Two cameras …… and a heap of demonstrations

During the 1970s into the 1980s I spent a great chunk of time photographing demonstrations.

London, 1981

They ranged from those against the far right along with several under the banner of the Anti-Nazi League.

Along with these there were plenty calling for a halt in public spending cuts, policies to reverse the staggering rise in unemployment and protests at the proliferation of a new generation of nuclear war heads and their delivery systems.

I missed recording the big anti Vietnam demonstration of 1968 and the White City Springbok  one.

And by the mid 90s I was balancing being a single parent with work so it wasn’t until the new millennium that kitted out with a digital camera I was back joining protests on another series of Conservative Governments who were cutting public services all over again and more recently rallies against antisemitism.

Birmingham, 1983

These three pictures come from a demonstration in Liverpool organised by the Labour Party in 1980 against job losses, London in 1981 against the deployment of US Cruise Missiles, and another  Labour march in Birmingham two years later demanding policies which would halt the spiralling number being made unemployed.

Liverpool, 1980

Back then I had two K Pentax cameras which were pretty indestructible and performed under a hot Greek sun, steamy holidays in Paris and indifferent wet British weather.

Location; the 1980s, in London and Birmingham

Pictures, Liverpool, 1980, London, 1981 and Birmingham,  1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson