My photos of ‘Not One Day More’, a Huge Protest Against Theresa May in London, July 1, 2017
1.7.17
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Today (July 1, 2017), I cycled into central London with my son Tyler to support the ‘Not One Day More’ protest called by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, and to take photos. We caught the march on Whitehall, as the tens of thousands of protestors who had marched from BBC HQ in Portland Place advanced on Parliament Square, and it was exhilarating to stand by the Monument to the Women of World War II in the middle of Whitehall, near 10 Downing Street, as a wave of protestors advanced, chanting, “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” and “Tories, Tories, Tories, out, out, out.”
Many of the placards, understandably, dealt with the Grenfell Tower disaster two weeks ago, when an untold number of residents died in an inferno that should never have happened, but that was entirely due to the greed and exploitation of the poorer members of society that is central to the Tories’ austerity agenda, waged relentlessly over the last seven years, and the neo-liberalism — insanely, unstoppably greedy, and utterly indifferent to the value of human lives — that has been driving politics since the 1980s.
The Guardian noted, “When the march reached Parliament Square, a minute’s silence was held ‘in memory and respect’ to the victims of Grenfell Tower. Tributes were also paid to the emergency services who responded to the fire with a minute’s applause.” Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said, “To the victims of Grenfell Tower we pledge now, we will stand with you and your families all the way through. We bring you sympathy but more importantly we bring you solidarity. We will not rest until every one of those families is properly housed within the community in which they want to live. Grenfell Tower symbolised for many everything that’s gone wrong in this country since austerity was imposed upon us.” He also “slammed the Tories for praising the emergency services ‘every time there’s a tragedy’ but then cutting jobs and wages.”
Jeremy Corbyn also addressed the crowd, saying, “We are the people, we are united and we are determined, we are not going to be divided or let austerity divide us. We are increasing in support and we are determined to force another election as soon as we can.” He also said, “Fewer working class young people are applying to university. Let’s end the debt burden and scrap tuition fees!”
These are positive developments, but there is an elephant in the room — Brexit. At present, the Tories, severely damaged by Theresa May’s decision to call a General Election at which she then performed so dismally that she lost her majority, is clinging onto power, and is still responsible for the nationwide car crash that is Brexit, but if the Labour Party is to take power, Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters need to be sure that his intention is to stop Brexit and not to insist that it must take place because that is the “will of the people.” As I have stated repeatedly, the referendum result was only advisory, the majority was too slim for a referendum involving major constitutional change, and leaving the EU will be an act of economic suicide on such a scale that it will destroy whoever is responsible for implementing it. I believe it can — and must — be stopped, or else all Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to reinvigorate public sector spending will be impossible, as the economy collapses.
More on this soon. In the meantime, please check out the photos, which you can also see below:
Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose debut album ‘Love and War’ and EP ‘Fighting Injustice’ are available here to download or on CD via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and the Countdown to Close Guantánamo initiative, launched in January 2016), the co-director of We Stand With Shaker, which called for the release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison (finally freed on October 30, 2015), and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press in the US, and available from Amazon, including a Kindle edition — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).
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24 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
When I posted this on Facebook, I wrote:
Here’s my latest article, linking to my photos from ‘Not One Day More’, today’s protest against Theresa May and the Tories, and providing some commentary about the event, and the current political situation in the UK. There were lots of poignant demonstrations of support for those who lost their life in the Grenfell Tower inferno, and for the survivors, and May and the Tories are, of course, thoroughly discredited right now – after her dismal election performance, the taint of Grenfell and the slimy deal with the DUP – but for all the admiration for Jeremy Corbyn today, I do worry about how Labour plans to address the elephant in the room – Brexit. As anyone following my work knows, I regard Brexit, implacably, as a poisoned chalice that will not only ruin the UK economy, but will also destroy whichever party implements it, and at present Jeremy Corbyn’s success, riding a wave of passionate anti-austerity sentiment, doesn’t seem to be acknowledging that any plan to inject money into the UK economy to revive public services will be impossible if we leave the EU and commit economic suicide.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Andy Worthington says...
After some trolling on Facebook, my friend Ruth Gilbert wrote:
Surprised at the trolling here. We were harangued as we left by a hideous Tory couple. Their anger was directed at Ruby, who the woman spat ‘What do you know, you’re barely out of nappies?!’ Disgusting pair….
Shame we missed you, Andy….
Here are my pics x
https://www.facebook.com/rgilburt/media_set?set=a.10154578623002190.1073741994.656352189&type=3
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:51 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Yes, sorry to have missed you too, Ruth. Looks like you had fun!
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:52 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Lee Blanch wrote:
Don’t be surprised, they’re paid to do it. It’s their job to suck up to their masters and speak ill of anyone that shows the slightest sense of humanity.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:53 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Marcia Wren wrote:
The dirty tories and their trolls will all end up burning in the pits of hellfire with the rest of the demons one day.. The good, loving and empathetic people always win at the end of the day 🙂
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:53 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Lee and Marcia!
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:53 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Ann Alexander wrote:
Great photos Andy. Wish I’d been there too.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:54 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Ann. I wish you’d been there too!
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:54 pm
Andy Worthington says...
David Knopfler wrote:
I entirely agree with your vital point about Brexit. I feel like a character in that Tom Stoppard script https://youtu.be/jTQurAEmt64
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks for noticing, David. It might be that there’s a shrewd determination in the PLP to keep a lid on things given that it’s still the Tories’ problem, but it’s somehow quite extraordinary that we simply can’t be sure if that’s the case at all, and yet all those heartfelt projections onto JC will mean nothing if we don’t scrap the whole Brexit nonsense.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
David Knopfler wrote:
Andy It is going to take a LOT to get most Leavers to abandon the hypnotic state of believing the slogans and catch phrases of the campaign… it dovetails into a raft of pre-existing prejudices and beliefs our media have been serving up for decades. Like the Iraq War and weapons of mass destruction I don’t know when a tipping point will be reached when the public are clamouring for the politicians to reverse themselves but it looks most unlikely while the carrots of a so called “soft Brexit” are being dangled
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
What’s needed is for some honesty about how there is no soft Brexit, David – it’s actually a hard, suicidal Brexit or nothing.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
David Knopfler wrote:
Andy I’ve not yet seen much to suggest that there are soft branches to break our fall but maybe wiser heads will scrape some kind of a compromise together… unlikely… France, Germany, Ireland and others are already competing to coax away what businesses we have and why wouldn’t they?
...on July 1st, 2017 at 10:56 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Why indeed, David? Everything suggests that we need to stop this madness without further delay, and yet, as you note, the Brexit fanatics are immune to anything that resembles facts or truth.
...on July 1st, 2017 at 11:09 pm
Tom Pettinger says...
There’s no good outcome…
Go for a soft Brexit, all the people who actually voted for Brexit will be seriously p*ssed off
Revoke Brexit, and all the people who actually voted for Brexit would actually revolt
Go for a hard Brexit, all the rest (including a bunch of my Bulgarian friends back in the pub I used to work at who now have lives here) will be seriously p*ssed off, and we’ll lose a tonne of trade to boot. A word I hate the most to describe this group is Remoaners – it’s essentially saying ‘you lost, now you have to agree with us, you need to pull in one direction’ as though it weren’t a democracy where we SHOULD be disagreeing with each other. Pet peeve!
I dislike TM a whole lot – and agree with a sign I saw recently saying “Theresa May is deffo a lizard” – but this began in earnest with DC, who has since scarpered…
...on July 2nd, 2017 at 2:08 am
Andy Worthington says...
David Knopfler wrote:
Andy 54/46 would vote Remain based on today’s polls. We need that figure to be 70/30
...on July 2nd, 2017 at 10:31 am
Andy Worthington says...
Is that from the Telegraph, David? They say:
See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/02/remain-would-win-brexit-referendum-held-now/
That last point is significant, surely. A cross-party approach would, I think, be compelled to highlight not only how damaging a ‘hard Brexit’ would be, but how illusory the idea of a ‘soft Brexit’ is. If we need to stay in the single market and customs union to save our economy (which we do), and cannot meaningfully control freedom of movement (which we can’t), then why leave the EU at all?
I agree that a wider margin than 54-46 in favour of overturning the referendum would be helpful, but a concerted cross-party approach would be able to sell the message to the public of why, with all due respect, the future of the country is too important to throw ourselves off a cliff. If that concerted cross-party message was promoted, I think the numbers opposing leaving would rise. After all, it’s grandees of the Tory Party, and business leaders, as well as Blairites who’d be putting that message across, and it would also be the perfect opportunity for other interested parties, marginalised last year, to put their point of view across.
...on July 2nd, 2017 at 10:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
Good to hear from you, Tom. I’m not sure what would happen wth all the theoretical outcomes. ‘Hard Brexit’ would certainly be a killer for the economy, but I do think that the election outcome has strengthened the resolve of moderate Tories to resist Theresa May’s mad obsession with it. So if ‘hard Brexit’ goes, what about ‘soft Brexit’? Personally, I think it’s a non-starter, as it involves a recognition of the reality, which can’t then be implemented without being a suicidal ‘hard Brexit’; namely, that we have no real way of reducing immigration (which is what most Leavers claimed to want), and, in exchange for getting nothing, we are prepared to ruin our economy by leaving the single market and the customs union. In other words, what’s the point of leaving the EU? The hard-core Leavers actually want to endlessly bang on about sovereignty, but that, of course, means nothing, and it seems to me that a cross-party programme of education would swing the country’s position to one of endorsing remaining in the EU because leaving would be such an economic disaster. That needs working on, I concede, before it can be presented to the country, but I don’t think it’s a given that there would be a revolt if Brexit were to be stopped. Like the Trump supporters who failed to make it to his inauguration in quite significant numbers, I think Brexit is largely made up of armchair whingers, who couldn’t actually be bothered to get out on the streets, let alone mobilise to do so in any genuinely threatening manner.
...on July 2nd, 2017 at 1:34 pm
Tom Pettinger says...
I agree, nobody would be happy with soft Brexit… I think it’s the most likely option though without, as you say, education and another referendum – because I think politicians believe it’s the solution most people wouldn’t get angry about. But you’re right, it’s totally illogical and completely defeats the point of leaving in the first place. I could still see hard Brexit going ahead though, JC is Eurosceptic is he not? I saw rumours about a possible Labour split to support a soft Brexit in the news yesterday. Not sure if that would actually happen but they seem unhappy that Labour is supporting a harder Brexit than they’d want.
I know I bring up some very unrelated topics (sorry!!!), but have you seen the new Netflix film / documentary about the Gawker vs. Hulk Hogan case, ‘Nobody Speak’? Being a journo I thought it might be up your street. It’s essentially about the capitalism-ization (capitalization?!) of free speech – how big money is fighting against independent journalism – for political and personal interests. Just thought I’d mention it! I still hate Gawker and the gutter press but the documentary exposes some really scary trends with what big money is doing, especially in the US…
...on July 4th, 2017 at 4:08 am
Andy Worthington says...
I agree that the notion of a ‘soft Brexit’ is now being seen by politicians as more palatable than a ‘hard Brexit’, Tom, but that’s only as long as details aren’t being discussed, because the reality is that Brexit means only one thing: we cause extraordinary damage to our economy in exchange for alleged control over our borders that isn’t actually going to make any difference to immigration. One additional factor of importance seems to be Theresa May’s obsession with removing us from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, a pointless obsession that she nevertheless conceived as the single most important aspect of life in the UK back in her dreadful authoritarian time as home secretary.
As for Labour, we’ll just have to wait and see. I understand that they continue to play a waiting game, and have found that being noncommittal on Brexit means that they’re not alienating anyone, but eventually they’ll have to agree on a position. There’s quite a good analysis in the Guardian of the significance – or lack of it – of Chuka Umunna’s rebel amendment the other night by the New Statesman’s Jonn Allege: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/30/chuka-umunna-single-market-amendment-brexit-split-labour-party
Moving on, I had managed to miss the Gawker/Hulk Hogan story – or rather, I saw it mentioned at the time, but could never even be bothered to find out what was going on, but now I look at it, I see that it is of interest because of its central theme. As Peter Bradshaw described it in the Guardian, “The Hogan attack was a vanguard operation in the aggressive new reactionary philistinism and hatred of press freedom being nurtured by some of America’s super-rich which is encouraged as a political diversionary tactic by the US president.”
See: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/22/nobody-speak-trials-of-a-free-press-review-hulk-hogan-gawker-netflix
I was particularly interested in the central role played by Peter Thiel, “the co-founder of the ambitious big data company Palantir, whose shady political influences have been investigated by Carole Cadwalldr in the Observer” – an important investigation about how transnational data mining firms are manipulating voters via social media and may have influence the outcome of the EU referendum: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy
...on July 4th, 2017 at 7:22 am
Tom Pettinger says...
Interesting. I presumed that we’d go in with an approach and stick with it, but I guess you’re right, it’s only what happens through the actual process that really matters. If we did ever leave the ECHR, we’d get a British Bill of Rights that would probably allow our govt to build a Guantanamo on Sealand or something. I can’t imagine what they’d do, it doesn’t bear thinking about!!
Yeah Peter Thiel’s a main character in the film… The impact he’s had/is having is terrifying, frankly. Totally supportive of the idea of a tyranny. Thanks for sending those links over!
...on July 4th, 2017 at 4:53 pm
Anna says...
Great pictures Andy, wish we had such demo’s over here. Cannot even go and protest Dumb Donald’s visit here this week as I have visitors.
As for Corbyn & Brexit, would I be delusional if I hoped that he is being ‘discreet’ on that subject in order not to rock the boat too much ahead of next elections which he seems to strive for and once elected and thus having gotten rid of one major hurdle, would show true Remain colours? In that case the quicker such an election – no matter the dreadful hassle – would take place, the better the chances are to reverse the B. The EU keeps reminding that the door remains open, provided negotiations are in early stages. But elections could not happen before the end of the summer vacations.
Wonder whether the negotiations go ahead full steam in that period or are they also on a backburner during the summer holidays & recesses? Keep my fingers crossed for you guys!
...on July 4th, 2017 at 8:59 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Most people don’t know how obsessed Theresa May is about getting rid of the European Court of Human Rights, Tom, even though the Tories played such a big part in setting it up, back when the Tories meant something. The tabloid-readers who cheer her on don’t even realise that it’s nothing to do with the EU, that it came from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, and that if we drop the ECHR we’ll be joining the rights-denying Belarus as the only countries in Europe that spurn human rights. To reiterate: I do genuinely believe that May wants us to have no human rights legislation whatsoever, and to get us out of the EU, so she can pretend to have the right to send any “foreign terror suspect” back to their home country without them having any ability to challenge it under non-refoulement rules. Presumably she’ll also take us out of the UN Convention Against Torture as well.
And beyond her narrow obsession, it is almost unspeakably alarming to think what her equally stupid and ideologically myopic colleagues will propose if they have the opportunity to invent a whole new law book for an isolated Britain.
Eternal resistance is necessary!
...on July 5th, 2017 at 5:11 am
Andy Worthington says...
Glad you liked the photos, Anna, and thanks also for the reminder that our ability to demonstrate freely and in large numbers is not tolerated everywhere, or, at least, does not feature in other countries’ traditions.
I wish I could say that Corbyn is hiding his “true Remain colours”, but I see no evidence of it. He has long-standing antipathy towards the EU, as do so many on the left, and although he can hopefully be talked into finding a way to stop Brexit if there was another election and he won, the party as a whole is paralysed by not wanting to go against the “will of the people” – the stumbling block to all efforts to derail our economic suicide.
I wish I could be sure that the Labour Party is spending time and resources behind closed doors working out how to sell the message to the British people that the “will of the people” is not, in the end, a good enough reason for us to destroy ourselves.
...on July 5th, 2017 at 5:27 am