Archive for June 2011
Unreleased: Images of a Scottish G8 Summit
Unreleased images from the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland. Originally shot as reference material for the Scottish Sunday Herald newspaper rather than news footage.
As you can see, an age old problem of police officers removing their identification numbers, an issue that only got the news it deserved after one man died on the G20 protests some four years later.
I’ve cut this together while digitising my footage from 2005, as the DV tapes are starting to deteriorate. I’ve also started messing with the overlaps of footage, the outtakes that usually end up on the editing floor – in the old fashioned term. The rush is also a depiction of the slow deterioration of the camera from the Scottish weather and being knocked around, until its last shot when something blew inside. Still not sure where the music was coming from in the last shot either, considering I was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere outside Stirling.
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
Images of a Greek Revolution: After The Riots
I met John, an electrical engineer, in Syntagma Square where he had joined the protest camp. Over several days he told me bits about his life and how the austerity cuts had already personally affected him, losing 700 euros in two separate pay cuts from his monthly pay cheque of around 2000 euros.
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
Images of a Greek Revolution
Wednesday 15 June 2011 saw the 17th general strike in Greece since the beginning of the economic crisis, this time in protest of the second wave of IMF-enforced austerity cuts and demand a new government.
Around 500,000 people gathered to march on Syntagma Square to join the protest to surround and blockade parliament, as politicians of both parties slogged out the bailout agreement inside. Police for the second time ever used metal fences to barricade the side streets around the building and stop the protest. As anger ensued at the denial of protest police used tear gas and concussion grenades to disperse the growing crowds.
As molotovs hit, trying to breach the police lines at the front of parliament, right wing nationalist protestors turned on anarchists in an attempt to protect the parliament building.
On the south side of the square riot police then instigated incursions into the square, attacking the peaceful protest camp and drawing attention away from parliament. Turning the entire southern end of Syntagma into a battleground for more than seven hours also succeeded in halting the protest march, which never made it into the square. If it had the blockade of parliament would surely have succeeded.
One new weapon I had never witnessed before were the smaller multiple explosion concussion grenades, the first explosion, which I initially thought had blown the end of my right foot off, pushes the grenade into the air towards upper body and faces, then the repeat explosions go off. The disorientation is immense, contact with the grenade on explosion causing burns, how severe depends on how close it is to your body. Tear gas strength also increased, a dirty brown cloud of gas causing immense pain on contact with skin.
According to locals the June 15 general strike will be remembered as the worst riots the city has seen for three years.
Video – Greek General Strike: Athens March 2010
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
IMF Out! Athens Short
A short video taster from some of the footage shot yesterday, Wednesday 15 June 2001, as thousands of protestors took to the streets, trying to surround and blockade parliament during the Athens general strike against IMF enforced austerity measures and what is seen a corrupt political system, a one party state masquerading as a two party state, an opinion that is sweeping across Europe in the form of mass street protest.
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
Democracia Real Ya
In the days leading up to the local and regional elections in Spain tens of thousands of protestors began occupying the main squares of the major cities under the name Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy Now).
The occupations in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville called for a no confidence vote in the election to declare it void, the two party state declared as a masquerading one party state, no choice.
Unemployment is at an all-time high in Spain. The austerity measures already imposed have caused loss of pensions, an increase in the retirement age and mass cuts in welfare and the public services. And there are more to come.
On Sunday 22 May the election saw the right PP party take sweeping control of most the country, something not seen since the last day of the Franco regime.
This short film covers some of the images and interviews shot over the weekend leading up to the regional elections.
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
East London Graffiti & Stencil
East London Graffiti and Stencil
© Jason N. Parkinson/reportdigital.co.uk
Please contact Report Digital to access this material and the extensive six-year video archive.
