Brian William Haw was an English protester and peace campaigner
who lived for almost ten years in a camp in London's
Parliament Square from 2001, in a
protest against UK and US foreign policy died from lung cancer he was , 62. He began his protest before the
2001 United States attacks, and became a symbol of the
anti-war movement over the policies of both the United Kingdom and the United States in
Afghanistan and later
Iraq. At the 2007
Channel 4 Political Awards he was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure.
(7 January 1949 – 18 June 2011)
Early life
Haw was born in
Woodford Green, Essex,
[5] a twin and the eldest of five.
[6] He grew up in neighbouring
Barking and in
Whitstable, Kent.
[6] His father, who had been one of the first British soldiers to enter the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, worked in a betting office. He committed
suicide by gassing himself when Haw was 13.
[6] Haw was apprenticed to a boat-builder from the age of 16 and then entered the
Merchant Navy as a deckhand.
[7]
Personal life
As an
evangelical Christian, Haw visited
Northern Ireland during
The Troubles as well as
the Killing Fields of
Cambodia. Haw worked with troubled youngsters in
Redditch, Worcestershire, where he lived with his wife Kay and their seven children until he left them in 2001 to begin his
Parliament Square protest.
[1] The couple divorced in 2003.
[6]
Parliament Square protests
On 2 June 2001, he began camping in
Parliament Square in central London in a one-man
political protest against war and foreign policy (initially, the
sanctions against
Iraq).
[6] By his own account, he was first inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the
Mariam Appeal, an anti-sanctions campaign. Haw justified his campaign on a need to improve his children's future. He only left his makeshift campsite in order to attend court hearings, surviving on food brought by supporters. Support for Haw's protest came from former Labour cabinet minister
Tony Benn and activist/comedian
Mark Thomas. Among the artwork displayed was a
Banksy stencil of two soldiers painting over a peace sign and
Leon Kuhn's anti-war political caricature
3 Guilty Men,
[8] which, together with Kuhn's
The Proud Parents,
[9][10][11] Mark Wallinger later displayed in his recreation at the Tate in 2007.
[9]
In October 2002
Westminster City Council attempted to prosecute Haw for causing an obstruction to the pavement, but the case failed as Haw's banners did not impede movement. The continuous use of a
megaphone by Haw led to objections by Members of Parliament who had offices close to Haw's protest camp. The House of
Commons Procedure Committee held a brief inquiry in summer 2003 which heard evidence that permanent protests in
Parliament Square could provide an opportunity for terrorists to disguise explosive devices, and resulted in a recommendation that the law be changed to prohibit them.
[12] The Government passed a provision banning all unlicensed protests, permanent or otherwise, in the
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (sections 132 to 138); however, because Mr Haw's protest was on-going and residing on Parliament Square prior to the enactment of the Act, it was unclear whether the Act applied to him
[13] (see Legal Action, below).
In the
2005 general election Haw stood as a candidate in the
Cities of London and Westminster in order to further his campaign and oppose the Act which was yet to come in to force. He won 298 votes (0.8 percent), making a speech against the ongoing presence of UK troops in Iraq at the declaration of the result.
[edit] Legal action
As preparation for implementing the new
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 began, Haw won an application for
judicial review on 28 July 2005, successfully arguing that a technical defect in the act meant it did not apply in his case. The act states that demonstrations must have authorisation from the police "when the demonstration starts", and Haw asserted that his demonstration had begun before the passage of the act, which was not made retroactive. Although the commencement order made to bring the act into force had made reference to demonstrations begun before the act came into force, there was no power for the commencement order to extend the scope of the act.
The government appealed against the judgement, and on 8 May 2006 the
Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and therefore declared that the act did apply to him. The court found that the intent of parliament was clearly to apply to all demonstrations in Parliament Square regardless of when they had begun:
In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration, and received it on condition that his display of placards is no more than 3 m wide (among other things). Haw was unwilling to comply and the police referred his case to the
Crown Prosecution Service; a number of supporters began camping with him in order to deter attempts to evict him.
In the early hours of 23 May 2006, 78 police arrived and removed all but one of Haw's placards citing continual breached conditions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 as their reason for doing so.
[15][16] Ian Blair (head of the Met. police at the time) later admitted that the operation to remove Haw's placards had cost £27,000
[17] The actions of the police were criticised by members of the
Metropolitan Police Authority at its monthly meeting on 25 May 2006.
[18] Haw appeared at
Bow Street Magistrates' Court on 30 May, when he refused to enter a plea. The court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, and he was bailed to return to court on 11 July 2006. At a licensing hearing at
Westminster City Council on 30 June 2006, Haw was granted limited permission to use a loudspeaker in the space allowed to him.
On 22 January 2007 Haw was acquitted on the grounds that the conditions he was accused of breaching were not sufficiently clear, and that they should have been imposed by a police officer of higher rank. District Judge Purdy ruled: "I find the conditions, drafted as they are, lack clarity and are not workable in their current form."
[19]
[edit] Documentary
Brian Haw was featured in the 2006 documentary,
TerrorStorm. Director and narrator
Alex Jones interviewed Haw and even joined in his protest of Parliament by answering Haw's inquiry, via
megaphone, about the
Statue of Liberty by saying she had been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of
Al-Qaeda. Haw (played by an actor) also appeared briefly in the 2007 drama
The Trial of Tony Blair. There is also a documentary film made about him by
Mahmoud Shoolizadeh,
A Man Called Brian, which shows interviews with him and analysed the Iraq war. This film has participated in some international film festivals.
Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw
In the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw, the judgement of the court, delivered by
Lord Phillips CJ, included the following:
- 3. The issues raised by the case stated are as follows:
- i) Whether the statutory powers available to the Commissioner of Police under Section 134 of SOCA can be exercised by a subordinate on his behalf;
- ii) Whether the conditions imposed on Mr Haw were ultra vires, or incompatible with Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights ('ECHR'), as unreasonable or insufficiently clear.[20]
This was an adjourned hearing of an appeal by way of case stated by the Director of Public Prosecutions against a decision of District Judge Purdy in the City of
Westminster Magistrates Court on 22 January 2007. The judge ruled that there was no case for the Respondent, Brian Haw, to answer on a charge of knowingly failing to comply with a condition imposed under Section 134 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ('SOCA') in respect of a demonstration in Parliament Square. The hearing before the
Administrative Court was adjourned because Mr Haw had not been served with relevant documents in time to give them proper consideration.
Directions hearing, 18 November 2008
Haw sought a large number of directions from the court on 18 November 2008. Afer some delay the directions of the court were eventually published in March 2009:
- Haw, R (on the application of) v Southwark Crown Court & Ors [2009] EWHC 379 (Admin) (3 March 2009) [1]
The court was un-persuaded that a full transcript of the hearing
[20] was necessary, even though Haw claimed that it would show that the court side-stepped the issue as to the legality of the seizure.
Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions
The case of Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions, 2007
[21] was an appeal by way of case stated. The appellant, Barbara Tucker, was convicted under
Section 132 (1)(c) of the
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (
SOCPA), of being within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, and carrying on unauthorised demonstration by herself in a public place in a designated area, namely Parliament Square. Her defence was that Haw had invited her to join him in his demonstration. He gave evidence on her behalf to that effect. The magistrate said: "Had I accepted this evidence (which I did not) it would have been argued that the allegation that she had 'carried on an unauthorised demonstration by herself ..... ' could not have been made out, and further more (in my view incorrectly) that it would provide a defence by saying that as Mr Haw is safe from prosecution anyone who joins him is also safe." The question posed by the magistrate was: "Was it lawful under section 6 (1) HRA to convict the appellant?" The Administrative Court held that SOCPA was not incompatible with the
European Convention on Human Rights (specifically, Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly)), and that Tucker's conviction was therefore lawful.
[21]
[edit] January 2008 injury and arrest
On 12 January, Haw was observing a protest against the
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, outside
Downing Street. Seven people were arrested (including Haw), who said
"I was filming the students lying down in the road when one officer stepped forward, as I was walking back, and pushed the camera with his hand. It struck my face." He accused the police of using "violent and humiliating force".
[22]
2008 London mayoral elections
In December 2007 press releases stated that Haw had declared himself a candidate in the
London Mayoral Elections in May 2008
[23], but eventually he did not stand.
[24] On 17 April 2008 he joined
Frank Maloney and
Winston McKenzie in support of the Christian Choice candidate
Alan Craig.
[25]
25 May 2010 arrest
On 25 May 2010 the day of the
State Opening of Parliament for the new
Conservative-
Liberal coalition government, Haw was arrested at 8:30 am.
[26][27]
[edit] Illness and death
In September 2010 Haw was diagnosed with lung cancer.
[28] On 1 January 2011 he left England to receive treatment in Berlin. Haw, who was described as a
chain smoker, continued to smoke cigarettes until his death.
[29] Haw died in Germany in the early hours of 18 June 2011 of lung cancer.
[1] He is survived by seven children.
[30]
Reacting to news of Haw's death,
Tony Benn said "Brian Haw was a man of principle [...] his death marks the end of a historic enterprise by a man who gave everything to support his beliefs".
[31] At his death
Al Jazeera described him as an "unsung hero".
[32] Mark Wallinger said "I admired [Haw's] single-minded tenacity. His rectitude was a mirror that the people in the building opposite couldn't bear. [...] Now that he's gone, who else have we got?".
[33] The British
MP John McDonnell has called for a statue of Haw to be assembled to celebrate peace.
[32] British artist
Banksy honored Haw with a tribute on his website.
[34]
London Assembly Member
Jenny Jones called for
Westminster Council to erect a blue plaque for Brian Haw immediately, bypassing
English Heritage's criteria that the person commemorated should have been dead for two decades or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier.
[35]
In culture
In January 2007, former
Turner Prize nominee
Mark Wallinger recreated Brian Haw’s Parliament Square protest in its entirety as an exhibition at
Tate Britain, titled
State Britain.
[36] Running the length of the Duveen Gallery,
State Britain was a painstaking reconstruction of the display confiscated by the Metropolitan Police in 2006.
[37] It included 500 weather-worn banners, photos, peace flags, and messages from well-wishers collected by Haw over the duration of the Peace Protest, as well as his self-constructed shelter. In December 2007 Wallinger's work won the
Turner Prize.
[38]
The London-based band
XX Teens recorded a song "For Brian Haw", which was included on their 2008 album
Welcome To Goon Island. The track incorporated a statement by Haw himself about his motivations for the protest.
[39]
Free music pioneer
Sean Terrington Wright dedicated his 12th CD album "War No More", released in 2008, to Haw.
Haw was featured in the short length documentary
Maria: 24hr Peace Picket by Iranian film director
Parviz Jahed, about fellow peace campaigner Maria Gallastegui.
In 2009
Youth Music Theatre: UK developed the music theatre production
According to Brian Haw... based on reactions by young people to Haw's life, 9/11 and the Iraq war. This was perfomed at the Barbican Theatre,
Plymouth.
Zia Trench's debut play,
The State We're In, based on Haw's life, was performed for the first time at the 2009
Edinburgh Fringe, featuring
Michael Byrne in the lead role and directed by Justin Butcher. Trench said: "There is a messianic illusion around him, something so Jesus-like about him. "He has taken on our fight but what has this cost him? The play looks at the man behind the protest and how battles fought for liberty can cost a man his wife, home and sanity."
To see more of who died in 2010 click here
