On Election Day, the Democracy Camp in Parliament Square, which was urging people to spoil their ballot papers, turned out to be surprisingly controversial with bitter arguments with long-term peace protester Brian Haw and supporters. London, UK. 06/05/2010
Brian Haw began his peace campaign in Parliament Square 3260 days before the election on 2 June 2001, very nearly nine years ago. Over the years he has faced a continual harassment by police, had an Act of Parliament passed to get rid of him and faced numerous attacks by individuals, some of whom appear to have had connections with the police and security services, and from which the police have surprisingly failed to protect him.
The most serious attack came on May 23, 2006, when a police raid involving 78 officers and costing £28,000 took away and illegally held and destroyed most of his display, arresting three of his supporters. The raid took place seven days before a court hearing that was due to decide on the whether or not the conditions imposed on his display were reasonable or not, and happened despite there being no power under the Act concerned to seize possessions. Later in Jan 2007 a judge ruled that the conditions that had been imposed were unlawful, and in the same month artist Mark Wallinger installed 'State Britain', a complete replica of Haw's removed display at Tate Britain.
I was present and took pictures of his injuries on 12 Jan 2008 at Downing St when Haw was assaulted in an unprovoked attack by a police officer while filming a demonstration there, and saw him laughed at by police and then being arrested for continuing to protest at having been assaulted. I was also in Parliament Square on the evening of 30th October 2009 taking pictures when police arrested Brian Haw again, holding him at Belgravia Police Station overnight; he was released on the order of the court the following morning.
In April 2009, Haw dissociated his Parliament Square Peace Campaign (PSPC) from the 'Peace Strike' protest in the adjoining area of the square led by Maria Gallestegui "by mutual consent", wanting to end any confusion between the two campaigns. For reasons that are not clear, the 'Peace Strike' has been allowed a considerably larger physical presence in the square and has not been the subject of the same campaign of police harassment as the PSPC.
The election has increased the pressure on Haw and his small group of supporters at the PSPC, including Barbara Tucker who has also been in Parliament Square full-time for some years. David Cameron has gone on record as saying that he would have cleared out their protest long ago, and a Conservative government is likely to both increase the pressure on the police to take action and to have an even blinder eye towards illegal police harassment and further vigilante action against them. They are particularly worried that action may be taken in the days leading up to the state opening of Parliament on May 25th, possibly on the anniversary of the 2006 raid, on May 23.
Those in the Democracy Camp see their presence as reinforcing the long term protest by the peace campaign, and hope that by being there they will make it harder for the incoming government to get rid of the protests in the square.
The PSPC regard the activities of the 'Peace Strike' and of this week's 'Democracy Camp' organised in conjunction with it as providing a pretext for more draconian police action against them, and have suggested that some at least of those involved may well be agent provocateurs in police pay. They have a notice between them and the others with arrows pointing one way to the 'Peace Camp' and the other to the 'Police Camp.'
Several individuals previously active in the anti-capitalist movement have indeed been identified as police undercover agents, including at least one person provoking violence during the G20 demonstrations - which was used to justify violent attacks by riot police on largely peaceful demonstrators at Bank.
The Democracy Camp has been in Parliament Square since the May Day demonstration last Saturday, and police appear to have taken no action against it over various irregularities. Alcohol is one issue - drinking is prohibited in Parliament Square, and although the Democracy Camp has a notice telling people they must not drink, on both occasions I've visited people were openly drinking.
At one point during the afternoon of election day the dispute between the camp and the PSPC deteriorated with a man on the camp's sound system making what were possibly intended as humorous put-downs of Barbara Tucker who was then attacking the Tory Party for the backing it receives from the oil giants. Clearly some of the campers were distressed by this and he was asked to desist, and some of those present tried to calm the situation. But generally the camp's activities were more positive, and while I was there considerable work was taking place making banners and placards, as well as people discussing and dancing.
Shortly before 6pm, a procession set out from the camp towards the media village opposite the Houses of Parliament on College Green with these banners. The TV crews largely looked rather bored and mostly pointedly ignored the protest but a few did bother to point a camera in their direction.
After a few minutes of music and dancing and some short speeches, the campers turned around and made their way back to Parliament Square. As they arrived several police vans drove up, apparently worried that the protesters might disrupt media coverage of the election. Police stopped and talked to a few of the campers, and one young man drinking from a can of beer was warned that it was an offence to drink alcohol in public there.
