Adidas, Wallenberg, Iraq – Three very totally different occasions on Saturday 4th August 2012. Chances are you’ll do not forget that we had the Olympics in London in 2012 and Conflict on Need held an Olympic-themed protest in opposition to the official Olympic sportswear associate. Individuals have a good time the a hundredth anniversary of the beginning of one of many nice heroes of the final century and on the closest Saturday to August eighth which Iraq celebrates as finish of the Iran-Iraq Conflict in 1988 there was an Iraq competition on the South Financial institution.
Adidas Cease Your Olympic Exploitation – Oxford St
Conflict on Need got here to Adidas in Oxford Avenue on the peak of the London Olympics to spotlight their claims that staff making garments for the official sportswear associate of London 2012 get poverty wages usually are not allowed to kind unions and have little or no job safety.
They are saying 1000’s of staff making closing for Adidas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and China usually are not paid sufficient to cowl fundamental necessities like housing, meals, schooling and well being care. Wages are so low that staff usually must work far longer hours than are authorized – as much as 90 hour weeks and are instructed in the event that they attempt to organise commerce unions to defend their rights, they face harassment or they are going to be fired.
Due to the pressures of the Olympics, Oxford Avenue was being policed by Scottish officers who objected to the protest involving video games together with badminton and a hurdles race on the grounds that folks strolling previous may be injured by the gamers.
Conflict on Need protesters moved a number of yards onto a facet road to proceed their protest, however then got here again onto Oxford Avenue to proceed the hurdles races, with two runners making their means over the hurdles of ‘POVERTY WAGES’, ‘UNION BUSTING’ and ’90 HOUR WEEK’. The police allow them to play for a couple of minutes earlier than telling them they needed to cease as Adidas had complained – they usually owned the world pavement in entrance of the shop.
A girl from Adidas’s PR company got here to speak to me as I used to be starting to take pictures and later despatched me an in depth assertion by which they denied Conflict on Need’s claims however solely supplied any proof based mostly on actions in Bangladesh fairly than the nations Conflict on Need was protesting about. Conflict on Need additionally revealed a press launch giving detailed proof on which their protest was based mostly.
The protest was nonetheless persevering with once I needed to go away nicely over an hour after it started, with folks nonetheless handing out leaflets together with a freepost postcard to Herbert Hainer, the CEO of Adidas, care of Conflict on Need, calling for Adidas to finish the exploitation of staff.
Extra photos at Adidas Cease Your Olympic Exploitation.
Raoul Wallenberg a hundredth Anniversary – Nice Cumberland Place
Individuals all over the world have been celebrating Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who working in Budapest throughout the Second World Conflict saved over 100,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi demise camps by issuing them with ‘protecting passports’ figuring out their bearers as Swedish topics awaiting repatriation.
Though these had no authorized standing, they regarded spectacular and, generally with assistance from just a little bribery, saved the bearers from deportation.
Wallenberg was born in Sweden on 4th August 1912 and was detained by Russian Safety Providers SMERSH throughout the siege of Budapest as a suspected spy on 17 January 1945 and brought to Moscow the place he was likely executed within the Lubyanka jail in 1947.
The London ceremony happened across the monument to him in Nice Cumberland Place, outdoors the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in 1997. The statue by sculptor Philip Jackson, exhibits exhibits Wallenberg standing in entrance a a big wall manufactured from stacks of the passports together with his identify inscribed excessive on it.
There have been readings of Psalms, an tackle by Rector Michael Persson from the Swedish Church in London about Wallenberg, whose actions adopted the Lutheran ultimate of dwelling, a calling to be your self and to do good for different folks. Wreaths have been laid and there have been plenty of speeches with the occasion ending with a choir from the Swedish church singing.
Raoul Wallenberg a hundredth Anniversary
Iraq Day Competition, Queen’s Stroll, South Financial institution
The competition had been “organized to have a good time the video games with a touch of Iraq taste” by the Iraqi Tradition Centre in London and sponsored by Bayt Al Hekima- Baghdad together with Native Chief London 2012 program.
There was Iraqi music, artwork and meals, though because it was happening in Ramadan lots of the Iraqis on the competition have been fasting and unable to eat throughout the occasion.
Though there was a lot of curiosity issues didn’t go easily, both with the climate the place there have been some heavy showers or between the organisers and a number of the performers.
One lady angrily stormed off the platform, livid at what she felt was cultural discrimination in opposition to the Kurds. And after I had been requested to {photograph} a style present that was to begin in two minutes there was a loud and bitter argument between its director and the organisers, and an hour later once I went house it had but to begin.
Extra photos Iraq Day Competition
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Pictures – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Pictures
All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: Adidas, badminton, China, exploitation, competition, hurdles, Indonesia, Iraq Day, Iraq Day Competition, Kurds, London, London Pictures, Lutheran, official sportswear associate, Olympic exploitation, Oxford St, peter Marshall, police, poverty wages, protecting passports, protest, Ramadan, Raoul Wallenberg, SMERSH, South Financial institution, Sri Lanka, sweatshop exploitation, Swedich Church, Swedish Ambassador, Swedish diplomat, commerce union rights, Wallenberg, Conflict on Need, Western Marble Arch Synagogue
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