks who got some special attention from the police liaison officers. The police too had obviously expected more and where out in force, though most kept a few hundred yards away and I think went away as the march started and they realised it was only a few hundred people.<\/p>\n

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It was of course a busy day with many other things happening, and even if they oppose the missiles I think most Londoners feel that whatever they do the Olympics and the growing security clampdown we are experiencing is unstoppable – whatever we do it will go ahead – and so protests are not worth the effort.\u00a0 At least as some said to me, the Olympics will soon be over, though whether we will ever get rid of the increasing controls being imposed under the largely imagined threat of terrorism remains to be seen. But the missiles will surely go, along the with soldiers and ships, even if the huge area of the Olympic site remains a privately administered park where there will continue to be great restrictions on our freedoms.<\/p>\n

It will also have been converted into a hugely manicured area. I can’t see it as any kind of gain that the kingfishers who used to live wild now will have carefully constructed and sited nesting boxes, that what in part used to be a wilderness through which we could roam more or less freely will now be\u00a0 carefully controlled plantings, neat paths and flowerbeds with shag pile grass in place of the old diverse growth. And while we may dream of the removal of all those 10 foot high electric security fences, I suspect they will be a part of the legacy.<\/p>\n

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The missiles will be on one of the two towers on the converted match factory<\/p>\n

It rubs salt into the wounds of some that one of the missile sites is the ‘Bow Quarter’, a gated development of expensive flats in the former Bryant & May match factory, a truly iconic (perhaps the most overused word in this Olympic year) location in labour history. Plaques on the outside wall recall Annie Besant and the 1888 matchgirls’ strike , when 1400 women walked out after some were victimised for refusing to sign a management letter saying they were happy with the working conditions – poor pay, long hours, fines for talking and other trivial ‘offences’ and disfiguring and painful illness and death from phosijaw (bone cancer) from the company’s insistence on continuing to use white phosphorus, already banned on health grounds in the US and Sweden – after Besant had published the terrible details.<\/p>\n

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The march ended with a short rally outside the missile site. It has more or less identical towers and missiles will be sited on one of them, possibly not the one in my pictures which is closer to the road but further from the Olympic site. The blue plaque at the left of the picture is about the history of the site.<\/p>\n

More pictures on Missiles Out Of East London<\/a>, and also on My London Diary you can see pictures from the two events I rushed back into the centre of London to cover as the protest in Bow ended, Congolese Protest<\/a> and Sudanese march in London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My London Diary<\/a> : Buildings of London<\/a> : River Lea\/Lee Valley<\/a> : London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated are by Peter Marshall and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.<\/small><\/p>\n

To order prints or reproduce images<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

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