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HAW’S SQUARE ON LOVE AND WAR

Nigel Bovey, editor of The Salvation Army newspaper The War Cry talks to Brain Haw.

July 2005

He attracts almost as many labels as there are badges on his grubby, weathered, bush hat. ‘Nuisance’, ‘anti-war protester’, ‘evangelical Christian’, ‘parliamentary candidate’ and ‘nutter’ are among the printable things said about Brian Haw.

Mr Haw may live near the gutter but his name is known in high places. The 56-year-old has been the subject of a House of Commons early day motion, mentioned in debates in the Commons and the Lords, and has appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice. Some parliamentarians are so tired of hearing his name – and his megaphoned messages from the pavement opposite the Houses of Parliament – that they’ve passed a law banning all unofficial protests within half a mile of the Mother of Parliament.

Such a move has resulted in human rights campaigners pinning another badge on the man who has held a 24-7 peace protest in Parliament Square for more than four years – ‘hero’.

To get to talk with Brian Haw is to take your life in your hands. His 60 feet of pavement placards are on the island in Parliament Square. There are four lanes of traffic to negotiate just to get close.

It is 11.15 on a chilly summer morning. Mr Haw is still asleep. As I turn to leave, he peels back the green tarpaulin that is the roof over his head. Shivering and dishevelled, he removes a walking boot from his bedding and agrees to a chat once he’s woken up properly.

An hour and another precarious play with the traffic later, and I’m back. Together we perch on the pavement on picnic stools. Surrounded by noisy, belching traffic, this island is no paradise.

‘They want to shut me up,’ he says, thumbing towards the House of Commons. ‘They say I’m destroying the tranquillity of Parlia…’ I can’t hear the rest of the sentence. Two police cars roar past, sirens wailing.

We try again. Why is he making an anti-war protest?

‘Everybody thinks I am anti-war, but I’m not. I’m pro-peace. I’ve been here since 2 June 2001. Ages before the second Gulf War started.

‘It’s easy to think one person can’t do anything to change the world. When it’s dark we can do two things: shout at the darkness or turn on a light. One little candle is all it takes. Everybody knows the world is not right. I’m here because things are not right. I’m here as a sign, as a message.

‘I used to make one-off pieces of furniture. All the designing, the planning, the craftsmanship, and then I had to start all over again. That gave me a glimpse of Creation. The Bible tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We know that our fingerprints, our DNA, the iris in our eye mark us as unique individuals.

‘My father was a sniper in the Second World War. His job was to kill people. He was one of the first into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. What horrors he saw! Twenty years later he gassed himself.

‘There has been too much killing. I don’t want people, who have been created by God, to be killed, whether they are in Iraq, London or wherever. What worries me is that since the end of the Second World War, Britain has supported every Fascist regime – all the regime had to do was to say it was against communism. That is wrong.’

Brian Haw’s stand in Parliament Square started as a campaign against economic sanctions imposed by the West on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the bombing of the country by the US and UK. The American bombing of Afghanistan after 9/11 and the bombing of Iraq in advance of the second Gulf War are among the issues that have kept him there. Human rights in Latin America and Burma also get him going.

War and peace are more than theories. He has seen what killing and violence can do. In 1989 he was in Pol Pot’s Cambodia. He thinks about the suicide of his father. And, more recently, he has had his nose broken three times by those who disagree with his peace-loving stance.

‘The first time was by a marine from the American Embassy,’ he says. ‘It was 2 o’clock in the morning. He was cool, calm and methodical. Trained. It wasn’t the faltering punch of a stray drunk. This was the business and I was at the receiving end.

‘The second time was in September 2003 by an Israeli. Now, he was violent. He’s the only one who’s knocked me down on the pavement.

‘The third time was by a middle-aged English woman. She was the worst. She told me beforehand how she was going to break it in four places. I told her that, as a craftsman myself, I had every confidence that she would. That was just before Christmas 2003. I had to go into hospital to have my nose reset. It did me a favour in a way. I can now breathe through my nose for the first time in 50 years!’

Brian Haw’s campaign began before he took to the streets. In 1998 he wrote to Tony Blair. ‘I wrote to protest against the bombing of Baghdad, ordered by President Clinton. It was just before Christmas. It was shown on TV like some obscene firework display. Those missiles were killing innocent men, women and children. I was outraged.

‘Later I learnt that 300 cruise missiles were used at £1 million a time. Even if you don’t care about the deaths, £300 million is a very expensive firework display. Instead of blowing up people, that money could have been used to help the people of Baghdad.

‘How can the West do that so casually? And who put Saddam in power in the first place? We did! I sent a copy of the letter to the Iraqi Embassy, and took the opportunity to condemn the gassing of Iraqi Kurds by Saddam Hussein.

‘One thing I learnt from my dad is that you don’t get peace by killing people.’

Brian Haw has, though, been fighting a long battle with the authorities. In September 2002 Westminster Council went to the High Court to have the protest placards removed. The case failed. In January 2003 he was arrested in Waterloo Station (‘I was drinking an expensive cup of coffee, having had my weekly shower,’ he says) and was charged with assaulting a police officer. The case was later thrown out.

On the eve of the visit to London by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in May 2004, police removed placards and arrested Mr Haw for ‘failing to leave a cordoned area’. He won on appeal.

‘Every time I’ve been to court to defend my right to peaceful protest I have been vindicated,’ he says. ‘Each time I appear before a judge, I get greater respect. In one case the judge said, “You say Mr Haw is illegally occupying this space? You say he is preventing other demonstrators? And you want me to order him gone, so other demonstrators can illegally occupy the space!”’

Earlier this year MPs passed the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. One of its provisions, with effect from 1 July 2005, is to require those wishing to demonstrate within half a mile of the Houses of Parliament to apply in advance.

‘Some people are calling it “Haw’s Law”,’ says the man himself. ‘But how can I apply in advance? I’ve been here for more than four years already!’

Not all MPs see the protest as an eyesore or the protester as a nuisance. A number have spoken in favour of his democratic right of protest. Any curbing of Mr Haw’s rights, they argue, affects everybody’s rights.

In last May’s general election, he stood in the Cities of London and Westminster seat. With 298 votes, he came sixth out of nine.

‘It has taken someone bigger than Messrs Bush and Blair to keep me on this pavement,’ he says, resuming after chatting with some Japanese law students. ‘God has kept me here and he’ll be with me whatever happens next. I’ve been called “stubborn”. But it’s about something more than that. I’m physically shattered but I must go on. I believe this is something God wants me to do. There is unrighteousness in the nation. Wrongdoing. Corruption. Deceit. How much money has been spent on killing people in Iraq? It’s outrageous!

‘I’m a Jesus Christian. I’m not into this “born-again Christian” label. Read the Book. There’s only one sort of Christian. If you’re born-again, you are a Christian. ‘I was 11 years old when I committed my life to Jesus. It was at a missionary meeting in Harbour Street Evangelical Church, Whitstable. The sermon was on “Who shall go? Whom shall I send?” And I answered: Here I am, Lord, send me.

‘Love is at the heart of who God is and what he wants to do. I like the verse in Jeremiah which says: “Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practises steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight.” God puts steadfast love at the top of the agenda. This was written at a time when Israel was under attack, when babies were being smashed against the walls of Jerusalem. A time of great bloodshed and death, yet God says “love!”

‘War is never about religion. It is about power – who wants to keep it, who wants to get it. Is the war against the “axis of evil” Christian? I don’t think so. “Christian” means what Jesus would do. The challenge for Christians is to show what Jesus Christ is like in our behaviour.

‘I’m here as a messenger. My message is “Christian Tony, Christian George, read the Good Book. Would Jesus bomb a single baby, even by accident?” I’m here to cry to the Highest Court, where one day we shall all give account to our Maker. And when I’m asked what did I do about war, I want to say, “I did as much as I could.”

‘I’m not doing anything wrong, I’m just saying things people don’t want to be said. It doesn’t matter what country you live in, or what your colour of skin is, love your neighbour as yourself. Love your neighbour’s child as you love your own. That’s Christianity. That’s humanity. That’s sanity. That’s the path to peace.’

Talking of sanity, some people – from the midnight drunk looking for an easy target to dismissive churchmen and determined politicians – might write Brian Haw off as a nutter. Is he mad?

‘Bombing innocent people. Targeting schools and hospitals because that’s where weapons of mass destruction are supposed to be stored. Who are the biggest war-mongering nations of the world if not the USA and the UK?

‘I’m calling for peace. I’m calling for oppression, killing and genocide to stop. I’m calling for people of all nations to be treated with dignity. Who’s mad? You work it out.’

As I leave stubble-faced, war-weary Brian Haw to his lonely vigil, I can’t help but wonder whether some people might also give this outspoken protester another label: ‘Prophet’.

This article first appeared in The War Cry © The Salvation Army 2005

Pictures by NIGEL BOVEY