Save Legal Aid

Old Bailey, London. Tue 30 Jul 2013


Labour shadow minister Sadiq Khan in fighting mood
more pictures

The Save Legal Aid Campaign held a rally at the Old Bailey against proposed cuts in legal aid which will severely damage the UK justice system, removing legal aid completely for many and providing a poor quality cut-price service for others.

The event, attended by around a thousand people, was organised by the newly formed 'Justice Alliance' which brings together over 70 organisations including solicitors organisations, legal charities and others concerned with the law. united by their opposition to proposed changes in the legal aid system. These would bring in compulsory tendering on price, with legal aid services being provided by the lowest bidder and remove any choice by defendants of who should represent them.

Tendering would replace all the current specialist solicitors by groups such as Tesco and Eddie Stobart employing less qualified and experienced people and providing an inferior service for those unable to pay - and so choose - their solicitors. As speakers and singer Tom Robinson pointed out in a new song he taught the roughly thousand people at the rally, this would mean one law for the rich, and another for the poor.

The rally also celebrated the acheivments of legal aid, with speakers including Raphael Rowe, wrongly imprisoned as one of the M25 three, Anne Hall the mother of Daniel Roque Hall, a man suffering from a rare condition who would have died in prison without legal aid which got him released to receive care, and Sally, the mother of a rape victim who police failed. Our legal aid system has been the envy of the world for 64 years, since it was introduced by the Legal Aid and Assistance Act on 30th July 1949, and this was celebrated with the singing of 'Happy Birthday' and the cutting of a cake by MP Diane Abbott.

Other speakers included Sadiq Khan MP Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, Ian Lawrence of NAPO, activist, poet, co-founder and co-chair of BARAC Zita Holbourne, Shauneen Lambe of Just for Kids Law and criminal defence solicitor and Justice Alliance member Matt Foot, but the loudest applause was for a rousing speech by Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty.

The changes to the legal aid system proposed by justice secretary Chris Grayling would result in a system similar to that in the USA, widely condemned as leading to widespread wrongful convictions, and have attracted little or no support, with widespread condemnation from everyone concerned with the legal system and the public in general. The Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) response to the consultation that the Government's proposed legal aid reforms could do "irreparable damage" to the UK justice system and "destroy the livelihoods of many smaller solicitors' firms and rapidly destroy the criminal defence Bar" is typical of many others.
more pictures

London Views

Thames, Hoxton,St Paul's etc, London

Seeing double at St Paul's Cathedral
more pictures

I had a little business in the city and in Hoxton and had gone up early for it before the legal aid protest. I got off the bus at St Paul's Churchyard and walked across to Tate Modern, taking a few more pictures on my way there and back to the Old Bailey.
more pictures

Against Global Racism and Injustice

US Embassy to Whitehall, London. Sat 27 Jul 2013

People raise fists in support of the fight against racism and injustice
more pictures

BARAC led 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 started with a rally outside the US embassy, led by Zita Holbourne and Lee Jasper, founders and national co-chairs of anti-austerity, anti-racist campaigning organisation Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK, with contributions from other activists and poets including Holbourne who is also a National Executive member of the PCS Union.

The protest was supported by a wide range of 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, and other anti racist organisations. There were a number of well-known faces from the British left among the marchers, and some were scheduled to speak at the rally at the end of the march in Downing St.

The event started at the US Embassy because of the killing in Florida of Trayvon Martin and the global outcry against the acquittal of his murderer under the Florida 'Stand Your Ground' law. There were loud boos at the news that George Zimmerman has been offered a large sum to write his story.

But this was a protest against global racism and injustice, and it had a particular focus on this country. In a statement, Lee Jasper, after mentioning the Martin case went on to say:

"We march to support the call from the Lawrence family for a full and independent judicial led public inquiry into the allegations that the Metropolitan Police sought to smear both the family and supporters through a covert police surveillance unit.

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."

Similarly, Zita Holborne stated:

"Injustice and racism are increasing every day - it’s an issue here in the UK and in the USA and elsewhere, this is why we need a global response. We are demanding a truly independent public inquiry into police spying on the Lawrence family and their supporters and the infiltration of anti-racist organisations and for the ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws to go. We support the call from USA activists for a complete Florida boycott until the laws are revoked and applaud artists such as Stevie Wonder for refusing to perform in Florida. It’s a disgrace that families who lose their loved ones through racism must then spend a life time pursuing justice. No justice, no peace!"

Speakers and others at the protest were clearly appalled at the actions of the Met Police in attempting to smear the friends and family of Stephen Lawrence, and the other investigations of family members of those killed by the police, including the improper surveillance of Janet Alder, the sister of former paratrooper Christopher Alder who died in a Hull custody suite, as well as the killing by security guards of Jimmy Mubenga during a forcible deportation attempt and many, many other cases.

The march left the US embassy for Downing St a little after 3pm. There was to be a further rally there with a number of speakers including George Galloway MP, supporting the call for a public inquiry into the allegations against the Met over the Lawrence family and friends, and calling for action against the killers of Azelle Rodney and Jimmy Mubenga.
more pictures

Free Bradley Manning Vigil

St Martin's, Trafalgar Square, London. Sat 27 Jul 2013

Protesters set up the vigil as Bradley's trial comes to an end

more pictures

As a part of the international day of action the Bradley Manning Support Network held a vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square. A verdict is expected shortly but many see him as a hero who should be honoured rather than imprisoned.

Bradley Manning's trial started on 3rd June in Fort Meade, US, and protests have continued both inside and outside the court, with the 'gay whistleblower' being celebrated in countries across the world and awarded the Sean MacBride Peace Prize. Many have signed petitions calling on the Nobel prize committee to award him their peace prize.

The US government's case that Manning had "aided the enemy" by passing documents to WikiLeaks seemed to fail to produce any real evidence in support, and it seems unclear who the "enemy" is. But certainly his and other revelations through Wikileaks have exposed a great deal of illegal and immoral actions by the US and other governments to the view of the people, and the verdict seems likely to reflect this.

People were just beginning the vigil, with various groups attending to hold up banners and posters as I took these pictures.
more pictures

Rev Billy at HSBC

Victoria, London. Sat 27 Jul 2013

A gorilla and two golden toads leave the Victoria HSBC branch after the performance
more pictures

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir creatively invaded the HSBC branch at Victoria to perform a "radicalized midsummer cloud forest dream" against the support given to fossil fuels and climate chaos by the banks and the City of London.

The Rev Billy and his choir on the Stop Shopping Church Tour England brought along their Golden Toads for an impromptu uninvited performance in the bank branch opposite Victoria Station.

The message 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.

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 raised £170 billion the top five UK banks raised £170 billion for fossil fuel companies, and the largest of these was the HSBC.

The group met on the open space opposite Scotland Yard to prepare for the performance, with some preparing to take the role of three Central American species which have become extinct through climate change in recent years, an eagle, a monkey and a jaguar, learning to move appropriately and make suitable animal noises.

While they were doing this, others learnt the words of the chorus for the protest, above which members of the Stop Shopping Choir would perform, and small groups each learnt the name of seven villages which have been destroyed through mining in Central America, which they would later chant.

The choir members had also brought along their 'Golden Toad' headdresses, a species of amphibian forced into extinction by climate change 25 years ago, their cloud forest habitat blasted by drought in the 80's in Central America. They have 'resurrected' this species to rise "up in the high church of banks that finance the CO2 emissions" as a symbol of the change that must take place in the policies of the banks to enable a resurrection of world ecosystems that are currently blighted, a symbol of a hope that could yet save the world.

The activists (and it was clearly seen as a performance rather than a protest) walked quietly along to the HSBC bank, with others carrying the 'Golden Toad' heads in bags for the choir members who were also playing the role of animals.

Inside the bank, the people who were animals (and they had been joined by a gorilla) walked up to the long row of cash points and stood as if using them, while photographers tried to be inconspicuous. After a few seconds the performance began, with animals dancing around the bank before finally falling dead from the effects of climate change. The Rev Billy had strode in as the performance began, preaching to the performers and bank staff about the need for the bank to change its ways. Although there was an anger in his message about how the banks were destroying the world, he had stressed earlier the need to avoid any damage to bank property or distress to the bank staff, and one of the team had the job of liasing with them if there was any problem, reassuring them that there was no threat and everyone would leave in a few minutes when the performance finished.

The bank staff stood and watched openmouthed as the Golden Toads arrived to save the species, bringing with them some large eggs of ice to help cool the planet down. As promised the performers soon left the premises, continuing for a few minutes on the wide pavement outside. Thorughout the performance, a few customers continued to come into the bank and use the cash machines unperturbed, seeming not to even notice the people and toads dancing around the bank and the loud sermonising of the Rev Billy.

The bank had called the police, and a couple arrived and went inside to talk to the bank staff as the event was finishing. But the Rev Billy and others were leaving to celebrate a succesful action at a cafe and bar in Victoria station.
more pictures

New Bridge to Walton

Walton Bridge, Surrey. Thu 25 Jul 2013

The new bridge from the boatyard next door
more pictures

Shepperton first got a bridge across the River Thames to Walton in 1750, a fancy wooden structure similar to Cambridge's Mathematical Bridge but rather larger, and four years later Canaletto came to paint it. Perhaps it didn't scale up well, as a little over 30 years later it was declared to be dangerous and taken down.

Its stone replacement, opened in 1788 lasted rather longer, collapsing in 1859, and Turner made sketches and paintings of it on a Thames tour in 1805. Next came a iron girder bridge in 1864, which served its purpose well until it was bombed in 1940. It continued in use for pedestrians and cyclists while a temporary bridge took the vehicular traffic. It stayed in place when a new 'Callender-Hamilton bridge' was built in 1953, but was demolished in the 1980s. Another temporary bridge was added in 1999 for road traffic, with the 1953 bridge being relegated to pedestrians and cyclists.

The latest bridge was partly opened at the end of July, a couple of days before I took these pictures, though not fully, and we cycled across on the footpath which is still on the older bridge. This is supposed to be demolished by the end of the year, after which there will be no piers in the river with its single span going from Middlesex to Surrey banks (both now administratively in Surrey.) There are still a lot of works going on around the two bridges, limiting access to photograph the new bridge.
more pictures

Tamils Protest Sri Lankan Killings

Downing St, London. Tue 23 Jul 2013

Tamils opposite Downing St with placards
more pictures

A rally by the British Tamil Forum at Downing St remembered the 3000 Tamils who died in riots across Sri Lanka in an anti-Tamil pogrom orchestrated by the government in July 1983. They want the UK to boycott the Commonwealth meeting in Sri Lanka.

This was the 30th anniversary of the 1983 Black July; Tamils say that this was not the first anti-Tamil pogrom, but that it's unprecedented frenzy of violence was a turning point after which Tamils knew they could never be safe in a state dominated by the Sinhalese.

In the last four years - since the Mullivaikkal Massacre of 2009 - Tamils claim that an estimated 147,000 Tamils are either dead or missing, and see the only solution to be the formation of an independent Tamil state - 'Tamil Eelam.'

Tamils came to protest to show their hurt at the UK Government's continuing support of the Sri Lankan government and in particular the UK's decision to take part in the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2013) in November which will be hosted by Sri Lanka. They see this as legitimising a state which has been serverely criticised by the UN and human rights organisation for the atrocities it has been committing. The hundred or two people who were present when I took the photographs were signing letters and cards calling on HRH The Prince of Wales to reconsider his decision to attend CHOGM 2013 and to uphold the values of the Commonwealth.
more pictures

Another Dangleway Ride

Victoria Dock - North Greenwich, London. Tue 23 Jul 2013

The Shard seen between the towers at Canary Wharf from the dangleway
more pictures

Last month I took my first ride on the Arab Emirates cableway from North Greenwich to Victoria Dock - the so-called Emirates 'Airline'. Today I'd gone to have a look at the bits of the 'Estuary' show at the Museum of Docklands I hadn't managed to see at the opening, and decided to take the DLR and have another ride going in the opposite direction.

You see more or less the same going either way, and the main difference in the view comes from the time of day and the weather when you travel. And of course, different things catch your attention, in particular on this ride some of the buildings on the north bank to the east of the cableway. The ride is certainly too short to photograph everything.
more pictures

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Italian Church, Clerkenwell, London. Sun 21 Jul 2013

Headscarves and haloes on women (and a painting) watching the procession
more pictures

The procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the first Roman Catholic event on English streets for 349 years when it was allowed by Queen Victoria in 1883, took place in Clerkenwell today from St Peter's Italian church founded 150 years ago.

The procession required special permission from the police, granted by Queen Victoria in 1883, when the Clerkenwell area in which St Peter's Church is was known as 'Little Italy', home to many refugees and immigrants from Italy. They needed a Catholic Church in which they could worship in their own language, and on the 16 April 1863, St Peter's Italian Church was consecrated.

The annual festival is one of London's oldest and most colourful religious festivals, with the various statues from the church being carried around the local area and the clergy and congregation following behind them. Nowadays Italians have moved out to many other areas of the country, and groups from Italian associations across the South East as well as Manchester, Cheltenham, Birmingham, Peterborough and Gloucester come back to join in the procession. As this was the year of the 150th anniversary of the church's founding, all six floats in this years procession took their inspiration from statues or paintings in the church.

One of the special features of the procession is the release of white doves This year there where six doves released by a row of small children at the start and they flew very quickly over the heads of the row of photographers waiting to photograph them. The first had already gone over us when the last took flight.

Later I went back to the festival or Sagra which had started around lunchtime in Warner St at the bottom of the hill below the church, with stalls selling Italian food and drink - pizza, bread, wine, ice cream and more - and various cultural artifacts as well as music and dancing.
more pictures

Whitecross Street Party

Whitecross St, London. Sun 21 Jul 2013

Whitecross St
more pictures

I took a quick walk along Whitecross St to look at the street party there on my way to Clerkenwell. It seems only a few years ago that this was a very run-down working class area of London, where I would sometimes go for a very cheap meal when I was out. Now many of the old shops are galleries and there are trendy bars.

The old 'Cosy Supper Bar' which used to be a good chippy is now a Fish and Chip Restuarant at almost double the prices and it just doesn't taste the same.
more pictures

UK Uncut HSBC Food Banks

Regent St & Oxford St, London. Sat 20 Jul 2013

UK Uncut protesters arrive at HSBC Oxford St with their food bank to find the doors locked
more pictures

UK Uncut protesters against tax dodging by HSBC and its customers and the huge payouts to banks whose greed and lies were central to the econnomic collapse closed 2 HSBC branches in the West End, setting up symbolic food banks outside them.

The central London action by around a hundred activists was one of those in 13 cities around the country targeting HSBC branches from Glasgow to Exeter. In Brixton, they managed to set up their protest food bank inside the branch, but those in central London were closed down by the HSBC and the doors locked before the protesters arrived.

The protesters argue that the actions by the HSBC and other banks that led to the collapse and the government's response to this was an austerity programme that means that half a million people now rely on food banks, and increase of 170% in the past year. Research shows that almost half of those now reliant on food banks are those whose state benefits have either been cut or delayed and around 20% need help because of low pay.

HSBC is the UK's largest bank and makes use of more tax havens than any other UK bank shift the profits it makes in the UK to countries with lower TAx rates. It also helps its customers to evade tax, with thousands of offshore accounts in Jersey and a Swiss subsidiary alleged to have helped UK tax pauers evade £200m in tax.

Today's protest comes after Friday's agreement by the G20 finance ministers to take action on tax avoidance, which highlighted some of the flaws in the current system that they will need to address.

Police had arrived at the branch in Regent St well before UK Uncut were due and when I arrived the branch staff were standing outside the locked doors talking with the police. A quarter of an hour later the protesters came, bringing banners, placards and large amounts of food and began to set up a 'food bank' on the pavement outside. All of the food used in the protest - except for a tray of 'UK Uncut' decorated buns which were for protesters and passers by to eat - was to be taken to a local food bank after the action.

The protesters put up signs about their protest, stretching tape with the message 'Closed by UK Uncut' across the doors and windows. There were several 'mic checks' in which one of the protesters shouted out the reasons for the protest which were then repeated loudly by all present, along with some chanting of slogans and a few songs.

One of the protesters, in more business-like dress than most, then came forward as an HSBC Press spokesman (the HSBC had declined to take part themselves) and invited questions. Possibly a real press spokesman would have dressed up his answers (or failure to answer in most cases) rather more decorously, but would have got no more positive response.

After roughly an hour in Regent St, the protesters picked up the contents of the food bank, and some rather heavily set off for another central Lodnon branch, which turned out to be in Oxford St. Police had warned them of the protesters' imminent arrival, and they had just locked the doors when they arrived.

The food bank was set up again along the frontage of the shop. Police pushed the protesters back into around half of the not very wide pavement, and they then sat down. The protest continued for around an hour, again with several 'mic checks' and some chanting. Police kept the area of pavement in front of the protesters clear for passers by, standing in an open line on the curb. When I stood in exactly the the same line as them I was told I had to move on as I was blocking the path - somehow photographer's bodies are more a block than those of police, even though most were fatter than me.
more pictures

Fire Service March Against Cuts

Monument to Southwark, London. Thu 18 Jul 2013

Man in Save Our Fire Station t-shirt at rally
more pictures

Around a thousand firefighters marched from the Monument to the London Fire Brigade HQ for a rally outside the Fire Authority meeting where the cuts were being decided. They mean firefighters will take longer to reach fires, and more will die.

The protest started at the Monument, erected shortly after the 1666 Great Fire of London had destroyed most of the city, as a permanent memorial to the event which started nearby, its tall column topped by a bright brass ball of fire. Firefighters, many in uniform amd supportes gathered here, along with a fire engine and a small marching band with bagpipes sponsored by an FBU branch.

As well as London's own firefighters there were supporters from other brigades around the country and even at least a couple from the New York Fire Department, retired firefights and anti-cuts protesters.

The protest started at the Monument, erected shortly after the 1666 Great Fire of London had destroyed most of the city, as a permanent memorial to the event which started nearby, its tall column topped by a bright brass ball of fire. Fire-fighters, many in uniform, and supporters gathered here, along with a fire engine and a small marching band with bagpipes sponsored by an FBU branch.

As well as London's own fire-fighters there were supporters from other brigades around the country and even at least a couple from the New York Fire Department, retired fire-fighters and anti-cuts protesters.

The march set off at around 12,30, led by the fire engine and band and then a crowd of people with banners and flags. It went on to London Bridge, where it halted for a token minute or two sit-down before continuing through the busy main streets of South London where many workers who were taking their lunch breaks stopped to wave and cheer. Others came to office windows to wave and watch.

The Fire Brigade is a popular public service, appreciated by all except a few dogmatic or grasping politicians. Poll after poll has showed widespread support for fire-fighters and the public's realisation that any cuts, particularly the proposed closure of fire stations, will lead to a slower response to fires. The faster the fire-fighters arrive, the easier it is to deal with the fire before it establishes a hold. Fewer fire stations will mean it takes longer for the fire engine to arrive, and the result is sure to be a greater loss of life. 7 out of 10 Londoners think that the Mayor's proposed cuts will put public safety at risk, and the remaining 3 are just not thinking.

As several of the speakers at the rally - and there were a lot of them, including 3 members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority who spoke first at the rally before going in to the meeting, Labour AM Navin Shah, Green AM Darren Johnson and Lib-Dem AM Stephen Knight - made clear, these cuts will reduce public safety but will free some very well-placed large London properties to be sold.

Others speaking in support of the FBU and against the cuts - both a closure of some fire stations and a reduction in the number of fire engines - were SERTUC President Martin Gould, Peter John, the Leader of Southwark Council, Labour's Shadow minister responsible for the Fire Service, Chris Williamson MP, local MP Simon Hughes and former MP now Greater London Assembly member Andrew Dismore. The rally was chaired by FBU London Regional Secretary Paul Embrey, Fire-fighters who spoke included on who had come from the New York Fire Dept, Bob Walker, FBU Brigade Chair from Devon & Cornwall, the FBU executive council member for London, Ian Leahair and the rally ended with a powerful fighting speech from Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.
more pictures

London University Cleaners Protest

Senate House, University of London. Wed 17 Jul 2013

One of the cleaners speaking at the Senate House
more pictures

Cleaners and other low paid staff at the University of London who are employed through contractors to allow the University to evade its responsibilities towards them continued their summer of action for pensions, sick pay and holiday pay.

The cleaners, security, catering and other low-paid staff work alongside others staff directly employed by the University of London, and their work is essential in keeping the University running. But while staff employed by the university get good contracts with decent provision of pensions, holiday entitlement and sickness pay, those employed by outside contractors are on rock-bottom contracts, receiving only the statutory minimum requirements.

The '3 Cosas' campaign has been fighting to get similar conditions for the low paid staff to those enjoyed by the university employees. A long running campaign at SOAS (the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies) has called for 'One Workplace, One Workforce' and the elimination of outsourcing, which seems inevitably to result in poor conditions of service and inappropriate management. The 3 Cosas - or causes - that the campaign is named for are sick pay, holiday pay and pensions, and the Spanish title reflects the background of many of the university cleaners who are mainly from London's Latin-American community.

'3 Cosas' has been successful in bringing together low paid staff and students and others at the university to back the demands, with the Unison branches actively recruiting members and taking a leading part in the campaign. Working with them have been the students of the ULU (University of London Union) and the IWGB (The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain) . The protests have also received support from branches and officials of other trade unions including the RMT and UCU. Their protests in 2010-2011 were sucessful in getting the London Living Wage for workers at the university.

After the results of the Senate House Unison branch elections were annulled by the Unison union leadership, the majority of the outsourced workers and some of the direct employees have left Unison and the IWGB is now the largest union representing the outsourced workers. They 3 Cosas campaign and local Unison members had long complained aboput the failure of the national union to support either the successful Living Wage Campaign or the 3 Cosas campaign and publicly dissociated itself from the protests which were supported by the local branches.

Todays protest was attended by a larger crowd than usual, with the university having stirred up feeling by bringing in the police to ULU yesterday when students were protesting as a part of the 3 Cosas campaign after students had chalked slogans including 'Sick Pay, Holidays, Pensions Now, support the cleaners struggle' on pavements and walls, including the a wall plaque commemorating the founding of the Senate House Library. Police entered the ULU cafe and assaulted several students and arrested a young woman who was charged with criminal damage.

ULU vice-president Daniel Cooper spoke during today's protest, saying that the action by the university would greatly increase the support for 3 Cosas, and that the point of using chalk was that it caused no damage, being easily wiped off. There were no signs of damage after the plaque was washed.

Protesters, including a large samba band and with banners from 3 Cosas, SOAS Unison, 3 Cosas, the IWGB and others met just outside the Senate House, watched by a larger than usual security presence outside the door into the building and two police officers who kept well out of the way. As the protest began, Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett arrived and gave a short speech of support, apologising for being unable to stay as she had a BBC interview.

After she left the protesters decided to go into the open lobby of the Senate House, where they continued their usual noisy protest, chanting 'Sick Pay, Holidays, Pensions, Now!' and other slogans, blowing whistles and horns and using megaphone siren sounds to the accompaniement of some highly dynamic drumming.

After around ten minutes they walked out the west side of the building and marched around to the south entrance opposite the British Museum, where they stopped briefly to tell the tourists and others around about their protest for proper working conditions. A man from the RMT cleaner's branch gave a short expression of solidarity, and then the protest moved on to again stop outside Stewart House for some noisy protest before going bock to the lobby under the Sente House.

After some more noise there was one of the quieter parts of the protest where everyone listened to the ULU vice president, and then a few more minutes of noise before the protesters again went out of the west entrancve.

They stopped at the road where IWGB cleaners' leader Alberto Durango asked the protesters if they would like to go over to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where the IWGB is just starting to fight for the cleaners there to get the London Living Wage. Virtually everyone was enthusiastic to do so, and there was a short protest on the steps, ending with Durango giving them the warning that this was just the start and there would be further protests.

We then all returned for the final session in the Senate House, where the 'No Justice No Peace' banner was held in front of the line of secuirty staff guarding the entrance. One of those holding it was the woman who had been arrested for chalking the slogan the previous day, and she spoke briefly, expressing her continuing support for the protest. One of the cleaners leading the 3 Cosas campaign also spoke, thanking everyone for coming and making it such a succesful protest, and that the campaign would continue. A couple of students also spoke briefly, urging those present to campaign to get the university to drop the charge of criminal damage, and another offered chalk for anyone who wanted to show their solidarity, and as the protest was ending a few chalked slogans on the tarmac outside to add to those that had been made on the pavement at the start of the event.
more pictures

Trayvon's Killer Acquitted

US Embassy, London. Tue 16 Jul 2013

A speaker in front of the Women of Colour banner outside the embassy
more pictures

For the second night running, a protest took place outside the US Embassy in London following the shocking acquittal of vigilante George Zimmerman who challenged Trayvon Martin because he was young, black and wearing a hoody and then shot him.

The Florida court acquitted Zimmerman, who had been asked to stay in his car by a police dispatcher and leave the police to deal with Martin. He was found not guilty under so-called 'Stand your ground' laws that generally decide in favour of anyone claiming they shot someone in self-defence. Or as several speakers at tonight's protest said, favours white men who shoot black youths, but don't seem to apply to black women, with Marissa Alexander, also in Florida, 50 miles from where Martin was shot, getting 20 years for firing warning shots when she felt threatened by her husband. In her case, the jury decided she didn't feel threatened and she was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Perhaps had she killed him rather than firing above his head she would have stood a better chance of acquittal.

As speaker after speaker made clear, although the laws are different here, people, particularly black people are being killed by police, with thousands having died at the hands of police, in prisons and in mental institutions and other similar cases over the past 20 years. A few high profile cases make it into the news, largely because of the fights by their families for justice, including Azelle Rodney, Ricky Bishop, Sean Rigg, Mark Duggan, Smiley Culture, Ian Tomlinson, Jimmy Mubenga and so many more. Many but not all are black.

Also at the forefront of the minds of those present was the Stephen Lawrence case, with new evidence of police misconduct, and the deliberate attempts to discredit both the Lawrence family and the main witness, Duwayne Brooks, rather than to properly investigate the crime.

The event, proposed by the National African Caribbean Forum and supported by many other groups including the International People's Uhuru Movment (InPDUM), Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike, Free Mumia, Socialist Workers and a number of individuals got off to a slow start, but people were still arriving to support it and there were approaching a hundred when I left. A larger protest is planned for the 27 July with a march from the US Embassy to a rally at Downing St, backed by a wide range of organisations.
more pictures

Swan Upping

Staines, Middx. Mon 15 Jul 2013

Uppers surround a swan and two cygnets under the railway bridge at Staines
more pictures

The annual swan upping, one of this country's oldest traditions dating from the 12th century began today at Sunbury, with uppers for the Queen, Dyers and Vintners catching and ringing cygnets on the Thames and recording their details.

I met the six rowing boats of the uppers in Penton Hook Lock near Staines, where swan feathers in the caps of the Swan Masters confirmed that they had already found swans with cygnets on their journey from Sunbury.

Each of the boats had three or four men, the Queens men in red tops, Vintners Royalty in white and Dyers Royalty in blue, the boats proudly flying their standards with swans on them. The Sovereign’s Swan Marker David Barber was in his red blazer, and the Dyers and Vintner's Swan Markers in blue and black.

Along with them was a small boat with an outboard carrying Professor Christopher Perrins of Oxford University, the Queen's Swan Warden with his two helpers, and a small flotilla of accompanying craft including a boat carrying press photographers and a couple of large passenger boats watching the spectacle. The uppers are all skilled boatmen who usually work on the river and give up some of their holidays to take part in the week of upping which continues up river over the next five days to Abingdon, five miles south of Oxford.

Last year, for the first time ever recorded, the annual census of swans could not be carried out because of the flooded state of the river. Originally upping was carried out to divide the swans on the between the sovereign and the two guilds, who were also allowed to serve the birds at their banquest, and the birds were marked for the different owners by notches on their beaks.

Nobody eats the swans now, and marking is by attaching a ring around one leg with a tracking number. The cygnets are weighed, their heads measured and given a quick health check, particularly looking for fishing hooks and they are ringed and their details noted in log books. These annual surveys give valuable evidence about the health of the swan population.

The methods of catching and handling the swans have perhaps changed little over the years and it is fascination to watch the six boats crewed by the uppers surrounding a group of swans, usually close to the bank, edging in and removing any gaps between the boats through which the swans could flee, then moving closer and closer until they can actually grab the birds.

I watched them do this on a swan with 3 cygnets who were on a slope just out of the water under Staines Railway bridge. They had to manoeuvre the boats to prevent the birds escaping but then were able to come on land and grab them. As they approached another swan was trapped by their boats, but was not I think a part of the family, but still suffered the indignity of being grabbed, its wings forced into its body and its feet being tied behind its back with the strings the uppers carry on the belts.

Although swans have powerful wings and can peck viciously, once they are restrained they go limp - years ago one of the uppers described carrying one as just like carrying a hand bag, though I doubt he often did that.

After the cygnets have been checked and ringed, and the swans recorded, the family is carefully carried to the waterside and released, taking care to ensure the family stay together. They quickly speed away, but seconds later birds that have been ringed are swimming calmly along the river together as if nothing has happened.

The uppers were stopping for lunch at the Swan Inn on Egham Hythe, opposite Staines before continuing up river, their work today ending at Windsor, where they drink a loyal toast standing in their boats in Romney Lock before sculling up to Eton College boathouse from where they start tomorrow. I've followed them to Windsor on several occasions - as you can see by searching this site - and didn't feel a need to take more pictures today.
more pictures

Bring Talha Home

St Martins-in-the-Field, Trafalgar Sq, London. Sat 13 Jul 2013

'It could be YOU' says the t-shirt of a man handing out flyers at the protest
more pictures

Activists stood in the hot sun in Trafalgar Square yesterday holding up the letters spelling 'BRING TALHA HOME' and handing out flyers about the British poet now held in solitary in the US after arrest in the UK in 2006 and extradition in 2012.

People in black hoods and orange suits at vigil on steps of St Martins in the Fields, Trafalgar Square to bring extradited Londoner Talha Ahsan back from solitary confinement in the US. 'Solitary Confinement is no place for a poet!' read one placard.
more pictures

Abolish Bedroom Tax

Old Palace Yard to Downing St, London. Sat 13 Jul 2013

Many carried 'posters by proxy' for those affected by the tax too sick or disabled to attend the protest
more pictures

Protesters including many disabled people who will be hard hit by the Bedroom Tax held a rally in London before marching carrying posters from those unfit to attend to deliver a large box of personal petition letters to Downing St.

The campaign, led by Jessica McCarnun of 'WeWillBeHeard.Org' has been running the Personal Petition Campaign has been running since November 2012, been collecting letters to the Prime Minister from those who will suffer from the Bedroom Tax. They include are carers, shared parents, grandparents, the disabled and many more.

The campaign says "Families are being left destitute and literally separated and segregated by The Bedroom Tax and, if allowed to continue, this will only cause more damage to our families and the fabric of our society."

They say that of around 660,000 who will be put into financial difficulties by the tax, around 440,00 are disabled. Many are already having great difficulty making ends meet and this tax will make their lives impossible. Even where it would be possible to manage in smaller properties, these are seldom available, and where they are, generally only at higher rent in the private sector.

Most commentators agree that this tax will make no contribution to solving our housing problem - what is needed is not financial penalties for those already finding it difficult to get by, but building more affordable social housing in the areas that people need to live and where there are jobs for them.

As many of those who spoke pointed out, despite the current austerity and cuts, the real problem is not a lack of money, but one of priorities and distribution. As Theresa Cole asked, speaking on behalf of her very good friend Hazel Quinn, too sick to attend todays protest, "Why ... through the austerity cuts are the government choosing to target those people in society who are too weak and ill to fight?", going on the compare the cuts in welfare spending to the continued huge avoidance of tax by the wealthy and global companies through offshore accounts and other tax avoidance, the recent increase in the Queen's budget, proposed pay rises for MPs, the ridiculous waste of going ahead with HS2 rail link, the huge subsidies paid to foreign companies running our rail services, the £1.1 billion paid for hotels, meals and drinks for civil servants and more.

Many of those present at the protest were disabled people who will be directly affected by the tax. Many of those taking part in the protest carried 'Posters by Proxy' from those too unwell to come in person. Many of those hit worst by the cuts and reductions or loss in benefits have already committed suicide, with a huge increase reported by the DWP. Many of those taking part wore arm or head bands with the letters 'R.I.P.' in memory of those who have died already becasue of the cuts.

After the speeches in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament, they set off for Parliament, some in wheelchairs and others moving with obvious pain. A small delegation went inside with a large box containing the 'Personal Petitions' while the others continued to support them noisily outside the gates.

I left the protest here, without seeing their return to Old Palace Yard where they were to release a couple of hundred white helium balloons carrying white 'messages of hope' written earlier by those taking part to travel across the UK.
more pictures

Punish the Deed, Not the Breed

Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London. Sat 13 Jul 2013

Dog owners protest against Breed Specific Legislation (BSL)
more pictures

DDA Watch, set up to monitor dog legislation and support fair and effective dog laws protested opposite parliament calling for an end to Breed Specific Legislation that bans dogs based on physical measurements.

The protesters say that categorising dogs as being of 'pit bull type' under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act and a 1993 High Court ruling based on this which based identifcation on the basis of a series of measurements regardless of evidence of parentage or behaviour is unfair, and has led to the destruction of many dogs that pose no threat to the public.

They say that 'Punishing innocent dogs for over 20 years has not reduced dog bite incidents' and that the law should instead 'look at the other end of the lead - target dangerous owners.'

They call for a repel of the breed specific legislation in Part 1 of the Act, which prohibits Pit Bull Terriers, Japanes Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasiliero, and in its place want stricter laws on breeding, education for all dog owners, education programmes in schools and harsher penalties for dog fighter and animal abusers.

While many of these suggestions make sense, so too does legislation based on the power of the bite and thus the potential danger of animals including the specified breeds. Some would argue that far more breeds should be prohibited in the UK.

The protesters also warned dog owners that they should not sign anything if their dog is taken by police. Although they may be told it is just a simple receipt it actually is a document that relinquishes ownership of the dog to the authorities, who can then put the dog down if his measurements show him to be a prohibited type.

The heat made it an uncomfortable day for both dogs and protesters, and although they came into the sun on Old Palace Yard for some short sessions of protest, most of the time they stayed in the shade under the trees at the back of the area. One of the speakers was a man dressed as a pink fairy, and he described another of those present, Nicky Hoad of Nicky's Pad as the 'Patron Saint of Staffies' for her dedication to the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed - and she was handed a certificate recording this.
more pictures

M&S Told Stop Workfare

Hackney, London. Sat 13 Jul 2013

Protesters outside the store with banners; others handed out leaflets
more pictures

Protesters picketed Marks and Spencer in Hackney calling on the company to stop using unemployed people bullied by Jobcentres to stack their shelves, working up to 30 hours a week for the equivalent of £1.60 per hour, a quarter of the minimum wage.

The protest was organised by Feminist Fightback, who explain that people on Jobseeker's Allowance will be sanctioned aned lose their benefit if they do not take part in Workfare or leave the scheme although it is supposed to be voluntary. They also say that only 3.5% of all thouse who have gone through the scheme have found work, and that the scheme is effectivtive a punishment for people who are out of work.

They also point out that every workfare placement at M&S means one less normal job there, reducing employment opportunities in the area. M&S are being given essentially free labour to replace jobs that would otherwise pay someone at least on the national minimum wage of £6.19 per hour for those over 21.

This action is one of many across the country in a campaign led by Boycott Workfare, which had targeted companies taking advantage of this source of cheap labour which exploits the unemployed. Their actions have led to a number of employers dropping the scheme, and they have been supported by a wide range of bodies including many union brnaches, trades councils and others. Feminist Fightback are particularly concerned by the disproportionate effect of workfare on women workers, many of whom are employed in the low paid sectors where jobs have been lost to workfare.

Around 30 people, including some disabled activists and a small samba band turned up for the lunchtime protest on Hackney's main shopping street, handing out leaflets to shoppers passing by and entering and leaving the large M&S store. When I arrived just before the protest started, a police officer was talking to a manager from the store, and he stayed to watch the protest from inside while another officer stood on the pavement. When the protesters arrived they were asked not to block the doorway. Many of those walking past took the leaflets, and some stopped to talk with the protesters and expressed agreement with their protest. A few seemed very pleased to have a copy of an adice leaflet suggesting how those who were unemployed could resist being put onto workfare schemes.

At one point a fire engine turned up, but it had not come to deal with the protest. The firemen did however ask for a leaflet

The management at the Hackney M&S had refused to answer questions about how many people at the store were on workfare schemes and had apparently told some of the organisers of the event to leave when they tried to talk to staff about it. But some workfare workers there and at ohter M&S stores have complained to the organisers, including some single mothers who are unable to make proper provision for their children while on workfare. And although although a number of companies and organisations have left the scheme after protests and representations about its unfairness, along with the Princes Trust, M&S have recently pledged to take another 1400 workfare placements
more pictures

Cypriots Demand details of 1974 Killings

Houses of Parliament, London. Tue 9 Jul 2013

Greek Cypriot women with photographs of some who disappeared in 1974
more pictures

Dressed in black and holding photographs of relatives who went missing during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, protesters in London urged the UK government to put pressure on Turkey to release information and allow investigation of their fate.
Bitter struggles both political and violent took place between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in the years following independence from Britain in 1960, with many Turks and Greeks being killed or missing. Events came to a head in 1974 when the Greek junta backed a Greek military coup in Cyprus and in response Turkey invaded Cyprus, taking over the north of the island. Around 160,000 Greeks - a third of the Greek population - were forced from their homes and move to the south, and a slightly higher proportion of the Turks, around 40,000 people, moved to the north.

in the process, many Cypriots from both populations went missing and are presumed dead, and little is known about what happened to some 1,500 Greek and 500 Turkish Cypriots. The north of Cyprus remains under Turkish military occupation, with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus being only recognised as a state by Turkey.

Various attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccesful. It was hoped that the accession of Cyprus to the EU would help to solve the problem, and in 2004 a UN peace settlement was accepted by a large majority of the Turkish Cypriots but rejected by more than three-quarters of Greek Cypriots.

Members of the Organisation of Relatives of Missing Cypriots (UK) were on the pavement opposite Parliament, many holding pictures of their missing relatives, on their way to attend a meeting organised by the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK in the House of Commons on 'Cyprus: prospects for a reunited island' with a number of MPs and Lord Harris of Harringey. One of the MPs involved, Mike Freer, MP for Finchley & Golders Green and Chairman of London Conservative MPs, came over to talk to the relatives while I was there.

They have now been waiting for 39 years to find out what happened to members of their families in 1974 as a result of the Turkish invasion. They aim to inform the British public about the problem and they also coordinate the efforts of those trying to collect and record an evidence of their fate and whereabouts. They demand that Turkey should release all information that it has on them and allow the opening of graves in military areas and abide by the judgements of the European court of human rights. They lobby to persuade the UK government to put all possible pressure on Turkey to comply with these demands.
more pictures

Against Undercover Police in Protest Movement

Scotland Yard, London. Tue 9 Jul 2013

Police watch as Zita Holbourne speaks at Scotland Yard
more pictures

Youth Against Racism in Europe protested at Scotland Yard after revelations by ex-undercover policeman Peter Francis who infiltrated their movement and acted as an 'agent provocateur' and other police abuses of legal protest and related movements.

Youth Against Racism in Europe was a legal and democratic protest movement which organised mass protests against the BNP in the 1990s, succeeding in geting its south London HQ closed down after four racist murders withing two miles of it - including that of Stephen Lawrence. Among the other undercover police actions recently revealed were attempts to discredit the main witness of that murder, Duwayne Brooks, and the secret recording of meetings between the police and Brooks and his lawyers.

Francis was a member of a covert police unit known at the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), founded in 1968 to infiltrate mainly left-wing groups which the police called 'extremist'. Most like YRE were legal and democratic, and undercover agents would have found nothing that could not have been gleaned from reading the leaflets and attending the meetings. But Francis went further than this, trying to push members of the YRE into vigilante actions against individual BNP members. But the YRE was an open and democratic movement dedicated to mass campaigns and other legal actions and his attempts failed. However he says he was given a bottle of whisky by Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon in appreciation for his work for the SDS infiltrating the YRE, although Condon claims he was unaware of the activities of the SDS.

Several of those who had known and worked with Francis were present at the protest, and hope to be able to claim compensation for the damages they suffered due to his activities. One woman told me she had been badly beaten by ten police officers for speaking with a megaphone and laid the blame for this illegal assault on him.

Among the speakers were several from the PCS union, including an organiser from the Ministry of Justice, a few yards from Scotland Yard where the protest took place. She joked about the additions being made to her secret file as she talked, as well as saying she was proud to work for the Ministry of Justice and wished they would always behave as they should. Other PCS speakers included Zita Holbourne, a race activist, poet, artist and co-founder with Lee Jaspaer of BARAC - Black Activists Rising Against Cuts.

The protest called for a genuinely independent public inquiry into the 'infiltration scandal', with representatives from the trade unions, anti-racist and environmental protest groups that have suffered from infiltration, and for the abolition of the Territorial Support Group and similar units as well as the Special Branch, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. They urged that all political files and computer recrods not connected with criminal investigations to be destroyed and for the repeal of anti-trade union laws and other laws that trample over civil liberties. They say that the police should be directly accountable to local democratically elected committees with representatives from bodies such as trade unions, community associations and local authorities to ensure proper democratic control over the police.

The protesters link the repressive use of the police to the increasing inequality in our society with rapidly diverging income levels between the top and bottom of our society, of which the current austerity program and cuts in public services are a part.
more pictures

Divided Families Day

Home Office, Marsham St, London. Tue 9 Jul 2013
One man's placard - United by LOVE/divided by the Home Office
more pictures

Families and supporters protested at the Home Office on the anniversary of the UK's new family migration policy which prevents British Citizens and refugees earning less than £18,6000 (more if they have children) from bringing non-EU spouses to live here.

These new restrictions which require an income of £18,600 for childless couples, £22,400 for those with one child and another £2,400 for each additional child were introduced as statutory instruments without any parliamentary debate in June 2012, and are dividing many families, making it impossible for wives and husbands to both live in the UK unless they have a high income. A recent High Court judgement convluded that these restriction were legal but that the earnings threshold and the other requirements were "so onerous in effect as to be an unjustified and disproportionate interference with a genuine spousal relationship". A written ruling by the judge suggested that the minimum income requirement should be reduced to around £13,000, around 2/3 of the current figure.

Although £18,600 may seem a low income threshold to the millionaires in the cabinet, or even those relying on an MP's salary (currently £66,396, but they are expected to be recommended a rise of £10,000), according to the official national wage index around 40% of wage-earners - 2 out of 5 - earn less than this. For women with children who want to bring husbands here the barrier is even higher, as many are in part-time work due to child-care responsibilities, and in any case women's pay remains less than men. Over 60% of British women in employment earn less than the amount needed to bring a non-EU partner to the UK.

Home Secretary Theresa May's response was to consider an appeal against the judgement while also considering if the income threshold should be lowered. The all-party Parliamentary Group on Migration has called for an independent review of the income requirement after a six-month review of over 175 cases of real anguish for families who are unable to live together in the UK. They found that costs to the taxpayer of the forced separations is often greater than if the spouses were along to come here.

Around a hundred members of families who have been affected by this ruling which clearly discriminates against poorer families gathered outside the Home Office for several hours of protest organise by migrants' rights network with other groups, with many of those suffering from the rules speaking. Although this was a very small proportion of those affected by the rules, thought to number around 18,000 families a year. Many at the protest had pictures of their families, who are now separated by these unfair rules.

It seems a clear case of a measure that has been introduced merely to make the current government look 'tough' on immigration, while making no real contribution to reducing the reliance of any migrants on support from the taxpayer. Although the lower figure suggested by the judge would greatly reduce the number of cases, it would still cause great hardship for those remaining.
more pictures

Brixton Protests Gentrification & Evictions

Windrush Square, Brixton, London. Sat 6 Jul 2013

Short term tenants who have long occupied flats in Rushcroft Road are to be evicted in 15 July
more pictures

75 residents of 6 blocks of flats in central Brixton organised a protest against their eviction scheduled by Lambeth for 15 July, in a further council move to force residents out of the area and replace them largely with ultra-rich tenants and owners after the properties are refurbished.

Many of the tenants have lived in Rushcroft Road for many years - one for 32 years - and some have families. They have seen other council evictions in this and nearby roads which have ended up with renovated properties that are let at over £2000 a week to corporate tenants and flats which sell for around half a million pounds.

Lambeth council say that they will renovate three of the buildings as social housing, but the tenants say that similar promises over other evictions in the area have not been kept. Some referred to the actions of the council as 'ethnic cleansing', pushing out the existing population and replacing them by rich incomers, attracted by the good transport links and the lively area. The council sold two mansions in the same road with a total of 20 flats for £2.5m in 2009 and their current market value is probably three times this.

The tenants say they have explored many avenues to make it possible for them to stay in the area, including setting up a housing cooperative in a council owned property, so far without any success. Evictions are common in Lambeth and few make the news. For those who lose their homes in the area, there are few affordable local properties - and even fewer with the bedroom tax putting up the cost of living in slightly larger homes. The only alternative is to move out of London - and away from jobs and the possibility of jobs.

People brought out a table, a sofa and some chairs under the large tree left when the square outside the library was redeveloped into the "barren, windswept open space" of Windrush Square, where there was some shade from the unusually hot sun. They put up several banners, including a couple on railings of the long-closed public toilets.

It took a while to write placards and then to get things going, with an explanation of how the council was involved in the gentrification of the area. One of the protest organisers then spoke a little about their own eviction and proposed a 15 minute 'standing man' protest on the pavement opposite Lambeth Town Hall, but only around half of those present took part, and most stood in a group near the library, where they were not very noticeable and it was hard to recognise as a protest. The megaphone had failed just before the call, and perhaps some had not heard or it had not been clear enough what they should do. It came to a natural end after a few minutes as person after person just gave up.

The problems with amplfication continued, with people standing around waiting for more speeches and everyone becoming frustrated. There was a lot of fiddling with cables to try to get a small amplifier to work, but nothing emerged.

Finally the meeting began without amplification, and a debate started in which a number of arguments emerged. Several people said very forcibly that people ought to be doing something, but no plan emerged. At times the megaphone worked (new batteries helped but didn't entirely solve its problems) and people were able to hear more clearly above the traffic noise. Although quite a few of those around seemed to be taking little part in the proceedings, with some hardly distinguishable from the normal groups around the square (already a casualty of the council's clean-up plans to make it a less pleasant area to hang out except as a customer) holding cans or bottles, it began to seem more like a real protest, but despite the real efforts of a few nothing much seemed to be emerging by the time I left.

The root of the problem is that there is simply not enough affordable housing in London. Its a problem that has probably always been there, but which has been made much worse by the policies of successive governments. None has done much to get more affordable housing built, and several have been catastrophic for those on low incomes. The laws that used to give tenants some protection are largely gone, and the 'right to buy' while perhaps giving some a hand up on the 'ladder' (often a fairly temporary one) disastrously reduced the stock of social housing, and was a policy that presented many with 'snakes.' Many of those properties are now 'buy to let' or even 'rent to rent', with some owners having portfolios of hundreds of properties. Some are even simply held as 'investments' and deliberately left empty.

Gentrification is a problem, not just in Brixton, but in other nearby areas including Battersea and Wandsworth, with soaring house prices and rents and some previously varied shopping streets now being full of estate agent after estate agent. There seems to be no legal way to fight much of this - as is often remarked, it's the rich who make the laws and they clearly make them for the rich. Both Labour and Tory governments - and now the coalition. It seems unlikely that a general election will bring any change. Nor does the response of today's 'protesters' to the invitation to the 'standing man' protest suggest that Windrush Square (or Ritzy Square) is likely to become another Tahrir.

The problem is with the failure of the Lambeth council to ensure that the regeneration of the area has at its heart the needs of the current local population and in particular those on low incomes and from minority groups. While this should self-evidently be a central concern for a Labour council, in practice the council has put as its central priority the interests of investors, developers, estate agents and anyone except the people it is meant to serve. In part perhaps because like everywhere else councils are largely dominated by their officers, who are generally - at least at the higher levels - the kind of middle-class professionals that are the driving force behind gentrification.
more pictures

International Brigade Commemoration

Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo, London. Sat 6 Jul 2013

Wreaths were laid at the foot of the memorial
more pictures

The International Brigade Memorial Trust held its annual commemoration in London, with several hundred remembering the sacrifice of those who went to fight fascism in Spain. As always it was a moving event and many wreaths were laid at the memorial.

Few now remain of those who made the journey to Spain to fight with the International Brigade or otherwise serve in the Spanish Civil War for the Spanish Republic, a war that began on 17 July 1936 and ended in April 1939 with a fascist dictatorship under which General Franco ruled the country until his death in 1975.

The last two veterans living in the UK both died in 2012. Only one Briton who fought in Spain is still known to be alive, Stanley Hilton, now 103 and living in Australia. There was a moving contributions from John Kenton about his father Lou, which started with the whistled password from 'Toreador' which took him through the forward lines of the International Brigade with his fellow stretcher bearer from Cuba, mostly under fire to get the wounded to safety.

He ended by bringing the struggle up to date, reminding us that "'their eyes could see no other way' and we can be so proud of them. We can continue to work for socialism against slavery. They were the only choices for my father and his comrades. They are the only choices now... Yes I am proud of my father and his comrades, and, father, I salute you with the only salute you ever honoured, the clenched fist..." and he did so, whistling again that four-note password.

Irvine Loman told how his father saw himself as a normal man who "hated injustice in all its forms and was very much a socialist at heart." He had "thought about going to Spain to help the Spanish people in their fight against fascism but had not made a final commitment. The Battle of Cable St changed everything for him." The very next day he joined the Communist Party so he could go to fight in Spain.

Rodney Bickerstaffe talked about the remarkable Jones family, Jack Jones, familiar to many of us as a trade unionist had fought in Spain who died in 2009, and his wife Evelyn Taylor, a remarkable woman who took part in the Kinder Scout mass trespass, was prosecuted by Mosley for organising the disruption of one of his meetings (and went to jail rather than pay the fine), went to Moscow and became a Comintern courier in Europe, marrying Jack after her first husband - one of his comrades had been killed fighting in Spain and Jack came home badly wounded, and continuing with her work as a trade unionist and in the Labour party until she died three years before Jack, and of their son Mick, an artist and designer very much influenced by a trip to Mexico where he was greatly influenced by the work of Diego Rivera and Orozco, who went on to produce his own fine murals and other work for the trade unions and the left.

Wreaths were then laid by representatives of many groups and individuals, followed by a minutes silence and the singing together of 'Valley of Jarama' remembering the many brave comrades of the British Battalion who died there, led by Grace Petrie, who went on to sing one of her own anti-fascist songs. Earlier the choral group Catalans UK had sung for us.

I had to leave at this point, and so missed the singing of 'The Internationale', a song which seems to express much of the spirit of those who went to Spain, its final words 'So comrades. come rally, And the last fight let us face. The Internationale unites the human race.'
more pictures

NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon

Westminster, London. Fri 5 Jul 2013

National Health Action Party campaigners with coffin and wreath at Parliament
more pictures

On the 65th Birthday of the NHS, Dr Clive Peedell began a 65 mile ultramarathon to David Cameron's Witney constituency to bury the NHS coffin and launch the National Health Action Party plan by doctors and health professionals to revive the NHS.

Before Peedell, co-leader of the National Health Action Party and another doctor running with him set off, the National Health Action Party held a protest outside the Dept of Health in Whitehall with a coffin and wreaths for the NHS, then briefly outside Downing St and the Houses of Parliament before holding a rally in Old Palace Yard. Speakers there included former MP and co-leader of the NHAP Dr Richard Taylor, Dr Clare Gerada, the Chair of the Royal College of GPs and Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign Chair Louise Irvine.

In a statement Dr Peedell said:

"This Government has abused the democratic process by forcing through a highly unpopular £4 billion top-down reorganisation of the NHS, which they promised they would never do. This is all at the same time as the NHS is being asked to make record efficiency savings of £20 billion by 2015. The new legislation enshrined within the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, will result in the NHS being increasingly dismantled and privatised. The electorate clearly did not vote for these changes to the NHS and the Government continues to mislead and misinform the public about what it is doing to the NHS.

"The Labour Party has failed to mount sufficient opposition to the reforms and its previous pro-market, pro-privatisation reforms, actually set the platform for the current changes. We therefore formed the National Health Action Party to raise awareness and inform the public about what is happening to their NHS.

"Today we also set out our own 10 point plan to reinstate, protect and improve the NHS, which includes policies to restore the duty of the Secretary of State to provide comprehensive NHS care, and return the NHS as the preferred provider of services."

The rally ended with a sketch about what is happening to the NHS, but I left before the two runners, who were to be accompanied for part of the distance by Dr Clare Gerada, set off on their 65 mile journey
more pictures

DLR Views

Deptford-Canary Wharf, London. Fri 5 Jul 2013

Deptford Creek rail bridge from the DLR
more pictures

I had plenty of time to get back from Lewisham to Westminster, so took the more scenic route, traveling on the DLR into Bank and then getting on the tube. I took a few pictures from the DLR in Deptford and on the Isle of Dogs.
more pictures

NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital

Lewisham, London. Fri 5 Jul 2013


Protesters hoping to save Lewisham hospital cut a cake at a 65th birthday party
more pictures

Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign held a party to celebrate the 65th Birthday of the NHS, and keep this busy, successful and much needed hospital open rather than sacrifice it to meet the disastrous PFI debts of a neighbouring hospital.

There were speeches from the Campaign Chair Louise Irvine and Unite hospital rep Anita Downs, as well as free food including curry and rice and a very large cake depicting the old hospital building. People wrote cards to tie to helium balloons, and some were released while others where given away to children.

The campaign to save the hospital continues, and seems very much to be a campaign to save the NHS from privatisation.
more pictures

NHS 65: GMB

Westminster, London. Fri 5 Jul 2013

GMB members and others protest outside the Dept of Health with a vintage ambulance

more pictures

The GMB trade union brought 3 vintage ambulances to Westminster for a protest outside Parliament saying the NHS is at Risk, and in Whitehall, where they took in 65th Birthday cards for the NHS, with the message inside "Do Not Pension Off Our NHS'. A few other 'Save the NHS' protesters joined in with the protest.

Earlier members in vintage ambulance uniforms had posed with the ambulances in front of Parliament and were joined by several MPs including Dennis Skinner and Sadiq Khan.
more pictures

SOAS Cleaners' Independence Day

SOAS, London University. Thur 4 Jul 2013

Cleaners want dignity and respect for their work as well as proper conditions of service
more pictures

Today was 'Cleaners' Independence Day' at SOAS University, with a large rally where cleaners, students and academic and no-academic staff came together to demand that SOAS decide at this afternoon's meeting to directly employ their cleaners.

Staff who clean SOAS, the School of Oriental & African Studies of the University of London, some of whom have worked there for many years, are not employed by the university but by an outside contractor. This results in these low-paid workers getting much less favourable conditions of employment. The get half the paid holidays of those they work alongside, only statutory sick pay - so are often forced to come to work when they are injured or ill - and no pensions.

London University offers its own staff decent working conditions and pensions, but these low-paid workers at the university are denied these benefits. SOAS has an enviable reputation world-wide for its academic work in support of social justice, but is denying it to some inside its own institution.

The cleaners, who belong to Unison, also complain of poor and arbitrary management by the cleaning contractor, and that their human rights are being violated. In part of a long letter about the campaign they make their point clear:

"We wonder why SOAS treats us as second-class workers, and why we do not have the same benefits, which are enjoyed by the rest of the workers at this university, and knowing that we perform a very important and risky job that involved direct contact with chemicals that we are using daily to keep this university clean, and we also have risks of getting infected with diseases and bacteria from daily contact we have with the bathrooms, kitchens, classrooms, offices and communal areas that are used by many people daily leaving them dirty and contaminated."

"During our time as cleaners, we have done our work with pleasure and pride and with great professionalism, we even have much affection and respect for workers of this University, even despite not having the same benefits or treated as a human being, we feel part of SOAS."

"We wonder why the SOAS cleaners do not have equal rights, perhaps are we not human beings? Or do we not get sick? Or do we not have family (Fair holiday)? Or do we not think of the future of tomorrow (Pension)?."

"We also wonder why a university where human rights and equality law is taught as theory, but in reality the opposite is practice, which is discriminate, exploit, and victimize their cleaners, by denying us the benefits that the rest of the workers at SOAS have."

We also wonder how this can happen in the UK, where is a country that fights for human rights and who walks around the world, trying to free people from their rulers or dictators where they do not respect human rights."

Several of the SOAS cleaners spoke at the protest; most are from Latin America and came to the UK because of persecution in their own countries, and most spoke in Spanish with a translator for those of us who needed it. There were also speakers from related campaigns, including the Birckbeck University cleaners, the '3Cosas' campaign and the IWGB who have also protested recently on behalf of low-paid workers at London University. Other speakers were from the University of London Union, the SOAS branch of the UCU, SOAS students union and other trade unionists and activists.

The Unison branch has already balloted its members involved over a possible strike if their demands are not met - with unanimous support, and we were told that any action would have the whole-hearted support of other students and staff at SOAS and more generally, with the UCU refusing to cross picket lines and a mass mobilisation of students.

Today's action came a few hours in advance of a meeting by the SOAS administration where a decision was to be taken over bringing the cleaners into direct employment by the university, and the shouts were directed particularly in the direction of the office of Professor Paul Webley, the Director and Principal of SOAS, who attracted criticism in 2009 when he was alleged to be complicit in a raid by UK Border Agency officials raided in which nine cleaners were detained. Cleaning contractors ISS had collaborated with the UKBA, allegedly because of union activity by some of those involved, calling them to an 'emergency staff meeting' at 6.30am inside SOAS with 40 UKBA staff in riot gear waiting to pounce. The incident led to a high-publicity student sit-in in Webley's office, which he de-fused by writing a letter of complaint to the Home Office over the action, and calling for the cleaners to be given leave to stay. But seven of the nine, most of whom had fake Spanish passports were deported.
more pictures

Traveller Children Book Launch

E5 Bakehouse, London Fields, Wed 3 Jul 2013

Travellers recognise some of the people in the pictures
more pictures

The launch party for Colin O'Brien's book, 'Travellers' Children in London Fields' was held in the E5 Bakehouse, around 50 yards from where he made the series of portraits over a couple of weeks in 1987. The project finished when he went back and found the travellers had moved on, but rather surprisingly some of them made it back for the opening. I wrote more about the event on >Re:PHOTO at the time.
more pictures

Hackney

Hackney, London. Wed 3 Jul 2013

Empire Coaches at Bethnal Green across the canal
more pictures

I had a few minutes to spare on my way to a book launch at London Fields and took a few pictures with the Fuji. Nothing very special.
more pictures


   top of page

All pictures on this section of the site are Copyright © Peter Marshall 2013; to buy prints or for permission to reproduce pictures or to comment on this site, or for any other questions, contact me.

my london diary index
 

Jul 2013

Save Legal Aid
London Views
Against Global Racism and Injustice
Free Bradley Manning Vigil
Rev Billy at HSBC
New Bridge to Walton
Tamils Protest Sri Lankan Killings
Another Dangleway Ride
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Whitecross Street Party
UK Uncut HSBC Food Banks
Fire Service March Against Cuts
London University Cleaners Protest
Trayvon's Killer Acquitted
Swan Upping
Bring Talha Home
Abolish Bedroom Tax
Punish the Deed, Not the Breed
M&S Told Stop Workfare
Cypriots Demand details of 1974 Killings
Against Undercover Police in Protests
Divided Families Day
Brixton Protests Gentrification & Evictions
International Brigade Commemoration
NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon
NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital
NHS 65: GMB
DLR Views
SOAS Cleaners' Independence Day
Traveller Children Book Launch
Hackney

january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december

Stock photography by Peter+Marshall at Alamy

Other sites with my pictures include
london pictures
londons industrial history
>Re:PHOTO My thoughts on photography

All pictures Copyright © Peter Marshall 2013, all rights reserved.
High res images available for reproduction - for licences to reproduce images or buy prints or other questions and comments, contact me. Selected images are also available from Alamy and Photofusion

Site search: powered by FreeFind