Brighton Protest: Interactive online map
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 1417: London remembers the dead. Photo © Josh Jones 2010 People from all over the United Kingdom came to London today to remember the 1417 Palestinians who died in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip one year ago.
‘This is not only to remember the dead’, one speaker announced, ‘but also to protest at Israel’s ongoing policy of occupation.’
The planned ‘die-in’ protest at Trafalgar Square was instead held as a minute’s silence, due to wet weather. Each attendee held up the name of one person who died in the assault, to emphasise that the victims were individuals and not just part of a statistic. Of the 1417 Palestinians killed, up to 1181 are thought to have been civillians.
 Photo © Josh Jones 2010  Photo © Josh Jones  Photo © Josh Jones
 Photo © Josh Jones
 Photo © Josh Jones
 'Stop the War - Troops Out of Afghanistan'. Photo © Josh Jones 2009 ‘Bring the Troops Home’ was the demand of tens of thousands of anti-war protesters in London today. The demonstration was called by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Institute. Trafalgar Square heard speeches against against the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with speakers as diverse as refusing soldier Lance Cpl Joe Glenton and Guantanamo survivor Omar Deghayes.
 The protest was led by war vetarans and the families of solidiers who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pictured: Pat Arrowsmith, veteran CND campaigner. Photo © Josh Jones 2009  Speakers accused Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of playing to American imperialist desires. Photo © Josh Jones 2009
 Students and young people from accross the country came to join in the protest against the war. Photo © Josh Jones 2009  Student protesters charge down Regent Street, London. Photo © Josh Jones 2009
 Speakers and protesters aired their anger at US President Obama for sending more troops into Afghanistan. Photo © Josh Jones 2009
April 4th, 2009 | From Journalism | tags: Climate Camp, g20, London, protest |
In the middle of the so-called ‘riot’, the samba band continues to play. Threadneedle Street, London, April 1st.
An FIT officer finds a statuesque position from which to survey the crowd.
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A protester from inside the police cordon that ‘kettled’ protesters and passers-by next to the Bank of England and Royal Bank of Scotland.
‘Just Retired’. Protesters find creative ways to express their disillusionment. From inside the police cordon.
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Climate Camp, Bishopsgate. This peaceful protest campaigned for serious action on climate change.
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Talks and discussion in an official ‘free learning space’, in the Climate Camp.
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Participants and passers-by in the Climate camp listen to the discussion. These images were taken shortly before riot police surrounded and began to ‘disperse’ the camp.
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All images © Josh Jones, April 1st 2009.
April 2nd, 2009 | From Journalism | tags: Climate Camp, g20, London, protest |
Graffiti on the Bank of England reads ‘People will stop robbing banks when banks will stop robbing people’
Photo © Josh Jones
Thousands of protesters gathered in London yesterday to demand real results from this week’s G20 summit. Organisations including Stop The War, Climate Camp, CND and several Anarchist groups were joined by a huge number of non-affiliated UK citizens in protests across The City, London’s financial centre.
The main protest met outside the Bank of England. Shortly after 12 noon, the time at which the protest was scheduled to start, police blockaded the area and stopped anyone from entering. Within half an hour, a big push from inside the blockade opened a gap in the police lines on Threadneedle Street, connecting the central group of protesters with thousands waiting beyond the police lines. Police regrouped and made a new blockade with riot vans and horses, trapping the now enormous body of protesters next to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Mounted police kettle protesters outside the Bank of Scotland
Photo © Josh Jones
It was not long before protesters – some of them masked – smashed open the reinforced windows of the bank, and also broke through the wooden blockades inside. Several lines of riot police just metres away made no move to stop the protesters as they took computer monitors and threw them out the open windows. Shortly after the protesters left the bank, riot police moved in and ‘cleared’ the building.
The RBS building during the attack
Photo © Josh Jones
A few minutes later, mounted police pushed the main body of protesters back, creating a slight crush. The atmosphere among protesters was surprisingly relaxed, and amidst the worst of the crush many were shouting ‘Stay calm!’ and ‘Don’t panic!’. The group gradually pulled back and settled down in the central square outside the Bank of England, where people picnicked, performed music, and talked politics.
Elsewhere in The City, over a hundred tents took over part of Bishopsgate to demand real action on climate change. The Climate Camp provided food, legal advice and free workshops for anyone taking part or just passing by, and many City workers – most of whom were in jeans for the day – took a few minutes to at least see what it was all about. Late in the evening, police enforced a ‘no-one in, no-one out policy’, turning the peaceful protest into a small village under siege.
Climate Campers at the bicycle wall surrounding the camp
Photo © Josh Jones
Throughout the demonstrations, the protesters were almost certainly outnumbered by police. The BBC estimates the size of the main protest was around 5000 people, while police deployed in and around the City numbered 7000. The police presence is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £7m.
February 27th, 2009 | From Journalism | tags: free education, London, protest |
Sussex University students take up the call to action.
Image © Josh Jones.
Over a thousand students gathered in London this week to protest against the UK government’s controversial ‘top-up fees’.
Since 2006, students at universities in England and Wales have had to pay over £3,000 a year for their courses, while international students pay around £9,000 a year. The government is now considering raising the maximum price for top-up fees to £6,000 a year for domestic students.
The demonstration brought students from around the country together to demand that the government scrap the fees altogether and reinstate free education for all. Delegations from universities as far and wide as Essex, Manchester, and Sussex travelled to the capital armed with banners, slogans, and high spirits. The march ended outside the London School of Economics, recently home to one of the thirty student sit-in occupations taking place across the country.
The march brought parts of London to a standstill, but the biggest effect that I perceived was on the protesters themselves. While police lines prevented the march from protesting outside Parliament, the sense of unity and common purpose among those present served to strengthen the resolve of the movement. It seems this was only the start of what is set to be a long and determined campaign.
January 11th, 2009 | From Journalism | tags: London, Palestine, protest |
 Protesters in London demand UK action.Image © Alex Mannion-Jones.
Protesters in London heard a diverse range of speakers call for peace in Gaza yesterday. Leaders at the Muslim Council of Britain stood alongside Jews for Justice, Amnesty spokesperson Annie Lennox, and dozens of other UK-based social, religious, and human-rights groups, in the capital’s biggest mass demonstration since 2003.
Speakers unilaterally agreed on three key issues:
- Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Gaza strip is an apartheid-like regime, and the current resistance from Hamas is the result of this
- The current invasion must end and the years-long blockade of Gaza’s borders be lifted by Israel and Egypt, allowing Gaza’s economy, infrastructure and democracy to recover
- Israeli generals should be tried for war crimes following the atrocities that have been reported by UN and Red Cross officials.
Many speakers differed on some points, with some condemning the Hamas rocket attacks on civillians, while others defended Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement in the face of oppression. However, the many representatives had much more in common than in disagreement.
The strength of the protest, however, was in the sheer amount of British citizens who travelled to London to have their voices heard. Estimates range from 50,000 to 200,000 individuals – making this the biggest UK protest for Palestine in history. The weekly London protests will continue, speakers said, until Palestine is liberated from Israeli occupation, and has been allowed independence.
January 3rd, 2009 | From Journalism | tags: London, Palestine, protest |
 The Palestinian flag waves outside the houses of parliament.
Image © Josh Jones.Thousands gathered in London today to protest the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Speakers demanded that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown use all our nation’s diplomatic and economic leverage to ensure Israel’s assault on the Palestinian territory ends immediately.
After a bill of rousing speakers, the protest officially ended, but thousands more marched to the Israeli Embassy to continue their protest. Fights broke out as police pushed back the crowd, but otherwise the day passed peacefully.
The number of protesters was almost overwhelming, and their passion encouraging. I only hope we have made a difference by coming out in such numbers; I only hope our government will listen to its people.
 Metropolitan police arrive in great force to protect the Israeli Embassy. Image © Josh Jones.
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Featured Gallery: Palestine 
Photojournalism from the West Bank of occupied Palestine.
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