The cannabis march had to be postponed at the start of may,
when heavy rain caused one of London's lost rivers, the effra, to put in an
appearance in brockwell park. numbers were down for the start of the march
which ambled its way down from kennington park for the festival, but things
picked up considerably on the way through brixton. in the festival things
started to get distinctly mellow, with some great music, including one of
the real trumpet legends of popular music and some well-known rap. lesson
to kingston green fair were the poets and politicos - including jenny jones
for the greens and a beatifically stoned howard marks - who got a good audience
between the musical acts.
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i was sorry to have to leave before the end of what was a very pleasant
event, showing that as a cultural drug, cannabis has many advantages over
alcohol (though there was also plenty of that in evidence, and i had some
of the nicest cider from hereford i've drunk in a while, that fully deserved
its gold medal status.) perhaps the main forces against legalisation are
now from the organisations profiting from the drug traffic and also the
alchol business. a grow-it-yourself revolution could make big dents in many
corporate profits. but it was off to kensington for a very pleasant evening
with friends and a good italian meal (none of us had pizza!)
i've a great respect for the sikhs whose religion puts the values that
society should value at its centre. they got a very raw deal when we carved
up the indian subcontinent between hindus and muslims giving them independence,
partitioning the largely sikh panjab leading to bloody ethnic cleansing
and submission. the indian government has treated sikhs worse than under
british rule, not even conceding recognition of panjabi as the official
language of the panjab until 1966.
operation bluestar, starting at the end of may 1984, was the first large-scale
military operation by 150,000 indian troops against the panjab. on 4 june,
indira gandhi ordered the army to invade the golden temple in amritsar.
it was a significant date, during the celebration of the 5th sikh guru,
guru arjun dev, who built the temple and was the first sikh guru to be martyred,
in 1606. reports in western papers at the time talked about large numbers
of women and children being gunned down and the army preventing aid works
from giving medical aid or even water to the injured and dying. reliable
reports put the deaths from the incident at around 4000
repression continued in the panjab, but a new peak of violence was reached
in november of the same year. Following the assassination of indira gandhi
by her two sikh bodyguards, the government and police encouraged and orchestrated
four days of mob violence which resulted in the massacre of many thousands
of sikhs across india.
in the following years, india turned the panjab into a police state, with
thousands of arrests and disappearances of sikhs. the police set up roughly
fifty cremation grounds across the state; an inquiry into just three of
these showed that at these sites alone, around a thousand sikhs had been
disposed of at these. Thousands of other bodies were just dumped into rivers
and canals. some of those investigating these events have themselves disappeared.
few official inverstigations have been started and even these have made
little or no progress.
many sikhs see the only way forward as an independent state of khalistan,
and a declaration to this effect was made in 1986, with a countil of khalistan
being set up the following year.
sikhs want truth and justice. they want the world to know about the 'sikh
holocaust' at indian hands and they want those who perpetrated it brough
to justice. it is hard to understand why such genocide in india has received
relatively little attention worldwide.
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carshalton carnival is one of the livelier of such events still taking
place in greater london. as well as the procession there is also a large
fair in carshalton park. it is in many respects a very local event, with
many local groups taking part. the weather stayed fine, several thousand
people enjoyed themselves, and doubtless the event made money for the various
charities supported.
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on my way back i stopped off in merton, to take a look at the open day
at the ruins of the chapter house of merton priory. founded in 1114, it
became one of the most important medeival abbeys in england, more important
than westminster or canterbury. the earliest written english laws are the
eleven 'statutes of merton' of 1236, written there because westminster was
flooded. merton college, founded by walter de Merton, was one of three that
started oxford university in the 1260s.
henry viii's marital problems led to the dismantling of the abbey in 1538,
with much of its stones coming in handy to build a new pad for anne boleyn
down the road at nonsuch palace in cheam. the site itself stayed pretty
derelict, but was still known as merton abbey. excavations from 1914-20
established the floor plans of the site, which is a scheduled ancient monument.
in 1959 a garden was created on the site of the main altar of the church
and 'given in perpetuity' to the people of merton. this now lies several
feet below the surface of the car park of the 'savacentre'. most of the
rest of the site of the huge church is also preserved below the tarmac,
with a little still present beneath the edge of the supermarket. the ruins
of the chapter house is in an enclosed area under the main dual carriageway
of merantum way. most of the rest of the abbey buildings were to the south
of this, and the site has recently been excavated before it is completely
destroyed by new development.
part of the site was developed as a calico printing works in 1724, using
water and power from the river wandle. the site has a large undershot waterwheel,
around two hundred years old and know in use by a potter. arthur liberty
used littler's print works here to print the fabrics for his regent stree
store, taking over the site completely in 1904 and using parts of it until
1977. an even more famous name, william morris, signed a lease for a site
by the river in the north of merton abbey in 1881, and morris & co produced
decorated glass, printing fabrics and other goods there, closing in 1940;
a plaque on the site gives some details.
the area also has a place in railway history, with the world's first public
railway, the horse-drawn surrey iron railway beside the river wandle opening
in 1804, taking goods down to the thames at wandsworth.
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sunday i started at greenwich, where i took at walk around the grounds
of the former royal naval college, now more open to the public as greenwich
university; certainly a fine and historic site. as there were no train services
to greenwich beacuse of engineering work on the line i decided to walk along
the river to north greenwich. some of the old riverside has gone, with a
few new blocks of flats replacing wharfs, and many sites now either unused
or relying entirely on road transport. the riverside path has been tidied
up, fenced in and homogenised, but enough is left for it to remain exhilirating.
you no longer need to look out for the overhead cranes spilling gravel or
lorries maing their way across the route, or to pick your way carefully
between the container carriers, and the only people in view on a sunday
are the occasional walkers and more numerous cyclists out like me to enjoy
the weather.
the tube took me to trafalgar square for the first 'bikefest' to be held
there. i was flabbergasted to find the first notice i saw was one telling
me that bikes were not allowed on the square. how can you have a bike festival
and ban bikes? it was certainly a warning that this was not to be a serious
bike event, and i longed for critical mass to sweep in and stick their fingers
up at authority. perhaps next time?
it was a show without a centre, though one or two mildly interesting fringes.
good to see rinky-dink again, though more than disappointing that instead
of hearing their music they were simply employed to back a rather turgid
group and kept stationery in a corner of the terrace. why not have them
wandering around the square dispensing their own melodious beat that kept
us marching towards aldermaston in april? weapons of sound were interesting
to look at, but the music lacked the promised funk.
team extreme were great on the half pipe. like all such displays it amazed
me what they could do, but i end up feeling that this is not what cycling
is about. i was glad of the safety barriers when one of the guys landed
badly after a terrifying stunt and left his bike to skid across the surface
and crash into the barrier in front of me. it looked and sounded bad but
to all our relief he got up smiling and walked away.
then i met joe with his unicycle. he'd already been hassled by the 'heritage
wardens' (ken's ss) for riding it in the square. he'd come with his mountain
model and decided to give it a ride in the fountains. a couple of minutes
fun and a little entertainment for those in the square was too much for
the wardens to allow, and he was soon being told to get out. a pity, since
those big steps down from the terrace to the square would have been great
for a unicyclist and added a little much needed zest.
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meanwhile in leicester square we were still fighting ww2, with a latter-day
vera lynn entertaining some. we fought for europe, and now are celebrating
this on the same day as the results came out with so many rejecting it.
in many ways war in the west end seemed to me a sad event, and there were
no great signs those taking part were having a good time. relatively few
had made much of an effort to dress the part, though there were three young
ladies in the kind of clothes that very much made me think of my own mother
and the other ladies of her generation when i was on parade in my perambulator.
actually more the other ladies given my mother's fashion sense which i seem
to have inherited. am i the only person to have been blackballed from a
photography club on sartorial grounds?
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home of tennis and the wombles, wimbledon always strikes me as an alien
implant in london by some civilisation with a time machine, a sense of humour
and a very fat wallet. i dropped in to the village fair just to see it still
existed.
half an hour later i was back in the real world. where companies make off
with the pension funds leaving people who have paid in to schemes for years
with no pensions. where other creditors come before pension holders when
companies go bust.
where millions of lower paid workers now have no employment pension rights
at all. where women have always been treated unfairly in many respects.
where government has worsened conditions for civil servants, teachers and
others. As TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber says "Those who used
to have good pensions now have poor pensions. Those who used to have poor
pensions, now have no pension."
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on the way home i went for a walk by the river in hammersmith, another
area of london strongly associated with william morris. the funivall sculling
club here was established in 1896 as the hammersmith sculling club for girls
- the world's first women's rowing club - by dr frederick furnivall; it
went unisex in 1901. furnival had earlier championed rowing for working
men. he served as the model for the water rat in 'wind in the willows',
as well as being involved with the preparation of the oxford english dictionary.
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sunday the streets of london were alive to the sound of hare krsna, hare
krsna, krsna krsna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare....
as several thousand supporters pulled three 40ft tall decorated wooden chariots
from hyde park to trafalgar square to celebrate the indian festival of rathayatra
- the carnival of chariots. an extension from hinduism, krishna consciousness
isn't my thing, involving abstinence from alcohol, coffee, meat, onions,
mushrooms and sex except for the purposes of procreation. the movement has
come a long way from its roots in new york's lower east side in the flower-power
years, but still seems a part of those times. all respect to the sincerity,
honesty and friendliness of these people, and it was a great show, the biggest
in london yet, but a few hours of being kind and good and aiming for perfection
was enough to last me the year.
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most of the new riverside developments along the thames have been pretty
dire. although the planning process has opened up stretches of riverside
walk, it has also meant less and less of it is worth walking, marred by
bland investment-maximising flats. possibly the latest at putney are better
than many. i'd like to see a planning process that insisted on architectural
excellence in key high-profile sites, with the developers compelled to go
to public competition over the designs.
wandsworth bridge at least adds a little colour to the river, although
its 1930s design seems rather utilitarian. there are still signs of the
working river around.
i've tried to avoid the flags, most of which don't look like the traditional
cross of st george to me. perhaps we can forget about them now?
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wimbledon can doubtless be blamed for the rain, and it fell relentlessly
if not too heavily all saturday morning as we waited around in brixton for
the precursor of the next example of sporting madness. however it was an
occasion for a little fun, with music and some attractive samba dancers
from quilombo do samba, some athletic capoeira (a latin american version
of morris dancing?) from abada capoeira and a little carnival from south
connections and angell town community group (and some drumming from Sandy
Lamb) lifting the greyness.
eventually the caravan arrived, although it was actually a black taxi,
carrying an olympic torch. i gave the photocall a miss so as to get in position
to catch frank bruno ambling down the street with the torch. across the
traffic lights and into brixton high street where he passed it to a rather
attractive davina mccall, apparently a tv presenter (well, i don't have
a tv, so i wouldn't know.)
it all seemed rather a sad non-event (thank goodness i missed the concert.)
the whole olympic bit seems little more than a commercial event now, publicity
for the sponsors. surely its time for a new olympic movement to pick up
the old ideals again?
but in brixton the carnival was bright and colourful and fun for those
taking part and watching.
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sunday i went out for a little exercise on my bike, over the m25 where
they are making more lanes to attract traffic and into thorpe village, now
largely an outpost of the usa, with many of its grandest old buildings being
a part of an american school. then i took a good look at the sky and covered
the 5 or so miles home in record time, arriving home just catching the first
few drops of a torrential storm.
thorpe pictures
monday i was in london for a meeting, but went up a few hours early to
take a walk. at the end of the newly developed 'more london' is a display
of some of the finest photojournalism of our time by tom stoddart, in the
show i-witness, marking 40 years of work by the disasters emergency commitee.
i walked on across tower bridge and through the tarted up st katherine's
dock - one of london's great missed opportunities - up to cable street,
then past the old music hall to wellclose square and swedenbourg gardens.
here stood ulrica eleonora, the first swedish church in london, 1728-1911,
named after the swedish queen who abdicated in 1720, and i stopped to eat
my lunch in the park close to the moment erected there in 1960.
from there i wandered a little around whitechapel and bethnal green before
travelling to the city and my meeting.
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