Beckenham May Queens
Beckenham, Bromley, London. Saturday 3 May, 2008
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Saturday saw me continuing my work on one of the more fascinating aspects
of London's suburban culture, the annual May Queen festivals. (A
search in the box at top right using the term 'May Queen' should locate a
number of other pieces on the subject, including this year's events at Hayes
and Bromley,
as well as those in previous years that have some more information about these
events.)
Beckenham seems to be one of London's more pleasant suburbs, perhaps not
as leafy as some, but certainly at a great distance from the busy urban streets
of Brixton I'd strolled through to catch the train there just a few minutes
earlier.
The procession formed up on a path close to St George's Church and then led
down through the High Street to the Croydon Road recreation ground, where
there was a small platform in a roped-off arena. Here the May Queens from
the local realms, Beckenham, Eden Park, Elmers End, West Wickham and Coney
Hall were crowned by this year's London May Queen. After the crownings and
a pause for photographs, the procession carried on down Croydon Road to the
Azelia Hall for tea, where the Queens each cut their cake (one was decorated
with a maypole) and the London May Queen made a short speech.
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No to the Crook, the Toff, The Fascist or Cop
City Hall, Southwark, London. Friday 2 May, 2008
Anarchists raise the anti-fascist banner at City Hall
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I know I have a few regular readers among the Met, though I'm not entirely
sure whether officers come here out of interest or duty. But perhaps they
could point out to their photographic colleagues that the book I was reading
while sitting on the wall near City Hall waiting for the mayoral declaration,
was not the evidence of subversive intention that would have justified them
in taking my photograph. 'Terrorist' is not a training manual, but
a novel by one of America's leading novelists, John Updike. They
might even find it more useful to read it than to continue their silly pursuit
of taking pictures of photographers - and they can call off the dawn raid.
Not that I have any objection to having my photo taken, unlike the man in
a cap who I photographed a few minutes later. If you don't want to be photographed,
don't come to protests, or, better still, don't go out on in public at all.
Unlike it seems him, I'm a devout believer in freedom and in freedom of expression.
So I was pleased that people from various anarchist groups had joined together
to protest at the result of the London Mayoral elections, even though I would
have been considerably more pleased if they (and another 140,000) had voted
for Ken. For all his faults, London would have had a better prognosis had
he won. There had also been rumours that BNP supporters would be present (unfortunately
they had more reason to cheer than most of us), but by the time I left, over
an hour after the results had been expected, but several hours before they
were actually announced, none were making themselves visible.
Other than a little of the normal photographic hounding (and the police could
hardly get a look in given the hordes of press, passing tourists and sympathisers),
the hundred or so anarchists, including those who Ian
Bone refers to as the 'CLASS WAR YOUTH DEATH BRIGADE' were allowed
to demonstrate outside City Hall undisturbed for around 35 minutes. Then Fitwatch
went into action to frustrate the FIT teams (who could really use a little
more intelligence) enclosing one of them by the barriers around City Hall.
At this point officers seemed to be rather worried and called for support.
Four minutes after Fitwatch went into action, the TSG arrived in force and
began to push the demonstrators, along with some bystanders, mainly tourists,
towards the pen waiting just past the Scoop. One French woman was bemused.
"But why are they just letting themselves be pushed" she
asked me as I took photographs. "Because this is England and not
France" I replied.
One man leaning on the river wall (he may or may not have been taking part
in the demonstration - but he did have a fine beard) refused to move when
asked. He asked police he should move and was told he was obstructing the
highway, clearly a ludicrous charge given the width of the walkway at this
point (though it was being obstructed by police!) They started dragging him
from the wall, claimed he was struggling, handcuffed him and led him away,
I imagine to one of the over 40 police vans parked nearby. Other than this
I saw little evidence of loss of temper or inappropriate behaviour by police,
some of whom joked with the protesters as they pushed them back. And on showing
my press card I was allowed through the police line without any problems.
Cannier protesters had moved away faster, and were able to display their
banner on the balcony above the pen for a couple of minutes. As I got there
to take pictures of the scene below they saw the police coming and made a
run for it and the pub. The police obviously couldn't be bothered to chase
them, and contented themselves with moving the innocent public away from the
balcony, and after a short time, also moving the press.
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London Riverside
South Bank and Southwark, London. Friday 2 May, 2008
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I had a few hours before the next event, and started by going to see an exhibition
of posters from May 68 in Paris at the Hayward. We had our own events in Manchester
in 1968, but I think produced little in the way of memorable posters and certainly
achieved little media coverage, despite some interesting demonstrations, occupations
and all the rest.
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Just Shares Take On The Bank
Royal Exchange, Bank, London. Friday 2 May, 2008
Listening to Ann Pettifor speaking at Royal Exchange.
Larry Elliott at right.
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The most radical of events I attended at the start of the May was that organised
by 'Just Share', which describes
itself as "a coalition of churches and development agencies seeking
to engage with the City of London on issues of global economic injustice"
and to "address the widening gap between rich and poor in the global
economy."
Just Share are based at St Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside, and
the event took place just down the road in the heart of London's square mile,
in front of the Royal Exchange, flanked by the Bank of England. We were treated
to some very listenable jazz and an opportunity to find out more about the
work of various groups including Operation
Noah (a Christian-based charity campaigning about the environment)
and Muslim Aid, before
speeches by Ann Pettifor (Advocacy International and Operation Noah,
previously Jubilee 2000) and Larry Elliott (The Guardian.)
Ann expanded her argument about the false basis of our current economic system,
which is the subject of her book 'The Coming First World Debt Crisis'
in a seminar after the event held in St Mary Woolnoth - one of Hawksmoor's
finest buildings, and where former slave captain John Newton, who
wrote 'Amazing Grace', preached his last 28 years - a few yards away.
She argues that current global debt-based financial systems are unsustainable
and that structural change is necessary which gives proper regard to actual
production, and the rediscovery of the insights of earlier Christian (and
of course Muslim) traditions.
It may not be revolution as some of us see it - although socialism very much
grew out of some of these traditions also (and many early church communities
held all things in common.)
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Space Hijackers Mayfair Mayfayre
Green Park & Shepherds Market, Mayfair, London. 1 May, 2008
Pelting Camilla with wet sponges in Shepherd Market
Traditionally, May Day was an occasion to celebrate the end of winter, with
singing, dancing, drinking and generally making merry. Maypoles were danced
around, May Queens were crowned, celebrations often got out of hand. So much
so that in Mayfair itself, the 15 day fair (originally in Haymarket but moved
to the Shepherd Market / Curzon Street area in 1686) was banned in 1708 because
of its boisterous disorder, and the streets we now see there developed by
Mr Shepherd (though much rebuilt in Victorian times.)
The Space Hijackers seized upon Police Commander Bob Broadhurst's justification
(quoted in the Daily Telegraph) for the selective policing of the Olympic
Torch debacle, stating that pro-Tibet groups were penned in because they were
demonstrating, while pro-China supporters were not restricted because they
were celebrating.
"We only uphold the law," he said. "The law says
that if you want to come out to demonstrate, to protest, you have to abide
by the Public Order Act. We don't stop people celebrating, otherwise we would
be stopping football supporters celebrating."
As their various events over the years have shown, the Space Hijackers do
a rather ace job of celebrating, although they haven't always had the same
cooperation from the police as those upholding human rights abuse by China
- or even football supporters. For this year's May Fayre, police even supplied
a comprehensive photographic service, although the price (I believe £10)
of obtaining your pictures from them by a Freedom of Information request seems
rather high, especially considering the poor quality of results I've seen.
As I think my pictures demonstrate, it's often better to use a wide-angle
rather than the extreme telephoto "peeping toms" favoured by police
photographers.
They were also seen searching a few people, possibly to enforce the fancy
dress code, but otherwise just seemed to be standing around the area - particularly
across the access roads - and carrying out a useful role in preventing traffic
from disrupting the festivities while letting those on foot walk in and out
as they wished. Many actually seemed to be enjoying the afternoon, watching
the singing, dancing and play-acting that was going on, and as I left, a largish
group were actually entering one of the several pubs around the area.
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Long Live May Day - TUC March
Clerkenwell Green, London. Thursday 1 May, 2008
Young Turkish marchers
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May Day started for me with police taking my photograph as I joined the group
at Clerkenwell Green. It's hard to see any real point in this other than a
kind of mild intimidation of journalists and difficult not to regard it as
an attack on free speech and the freedom of the press. Definitely a distortion
of the role of the police in a free society, it is also one that distracts
them from the vital tasks they have at the present time.
Other than press photographers, their major target was definitely the small
largely white group protesters which, had it been rather larger might have
constituted an autonomous block. Actually - though for rather different reasons
- I would be fairly confident that they were wasting police time and our taxes
there too. But at least it takes a bit of heat off the groups who might otherwise
be harassed because of their ethnic background.
The march was perhaps rather smaller than in recent years, with noticeably
less union involvement, almost certainly because it was also the day of the
London elections - and many of the unions had been in favour of its cancellation.
However I imagine that groups representing Turkish and Kurdish and other London
ethnic communities would have insisted on celebrating May Day whatever.
The international celebration of May Day as International Workers' Day began
in America. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers in Chicago,
demonstration for an 8 hour day as a part of a general strike, killing 4 men
and wounding others. A mass protest was held the following day in Haymarket,
and as the meeting ended, police ordered the remaining strikers to disperse.
A bomb was thrown and at least one policeman was killed and 70 injured. Police
- including the notorious Pinkerton agents - again fired into the crowd, killing
between 12 and 50 workers and probably another six police ('friendly fire'
has a long American tradition.)
Eight men were arrested and tried for the bombing, and found guilty although
seven had not been present at Haymarket and the eighth was a speaker on the
platform and had certainly no connection with the bomb. All were sentenced
to death, 4 actually hanged in 1887, one committed suicide and the remaining
3 pardoned in 1893.
The Second International called for a commemoration of the Haymarket Martyrs
as an international workers day, and it has been observed as such around the
world since 1890. American fears that there might be riots led to government
support for an alternative 'Labor Day' in September, and cold war paranoia
led in 1958 to May 1 being designated 'Loyalty Day' in the USA.
For Turkish groups, the day also commemorates the 1977 Taksim Square massacre,
when around 40 people in a crowd of around half a million celebrating May
Day were killed and around 200 injured by firing from the Hotel International.
None of those responsible has been brought to justice but both Turkish secret
police and CIA have been implicated. At least at the moment our own police
are only using cameras.
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Peter Marshall 2008; to buy prints or for permission to reproduce pictures
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