BBC Interviews Fascist On Remembrance Sunday
As people gathered on Remembrance Day ceremonies, in which they all remembered those who fought against fascism in World War Two the BBC saw fit to broadcast an interview with Marine le Pen of the French Front National last Sunday. The former military Chief of Staff Richard Dannett, alongside a UKIP spokesperson and an American CNN reporter – did not utter a word of criticism as they sat there wearing their Poppies.
Harry Leslie Smith summed up the situation best when he tweeted “Appeasement to fascism comes in many shapes and sizes but sometimes it can be just a friendly chat with #lepen on #Marr. #remembrancesunday” . Harry recently wrote “For me, I can no longer wear a poppy because it’s meaning of respect for the fallen and the motto “never again” on the First World War memorial has been profaned by our wars to maintain our empire after the fall of Hitler, and our modern conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. I feel now that wearing the poppy gives a blank cheque to our politicians to justify their folly in wars of questionable merit, as well as the needless deaths their sanguine votes for boots on the ground costs both our soldiers and innocent civilians in foreign countries.”
Here are some images of people against fascism.
Tower Hamlets Le Pen protest 1991
Demonstration against the BNP, Cable Street 2006
Harry Leslie Smith, Liverpool 2016
50th anniversary march celebrating the battle of Cable Street, East London 1986
Anti-Racist speaker, Altab Ali Park, London 2009
50th anniversary of the battle of cable street, Stepney 1986
Anti Racist demonstration. East London 1994
Anti Fascist demonstration, Central London c 1996
Anti Racist Demonstrator, 1992
TUC Anti Racist Demo, East London 1994
Anti Racist Demo, Spitalfields 1992
Signs Of Protest (2)
Protestors on Cleopatras needle, TUC March London 2011
Young protestors. London 1983
Protester against cuts in adult education, 2010
Anti nuclear weapons protest in Brighton 1980s
Protest, Whitechapel 2007
Stop the War protest
‘Death by a thousand cuts’, TUC March London 2011
Protest against education cuts. Tower Hamlets c.1984
March against government cuts in jobs, services and pensions. London November 2011
Protest halts traffic on Whitechapel Rd in 1982
Signs Of Protest
Over the past 40 years I’ve always been encouraged by the ingenuity of posters and banners protesting about different issues. Here are a few examples.
Protester against the war, London
Poll Tax Protesters, Chicksand Estate 1990
Young protester 2002
Protest to save Bart’s Hospital. Early 1990s
‘Tory cuts medicine’, TUC March London 2011
Anti Poll Tax demo. Trafalgar Square 1990
Fracking protest, Liverpool 2016
Protest, East London c.1985
Capitalism in Crisis protest, St Pauls Cathedral 2011
Liverpool protest (CND). Early 1980s
Protester at the first gulf war demonstration, London
Anti Poll Tax messages. Glasgow 1990
Generations United Against Austerity!
Today, with Hazuan Hashim I will be filming the first ever ‘Generations United Against Austerity’ Conference in Liverpool. The conference has been organised by the Merseyside Pensioners Association (MPA) in conjunction with students from Liverpool Hope University and is supported by a range of Trade Unions. The conference will be included in a new feature film ‘Austerity Fight’ which will be premiered in June 2017. It will follow the numerous campaigns in the UK against the regressive Austerity policies of the Tory government.
The MPA is a campaigning organisation of Merseyside pensioners who meet on a weekly basis. As well as campaigning for justice for pensioners they have been particularly active recently in fighting to save the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Last week a delegation from the MPA went to lobby MP’s in parliament about a number of concerns facing millions of existing and future pensioners.
There are approximately 11m older people over state pension age living in the UK, of which around 4.5m pay tax at the standard rate and less than 250,000 pay at the higher rate. The remaining 6.4m have an income below £11,000 and do not pay any income tax at all. The vast majority of older people are therefore not wealthy. Nevertheless, every year pensioners make a net contribution to society of £40bn through taxes, payments and unpaid volunteering/caring: more than the cost of pensions, care and benefits. Any suggestion that older people are therefore a financial burden on society is nonsense.
The austerity policies of the Tories have targeted young and old. The NHS is chronically under funded and is being privatised. Students are leaving college with huge debts, children are living in poverty and millions live precarious lives on ‘zero hour contracts’. ‘Austerity Fight’ will challenge the notion that we have to live in a world where public services are cut, worker’s rights are removed and poverty is a daily reality for millions. It champions equality, practical alternatives to Austerity and a vision of a world based on co-operation rather than the greed of a global super elite.
Merseyside Pensioners campaigning to save Liverpool Women’s Hospital
Merseyside Pensioners at a Liverpool NHS Rally 2016
Merseyside Pensioners at a Liverpool NHS Rally 2016
Uk housing stock is poor, tens of thousands of older people die every year from the cold and fuel bills keep rising.
Members of the MPA supporting Junior doctors at the Royal Liverpool Hospital 2016
Demonstration against Austerity, London 2015
As a direct result of tax and benefit decisions made since 2010, the Institute for Fiscal Studies project that the number of children in relative poverty will have risen from 2.3 to 3.6 million by 2020.
Collage From Photographs (4)
Here is some recent collage work.
Barcelona & East London
East London
East London
East London
East London with published article
Spitalfields with published photograph
East London with published article
East London with published photograph
Liverpool
Aldgate East from published book
East London with published photograph
You can see more collage work by typing ‘collage’ into the search engine on this blog.
