LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 12.03.10. French male sex worker Thierry Schaffauser and president of the GMB-IUSW, Adult Entertainment branch at home on Friday, 12th March 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2010.

“Sex workers need power not brothels” – Thierry Schaffauser, The Guardian.

“Sex workers are not criminals” – Thierry Schaffauser, The Guardian.

“Time for porn stars to self-organise” – Thierry Schaffauser, The Guardian.

“Let sex workers advertise” -Thierry Schaffauser, The Guardian.

This is a new project to document the social and political issues facing male sex workers in modern Britain today. The first set of pictures are of French male sex worker Thierry Schaffauser – president of the GMB – IUSW, Adult Entertainment branch – at home in London. An audio of an interview I have done with Thierry will be published over the summer with more pictures.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 19.07.09. Thierry Schaffauser joins other sex workers on a march through Soho in central London against new laws that campaigners claim will increase criminalisation of sex workers and push prostitution underground on Sunday 19 July 2009 in London, England. The Policing and Crime Bill 2009 will create a new offence of paying for sex with a prostitute who is “controlled for gain” and modifies existing offences – such as loitering and kerb-crawling. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 11.06.09. Underground workers picket the Wembley Park staff depot in west London on Thursday 11 June 2009 in London, England. RMT union members congregated on the picket line to support the 48 hour strike action for the better pay, working conditions and against thousands of potential compulsory redundancies and budget cuts. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

“Yes, striking is a human right” – Keith Ewing, The Guardian.

Professor Keith Ewing writing in The Guardian on the right to take strike action. Well worth a look.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 25.03.10. Brian Caton, General Secretary, Prison Officers Association (left) and Dave Nellist, Coventry Socialist Party councillor and former Labour MP at the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) general election launch rally on Thursday 25 March 2010 in London, England. The TUSC aims to challenge the three main parties in the general election and opposes all public spending cuts and privatisation, fight for the repeal of all anti-trade union laws and the renationalisation of the privatised utilities. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2010.

Mike Thomson reports from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition launch rally – Today Programme, Radio 4.

Justin Rowlatt reports on the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition launch rally – BBC Newsnight.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 22.03.10. British Airways cabin crew and Unite trade union members on day three of strike action at Heathrow Airport on Monday 22 March 2010 in London, England. The strike was triggered after BA management tore up cabin crew contracts last November. Reduced the number of crew members on flights and proposed to bring in new staff on inferior pay and conditions. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2010.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 21.03.10. British Airways planes grounded at Heathrow Airport on day two of strike action by BA cabin crew and Unite trade union members on Sunday 21 March 2010 in London, England. The strike was triggered after BA management tore up cabin crew contracts last November. Reduced the number of crew members on flights and proposed to bring in new staff on inferior pay and conditions. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2010.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 21.03.10. British Airways cabin crew and Unite trade union members on day two of three days of strike action at Heathrow Airport on Sunday 21 March 2010 in London, England. The strike was triggered after BA management tore up cabin crew contracts last November. Reduced the number of crew members on flights and proposed to bring in new staff on inferior pay and conditions. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2010.

Link: Click here to view more pictures.

Clients: Pictures are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

“Your 10 questions for would-be MPs” – Henry Porter, The Guardian.

“Ten reasons to feel uneasy” – Anthony Barnett, opendemocracy.net

Last night I was at the launch of Keith Ewing’s new book Bonfire of the Liberties – “a provocative book which confronts the corrosion of civil liberties under successive New Labour governments since 1997.”

I was one of the speakers at this packed out event held at NUJ headquarters along side Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary; Henry Porter, novelist and political columnist for The Observer; Dave Smith, from the Blacklist Support Group; Cerie Bullivant, who was on a control order for two years and Pennie Quinton, who took Section 44 to Strasbourg.

Dave Smith’s contribution on blacklisting in the UK construction industry and the attacks on trade unionists was very powerful.

We have to keep an eye on databases of multinationals as much as the states. It is important to defend our Article 11 rights as trade unionists to meet without being put under surveillance and harassed, by either the state or private companies.

The investigations on police surveillance of protesters and journalists as well as the covert state targeting of environmental activists that I worked on with Paul Lewis at The Guardian are mentioned in Ewing’s book which was a nice surprise.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 16.02.09. Photographers stage a mass photo taking event outside New Scotland Yard on Monday 16 February 2009 in London, England. The event, called by the National Union of Journalists, marked the enforcement date of section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 which could prevent the media and public from taking pictures of the police . (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

“Photographers unite to tackle avalanche” – National Union of Journalists.

Today I transferred my NUJ membership over to the new London Photographers’ Branch (LPB) and I’m looking forward to the inaugural meeting in just under two weeks time. If you are an NUJ member – full, temporary or student – and a photographer or lens based journalists “who lives in London or who carries out the majority of their work for clients based in London” then this is the NUJ Branch for you.

Below is a media release from the NUJ HQ about the new branch and how to join.

NUJ Media Release: Photographers unite to tackle avalanche

You don’t have to go to the Alps to experience an avalanche, photographers in every sector of the media have experienced an avalanche of jobs cuts, picture rate cuts, pay freezes and unprecedented workloads.

Media companies blame the recession and an inability to find a way to monetise content online – but they have been whittling away jobs, picture rates and conditions for years.

Photographers in London are coming together to form a new NUJ branch for freelance, staff and agency photographers to unite and defend photographers’ rights and terms and conditions.

The London Photographers’ Branch will hold its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, January 26th, at 6pm in the union’s head office, Headland House.

Membership of the Branch is open to any NUJ photographer who lives in London or who carries out the majority of their work for clients based in London.

To transfer your membership to the new Branch, you should contact the NUJ Membership Department at paulg@nuj.org.uk before January 26th.

NUJ President Pete Murray said: “This new branch is a really exciting development bringing together those who have for many years campaigned hard for the rights of photographers. The launch of the branch will boost the effectiveness of such work and give it the profile it deserves in the industry and in the union”.

Permanent link.

Here is a slideshow of pictures from the Youth Fight for Jobs protest yesterday.

“Young protesters march for jobs” – BBC News.

“Youth Fight for Jobs” – youthfightforjobs.com

Link : Click here to view more images.

Clients : Images are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 28.11.09. Unemployed people, students, union activists and socialist campaigners – from across the UK – congregate in central London to demonstrate and demand jobs as the rate of youth unemployment stands at a record high on Saturday 28 November 2009 in London, England. Unemployment in the UK totalled 2.46 million in the three months to September. Youth unemployment – measuring the number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work – rose by 15,000 to 943,000. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT – 29.07.09. Vestas workers, family members and supporters march from the Vestas wind turbine factory to the local County Court on Wednesday 29 July 2009 in Newport, Isle of Wight. Vestas workers represented by RMT lawyers argued successfully that a possession order had been incorrectly served and that Vestas could not be granted an eviction order – the judge adjourned the case to Tuesday 4th August 2009. Vestas workers have been occupying the factory after management revealed plans to cut 600 jobs and close the factory. (Photo by Marc Vallée/marcvallee.co.uk) (c) Marc Vallée, 2009.

Link : Click here to view more images.

Clients : Images are available for rights managed editorial licensing. High resolution images are available on request.