{"id":17707,"date":"2025-07-31T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17707"},"modified":"2025-07-29T09:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T08:05:22","slug":"hunger-strikers-sothebys-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17707","title":{"rendered":"Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby&#8217;s &#8211; 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby&#8217;s: Ten years ago today this protest over Palestine was about Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails against the use of indefinite illegal administration. Later I went to Mayfair where cleaners and their supporters were protesting for the reinstatement of two cleaners sacked and victimised because of their trade union activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">BBC protest over Palestinian Hunger Strikes &#8211; Broadcasting House<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d022.jpg\" alt=\"Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby's - 2015\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners Muhammad Allan and Uday Isteiti held in Israeli jails under administrative detention was in its sixth week, but the BBC had failed to report this and other hunger strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d214.jpg\" alt=\"Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby's - 2015\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So Innovative Minds in cooperation with The Prisoner&#8217;s Centre for Studies in Jerusalem had come to the BBC to protest against the continuing pro-Israel bias among management and some reporters. It&#8217;s a bias that has often been confirmed by academic studies and is continuing, though the recent use of starvation in Gaza and its appalling consequences we have all seen has resulting in some toughening of the BBC reporting on Israel&#8217;s war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d234.jpg\" alt=\"Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby's - 2015\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Administrative detention allows people to be held without any real evidence and without trial and although in Palestine it is supposedly time-limited, in practice many are immediately re-arrested when their sentence ends to begin another term and so is in practice indefinite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I concluded in 2015: &#8220;<em>Many who used to regard the BBC as a great institution and praised its high standards are now disillusioned and feel that they need to listen and watch other broadcasters to get an impartial and more complete view of both overseas and UK news<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d031.jpg\" alt=\"Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby's - 2015\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The BBC has some fine reporters but they often come under pressure from their managers &#8211; who themselves are under pressure from powerful lobbying groups and politicians with strong sympathies for the Zionist cause, including leading figures in our government. But they also misinterpret their ideas of impartiality, often ignoring the facts of the situation in a misguided attempt to show both sides. As it has been said &#8220;<em>there are no two sides to genocide<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More at <a href=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/jul.htm#hungerstrikers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">BBC protest over Palestinian Hunger Strike<\/a>rs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reinstate the Sotheby&#8217;s 2 &#8211; New Bond St<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d385.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Early in 2015 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvwunion.org.uk\/en\/disputes\/sothebys\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">United Voices of the World<\/a> union had come to an agreement with the company who then employed the outsourced cleaners at auction house Sotheby&#8217;s which had guaranteed the workers non-toxic products, reinstatements, fairer schedules and the London Living Wage (backdated.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d126.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sotheby&#8217;s, who make huge profits by selling art works and other items, decided to sabotage that deal by ending the contract with that company and starting a new contract with Servest, who decided not to honour the agreement that had been reached earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d368.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This led the UVW to organise a series of protests, including a large and noisy one outside a &#8220;<em>blockbuster \u00a3130m art sale<\/em>&#8221; on July 1st. Sotheby&#8217;s responded by sacking four of the most active trade union members who had taken part in the protest, though later were forced by threats of legal action to reinstate two of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d166.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The protest on 31 July outside another auction demanded the reinstatement of the &#8216;<em>Sotheby&#8217;s 2<\/em>&#8216;, as well as repeating the cleaners demands for proper sick pay, paid holidays and pensions and the London Living Wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/31\/20150731-d373.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The UVW continued with protests in Autumn 2015 and were able to announce in early 2016 that &#8220;<em>ALL outsourced workers at Sotheby\u2019s, including cleaners, caterers, porters and security guards would receive both the London Living Wage and contractual (much improved) sick pay<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More at <a href=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\/2015\/07\/jul.htm#sothebys2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Reinstate the Sotheby&#8217;s 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" id=\"block-21592268-6698-4884-b8d2-0c04276c63b5\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" id=\"block-1347990f-e0e8-4f40-a8b0-aa6582de51ac\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/69163004@N00\/albums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Flickr<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/peter.marshall.712\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/mylondondiary.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">My London Diary<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hullphotos.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hull Photos<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/river-lea.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lea Valley<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/peter-marshall.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Paris<\/a><br><a href=\"http:\/\/www.petermarshallphotos.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">London&#8217;s Industrial Heritage<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buildingsoflondon.co.uk\/\">London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" id=\"block-8dc66be1-c5ae-47e2-b405-4b303d7ef4e1\">All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall. <br>Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" id=\"block-1ffbd6e4-34ed-4464-9d11-8ce09bf8d01e\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby&#8217;s: Ten years ago today this protest over Palestine was about Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails against the use of indefinite illegal administration. Later I went to Mayfair where cleaners and their supporters were protesting for the reinstatement of two cleaners sacked and victimised because of their trade union activities. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17707\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hunger Strikers &amp; Sotheby&#8217;s &#8211; 2015<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[8276,2823,3139,4223,21354,1215,17,954,244,1222,24,83,19382,16,21353,21356,1682,5196,9159,21358,5860,953,193,1546,21355],"class_list":["post-17707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-administrative-detention","tag-bbc","tag-broadcasting-house","tag-hunger-strike","tag-innovative-minds","tag-living-wage","tag-london","tag-london-living-wage","tag-march","tag-outsourced-workers","tag-palestine","tag-peter-marshall","tag-pro-israel-bias","tag-protest","tag-re-arrests","tag-reinstate-the-sothebys-2","tag-sick-pay","tag-sothebys","tag-sothebys-2","tag-sothem","tag-union-activities","tag-united-voices-of-the-world","tag-uvw","tag-victimisation","tag-we-are-all-percy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17711,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17707\/revisions\/17711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}