Photo: Chris, Mary and Rory. Spot the deliberate mistake
Whitstable Says No To Hate
by
Rory Heap.
Photographs by
Yes, for people of a certain age, and even for those who have to live with us and tolerate our taste in music, so often the title of a simple pop song can provide a convenient starting point for thinking about complex matters.
Last Sunday, the 11th August, there was a pretty spontaneous gathering of like-minded folk outside the library in Whitstable at 2 pm. This was brilliantly organised by Mary and Elane and equally well responded to by a whole host of local residents and supported under the general banner, Whitstable Says No To Hate.
It was a real pleasure to attend this event and it was very gratifying to see so many people there, probably around 120 to 150 people but it’s difficult to estimate.
Elane organised an open mic, which became the operational focus of the event. The amplifier and mic were provided by Brummie Jon while local brilliant musician and activist, Nigel Hobbins, let us use his mic stand.
Elane asked people to use the facility in any way they wished and many people did, including me.
When I was thinking about how to honour this event, the title of the ‘60s Turtles hit came into my head, as did what I said when I accepted the invitation to speak.
Obviously, we were all there in response to the horrendous fascistic violence that the country had been subjected to all the previous week, and the media frenzy which surrounded it. We were there to gain encouragement and security from the presence of people that we both knew and didn’t know in a common cause in a common place. What struck me, hearing people speak and sing and play and clap and dance, was the enormity of what we are all facing, and the challenge that we face in confronting the people that we have to confront and, unfortunately, the people who should be supporting us.
I am a blind person, and I don’t feel safe at the prospect of confronting fascists, so I appreciate the opportunity to do it in a safe environment very much. However, this means I feel I have a responsibility to both understand and articulate the seriousness and consequences of the failure of those organisations, our political parties, our formal institutions, and our government, for their part in generating the climate for the heat that we all oppose to grow in.
I hope we all, in whatever way we choose to do it, avail ourselves of as much knowledge and information as we can glean from anywhere we can, and feel able to challenge those who we feel have a responsibility to protect us.
So, I hope we can all be happy together, particularly when expressing opposition to orchestrated violence and support for community solidarity, and that in circumstances where we are doing this, we always remember what we owe each other and what we don’t owe those who are failing us!
Whitstable Says No To Hate Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564124486397
Gallery
All photos by Gerry Atkinson: https://www.gerryatkinson.com/
(Click on images to enlarge)
Rory Heap
Born North London 1949. Attended residential special schools 1952/1968. University of Bath 1968/72. Worked in third sector in play/Community work from 1972/1984. Local authority community development work from 1984/1990. Local government training from 1990/2003. Civil service from 2003 to 2013 in equalities/disability roles. Retired 2013, moved to Whitstable and active in trade union and community affairs until I gave up formal union work this year for health and other reasons.
Gerry Atkinson:
Training as a photojournalist, I started recording political protests in London in the 1990’s. I spent 18 months volunteering with CWERC, an NGO in the Philippines, recording the lives of indigenous women for an audio-visual ‘Weaving our own Dreams’. I moved on to New Zealand for 4 years working for newspapers. On returning to London I organised a collaborative project with people with mental health problems to produce ‘Through the Lens’ documentary photography exhibition.
My MA research in 2010 resulted in a book ‘Shades of Other Lives’, a series of windows at night, developed in reference to Labour Party comments that “We are all middle class now”. In 2011-2012, I spent 10 months in Greece, Cape Town and New Zealand working on documentary projects. Recent community projects are ‘Our Work of Art 2018-2019’. I have an NUJ Photojournalist Press Card and am currently discussing new ideas and collaborations.
I studied at Leicester University, the London College of Communication and the University for the Creative Arts.
I have extensive solo and group exhibition experience including the British Museums landmark exhibition “Rice and Life in the Philippines”. My work has been published in newspapers, books and magazines and is held in private collections.
To see more of Gerry’s work, please go to: https://www.gerryatkinson.com/
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