Folks’s Meeting, Class Battle, Nameless, ENA & Dykes: Saturday twenty second Jone 2013, ten years in the past at the moment, was a quite odd day for me. It started with an occasion I didn’t go to and as an alternative photographed teams exterior, was adopted by an assembly to which I had been invited by the acute proper English Nationwide Alliance who wanted a police escort to put flowers on the Cenotaph and ended with a Dyke March.
Folks’s Meeting – Methodist Central Corridor, Westminster
I had determined to not attend the Folks’s Meeting being held in Methodist Central Corridor. It was a big occasion however was being managed in order that any criticisms of the Labour Occasion and commerce unions have been banned from the primary occasion, with individuals together with Ken Loach being relegated to a corridor down the highway.
Others had expressed the opinion that this occasion was meant to “disperse a number of the head of steam that had constructed up among the many rank and file” for extra direct motion towards the federal government. It jogged my memory of occasions following the massive ‘Cease the Battle’ protest in Feb 2003, at which Tony Benn and others had known as for decisive motion, however Cease the Battle had didn’t do greater than name as an alternative for simply one other protest some time after Blair had declared conflict. It was hardly stunning that this was a lot smaller than the earlier occasion and had completely no impact.
I commented in 2013:
It was a sense strengthened by the assertion ‘We are going to work along with main specialists and campaigners each right here and overseas, and pleasant assume tanks, to develop quickly key insurance policies and another programme for a brand new anti-austerity authorities‘, which appeared to make it clear that after the meeting it was the lengthy grass for any concepts, and an finish to any motion.
And there appears to have been nothing that has occurred on account of this occasion; for a couple of years Corbyn gave the Labour Occasion some hope, however he was stopped from successful a basic election by the appropriate within the get together. Nothing in Labour insurance policies now suggests they’d supply any actual different ought to the Tories lose the subsequent election. Or that they will win if the Conservatives don’t defeat themselves.
Extra at Folks’s Meeting.
Exterior The Folks’s Meeting – Class Battle
One in every of a number of teams protesting exterior was Class Battle. Ian Bone had known as for “a f**king huge mob exterior” (my asterisks) the Folks’s Meeting, however as I wrote, solely round sufficient for a soccer crew turned up for his or her different occasion, although there have been a number of different teams round additionally against the “pointless jamboree” going down contained in the corridor.
So though there have been a sequence of speeches by Bone and others, all amusing and in components thought-provoking and positively extra attention-grabbing than most contained in the corridor, these have been largely made to a primarily empty avenue.
Exterior The Folks’s Meeting – Nameless Occupy the Grass
A small group of ‘Nameless’ and Occupy London supporters handed out leaflets, supplied free hugs, and had a picnic exterior the Folks’s Meeting Towards Austerity.
Police stored an in depth eye on them however didn’t intrude with them.
ENA Meet Left Opposition – Westminster
The English Nationwide Alliance is certainly one of plenty of small ‘patriotic’ teams on the acute proper who I’ve photographed over time, with some members who’ve additionally been concerned in different related teams. Their chief is a former BNP member who was expelled from the EDL in 2011 apparently for extremist statements.
Though I’ve made no secret of my disagreements with their views, I’ve all the time tried to current them clearly and precisely as a journalist, as with different teams I’ve photographed. I’ve felt it was my job, and one which informs the broader public who I believe could be trusted to see them for what they’re.
Many in these teams complain concerning the unfair press they obtain, and so they had a specific gripe that some footage of individuals at protests who have been simply waving being captioned as making Nazi salutes. It definitely has occurred, however as they agreed there are additionally some individuals at protests by extreme-right teams who will make Nazi salutes.
The ENA had determined to march to the Cenotaph to put flowers on the way in which to taking a press release of their views in to Downing Avenue and I had been invited to hitch them on the pub the place they have been assembly for the march. I used to be shocked how few of them had come, as was the occasion organiser, and there have been plenty of telephone calls made to attempt to get extra to show up, however ultimately they determined to march.
I used to be shocked when the small march and its police escort turned down in entrance of the corridor the place the Folks’s Meeting was going down and small teams of left-wingers have been nonetheless protesting exterior. I’m unsure whether or not the marchers or police had determined to take this route, however the response was solely predictable.
A number of the marchers shouted “No Give up” and so they have been nearly instantly surrounded by individuals shouting again at them “Fascist scum!”, “Racists!” and there have been some minor scuffles. Police managed to push a manner by way of for them and made one arrest earlier than the ENA march, now accompanied by a couple of counter-protesters was in a position to proceed in direction of the Cenotaph and Downing St.
By now it was time for me to be at one other occasion, and mentioned goodbye to the ENA and left, with a duplicate of the lengthy assertion they have been about to soak up addressed to David Cameron from the “Patriots of England who’re supporters of each avenue activist and political get together in the UK.”
Properly, no. The final half mile had been clear about that. However you may learn my précis of their assertion with plenty of quotes together with extra concerning the march on My London Diary at ENA Meet Left Opposition.
Dykes March – Berkeley Sq. to Soho
The Dyke March the earlier 12 months in London had been the primary such occasion for a few years, and this 12 months’s occasion was on a quite smaller scale, however there have been nonetheless round 300 who turned out to march.
The occasion started with a rally with audio system who included Roz Kaveney, (above), author, critic, poet and deputy editor of the trans digital journal META who learn certainly one of her poems and long-standing LGBT activist and historian Sue Sanders who examined the group on their information of lesbian icons together with suffragette composer Dame Ethyl Smyth. I believe I recognised extra of them than a lot of the crowd.
The route the march took was based mostly partly on that taken – although in the wrong way and ending in Hyde park by the 1908 Votes For Girls March.
The march was to finish with a rally in Soho Sq., however I left it to go house from Piccadilly Circus.
Many extra footage at Dykes March.
Tags: correct reporting, Towards Austerity, Anonymouse, Cenotaph, Central Corridor, Class Battle, downing st, DPAC, Dyke March, ENA, English Nationwide Alliance, far-right, Fascist scum, flowers, Ian Bone, intless jamboree, Islamophobia, London, march, occupy london, Patriots of England, Folks’s Meeting, Peoples Meeting, peter Marshall, picnic, police, protest, racists, Roz Kaveney, Sue Sanders, suffragettes, Battle on Need, Westminster
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