Dying Penality, Social Housing, Iraqi Killing and a Pillow Battle: Ten years in the past on Saturday sixth April 2013 I photographed a Sikh vigil in opposition to the dying penalty in India, a protest in opposition to the unfair ‘Bed room Tax’ and profit caps and demanding extra social housing, Iranians calling for an enquiry into Iraqi assaults on Camp Liberty and at last a pillow struggle.
Vaisakhi “Save a Dwell” Vigil – Outdated Palace Yard, Westminster
1000’s of protesters, primarily Sikh males, girls and kids got here to Outdated Palace Yard reverse the Homes of Parliament to again the Kesri Lehar vigil in opposition to the dying penalty in India.
The Kesri Lehar or ‘I Pledge Orange’ marketing campaign, takes its identify from the color which stands for sacrifice within the Indian flag and can be the color of the Sikh flag and the gown worn by baptised Sikhs which makes Vaisakhi such a vibrant competition. It started as on-line marketing campaign by US-based Sikhs for Justice. Most of these attending the protest wore orange turbans or scarves to point out their help for the marketing campaign.
There have been then round 480 prisoners in Indian jails sentenced to dying, and protesters feared that some had been about to be hanged. These included Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced in 2007 for his half in a suicide bomb assault which had killed a former Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh and 17 others in 1995. He stays in jail in 2023.
A big group from Derby had are available in help of Professor Devender Pal Singh Bhullar who has been on dying row in India for 18 years, for his alleged involvement in a automotive bomb in Delhi. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2014.
Sikhs had been poorly handled when India and Pakistan had been granted independence in 1947, with their homeland space being cut up throughout the border and most of these in jail are activists for an unbiased Sikh state of Khalistan. The India authorities has carried out a decided coverage to stamp out Sikh separatists and Beant Singh who was assassinated is held by Siks to have been accountable for the extra-judicial killing of over 25,000 Sikh civilians throughout his interval of workplace.
Extra at Vaisakhi “Save a Dwell” Vigil.
No to Bed room Tax & Profit Caps – Downing St
The Counihan-Sanchez Household Housing Marketing campaign from Kilburn organised a protest reverse Downing St in opposition to the unfair Bed room tax and profit caps that are effecting so many individuals and known as for the GLA and London councils to construct extra social housing.
They and others spoke on the marketing campaign in regards to the issues in getting councils to supply correct housing, and the failures of our advantages system which depart many destitute and a few determined sufficient to kill themselves.
As I commented, “The large housing issues in London come from the failure over the previous thirty years to supply social housing for the numerous low paid employees that help town and hold it operating, with a housing profit system that has merely acted as a subsidy for personal landlords and pushed up rents. The cap on profit will do nothing to unravel the issue, however simply make life troublesome or unimaginable for the poorest in our society. We’d like extra social housing and an finish to poverty pay and naturally extra jobs.“
Ten years on issues are actually no higher. Additional modifications in advantages together with the transfer to Common Credit score have elevated issues for a lot of, native authority budgets have been additional reduce and the price of dwelling disaster has hit many extra individuals. We do have extra meals banks, however many of those are discovering it laborious to deal with demand.
Extra at No to Bed room Tax & Profit Caps.
PMOI Protest Iraqi killings – Downing St
Additionally protesting at Downing Road had been the Folks’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI). They known as for an enquiry into the Iraqi assaults on Camp Liberty in February and former assaults which have killed and injured a lot of them.
The PMOI, also called the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) was based in 1965 and took half within the 1979 Iranian revolution which deposed the Shah. Quickly after they had been in armed wrestle with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and needed to take refuge in neighbouring Iraq, the place Saddam Hussein gave it refuge.
Throughout the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq they agreed a ceasefire with the US and gave up their arms – which included 19 Chieftain tanks – and have become the bulk within the Iranian parliament in exile, the Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), with its base in Paris.
In Iraq the roughly 5000 MEK fighters had been confined within the refugee Camp Ashraf, guarded by the US navy and declared by the US as protected individuals below the Fourth Geneva Conference. The camp was transferred to Iraqi management in the beginning of 2009, and in 2012 these remaining had been transferred to the previous US navy base Camp Liberty in Bagdhad, renamed Camp Hurriya.
There had been many assaults by Iraqis on these camps, with deaths, accidents and arrests. In the latest on ninth Febuary 2013, Iraqi mortars and rockets killed no less than seven MEK members. The MEK has appealed to the UN Secretary Common and the US for assist and was at Downing Road to ask the UK authorities for help.
Feathers Fly in Trafalgar Sq. – Trafalgar Sq.
This had been designated World Pillow Battle day by the city playground motion and this pillow struggle was considered one of round 90 such occasions in cities world wide.
The city playground motion goals to make cities into extra public and social areas by encouraging distinctive happenings like this pillow struggle. It goals to assist individuals transfer away from “passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching tv” and to consciously reject “the blight on our cities attributable to the limitless creep of promoting into public house.” They hope this can lead to “a worldwide neighborhood of members, not shoppers.“
Regardless of as soon as firm bringing a staff of younger girls and handing out prominently branded free pillows, this remained giant an unbranded occasion, and tons of turned up with their very own pillows and cushions to participate.
An earlier pillow struggle had been deliberate for Hyde Park, however comparatively few individuals had turned up and park police had been in a position to forestall it happening. However the numbers right here – over 500 – made it unimaginable to cease. In addition to the members there have been slightly extra who merely stood and watched. Which went in opposition to the spirit of the occasion, meant to be one thing to participate in slightly than a spectacle.
It began on time and a substantial amount of enjoyable was actually being had, with some no less than of these collaborating adhering to the ‘rule’ to not assault photographers. At first the air was clear, however then pillows started to interrupt up and increasingly more feathers stuffed the air. After half an hour there was a short break after which the struggle recommenced, however I left for a close-by pub the place the air was clearer.
Tags: Balwant Singh Rajoana, Beant Singh, bed room tax, profit caps, profit sanctions, Camp Ashraf, Camp Liberty, price of dwelling, Counihan-Sanchez, Counihans, dying penalty, Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, evictions, Household Housing Marketing campaign, feathers, meals banks, I Pledge Orange, India, Inidan hangings, Iraqi assaults, Kesri Lehar, Khalistan, London, low pay, MEK, NCRI, peter Marshall, pillow struggle, pillows, PMOI, protest, Rajoana, Sikhs, Sikhs for Justice, social housing, World Pillow Battle Day
You may depart a response, or trackback from your personal website.
