A place where the spirit of people power was encouraged and as such, was also so opposite the square, grey suits and shadowy corruption of parliament in every way.
This picture of the statue of Churchill, so famously defaced in 1999 when people involved in the anti- capitalist movement put a clod of grass on top of his head and he looked like he was sporting a punky mohican hairdo, much to the horror of the establishment circles.
That day in June he was being haunted by a bright red dragon, perhaps representing the spirit of the many groups of workers to whom he sent the troops in to crush when they rose for a better life ( during his prime ministerial days, before his one during the second world war ). They struck against the employers and were brutally put down by troops who Churchill gave the order, the miners of the welsh valleys were particularly bitter with Churchill.
Of course there were things like rationing and the war as a whole which caused such hardship predominantly for workers of the country, he was actually most unpopular among the ordinary people, something you would never has guessed from the hero worship and his almighty statue that takes pride of place in parliament square.
However, aside from those details, the image represents the disdain the peace and environment movement had and still has for authority ( there was also a fair share of anarchists and socialists mixed in together as well ).
The desire of those people for more democracy and freedom. It is expressed creatively here in the above picture; Churchill being haunted by the dragon ( not the black dog you note, no, its a bright red dragon! )
Right in the middle of the Green was this charming Peace garden, people came there to meditate and talk about all manner of things from philosophy to politics to religion, to dig the earth and grow some plants and flowers.
The great peace veteran Harry Patch ( RIP ) was remembered here too
Yes, this is parliament in 2010, on the buses driving past, the public don't quite know what to make of it all, what is more interesting, parliament, or the peace camp?
Perhaps they are a bit afraid of the audacity of the peace campaigners who encourage people to think a bit deeper and maybe question the way things are.
When it comes to posing an alternative to parliament, the camp perhaps fell short, but I don't think that that was what it was all about, certainly as a spectator, the significance is about the Peace Camp being set up on Parliament Square and representing the desire of the people to see change.
The utter distrust, some maybe many have of establishment politics and the yearning for something different, something better, something that allows us to be the creative humans beings that lies deep within. That thing which is prevented from flourishing because of the wayward priorities of the current system whose political representation is parliament.
