brian haw, the parliament square peace campaigner, passed away in the early hours yesterday morning after a long struggle with lung cancer.

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brian haw died peacefully in germany where he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer for the past six months. his parliament square peace campaign marked an extraordinary ten-year milestone just two weeks earlier.

brian originally set up camp in the square opposite the gates of parliament on june 2nd 2001. his protest was against the sanctions on iraq that were directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of children's deaths.

the authorities mounted various legal challenges to evict brian over the years, but each time he saw them off, and fought not only against the sanctions, and later the iraq and afghanistan wars, but also for the right to protest.

over the years, his display of banners spread along the edge of the square, and activists, campaigners and artists (including banksy) contributed banners and artworks to the site.

in 2005, the government brought in new legislation as part of the 'serious organised crime and police act'  (socpa), that introduced a system of authorisation and conditions on protest near parliament. the legal challenges from that time were still rumbling on, but the police were instructed to illegally swoop in the middle of the night in may 2006 to remove most of the display, unceremoniously breaking it up and shoving the pieces into a large container.

artist mark wallinger was so incensed by this attack on freedom of expression that he spent months recreating every detail of brian's whole display, and showed the life-size copy in the tate's duveen gallery, winning the turner prize for his work entitled 'state britain'.

support for brian was such that he won the channel 4 'most politically inspiring figure of the year' in 2007, as voted for by viewers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKvhsJJBF-0

as new people joined brian's campaign, an unfortunate rift and personality clash occured, remaining an issue in the square to this day. many of his long-term supporters left or were ostracised, but the campaign carried on, and brian's main focus was the legacy of depleted uranium munitions on the people of iraq and afghanistan - his display included distressing photographs of some of the deformities caused by the radioactive dust released when these missiles strike.

pledges by gordon brown to repeal the socpa laws were never honoured, and the new administration is currently ramping up the pressure with new laws and injunctions to rid parliament square of any permanent protests, possibly ahead of greater illegal military intervention in libya and the middle east. it is a sign of how effective brian's protest has been that government feels the need to draft, debate, and push through legislation which is clearly specifically directed at this one man, first with the socpa clauses, and most recently with the police and social responsibility bill.

i hope that the protest groups in parliament square will find a way to honour brian's memory, put aside differences, and work together to fight the government assault on freedom, and to continue to highlight the illegality of our wars and ammunitions.

i will remember brian most of all for his disarming and radiant smile, for his lethal humour, for his incisive words, and for his enormous personal sacrifice in the cause of peace.

brian haw 1949-2011, rest in peace.