Streatham, Spain and Guantanamo: Three occasions in London on Saturday fifteenth July 2006, a competition, a commemoration and a protest.
Streatham Competition Kids’s Parade – Streatham
Streatham Competition held it’s first ever Kids’s Parade, youngsters working with artists from Arts Neighborhood Alternate and Youngsters’ Metropolis to create sculptures, banners and puppets for all to see.
The parade was led by drummers Ancestral Fingers and a biking stilt-walker introduced up the rear because it went alongside Streatham Excessive Highway to St Leonard’s Church.
One in every of my footage from this parade was used within the outstanding The Streatham Sketchbook by Jiro Osuga and Mireille Galinou with pictures by Torla Evans which was revealed in 2017 by Your London Publishing. Nonetheless obtainable, this was described by Graham Gower of The Streatham Society as “very good and one one of the best books to be revealed on Streatham as a spot – if not one of the best.”
Worldwide Brigade Commemoration – Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo
I’ve attended and photographed quite a few the annual commemorations of those that went to combat the fascists in Spain in 1936-9, however this 2006 occasion was essentially the most memorable. Right here’s what I wrote about it in 2006.
A number of hundred individuals attended the annual commemoration on the Worldwide Brigade Memorial in Jubilee Gardens London Organised by the Worldwide Brigade Memorial Belief on Saturday 15 July.
Between 1936 and 1939 over 35,000 women and men, from greater than 50 nations, volunteered for the Republican forces. Of the two,300 who got here from Britain, Eire and the Commonwealth, over 500 had been killed.
Volunteers got here largely from working class areas throughout the nation. most had been members of communist organisations or in any other case lively within the commerce unions and different socialist our bodies, and their common age was 29.
Seventy years later there are comparatively few nonetheless alive and lively sufficient to attend the commemoration, but it surely was good to see seven there. They had been Jack Jones who chaired the occasion, Sam Lesser who spoke and skim, in addition to Bob Doyle, Paddy Cochrane, Lou Kenton, Jack Edwards and a surprisingly spry Penny Feiwel. As standard there was a studying of the names of these identified to have died because the earlier yr’s assembly.
Rodney Bickerstaff’s deal with raised the issue of protecting alive the reminiscence of those that responded to the decision to assist the Spanish republic, however attendances at this annual occasion appear to have elevated over current years.
There was actually extra media curiosity than on earlier events, partly due to the attendance of the Spanish Ambassador and his spouse, reflecting the rising curiosity from Spain; he additionally gave a short speech. As was identified, it could have been good to have a consultant of the UK authorities additionally current.
As standard, the occasion concluded with the singing of the ‘Internationale’.
Shut Guantanamo now!
The Nationwide Guantanamo Coalition had known as for a nationwide demonstration in London to protest the deaths of three Guantanamo detainees earlier within the month.
A bunch of protesters, primarily from the ‘Save Omar Deghayes’ marketing campaign, but additionally representing different organisations, walked throughout London from Marble Arch to the brand new Dwelling Workplace constructing in Marsham Road handy within the petition calling for an unbiased enquiry into the three current deaths at Guantanamo. The petition additionally requires the instant sending of all detainees to nations the place their fundamental human rights wouldn’t be abused, a right away closure of Guantanamo and different prisons the place these held had been denied correct authorized course of and for correct entry to detainees by household and medical personnel.
It was a protracted, scorching and dusty trek throughout London, significantly tough for these with pushchairs as we navigated the Hyde Park subways, and we had been all glad to reach (due to useful instructions from the police) on the Dwelling Workplace. The entrance of the constructing was like an oasis, shade, inexperienced grass, water and bushes.
The police did make us get off the grass and in addition made some effort to cease the show of placards and banners, however most of those remained seen. That they had additionally attracted some consideration from the crowds round Buckingham Palace as we handed by.
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Tags: 2006, Amnesty Worldwide, Bob Doyle, Buckingham Palace, Childrens Parade, Guantanamo, Dwelling Workplace, unlawful detention, Worldwide Brigade, Jack Edwards, Jack Jones, July 2006, London, London Pictures, Lou Kenton, march, Marsham Road, Memorial Belief, Nationwide Guantanamo Coalition, Paddy Cochrane, Penny Feiwel, peter Marshall, police, protest, Sam Lesser, Save Omar Deghayes, Shut Guantanamo, Spanish Ambassador, Streatham, Streathem Competition, The Streatham Sketchbook, torture, volunteers
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