Writers’ Guild of Great Britain members (though outnumbered in this pic 2:1 by NUJ members) were out in force yesterday, to mark an international day of solidarity with the striking screenwriters of the Writers’ Guild of America. I managed to pop by for the end of it, after an exciting (no, really) team away day morning a few streets over. (more…)
A most unexpected burst of sunshine made Saturday’s demo for the NHS into a pretty enjoyable way to spend a few hours. It wasn’t your run-of-the-(trouble-at)-mill union demonstration either – the attendance of a whole bunch of carnival artists really jolted people out of the traditional slump you’re likely to get halfway round a march. It’s hard not to be jolly when you’re walking next to a couple of giant lobsters on stilts.
Greetings earthlings from the world’s first virtual reality picket line. It’s spread over a huge are of IBM corporate campus in virtual world Second Life. I’ve seen quite a lot of people, flown around some fun places, and had a chat to some nice IBM staff who were clearing up the 80 foot “Oi IBM, No!” sign I made for their sandbox. (more…)
A lunchtime spent in the company of union colleagues from TUC, ATL, NASUWT, PCS, Unite and the ZCTU, ACTSA supporters and Zimbabwean expats outside Zimbabwe House on the Strand, protesting in support of the ZCTU’s 2 day stay away from work. (more…)
A rather cramped demo on the pavement opposite the Iranian Embassy today. The Embassy is set back from the road and has a big wall built in the way to keep us out, but the police needn’t really have bothered to squash us into so tight a corral, as it looked like they weren’t home anyway, with the doors firmly closed and shutters rolled down.
Very different from the demo planned in Tehran, where 5 more members of the Bus Workers Union were arrested today, and police surrounded the demo venue of Mansour Osanloo’s house, threatening to arrest anyone who turned up.
Mahmood Salehi has managed to get a message out from his cell in Sanadaj prison, which is displayed on the web here. Very selflessly he uses the message to ask for campaigning support for another group of workers who have been sentenced to prison or whipping over their roles in the May Day celebrations, and says he’s currently on a one day hunger strike to protest their treatment.
Anyway here are a few pics from the event:
Most of the demonstrators were with the ITF (the yellow tabards), or ex-pat Iranians, but also a presence from Unison and GMB.
Nice to see Peter Tatchell there, who gave a good speech to the crowd on the need for solidarity across the human rights agenda – If you come for one of us, we’ll all come for you (much more concise than most union demo speeches!) .
David Cockroft gives an update to the cameras on this morning’s crackdown in Iran.
Better weather for the Zimbabwe demonstration than Septemeber’s ZCTU one!
Many of the protestors seemed to be expats and involved with MDC (who have borne the brunt of the latest crackdown), but there was at least one Amicus “Solidarity with the ZCTU” placard on display, after the raid on their offices.
A core group of demonstrators kept up a lively dancing protest for ages, until they were obviously in need of a break, but overall there seemed to be a tangible sense of unease and fear for those affected by the latest round of arrests and violence. Hardly surprising when many more of the demonstrators were directly connected with events than those at the ZCTU demo last year.
ZimVigil have kept this pressure up for a long time now with their Saturday vigils. All strength to them in continuing for as long as is needed to see Zimbabwe finally free.
A rather cramped demo this morning in front of Australia House in London. Roadworks all round the building meant most people having to squash into a rather narrow corridor of construction fences, and not actually coming into contact with that many passers-by. Still, everyone stayed cheerful, and rattled their protest boomerangs.
Paul in the piccy here (right) told me about one of the tactics that people often use to get good demo turnouts in Australia – they hold them in the pub! Distances are too great to travel to national demos, so local groups have ‘Pubs and clubs’ rallies, sometimes in the morning, where they have a pint and cheer on the national demo on telly. Then they go to work. Strewth! Don’t think I could get into much of a rally mood before breakfast – let alone sink a cold one – but each to their own I guess.
Anyway, totals from demos across Oz are still being totted up (hope the pubs aren’t counting double by now), but it looks like a pretty good number – over 250,000 (even if the flagship national rally was smaller than hoped). You can see more at the ACTU site, and Brendan Barber (TUC Gen Sec) has a good posting at Comment is Free on the problems the Aussie unions are up against.
At the NHStogether lobby today, where health professional union members were gathering to give their MPs a co-ordinated earbashing on NHS matters such as deficits, privatisation and consultation on change.
Wandering around with his dinky camcorder was none other than toryboy2.0 Sam Roake, trying to get vox pop interviews with health professionals for webcameron. He was being quite philosophical that nearly all the people he approached declined his offer of lasting fame, with quite a few of them declining in terms which I’m far too modest to print on this blog.
Anyway, you can see his results on webcameron here. His perseverence eventually paid off and he got a few interviewees. Well spin-doctored by calling it a protest and mixing it with shots of the Socialist Party’s “Sack Blair” march (claiming thousands of marchers – possibly the first time I’ve seen the Tories overestimate a leftie demo). Anyway, I reckon he deserves two cheers at least for being brave enough to venture into the unions’ den without cricket pads.
I wonder how the conversation went?
Dave: So, hey, looks like Blair’s going to get a kicking at the union lobby today, maybe we should get in on that.
Sam: But Dave, won’t they bite us and beat us with their whimsical folk-art banners as soon as we step in the door? At very least we’d probably catch MRSA or something.
Dave: A risk, certainly, but if we’re going to foster a new, mature and open approach to politics, we surely need to ‘be the change’ and reach out to everyone, no? A little personal danger is a very small price to pay for that.
Sam: Gosh, that’s very true. Maybe we could try to find out what they actually want then – Get some interviews with some real people – represent their concerns in a way that the news bulletins will just gloss over.
Dave: Yes, yes, and then trim out all the bits about extra funding under Labour and how bad we used to be and all that.
Sam: Er, okay. So shall I call us a cab?
Dave: Hmm… Actually, why don’t you go and just fill in for me? I’d love to, really, but these dishes aren’t going to wash themselves you know…
“Wot no human rights?”Well, that was the dampest demo I’ve ever been on. Made the leaflets go a bit mushy, but passers by were pretty cheery – even if the Embassy door stayed bolted shut for the duration. Respect to Sean here who I think got damper than most – I, and nearly everyone else, made sure to buy a brolly for it (which made for a rather widely-spaced crowd, trying not to poke or drip on each other).
Biggest surprise though was getting a relatively good turnout of people prepared to stand in the rain. Lots came and went quite quickly when they saw the lack of cover, but I reckon there were consistently around 50 there most of the time – so I’m sure we can legitimately claim 20,000.
Bit disappointed by the lack of chanting, but otherwise quite a pleasant lunchtime, and certainly better than sitting in a cell in Zimbabwe. I’m sure Mugabe doesn’t really give a t*ss what anyone in Britain thinks, but fingers crossed that today’s international day of action will get a whole bunch of reports going back to Harare from embassies around the world – letting them know that the trials next week *will* be followed outside the country too.
