Brian Haw
Encyclopedia
Brian William Haw was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a camp in London's Parliament Square
Parliament Square
Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...

 from 2001, in a protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

 against UK and US foreign policy. 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
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and later Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

. At the 2007 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 Political Awards he was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure.

Early life

Haw was born in Woodford Green
Woodford Green
Woodford Green, formerly in the county of Essex, is part of the North East London suburb of Woodford, on the edge of Epping Forest, mostly within the London Borough of Redbridge with a small part on the western side of the green within the London Borough of Waltham Forest .-History:Woodford Green...

, Essex, a twin and the eldest of five. He grew up in neighbouring Barking
Barking
Barking is a suburban town in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in East London, England. A retail and commercial centre situated in the west of the borough, it lies east of Charing Cross. Barking was in the historic county of Essex until it was absorbed by Greater London. The area is...

 and in Whitstable
Whitstable
Whitstable is a seaside town in Northeast Kent, Southeast England. It is approximately north of the city of Canterbury and approximately west of the seaside town of Herne Bay. It is part of the City of Canterbury district and has a population of about 30,000.Whitstable is famous for its oysters,...

, Kent. His father, who had been one of the first British soldiers to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...

, worked in a betting office. He committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 by gassing himself when Haw was 13. Haw was apprenticed to a boat-builder from the age of 16 and then entered the Merchant Navy as a deckhand.

Personal life

As an evangelical Christian, Haw visited Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

 during The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...

 as well as the Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War ....

 of Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. Haw worked with troubled youngsters in Redditch
Redditch
Redditch is a town and local government district in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district had a population of 79,216 in 2005. In the 19th century it became the international centre for the needle and fishing tackle industry...

, Worcestershire, where he lived with his wife Kay and their seven children until he left them in 2001 to begin his Parliament Square protest. The couple divorced in 2003.

Parliament Square protests

On 2 June 2001, he began camping in Parliament Square
Parliament Square
Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...

 in central London in a one-man political protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

 against war and foreign policy (initially, the sanctions
Economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country on another for a variety of reasons. Economic sanctions include, but are not limited to, tariffs, trade barriers, import duties, and import or export quotas...

 against Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

). By his own account, he was first inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the Mariam Appeal
Mariam Appeal
The Mariam Appeal was a political campaign in the United Kingdom established in 1998. The objects of the Appeal as stated in its constitution were: "to provide medicines, medical equipment and medical assistance to the people of Iraq; to highlight the causes and results of the cancer epidemic in...

, 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
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

 and activist/comedian Mark Thomas
Mark Thomas
Mark Clifford Thomas is a left-wing English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark...

. Among the artwork displayed was a Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

 stencil of two soldiers painting over a peace sign and Leon Kuhn
Leon Kuhn
Leon Kuhn is an anti-war political cartoonist who created topical parodies in the United Kingdom and was listed as an initial supporter of Artists against the War....

's anti-war political caricature 3 Guilty Men, which, together with Kuhn's The Proud Parents, Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...

 later displayed in his recreation at the Tate in 2007.

In October 2002 Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council and is entitled to be known as a city council, which is a rare distinction in the United Kingdom. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors...

 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
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...

 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. The Government passed a provision banning all unlicensed protests, permanent or otherwise, in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency, it also significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of a constable and introduced restrictions on protests in the...

 (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 (see Legal Action, below).

In the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

 Haw stood as a candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster
Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)
Cities of London and Westminster is a borough constituency covering the area comprising the City of London and southern portion of the City of Westminster in Central London...

 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.

Legal action

As preparation for implementing the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency, it also significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of a constable and introduced restrictions on protests in the...

 began, Haw won an application for judicial review
Judicial review
Judicial review is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by the judiciary. Specific courts with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority...

 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
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...

 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
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...

; 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. Ian Blair (head of the Met. police at the time) later admitted that the operation to remove Haw's placards had cost £27,000 The actions of the police were criticised by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority
Metropolitan Police Authority
The Metropolitan Police Authority is the police authority responsible for supervising the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London ....

 at its monthly meeting on 25 May 2006. Haw appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court was the most famous magistrates' court in England for much of its existence, and was located in various buildings on Bow Street in central London close to Covent Garden throughout its history.-History:...

 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
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council and is entitled to be known as a city council, which is a rare distinction in the United Kingdom. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors...

 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."

Documentary

Brian Haw was featured in the 2006 documentary, TerrorStorm. Director and narrator Alex Jones
Alex Jones (radio)
Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones is an American talk radio host, actor and filmmaker. His syndicated news/talk show The Alex Jones Show, based in Austin, Texas, airs via the Genesis Communication Network over 60 AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations across the United States and on the Internet...

 interviewed Haw and even joined in his protest of Parliament by answering Haw's inquiry, via megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...

, about the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...

 by saying she had been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Haw (played by an actor) also appeared briefly in the 2007 drama The Trial of Tony Blair
The Trial of Tony Blair
The Trial of Tony Blair is a satirical drama, based around the notion that the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair is to face charges of war crimes by an international tribunal, following his departure from 10 Downing Street...

. There is also a documentary film made about him by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Mahmoud Shoolizadeh
Mahmoud Shoolizadeh is an Iranian film director and screenwriter, with various awards including Best Film award of the audience for the fiction film Noora in 49th International Film Festival of Taormina in Italy in June 2003...

, A Man Called Brian
A Man Called Brian
A man called Brian is a documentary film by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh. This documentary is about a 55 year-old Briton called Brian Haw who has left his home, his wife and seven children in the south of England and has come to London to stage a 24-hour sit-in opposite the Houses of Parliament for over...

, 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
Nicholas Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers
Nicholas Addison Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, KG PC is the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Before 1 October 2009 his title was Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He was Master of the Rolls from 2000 to 2005 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2005...

, 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.


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:
The court was un-persuaded that a full transcript of the hearing 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 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
Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
The Serious Organized Crime and Police Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom aimed primarily at creating the Serious Organised Crime Agency, it also significantly extended and simplified the powers of arrest of a constable and introduced restrictions on protests in the...

 (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
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...

 (specifically, Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly)), and that Tucker's conviction was therefore lawful.

January 2008 injury and arrest

On 12 January, Haw was observing a protest against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, outside Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...

. 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".

2008 London mayoral elections

In December 2007 press releases stated that Haw had declared himself a candidate in the London Mayoral Elections
London mayoral election, 2008
The London mayoral election, 2008 for the office of Mayor of London was held on 1 May 2008 and was won by Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson....

 in May 2008, but eventually he did not stand. On 17 April 2008 he joined Frank Maloney
Frank Maloney
Frank Maloney is a boxing manager and promoter and United Kingdom Independence Party politician. He is most famous for managing Lennox Lewis to the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World.-Early life:...

 and Winston McKenzie
Winston McKenzie
Winston Truman McKenzie is a UK politician, notable for having joined every major political party, and for having stood as an independent or minor party candidate on numerous occasions...

 in support of the Christian Choice candidate Alan Craig
Alan Craig
Alexander Alan Craig is the leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance party and a former councillor in the London Borough of Newham for Canning Town South....

.

25 May 2010 arrest

On 25 May 2010 the day of the State Opening of Parliament
State Opening of Parliament
In the United Kingdom, the State Opening of Parliament is an annual event that marks the commencement of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is held in the House of Lords Chamber, usually in November or December or, in a general election year, when the new Parliament first assembles...

 for the new Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

-Liberal
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 coalition government, Haw was arrested at 8:30 am.

Illness and death

In September 2010 Haw was diagnosed with lung cancer. 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. Haw died in Germany in the early hours of 18 June 2011 of lung cancer. He is survived by seven children.

Reacting to news of Haw's death, Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

 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". At his death Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

 described him as an "unsung hero". Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...

 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?". The British MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 John McDonnell
John McDonnell (politician)
John Martin McDonnell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington since 1997; he serves as Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Labour Representation Committee, and the "Public Services Not Private Profit Group"...

 has called for a statue of Haw to be assembled to celebrate peace. British artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

 honoured Haw with a tribute on his website.

London Assembly Member Jenny Jones called for Westminster Council to erect a blue plaque for Brian Haw immediately, bypassing English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

's criteria that the person commemorated should have been dead for two decades or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier.

In culture

In January 2007, former Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...

 nominee Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger
Mark Wallinger is a British artist, best known for his sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Ecce Homo , and State Britain , a recreation at Tate Britain of Brian Haw's protest display outside parliament. He won the Turner Prize in 2007...

 recreated Brian Haw’s Parliament Square protest in its entirety as an exhibition at Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

, titled State Britain
State Britain
State Britain is an installation artwork by Mark Wallinger displayed in Tate Britain in January 2007. It is a recreation from scratch of a protest display about the treatment of Iraq, set up by Brian Haw outside Parliament and eventually confiscated by the police. Haw's display contained several...

. Running the length of the Duveen Gallery, State Britain was a painstaking reconstruction of the display confiscated by the Metropolitan Police in 2006. 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
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...

.

The London-based band XX Teens
XX Teens
XX Teens, formerly Xerox Teens are a five-piece band from London. They began performing in London in 2004 and since then have released six singles and an EP. Their debut album Welcome To Goon Island was released on 28 June 2008 on Mute Records. It includes the songs "Onkawara/B-54", "Darlin'",...

 recorded a song "For Brian Haw", which was included on their 2008 album Welcome To Goon Island
Welcome To Goon Island
Welcome To Goon Island is the debut album by XX Teens. It was set for a mainstream release on 28 July 2008, however, it was made available exclusively from selected independent record shops 4 weeks ahead of this date. All stores that the album was available early in gave away free posters of the...

. The track incorporated a statement by Haw himself about his motivations for the protest.

Free music pioneer Sean Terrington Wright
Sean Terrington Wright
Sean Terrington Wright is a British songwriter, singer, guitarist, record producer, artist, writer, and poet. He has collaborated with Kim Fowley, Najam Sheraz, Mark Linkous, Mark Tinley, Enrico Coniglio, Yvalian, Josh Woodward, & many indie artists...

 dedicated his 12th CD album "War No More", released in 2008, to Haw. In September 2011 Wright wrote "Ballad Of Brian Haw" for his "Vox Pop" album.

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
Youth Music Theatre: UK
Youth Music Theatre UK is the United Kingdom's biggest provider of music theatre projects for young people. It is one of nine recognised National Youth Music Organisations ....

 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 performed at the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

.

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
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

, featuring Michael Byrne
Michael Byrne (actor)
Michael Byrne is an English actor noted for his roles on film and television. He has often been cast in Nazi military roles such as Colonel Vogel in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik in the BBC radio dramatisation of the novel Fatherland by Robert Harris...

 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."

See also

  • Concepcion Picciotto
    Concepcion Picciotto
    Concepcion Picciotto , also known as Conchita or Connie, has lived in Lafayette Square on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a peace camp across from the White House, since August 1, 1981, in protest of nuclear arms...

    , a Spanish-American protester who has lived in a similar peace camp outside the White House
    White House
    The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

     since the 1980s
  • Mark Thomas
    Mark Thomas
    Mark Clifford Thomas is a left-wing English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark...

  • Iraq sanctions
    Iraq sanctions
    The Iraq sanctions were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the nation of Iraq. They began August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003 , and certain portions including reparations to Kuwait...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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