Disabled Welfare Reform & Syria: On Saturday twenty eighth January 2012 I photographed two main protests in London, with disabled protesters calling for the dropping of the Welfare Reform Invoice and later a number of teams of protesters exterior the US Embassy in Grosvenor Sq. arguing for varied causes towards US or Western Intervention in Iran or Syria.
Disabled Welfare Reform Highway Block – Oxford Circus
Disabled Folks Towards Cuts, DPAC, protested at Oxford Circus, chaining wheelchairs collectively & calling for the dropping of Welfare Reform Invoice, urging financial savings reducing tax evasion by the wealthy somewhat than penalising the poor and disabled.
I met with a few of the protesters exterior Holborn Station and others who had arrived by taxi at Nice Portland Avenue. I’m unsure why they’d chosen these two assembly factors as they’re each – like most Central London stations – with out step-free entry. London Underground has been painfully sluggish in offering disabled entry.
I went with them from Nice Portland Avenue to Oxford Circus the place they met up with others who had simply begun to dam the street, entering into a line throughout the top of Regent Avenue when the lights modified to permit pedestrians to cross and passing a series via their wheelchairs which they locked to posts on both sides.
Others walked on the street with placards and banners to assist them, however there have been sufficient police within the space to allow them to cease the protesters blocking Oxford Avenue.
Amongst teams supporting DPAC’s protest had been UK Uncut, the Larger London Pensioners and the ladies’s teams from the Crossroads Centre in north London who had introduced their public handle system.
Shortly after the road band Rhythms of Resistance turned up and added their sounds to the protest.
Police had shortly managed to divert site visitors on streets to get across the protest and had been having discussions about how you can deal with the protest. A FIT crew had arrived to {photograph} everybody (press included) and TSG officers had been standing close by with bolt cutters. However arresting individuals in wheelchairs is troublesome as police want to provide appropriate protected transport.
Ultimately the officer in cost learn out a press release telling the protesters their presence on the street is breaking the regulation – as after all they knew. He and different officers then went to ask the protesters if they’d transfer. They didn’t and a few bought out their very own handcuffs to handcuff themselves to the chain.
Police stored smiling and speaking to the protesters, ready for them to depart somewhat than making an attempt to maneuver or arrest them. Ultimately after about an hour and a half they did so, having determined they’d made their level efficiently and it was time to pack up. Most likely too nature was starting to name!
The protest attracted quite a lot of protection within the press for the marketing campaign, whereas earlier efforts to get their arguments towards the invoice together with earlier much less lively protests have acquired little or no publicity.
Extra footage at Disabled Welfare Reform Highway Block.
No Conflict Towards Iran & Syria – US Embassy
I’d left a couple of minutes earlier than the DPAC protest ended to stroll to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Sq. the place Cease the Conflict had been holding a protest towards sanctions and warfare on Iran and Syria.
Once I arrived I discovered a really complicated state of affairs with a number of teams of protesters and a few noisy heckling with scuffles with the Cease the Conflict stewards.
I believe everybody there was towards US or Western Intervention in Iran or Syria, however some noisy protests which got here to a head whereas Abbas Eddalat of the Marketing campaign Towards Sanctions and Navy Intervention in Iran was talking, from protesters representing the Free Iran ‘Inexperienced Motion’ who needed to make a transparent assertion of their opposition to the present Iranian regime with its non secular bigotry and persecution.
The stewards first tried to argue with them however quickly grew to become bodily, pushing them roughly away from the protest. Supporters of the Iranian regime joined in together with supporters of Syrian President Asad.
Police appeared bewildered as they tried to kind out the varied teams – and there have been additionally some Kurds with a big Iraqi Kurdistan flag.
Ultimately the Free Iran protesters had been persuaded to carry their very own separate protest just a few yards away in entrance of the embassy, although a few of them rejoined the Cease the Conflict protest later. One other group, Palms Off the Folks of Iran had been additionally current and handing out leaflets, towards Cease the Conflict which has favoured hyperlinks with supporters of the regimes in each Syria and Iran.
Police briefly held one younger man who was sporting the present Iraqi flag however then launched him, with a police officer making an attempt to stop press taking footage, saying “He has a proper to privateness” – which clearly as I advised the officer he has not below UK regulation when protesting on the general public road.
Then there have been ‘Nameless’ of their ‘V for Vendetta’ masks protesting on the opposite aspect of the hedge across the gardens to the primary protest, and later Cease the Conflict stewards once more sprung into motion to cease the free expression of dissent when pro-Asad Syrians started their very own protest.
Varied audio system together with Tony Benn, Lindsey German, John McDonnell and others made a transparent case towards any Western intervention on the principal rally – and I give a few of their arguments on My London Diary.
Extra at No Conflict Towards Iran & Syria.
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All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: towards sanctions, towards warfare, Nameless, Asad regime, chained collectively, Crossroads, Disabled Folks Towards Cuts, DPAC, Free Syria, Larger London Pensioners, Grosvenor Sq., handcuffs, Iran, Jeremy Corbyn, London, Oxford Circus, peter Marshall, police, protest, Regent St, non secular bigotry, Rhythms of Resistance, street block, Selma James, Cease the Conflict, Syria, Tony Benn, UK Uncut, US Embassy, Welfare Reform Invoice, wheelchairs, Winvisible
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