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Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn – 2004

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn: On Saturday 17th July 2004 I did rather a lot of travelling around London, beginning in Trafalgar Square with a shoe pyramid against cluster bombs, then going to Acton to look at a project London Arts Café had helped with (I think I was its treasurer at the time) which took me rather longer than expected so I didn’t stay long to make sure I was back on the South Bank for the Spanish Civil War commemoration. Then out to Kilburn for a festival in Grange Park.

But I took few photographs except at the Spanish Civil War event, which was attended by at least nine of those who had gone to Spain as well as many from the families of those no longer living.

The rich and wealthy elites outside Spain feared the rebellion against the church, landowners and bosses by the peasants and working classes supporting the elected Spanish government against the fascist armies might give their those they were exploiting ideas,, Workers and intellectuals here and elsewhere saw clearly what was happening and many “went because their open eyes could see no other way.” Over 30,000 volunteers went to fight in the International Brigades, including more than 2,500 from Britain, although our government tried to prevent them. Probably around five thousand of the volunteers died in Spain and many, many more were injured.

Here is what I wrote on My London Diary back then, with the usual corrections and a few pictures, with links to rather more still on My London Diary.

Handicap International

Pyramid of Shoes, Trafalgar Square

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004

Saturday saw a repeat of last year’s shoe pyramid in Trafalgar Square, Handicap International campaigning against the use of cluster bombs, weapons that largely maim innocent women and children, which governments, including our own, are continuing to insist to use. So our taxes are now still killing and disabling innocent kids in Iraq from the invasion last year.

A few more pictures

Public Art in Acton

In Acton it was carnival day, but I didn’t have time to watch. I did manage to go and see the screen which Mohamed (Mamily) Sheibani has designed to screen off the waste area at the rear of the Oaks Shopping Centre in Churchfield Road. This was a project carried out by Acton Action with the help of Acton Arts And Media, the London Arts Café, the Churchfield Road Community Association and the shopping centre. Not a big thing, but the kind of small local project that makes an impact – we just need a few thousand more like it in London.

A few more pictures

Spanish Civil War International Brigades Memorial Event

Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo,

The Spanish Civil War started in 1936, and while governments including ours made the wrong decisions [in part] based on incorrect intelligence, as over Iraq. The rights and wrongs of the matter were clear to most of those who took an interest, especially on the left.

2,600 British men had the courage to go and join the International Brigade in the fight against fascism, and today we were again paying tribute to them. There are still a few living, and those who turned up were remarkably fit and alert considering their age.

Veteran Jack Jones chaired the event, and Ana Perez from the Madrid Amigos spoke movingly.

*Moe Fishman in front of the memorial text*
YET FREEDOM! YET THY BANNER
TORN, BUT FLYING, STREAMS
LIKE THE THUNDER-STORM
AGAINST THE WIND

Veteran Moe Fishman from Manhattan, still a peace activist, brought greetings from the peace movement in America and praise for the strength of the British people in demonstrating against the invasion of Iraq – a movement now carried from the streets to the ballot box.

*Jack Jones and the memorial: “TTHEY WENT BECAUSE THEIR OPEN EYES COULD SEE NO OTHER WAY”*

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Kilburn Festival

Grange Park, Kilburn

*Kilburn State – now a bingo hall. Kilburn High Rd*

Kilburn High Road is one of the more interesting high streets of London. Too poor to have been swamped by the chains, it retains its own character and wide range of shops of various types. Perhaps more a place to look and stroll (as I did) rather than photograph.

*The Kilburn Mural project is to provide a mural at the tube station*

They were having a festival in grange park, which included some of the artists who are to create a mural by the tube station demonstrating their skills and giving the local people a chance to influence the mural design.

A few more pictures.

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London Saturday 16th July 2005

London Saturday 16th July 2005: Another long series of posts from a day in London 20 years ago which I think is worth rescuing from the depths of My London Diary. Here, with the usual corrections and links to the many pictures on My London Diary is my day.

SWFest 05 – Pimlico

Back in London [from a visit to East Yorkshire], Saturday 16 July was a busy day. I started in Pimlico, with the ‘SWFest 05’ parade and festival In St Georges Square. It was a local event, with plenty of local people enjoying themselves.

more pictures

International Brigade Commemoration – Jubilee Gardens, South Bank

Getting from there to Jubilee Gardens for the annual commemoration of the International Brigade who fought fascism in Spain was made tricky with the obvious bus route being held up by a parade. I got a little exercise jogging there, but it was really too hot.

The weather was indeed rather Spanish, hot and breezeless, with a clear blue sky. There was no shade around the memorial to those 2,100 who fought 67 or more years ago for freedom. Many died in Spain, and there are now relatively few still living, though some were there, now in their 80s and 90s, and some clearly still going strong.

Sam Russell spoke movingly of the events in Spain and Jack Jones chaired the meeting. It fell to him to read out the names of the comrades who had died since last year’s event. Several came in their red berets, and with their badges

John Pilger had been invited to speak about the meaning of the Brigaders’ heroism today. [His account of the event and his speech I linked to on Truthout is no longer available, but is many other articles are worth reading, including Chomsky’s Remembering Fascism: Learning From the Past which begins with a mention of Spain.]

The commemoration ended with singing:
“So comrades, come rally and the last fight let us face – The Internationale unites the human race.”
Unfortunately there still seems to be an ever longer road before that happens.

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National Front demonstrate – Victoria

*A demonstrator hides face behind a union flag*

Fascism is still with us, and showed its face – if largely shamefacedly – in London later that afternoon, when around 50-60 National Front supporters gathered to march. It wasn’t quite clear what message they wanted to put across, there were few banners and less articulacy in a flood of union jacks.

Most of the marchers were men. I talked to quite a few, asking permission to take some of the pictures. No-one refused, some said yes, then turned away or moved behind their flags. At one point I was threatened with violence, but the guy’s mates came and pulled him away. One of the women demonstrators had a bunch of flowers. I asked her about them and was told the march would leave these at the Book of Condolence for the London Bombings.

The police let them walk to the corner of Victoria Street, where they could be seen by the public walking by. Many of those passing were clearly hostile to the Front, most showing it by their expressions, a few shouting at them.

I took a few more pictures and then left. Another photographer there was commissioned to cover the march, but I was free to do something more pleasant on this fine summer’s day. I went and sat in the park and ate my sandwiches and had a drink.

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Turkish Festival, Coin St – Bernie Spain Gardens

Meanwhile, at Bernie Spain Gardens, another of the programme of Coin Street events celebrating London’s diversity was taking place. I arrived just as a procession of Turkish singers and musicians was making its way to perform on the south bank walkway there.

Later I went to hear one of Turkey’s leading singers perform on the main stage, and she was followed in the limelight by a belly dancer. I’ve photographed several belly dancers over the years, and this one had rather less belly than some, but that made the performance none the less compelling. I can’t claim to understand the finer points of the genre, but it still has a certain attraction. It isn’t just me being mesmerised by the mobility of a female body, although that certainly doesn’t detract.

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Divided Cyprus – Greek Cypriots protest in Trafalgar Square

Dragging myself away from Turks and Turkish London and a rather pleasant Turkish beer – on sale here at over 5 times its price in Turkey – I walked past the skateboarders and over the bridge towards Trafalgar Square. Supposedly there was to be a march of Greek Cypriots protesting against the ‘foreign’ Turkish occupation of the north-east third of Cyprus, continuing since the 1974 invasion.

The march didn’t seem to be happening, but there was a rally in Trafalgar Square, and I photographed a number of people holding photographs of some of the 1476 people – soldiers and civilians – still missing since 1974.

Despite these outstanding problems, Greek and Turkish Cypriots live together peacefully in London, particularly along Green Lanes [in Harringay in North London.] The Cypriots (especially now Cyprus is in the European Union) claim to “long for a viable and durable settlement that would enable Greek and Turkish Cypriots to live amicably as they have for centuries in the past“.

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Streatham, Spain and Guantanamo – 2006

Streatham, Spain and Guantanamo: Three events in London on Saturday 15th July 2006, a festival, a commemoration and a protest.

Streatham Festival Children’s Parade – Streatham

Streatham Festival held it’s first ever Children’s Parade, children working with artists from Arts Community Exchange and Kids’ City to create sculptures, banners and puppets for all to see.

The parade was led by drummers Ancestral Hands and a cycling stilt-walker brought up the rear as it went along Streatham High Road to St Leonard’s Church.

One of my pictures from this parade was used in the remarkable The Streatham Sketchbook by Jiro Osuga and Mireille Galinou with photography by Torla Evans which was published in 2017 by Your London Publishing. Still available, this was described by Graham Gower of The Streatham Society as “superb and one the best books to be published on Streatham as a place – if not the best.”

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International Brigade Commemoration – Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo

I’ve attended and photographed a number of the annual commemorations of those who went to fight the fascists in Spain in 1936-9, but this 2006 event was the most memorable. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2006.

Several hundred people attended the annual commemoration at the International Brigade Memorial in Jubilee Gardens London Organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust on Saturday 15 July.

Between 1936 and 1939 over 35,000 men and women, from more than 50 countries, volunteered for the Republican forces. Of the 2,300 who came from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, over 500 were killed.

Volunteers came largely from working class areas across the country. most were members of communist organisations or otherwise active in the trade unions and other socialist bodies, and their average age was 29.

Seventy years later there are relatively few still alive and active enough to attend the commemoration, but it was good to see seven there. They were Jack Jones who chaired the event, Sam Lesser who spoke and read, as well as Bob Doyle, Paddy Cochrane, Lou Kenton, Jack Edwards and a surprisingly spry Penny Feiwel. As usual there was a reading of the names of those known to have died since the previous year’s meeting.

Rodney Bickerstaff’s address raised the problem of keeping alive the memory of those who responded to the call to help the Spanish republic, but attendances at this annual event seem to have increased over recent years.

There was certainly more media interest than on previous occasions, in part because of the attendance of the Spanish Ambassador and his wife, reflecting the increasing interest from Spain; he also gave a brief speech. As was pointed out, it would have been nice to have a representative of the UK government also present.

As usual, the event concluded with the singing of the ‘Internationale’.
More pictures on My London Diary

Shut Guantanamo now!

The National Guantanamo Coalition had called for a national demonstration in London to protest the deaths of three Guantanamo detainees earlier in the month.

A group of protesters, mainly from the ‘Save Omar Deghayes’ campaign, but also representing other organisations, walked across London from Marble Arch to the new Home Office building in Marsham Street to hand in the petition calling for an independent enquiry into the three recent deaths at Guantanamo. The petition also calls for the immediate sending of all detainees to countries where their basic human rights would not be abused, an immediate closure of Guantanamo and other prisons where those held were denied proper legal process and for proper access to detainees by family and medical personnel.

It was a long, hot and dusty trek across London, particularly tricky for those with pushchairs as we navigated the Hyde Park subways, and we were all glad to arrive (thanks to helpful directions from the police) at the Home Office. The front of the building was like an oasis, shade, green grass, water and trees.

The police did make us get off the grass and also made some effort to stop the display of placards and banners, but most of these remained visible. They had also attracted some attention from the crowds around Buckingham Palace as we passed by.
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