The veteran anti-war protester Brian Haw, who initiated the Parliament Square peace camp, died of lung cancer in Germany on Saturday, June 18th, at the age of 62.
His family said in a statement that “he left us in his sleep and in no pain, after a long, hard fight”.
Haw first set up the Parliament Square camp in June 2001 to protest against British support for UN sanctions against Iraq. He stayed put throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The authorities repeatedly failed in their legal attempts to shift his camp. He left the site only to attend court hearings. Haw, a heavy chain smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2010 and left for Germany in January 2011 for treatment.
A statement posted on brianhaw.tv signed by “Brian Haw’s Parliament Square Peace Campaign” said that “Brian showed great determination and courage during the many long hard years he led his Peace Campaign in Parliament Square, during which it is well documented that he was relentlessly persecuted by the authorities, which eventually took its toll on his health.
“Parliament, the police, and courts, etc., should forever be ashamed of their disgraceful behaviour towards Brian.”
“Brian is an inspiration to all in our campaign and we appreciate the many messages of support for Brian whose spirit continues to guide us in the work we do,” the statement continued.
“We know that it was Brian’s greatest wish that everyone should take responsibility to do what they can to stop the government murdering innocent civilians in ongoing illegal wars of aggression.
“It is clear that if everyone showed the same courage as Brian, in challenging this government, that many lives would be saved, now.”
Haw’s supporters included the Labour politician Tony Benn.
Haw received support from political and artistic circles and from the wider public. Graffiti artist Banksy contributed two placards to Haw’s display, which includes graphic images of dead and injured Iraqi and Afghan children in addition to anti-war slogans. The Banksy art, thought to be worth several tens of thousands of pounds, was seized by police in a raid in 2007, and their current location is unknown.
Artist Mark Wallinger won the 2007 Turner Prize for building a reproduction of the protest inside the Tate art gallery.
Haw was awarded the “Most Politically Inspiring Figure of the Year” award at the 2007 Channel Four Political Awards, beating both Tony Blair and the then opposition leader David Cameron in a telephone poll.
In October 2002, Westminster City Council took legal action against Haw for obstructing the pavement, but the courts ruled that although Haw did obstruct the pavement, the obstruction was not unreasonable and that “there did not seem to be any pressing social need to interfere with the defendant’s display of placards so as to allow free passage on the footpath”. The council did, however, succeed in limiting the hours during which he could use a megaphone.
In 2005, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act banned protests within a square mile of Parliament, but it was ruled that it did not apply to Haw as his protest pre-dated the act. The government appealed against the judgement, and in 2006, the Court of Appeal ruled that the act did apply to him.
Haw was allowed to continue his protest as long as he complied with conditions set out by the police, who ordered that his display of banners be no wider than 3 metres. Haw refused to comply and the police raided the protest, seizing a number of banners.
In 2007, a judge ruled that the conditions set out by police were not sufficiently clear and need not apply.
In March 2011, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson won a High Court order to evict Haw from the Parliament Square green. The green is owned by the Greater London Authority but the pavement, however, is owned by Westminster Council, so Haw simply moved his camp onto the pavement.
Westminster Council recently announced they will install a pedestrian crossing to allow better access to Parliament Square, currently surrounded by up to five lanes of traffic. This may be the first step in a legal attempt to remove the protest from the pavement.
Prime Minister David Cameron has put clauses in the next Home Office bill to clear the square. David Tredinnick, one of the MPs who has campaigned to clear the square, told the BBC that “when the bill is passed, that pavement will be cleared. It’s the only pavement in England where the police have been unable to move away protesters.”
Brian Haw was born in Woodford Green, London, and grew up in Kent. He worked as a deck-hand for the Merchant Navy and as a carpenter. As an evangelical Christian, Haw visited Northern Ireland during the troubles and the killing fields of Cambodia. Before starting his protest, he lived in Redditch, Worcestershire, were he worked with troubled youngsters. He was married with seven children but divorced two years into the protest.
London Assembly Member Jenny Jones has called for Westminster Council to put up a plaque for Brian Haw.
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