Counihans Celebrate Anniversary

Kilburn Square, London. Sat 31 Aug 2013

Isabel Counihan Sanchez pours out squash on the first 'birthday' of their campaign
more pictures

The Counihan Sanchez family housing campaign held a street rally in Kilburn to celebrate a year of their fight against for themselves and others for fair treatment over housing issues.

Anthony and Isabel Counihan Sanchez lived in council housing in Brent for many years, bringing up five children on the South Kilburn estate. When they had to go to temporarily to Ireland to look after Anthony's dying father they went to the council housing department to ask what they should do. There they were incorrectly told they could not keep their tenancy but had to relinquish it - and were also told they would be rehoused without a problem on their return.

Both aspects of the advice were wrong - they could have kept the tenancy for up to a year and sublet the property, and on their return the council would only provide accommodation at a high rent - more than they could afford - and then withdrew their housing benefit because they had inherited a field in Ireland which was rented out for £18 a week. The council said this made them landowners and thus not eligible for housing benefit. One council official suggested that they live there and that Anthony could commute from Ireland to his job as a London bus driver, and local MP Glenda Jackson suggested they should move to Wales. Brent Council went on the evict them and gave them a bill for around £56,000. Brent refused to accept any responsibility for the family and they were eventually temporarily rehoused in substandard accommodation in Ealing in April 2012.

With the support of various local groups and individuals the family decided to make their dispute with Brent council public and started up the Counihan Sanchez family housing campaign, with meetings, marches and a song. They and their supporters attended lobbied councillors and attended various council meetings, where they asked questions and sang their song, 'You can't keep the Counihans out of Brent'. They attracted more support, and also began to campaign more widely on housing issues and on related aspects of the austerity programme and cuts.

Eventually their fight to get their housing benefit restored was successful, but in April 2012, a letter from the Brent Council Head of Housing Needs informed them that they would be evicted from their temporary housing, as they had made themselves intentionally homeless. Fortunately the family have now been able to find for themselves - without any help from the council - accommodation in Brent that they can afford.

At the start of the event there was a speech from Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) President president Ian Hodson about the strikes at Hovis in Wigan against zero hours contracts and his support of the Counihan Sanchez Housing Campaign.

The Counihan Sanchez family housing campaign has not just fought for justice for the family, but has also supported and campaigned on other issues related to housing, both in the local area and more generally. These include the suicide of a local man, Nygel Firminger, which the inquest found to have been precipitated by his problems over housing after he had not been paid for work he had done. One of the speakers at the rally was a neighbour of his, who described how the housing association concerned was beginning to force tenants out of the properties so they could be renovated and sold for around £350,000 - 375,000 per flat. Tenants are being told they have to move, and offered alternative accommodation - but in Leeds or Wales, and if they refuse this they will have made themselves 'intentionally homeless.'

The street party also observed a minutes silence for Sabrina Moss, a nursery teacher shot a few yards away on Kiburn High Road while celebrating her 24th birthday a week ago.
more pictures

Obama 'Don't Attack Syria'

Temple to Trafalgar Square, London. Sat 31 Aug 2013

Young women with Syrian flag face paint and scarf in front of Big Ben on the march
more pictures

Thousands marched through London to a rally in Trafalgar Square calling on President Obama to drop his plans to attack Syria, saying this will inflame the civil war and risk regional conflict.

The protest, called jointly by CND and Stop the War, gathered at Temple before marching past Parliament and Downing St to Trafalgar Square, where there were a number of speeches against any military intervention by the USA and other powers. Although the UK Parliament has for the moment rejected taking part in this,the government motion and the opposition amendment which were both lost were in favour of taking military action, and although Cameron has been forced to halt for the moment, Obama still seems intent on action, as in our government in the longer term.

The parliamentary defeat came at a time when a poll in the Daily Telegraph showed only 9% of the UK population would support an attack, but the defeat was a matter of party politics rather than showing that many of our parliamentarians have learnt anything from the catastrophes of Iraq and Afghanistan. But public opinion and a vocal group of politicians who spoke in the debate shows that protests over the years have had some influence, and several speakers claimed with some justification the vote in parliament this week as a victory for the protest movement. The decision by Ed Milliband to call for a halt until the UN report is available was clearly influenced by the shift in public opinion and the continuing protests have made us all aware of the "legacy of Iraq."

The protest was supported by a wide range of groups, including some supporters of the Syrian regime and many of the UK's Alevi community. Others, including Peter Tatchell carried placards opposing war but also calling for solidarity with Syrian democrats, and stating "silence re Assad's crimes is collusion." There were many left wing and pacifist groups on the march, some carrying placards calling for spending on welfare rather than warfare. But all were united in the view that any military intervention would be disastrous. As Stop the War stated, "Apart from the inevitable casualties, any attack on Syria can only inflame an already disastrous civil war and would risk pulling in regional powers further."

Speakers at the rally, which was hosted by Jeremy Corbyn MP, included Lindsey German, John Rees and Andrew Murray, as well as Green Party leader Natalie Bennett. I left before Tony Benn spoke.
more pictures

More Holiday Snaps

Thirsk, Yorkshire. 23-30 Aug 2013

Aysgarth falls
more pictures

We stayed in a conference centre in Sowerby, which adjoins Thirsk with a group of friends from the Ashram community, and had a number of walks around the town and in the surrounding area, including a short stretch of the Cleveland Way, as well as visiting Byland Abbey, Nunnington Hall, Mount Grace Priory and across in the Yorkshire Dales, the Aysgarth Falls and Hawes.

Some of these pictures will mainly be of interest to those we shared the holiday with, and those taken in English Heritage or National Trust sites are not avaialable for commercial use.
more pictures

SDL and UAF in Edinburgh

Edinburgh, Scotland. Sat 17 Aug 2013

The marchers opposing the SDL were kept well away from them by police
more pictures

I started with the anti-fascist march, not far from the venue where we had gone for a morning play. There were perhaps 5-600 people, with quite a few banners and placards. Police took them down a route which avoided any contact with the Scottish Defence League, ending in a large pen on Horse Wynd at the back of the Scottish Parliament. The Fuji X-E1 was just a little slow to react when I pressed the shutter compared to the Nikons I normally use for protests, and I missed a few pictures.

I left the anti-fascists and walked a little up Canongate to meet the SDL coming down. There were quite a few familiar faces from EDL marches I've photographed before and a banner for the EDL Sunderland Division. One of the placards was one that everyone in both protest and counter-protest would have agreed on - 'Axe the Bedroom Tax'. The EDL march was tightly surrounded by police and it was difficult to take photographs, but things became a little easier once they were shepherded into a pen. The two groups were separated by an empty space, wide enough to make it difficult to throw things, and they shouted and gestured at each other.

Although police soon stopped protesters (and journalists) from walking from one group to the other along Horse Wynd, it was possible to move between the two by going into the entrance area for the palace of Holyroodhouse. A few of the anti-fascists had done so and were protesting close to the SDL, but were fairly quickly arrested by police.

The protest and counter-protest were still continuing when I left.
more pictures

Edinburgh & the Festival

11-17 Aug 2013

We stayed in a flat with various friends for a week at the Festival. Although I took very few photographs of the various talks, plays and performances we saw, we spent some time looking at the city as well as photographing the festival groups touting for business on the High St and a few other things.

Sunday 11 & Mon 12

Nat West Bank in the New Town
more pictures

A few pictures from the train and on the street on Sunday. Monday morning we went on a festival tour of the New Town and its gardens, before having lunch in John Lewis's rooftop cafe and then going along the High St and visiting Greyfriars Churchyard before going to a festival lecture by Paul Mason and then back to Bruntsfield. After dinner we took an evening walk to Fountainbridge (for obscure reasons) which took us across the Union Canal.
more pictures

Tuesday 13

Linda at the top of Arthur's Seat
more pictures

I walked to the Nam June Paik exhibition, the visual arts high note of the festival, while Linda went to a concert. After that I went to hear poet Danny Chivers giving a great fringe performance. Linda and I grabbed some lunch from a street stall and then walked up Calton Hill and across to Arthurs Seat, rushing back to see a one-man play on the fringe, and after taking a few pictures along the High St before dinner.
more pictures

Wednesday 14

City of the Dead tour in Greyfriars Churchyard
more pictures

We spent rather a lot of time in Greyfriars Churchyard, going there after breakfast before going to see the play Eugenie Grandet. From there we went to the mosque cafe for a cheap and very filling curry for lunch.

There were things on in the afternoon too, including another fine poetry performance, 'Evie and the Perfect Cupcake' in the Banshee Labyrinth, and then we we went on the City of the Dead tour, which turned out to be rather more interesting than we had anticipated, telling the story of the covenanters and taking us in to the locked area of the cemetery where 1200 were left to more or less starve open to the elements in what our guide called the 'first concentration camp'. Locked there by 'Bluidy Mackenzie' the Lord Advocate, some were executed and hundreds died of malnutrition and exposure. Mackenzie's own tomb is a few yards away.

We were told that Greyfriars is the most haunted place in Edinburgh, and that the land we were standing on had been a pit, but was now a hill due to the many thousands of bodies that were buried in it since it became a cemetery in 1561. The other most haunted place, we were told, was where we had just come from, the Banshee Labyrinth.

The area is kept locked after a large number of people on various occasions - including some City of the Dead tours have been attacked by an unseen force, feeling as if they are being strangled, and thrown to the ground. From 1990 to 2006 there were 350 attacks and 170 people reported to have collapsed. They and others have reported strange bruising after visits, and there are often strange drops in temperature. In a widely reported incident in 1999 homeless man broke into the Mackenzie tomb for shelter on a stormy night, opened up one of the coffins and felt himself to be attacked, falling through a grating into a mass of decaying human remains below. He managed to pull himself out and ran screaming into the night, scaring the daylights out of the cemetery nightwatchman and running around the city for some time before being apprehended by the police. Our guide told the story much better, illuminating himself from below - typical horror lighting - with a small torch while doing so. And of course one of his colleagues appeared out of darkness made up as a ghost and screaming at an appropriate moment - for which our guide apologised. But his performance was one of the best of the festival.
more pictures

Thursday 15
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre at 25 Palmerston Place
more pictures

We began the day returning to Greyfriars, finally managing to get inside the church which closes for a number of performances during the festival. I also wanted to photograph the Mackenzie tomb after hearing the stories the previous night. From there we went on to Old Calton Burial Ground, before going to a fringe event, about Conan Doyle, at the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, a spiritualist church and centre at the west of the New Town. I don't think it had any real connection with Conan Doyle, but he was a leading spiritualist of his day, and involved with psychical research. It was a splendid building, but I didn't much enjoy the lecture or the exhibition of drawings and paintings by his father, though some were amusing.

We made our way back towards the centre, stopping off to look at the book exhibition which occupied the whole of Charlotte Square, and on to Henderson's Restuarant in Hanover St, where I enjoyed one of the very few vegetarian meals I've ever had that didn't make me think it was missing meat (and I've eaten an awful lot of vegetarian food over the years.) Helped down with a large bottle of Budvar.

And after that it was on to Writers at the Fringe at Blackwalls Bookshop to hear four authors talking about their work.
more pictures

Friday 16
On the High St trying to drum up an audience for their performance
more pictures

Friday morning we went to another one-person performance, this time about Elizabeth Hooton, possible the first of George Fox's converts and an early Quaker missionary. It was a powerfully moving performance by the author, Lynn Morris about the life of an amazing woman who was gripped by the Holy Spirit, and one of a number of events at the Quaker meeting house on Victoria Terrace (we'd been there several times to enjoy possibly the cheapest cup of tea in Edinburgh, and some nice cakes.) I went on to take some more pictures in the High St, and while Linda went to an event at the French Institute I paid another visit to the Nam June Paik exhibition to watch the film I'd not had time to see earlier in the week - and to enjoy some of the other exhibits again. I had time to take some more pictures in the High Street before meeting Linda again.

Afterwards we happened to ba passing Picardy Place again, and outside was a man handing out leaflets about the talke he was about to give. We took one and went in to hear Max Scratchmann talk about having been brought up in the Jute industry in India and later East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1950s and early 1960s in the last days when it was run by Scottish working class managers from Dundee, a peculiarly different perspective on the end of the Raj. It was an interesting talk, but we didn't buy his book The Last Burrah Sahibs - The secret life of the Scots in India. Picardy Place by coincidence was where Conan Doyle was born.
more pictures

Saturday 17
Edinburgh School of Art show and castle
more pictures

We started the day with an early performance of a play about a male clergyman and a female quantum physicist, time travel and religion, which was very clever, quite funny but too early in the morning for me. Then I went off to do a little work - see the separate post about the UAF protest against the SDL marching in Edinburgh. Afterwards we went back through the High St to go to the postgrad show at the College of Art. The fine art photography seemed rather disappointing, with only one student whose work I found of much interest, and the one exception was someone who had obviously been a succesful photographer before joining the course. But there was some interesting work in other areas, notably product design, and some interesting views of the castle and across the city from the fifth floor of the newer building.

We went on to join a very long queue for the 'Attack of the 50 Foot German Comedian' and I was surprised we got in to see Christian Schulte-Loh with a very packed house. I'm not a great fan of live comedy shows, some of the performances we hear on the radio are so much better. But at least Schulte-Low was cleaner than most. But 50 ft was just a tall story.

The week came to an end with a meal of around a dozen of us in a handy Thai restuarant. It was a very pleasant atmosphere and a good way to end the week. The next morning we were up early to catch the 10.30 train back to London.
more pictures

Putin, 'Hands Off Queers!'

Downing St, London. Sat 10 Aug 2013

Protesters call for a boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics
more pictures

A large and lively protest opposite Downing St opposed the homophobic policies of President Putin in Russia and called for the UK to urge Russia to respect gay rights and called fora boycott of the Wintwer Olympics in Sochi, the release of Pussy Riot and for freedom of speech in Russia.

During the protest a small group gave a performance about the harassment and imprisonment of Russian 'Pussy Riot' protesters.
more pictures

Against Live Animal Exports

Trafalgar Square, London. Sat 10 Aug 2013
Protesters hold up posters in front of the National Gallery
more pictures

Compassion in World Farming held a peaceful march in London against the live export of farm animals to highlight this largely hidden trade, which relies on a law from 1847 and inflicts great suffering on the animals concerned.

Several hundred took part in the march, which started in Covent Garden and ended with photographs on the steps in Trafalgar Square. The heritage wardens objected to the marchers coming down off the North Terrace for the photograph on the steps beut were powerless to stop it. A few of the protesters wanted to continue the march through Trafalgar Square to Whitehall and Downing St, but the organisers collected in the placards they had provided and most of the marchers dispersed.

Last year over 47,000 young sheep and calves were sent on journeys from as far afield as Wales and Lincolnshire across the channel to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The UK government continues to say that European legislation aprevents it from stopping live exports, because the 1847 UK Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847 prevents public ports in Britain from refusing to export live animals as a part of the "free trade" in goods. But EU law has recognised animals as sentient beings rather than "goods" since 1999, and different rules and regulations should apply to them.

One of the worst recent cases was at Ramsgate last year when there was a temporary stop to live exports after 45 sheep on one lorry died. The lorry was found to have faults, and had been declared unfit to travel on at least three previous occasions.

The march through London was intended to send a clearr message to UK Farming Minister David Heath MP to use his powers to amend the 1847 Act and stop the cruelty of live animal exports to the EU.
more pictures

Also in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square, London. Sat 10 Aug 2013

While I was in Trafalgar Square I took a few pictures of other things, including the blue cockerel and and East London church whose gospel choir began their performance painfully out of tune, but had some splendid hats. I expect they got things together better later, but I didn't stay to find out.
more pictures

Frack Off

Trafalgar Square, London. Sat 10 Aug 2013

A small group protested in Trafalgar Square against fracking, in solidarity with the ongoing protests at Balcombe. After meeting in Trafalgar Square they went to protest opposite Downing St, but by then I was busy with other things and missed them.
more pictures

Hiroshima Day

Tavistock Square, London. Tue 6 Aug 2013

Hetty Bower, who will be 108 in October 3, spoke briefly
more pictures

Flowers were laid at the Hiroshima Cherry Tree in Tavistock Square today. Speakers included Bruce Kent, Peter Tatchell, Jeremy Corbyn, Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett and a brief speech from the remarkable Hetty Bower, 108 in October.

Tony Benn was there, standing talking for some of the time to another veteran figure from the left, Rodney Bickerstaffe, both pointed out by compere Jeremy Corbyn, and Walter Wolfgang, now 90, spoke about the need to take action inside the Labour party to get the party to vote against a Trident replacement. Celia Mitchell read some poems by her late husband Adrian Mitchell, Val Brown from the London Guantanamo Campaign talked about their work and the regular protests at the US Embassy, and Nobo Ono about the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and the weekly protests organised by Japanese Against Nuclear UK, with another Japanese peace activist also speaking.

Speakers stressed the need to work for peace and to get rid of nuclear weapons to avoid more tragedies like those in Japan in 1945, 68 years ago. In particular they called for Britian to abandon its pretence to be a nuclear power and to scrap Trident without replacing it. We then then be in a position where we would be taken more seriously when we called on other countries to stop nuclear proliferation.

As well as speeches there were a number of anti-nuclear songs sung by a choir including people from socialist choirs 'Raised Voices', 'Red and Green Choir' and Jan UK, including a 'Son't you Hear the H-Bombs thunder' which concluded the ceremony. Earlier singer, activist and D-Day Veteran Jim Radford had given fine acappella performances of Joan Baez's 'Hiroshima' and Sydney Carter's 'The Crow on the Cradle'.

There are other Hiroshima Day events remembering the terrible destricution that ushered in the nuclear age around the world today, including several more in London boroughs this evening, and further events on August 9th to remember the second bomb which fell three days later on Nagasaki.
more pictures

Stop MI6 Lies About Shaker Aamer

Vauxhall Cross, London. Mon 5 Aug 2013

Protesters on a foobridge in front of the MI6 building say 'MI6 tell the truth'
more pictures

Protesters at the MI6 in Vauxhall demanded they stop trying to get the US to render Shaker Aamer, a witness to MI6 complicity in torture, to Saudi Arabia, where he would be tortured and killed rather than coming home to his family in London.

There never was any evidence against Aamer, a humanitarian worker who was kidnapped by Afghan bandits and sold to the US and was then tortured at Bagram Air Base before being forcibly rendered to Guantanamo shortly after it opened. He was tortured both at Bagram and Guantanamo (where it still continues) and alleges that UK agents were present while he was tortured and he also witnessed to the torture of other prisoners.

MI6 are said to have been feeding false and defamatory statements to US intelligence about Aamer to persuade the US authorities either to keep him in Guantanamo or to forcibly render him to Saudi Arabia. He fled from there as a young man and was granted permanent residence in the UK where he now has a wife and several children, including one born shortly after his arrest who has never seen his father. The Saudi authorities have recently said they would jail him without any chance of appeal, and Saudi Arabia is a repressive country, recognised in US, UN and UK human rights reports for its systemic use of torture.

As well as those changed into Guantanamo-style in orange jump suits and black hoods, one man had come to protest in Arab dress. The protesters posed for photographs before protesting in the island in the middle of the road outside the large MI6 buildig for around an hour. They then all signed a copy of a letter to the Chief of MI6, Sir John Sawers, and lined up to walk across to the gate to the building.

The security on the gate refused to accept the letter, telling the protesters that it was policy not to accept anything from the street. After some argument the protesters were given a PO box address to which they could send the letter - or, according to the card, their CVs, should they wish to apply for a job!
more pictures

Cleaners in John Lewis Westfield

Westfield Centre, Stratford, London. Sat 3 Aug 2013

Westfield security harass the protesters after they have left the John Lewis store
more pictures

The IWGB union made a surprise visits to protest inside John Lewis in Stratford Westfield in East London, demanding that the workers that clean John Lewis stores be paid a living wage and share in the benefits and profits enjoyed by other workers in the stores.

The cleaners who work at John Lewis are not employed by them but by sub-contractor ICM of the Compass Group, who recently announced pre-tax profits for the year of £575 million. They pay the cleaners £6.72 per hour, considerably less than the London Living Wage of £8.55 an hour set by the GLA and backed by the London Mayor - and which David Cameron described as "an idea whose time has come."

By out-sourcing its cleaners, John Lewis distances itself from the low pay and poor conditions of service of these workers who share the workplace with the much-lauded John Lewis 'partners', who as well as higher pay and better benefits, also get a share in the company's profits - this year the pre-tax profits of £409 million will mean a bonus equivalent to around nine weeks pay for the direct employees. The trick enables John Lewis to claim it is a ‘different sort of company’ with a strong ethical basis, but still leave its cleaners - a vital part of its workforce - on poverty wages.

Many of John Lewis's 'partners' who work alongside the cleaners question the company's policy towards them, but they are afraid to speak out. Last year Raph Ashley was one of the John Lewis 'partners' working in Stratford who supported the clearners and urged others at the company to join the IWGB. He was targeted and sacked after he gave an interview to the Guardian. He had raised concerns about the ethnic diversity at John Lewis. The management told him to stop asking staff to join a union and said that 'Partners' are forbidden from discussing pay and that this was a disciplinary offence. Raph took a leading part in today's protest, which as well as demanding and end to poverty pay for cleaners also demanded justice for Raph.

Cleaners and their supporters gathered at various points around Stratford in an unannounced protest by the IWGB union in support of the cleaners at John Lewis. Finally they came together and made their way to the third floor restuarant in the large John Lewis store where they got out banners, whistles, plastic trumpets and megaphones before moving out into the centre of the shop for a noisy protest.

As shoppers and John Lewis staff watched and took photographs on their phones, the cleaners marched around the open area with the escalators, stopping occasionally to explain their claim to everyone and handing out flyers as they walkede around . They then took the escalator down and continued the protest on the floor below. The noise they made meant that everyone on all the floors, including the basement Waitrose could not help but hear, and many of them stopped shopping to watch and listen.

John Lewis staff stopped and watched, and prevented the protesters from moving away from the central area - which they had no intention of doing. Eventually they made their way down for a slightly longer protest inside the first floor 'street' entrance, before moving outside.

Waiting for them outside John Lewis were a small group of Westfield Security who had little success in preventing them continuing the protest, though they eventually persuaded them to move out of the enclosed 'street' into the open air. There was a little pushing by security, and one man several times attempted to put his hand over my lens, telling me I'd taken enough pictures, but I couldn't agree.

John Lewis have another entrance just outside, and the protest continued here for a few minutes, before moving down the side of the building. By this time the police had arrived, and came to talk briefly with one of the union leaders, who assured him that this was a peaceful protest and that they would soon be leaving. They were beginning to finally pack up as I left.

John Lewis are shortly to issue new contracts for cleaning, and the IWGB is urging them to write into these that the contractors must offer improved conditions, including the London Living Wage.
more pictures

End Zero Hours Contracts - Sports Direct

Sports Direct, Oxford St, London. Sat 3 Aug 2013

Protesters confront Plaza security ias they move nside Sports Direct.
more pictures

Protests around the country including on London's Oxford St called on Sports Direct to abandon the use of zero-hour contracts which deprive all their 20,000 part-time workforce (over 85% of staff) sick pay, holiday pay and other employment rights.

Almost 50 protesters kept up a noisy protest on the pavement outside the shop, with police constantly reminding them that they must leave a clear passage along the pavement and into the shop. Security watched them from inside as they handed out leaflets about zero-hour contracts and the insecurity they cause, and several people spoke from their own experience of not knowing if the would get enough hours in any particular week to pay their basic bills.

Many of those passing by took the leaflets that were being handed out and some expressed support, with many being surprised when they learnt that there were such contracts and that they were legal. They are a peculiar legal casuistry that in essence denies the whole concept of a contract as normally understood, agreements without substance which gravely disadvantage workers. They provide no guaranteed weekly hours or income and are used to cut wages and avoid holiday pay and pensions.

Although they give no guarantee of any income, they oblige the workers to be available for work at the employer's whim, making it impossible for them to take on other work. The use of such contracts has roughly doubled in the last five years - and as well as large companies such as Sports Direct, the Guardian has found they are also used by Buckingham Palace and 13 out of 32 London boroughs. Over 200,000 are known to be employed on them, but it is thought that there are more, with many people who get regular work not realising that they are on such contracts and their work could disappear or be drastically reduced without notice.

After around 50 minutes of protesting on the street, the protesters surged into the small street-level area of Sports Direct, making for the escalators down into the main basement store. Security men stood at the tops of the escalator and told them to stop, and they did so. One security man did start to push a protester, but was warned that it was an assualt and stopped, and for the next five minutes or so the protest continued inside the store, with security and police watching the protesters. A police officer came to talk to one of the leading protesters; it was clear that the protesters were being careful to cause no damage and that they would shortly leave, and no further action was taken.

Having made their point for some minutes, the protesters left the shop in an orderly manner, continuing the protest for a few minutes on the pavement before deciding it was time to end.
more pictures

Roma Genocide Commemorated

Hyde Park, London. Fri 2 Aug 2013

Grattan Puxon speaking in front of the Holocaust Memorial draped with a Roma flag
more pictures

Roma and others met at the Holocaust Memorial in Hyde Park on the anniversary of the mass killing of 3,000 Romas at Auschwitz to remember them and protest against the rise of neo-Nazi attacks against the Romas in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Around a quarter of a million Sinti and Roma were killed in Nazi Germany, and many others in Romania and Croatia. Gypsies were forced to wear badges with the letter 'Z' for 'Zigeuner', the German for Gypsy, and forced into camps to be killed.

On the night of 2 August 1944, all the remaining 3000 inhabitants of the 'Gypsy family camp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau were taken by lorries and forced into the gas chambers in what is known as the Porajmos (great devouring in Romani) in the final liquidation of the camp. August 2 is now recognised as Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.

The ceremony at the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial began with a short introduction calling for a two minute silence, which was then followed by a number of speeches, some in Czech and others in English. Among the English speakers were Grattan Puxon and Professor Rainer Schulze, who spoke in some detail about the way Sinti and Roma were treated by the Nazis, and of the fight they put up even as they were being forced into the gas chambers.

We then heard a statement of support from Hiroshima, read in English by a Japanese who now lives in Basildon, and who went on to give a speech which included reference to the events at Dale Farm, where travellers were forcibly evicted. Another speaker was a Jewish socialist, who regretted the fact that the inscription on the memorial only referred to the Jewish holocaust victims and hoping that something might be added to remember the other victims of the holocaust.

Several of the speakers expressed their concern at the increasing discrimination against Roma in Europe, including harassment of those sleeping rough on the streets of London. Before the ceremony some of those present had been to the Czech embassy to protest at the rise of Neo-Nazi attacks against the Roma in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and after it there was to be a protest at the nearby French embassy against the the deportation of Roma people in France.
more pictures

Al Quds Day March

Portland Place to US Embassy, London. Fri 2 Aug 2013

A young woman holds placards calling for a Boycott of Israel
more pictures

Several thousand on the annual Al Quds (Jerusalem) Day march through London marched peacefully with no opposition to the US Embassy for a rally at the US Embassy calling for the liberation of Palestine, with banners and chants in support of Hezbollah.

The annual march through London on Al Quds Day, is organised the the Al Quds Day Committee of the Islamic Human Rights Commission and supported by many organisations involved with Palestine, including the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission, Friends of Al Aqsa, Friends of Lebanon, Innovative Minds, Islamic Centre of England, Islamic Students Association, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Lebanese Community UK, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Directory, Neturei Karta International, Scottish PSC, Sons of Malcolm, Passion Islam, Stop the War Coalition and UKIM.

The celebration of Al Quds day on the last Friday of Ramadan was introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979 and its observance has spread, mainly in Arab and Muslim countries. The march has in some years been opposed by various Zionist and Iranian freedom, communist and royalist movements as well as fringe UK right wing groups including the EDL and March for England and others. This year the start of the march was watched by one dancing eccentric and two young men who have previously been seen at ultra-right events, but there was no protest.

Some of the groups involved in the march, including the main organisers do receive some funding from the Iranian government, and many marchers were carrying placards or chanting support for Hizbullah. But the march is in support of Palestine and a show of solidarity with the people of Palestine and oppressed people everywhere.

The march started close to the BBC, which many accuse of a pro-Israel bias, and went past there and down Regent St across a busy Oxford Circus before turning right into the side streets of Mayfair on its way to a rally outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square.

There was a large police presence, perhaps in case of counter demonstrations by right wing or Zionist groups. The Al Quds protest itself brings young people and families from mosques across the UK as well as a small group of ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta Jews and is an entirely peaceful and closely stewarded event that requires no policing other than traffic control.

I left the march shortly before it arrived at the US Embassy for a rally there.
more pictures

Victory Celebration at Vedanta AGM

London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. Thu 1 Aug 2013
The Vedanta monster arrives to take part in the protest
more pictures

Around 100 protesters and a Vedanta Monster came to protest against Vedanta's ecological and human rights crimes around the world and to celebrate the 9 tribal meetings that have said 'NO' to Vedanta destroying their sacred mountain in Orissa.

Protesters outside the annual meeting of London-based company Vedanta Resources plc at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square celebrated the decisions taken so far by nine of the twelve 'gram sabhas' (village councils) to reject plans by the company to destroy their sacred Nyamgiri mountain to provide the aluminium ore bauxite for the smelter they have built at the base of the mountain.

In April the Indian Supreme Court ruled that Vedanta could only go ahead with plans for their huge mine on the mountain if the local tribal people gave their approval. So far nine of the twelve local councils have unanimously turned down the plans, and local Dongria Kondh tribal leaders expect the remaining three to follow suit, saying that the mining would violate their socio-cultural and religious rights. The decision of the tribal councils is expected to be confirmed by the court later in the year.

Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy was among those attending a protest in Delhi yesterday supporting the London demonstration, and one of the placards at the protest was a quotation of her comment "Take your goddamn refinery and leave!", for as she pointed out, if it remains, Vedanta will continue its campaigns to mine bauxite, if not from Nyamgiri from other hills in the area. As well as demanding the refinery to be dismantled, she called for the land it is on to be restored to the people and reparations to be paid, and that the many security personnel be withdrawn from the area and the imprisoned protesters to be released.

'Foil Vedanta' which has organised annual protests at Vedanta's London AGMs and coordinates protests against Vedanta around the world in the countries in which it and its subsidiaries operate and where the many corporate investors in the company are based. Although more than 30 major banks and financial agencies still have investments in the company, their exposure of Vedanta’s ecological, and human rights crimes have led to disinvestment by the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, Martin Currie Investments, the Church of England, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Dutch Pension Fund PGGM. Reuters today reported that Aviva, one of the largest investors in the London stock market has criticised Vedanta saying much of its recent poor performance was due to a "ack of focus on sustainability issues, including the environment and human rights."

Protesters arrived outside the hotel with banners, placards and drums and began a noisy protest. Many of the placards showed photographs related to the crimes and alleged crimes committed by the company around the world, and among the many slogans were those directed at the Indian billionaire founder and Executive Chairman Anil Agarwal, who they named and followed by the response 'Blood on Your Hands!" In 2007 it was reported that unsafe mining operations by the company and its contractors led to over 1200 injuries and 27 deaths and a chimney collapse in 2009 for which they are accused of negligence killed at least 40 workers.

As well as Foil Vedanta, other organisations including Amnesty International and Survival Internationl have issued extremely critical reports over the human rights record of Vedanta and its subsidiaries, and even the UK government in 2009 criticised it for its treatment of the Dongria Kondh in Orissa, although current prime minister David Cameron tried to put pressure on the Indian government to allow it to mine when he visited India.

The protesters repeated their call for the company to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange because of its activities around the world.

Police wanted protesters to stay on the opposite site of the road to the hotel and provided a pen for them their, but the protesters were loath to move, partly as the felt their protest outside the hotel fence was more effective. Eventually a compromise was reached with protesters on the hotel side forming a single file so as not to impede the pavement, and others going to the pen, much of which was in uncomfortably hot direct sun.

Proceedings were enlivened by the arrival of the 'Vedanta Monster' an inflatable beast with long tentacles for various subsidiaries of Vedanta, which arrived to loud cheers and was greeted by a small crowd of police telling it to get off the road. They stopped it from going into the hotel forecourt and eventually it was directed across the road to a new pen.

The monster had sprung a leak and needed patching, but once restored to health it made another dash for the hotel, and this time with more success, but was stopped by police and hotel security in the forecourt. Argument ensued, and eventually after a little pushing and shoving by the security and police it was removed to the pavement, but not until some protesters had also entered the area and carried on a noisy protest there too.

One of the people carrying the monster then sat down, wrapping part of the monster around him. Eventually police extracted him and persuaded him to stand up, and, after a long argument with persistent threats of arrest, he and the now deflated monster retreated back to the pen.
more pictures

Shut Down Guantanamo

US Embassy & Marble Arch, London. Thu 1 Aug 2013

Protesters in front of the US embassy
more pictures

The monthly protest at the US embassy and Marble Arch stood in solidarity with hunger strikers in Guantanamo and in California calling for human rights for prisoners and against solitary confinement and for the urgent release of Shaker Aamer.
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
 

August 2013

Counihans Celebrate Anniversary
Obama Don't Attack Syria
More Holiday Snaps
SDL and UAF in Edinburgh

Edinburgh & the Festival
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
 
Putin, 'Hands Off Queers!'
Against Live Animal Exports
Also in Trafalgar Square
Frack Off
Hiroshima Day
Stop MI6 Lies About Shaker Aamer
Cleaners in John Lewis Westfield
End Zero Hours Contracts - Sports Direct
Roma Genocide Commemorated
Al Quds Day March
Victory Celebration at Vedanta AGM
Shut Down Guantanamo

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