Sunday thirtieth March 2014 I used to be in Westminster for 3 very completely different protests, reverse Parliament in Previous Palace Yard, on to Downing Avenue and at last to Soho and Piccadilly Circus. Solely the primary was associated to it being Mom’s Day.
Moms In opposition to Fracking – Previous Palace Yard
As I identified in My London Diary, “fracking is one thing the world can not afford. More and more we’re conscious that we have to transfer away from fossil fuels and the carbon emissions they trigger to keep away from additional harmful local weather change, and fracking has a good increased carbon footprint than regular pure gasoline. More and more we have to hold carbon – and specifically tough carbon sources resembling this and tar sands – within the floor if we hope to save lots of the planet and its inhabitants.”
Moms In opposition to Fracking had introduced collectively a variety of campaigners from across the nation for a Mom’s Day rally reverse the Homes of Parliament, significantly from the assorted camps and protests the place drilling had begun. It is a matter that brings collectively native residents and environmental campaigners and as I commented was “inflicting mayhem even within the Tory heartlands resembling Balcombe in deepest Surrey. “
I listed and photographed a lot of those that got here and spoke, “together with Vanessa Vine of BIFF (Britain & Eire Frack Free), Tina Louise Rothery of RAFF (Residents Motion on Fylde Fracking), Louise Somerville Williams (Frack Free Somerset), Inexperienced Get together chief Natalie Bennett, Eve McNamara of REAF (Ribble Estuary In opposition to Fracking), Julie Wassmer (East Kent In opposition to Fracking). Dr Becky Martin (Moms In opposition to Fracking) and Tammy Samede from the Barton Moss Camp in Salford.”
However this comparatively small protest attracted quite extra curiosity than most from the press, bringing some photographers I’ve by no means seen at a protest earlier than due to the presence of Bianca Jagger, who took a number one half within the occasion as my photos present, and gave a superb well-prepared and written speech.
As I additionally identified, her speech “lacked the type of intense private involvement of most of the others” who spoke. And I wrote “I love Bianca for her help of this and different campaigns however want the media would present extra curiosity in causes quite than personalities.”
Far more on My London Diary at Moms In opposition to Fracking.
World Sindhi Congress Protest – Downing St
The Sindhi are an historic tradition with their very own Sindh language and Sindh is now the third largest province in Pakistan. Many Sindh who have been Hindu went over the border to India at partition, whereas different largely Urdu talking migrants moved into Sindh, on the Arabian Sea between India and the Indus River. The province incorporates a lot of Pakistan’s trade and its largest metropolis and former capital, Karachi.
Till 1988 the world was usually referred to in English merely as Sind. When Normal Charles Napier conquered it for the British Empire in 1843 he famously despatched the Latin one-word telegram “Peccavi” (I’ve sinned) to the Governor Normal.
The World Sindhi Congress is a human rights organisation for Sindhi individuals based mostly in Canada, the UK and the USA which organizes cultural occasions, rallies, seminars, protests and conferences around the globe.
That they had come to Downing St to protest towards the extra-judicial killings of Sindhi human rights activists by the Pakistani safety businesses and known as on the UK to press the Pakistani authorities to cease these violations.
The protest adopted the assassination in Sindh of two Sindhi political activists, Maqsood Ahmed Querishi and Salman Wadho, one of many newest in a sequence of atrocities towards Sindhi nationalists allegedly carried out by the Pakistani intelligence businesses. The killing on 21 March was adopted by protests and riots in Sindh and the closure of retailers, markets and several other universities in lots of cities and a strike on the next day.
Qureshi was the chief of Sindhi separatist motion Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) and was concerned in organising a ‘Freedom March’ to be held the Sunday after he was killed (which was Pakistan Freedom Day) in Karachi to tell the worldwide group of the persevering with violation of the human and civil rights of the Sindhi individuals.
Sindh separatists level out that the province has not been given the autonomy it was promised and that regardless of producing 70% of the nation’s income and offering 60% of it pure sources it recives solely round an eighth of nationwide expenditure. However Wikipedia suggests there’s comparatively little well-liked help for separation from Pakistan.
Hold Soho Horny – Piccadilly Circus
The occasion at Piccadilly Circus was one thing of a hybrid one, half protest and half movie set for the most recent music video by singer songwriter The Soho Hobo (Tim Arnold.) As I wrote:
This was the one protest I’ve ever attended that got here with a clapper board, with its title ‘Picadilly Trot – Soho Hobo’ (sic) and the place these participating had to return and dance throughout Piccadilly Circus for an additional take, after which doing it once more with out the musicians. I assume they’ll handle to spell the identify proper on the ultimate edit and I hope it will get the protest extra publicity, however I don’t assume its a great way to run a protest and I wasn’t amused at having to remain out of shot whereas taking photos.
Primarily off the movie cameras however very a lot on mine have been protesters with placards from the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and Queer Strike calling for an finish to the raids on flats utilized by girls sex-workers. The protesters are there on the again at some scenes within the completed video, however I doubt if anybody watching may get any concept of who they have been or what they have been protesting about.
The earlier October I photographed a protest outdoors the Soho Estates places of work in Greek Avenue after a variety of girls have been evicted from their flats in Romilly St. As a result of these flats are self-contained and housed solely a single sex-worker they weren’t legally brothels, however police and Westminster Council threatened to prosecute the owner who refused to face up for his tenants and easily evicted them.
The ladies concerned say that the flats offered a a lot safer atmosphere and they’re much much less protected if compelled to work on the streets.
Campaigners say that the evictions are part of a wider risk to the distinctive character of Soho, which has lengthy been reputed for its cosmopolitan nature and varied and sometimes risqué entertainments of varied varieties. The ECP say “if intercourse staff are compelled out it should paved the way for different small and distinctive companies and bars to be drowned out by main building, chain shops and companies.”
The police (and Westminster Council) are extensively seen as being brokers of the property builders who wish to make billions from flattening Soho and redeveloping elements of it as resorts and luxurious flats, destroying the distinctive ambiance of the world.
Tags: Bianca Jagger, downing st, ECP, English Collective of Prostitutes, evictions, extra-judicial killings, fracking, human rights, Julie Wassmer, Hold Soho Horny, London, music video, Pakistan, peter Marshall, police, political activists, property builders, protest, Horny Soho, Sind, Sindh, Sindh separatists, Sindhi Congress, Soho, Soho Estates, Soho flats, The Soho Hobo, Tina Louise Rothery, distinctive character, Westminster Council, working ladies, World Sindhi Congress
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