A Journey from Early Festivals to now

m o r f y e n r A Jou Festivals y l r a E w o n to

ALAN LODGE

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One Eye on the Road Alan Lodge alan@alanlodge.co.uk http://alanlodge.uk

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A Journey from Early Festivals to now

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The story so far ……… Read on!

Some of us have been involved for years in opposition to progress of laws ranged against us and our activities. I come from a free festival and traveller background. Surprisingly to many, I also worked as an accident ambulanceman in the London Ambulance Service. I also volunteered and worked for ‘Release’ a drug and welfare organisation and helped set up the ‘Festival Welfare Services’ and the ‘Travellers Aid Trust’ charities that helped to provide medical, social and legal advice services to those living on the road attending festivals and related events.

Those that the state excluded and made no provision for. We also felt that we should try to do many of these things for ourselves. DIY. I have found a number of sayings helpful.

Like....

Bring what you expect to find?

If not you, who?

If not now, when?

If not here, where?

In sum, this means self-reliance. It means gigs are ALWAYS better, when people attending don’t just attend, but are a main part of the act. It is obvious to all those there, when this magic happens. Trouble is we need land …. and it’s been taken away from us for centuries.

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Gatherings2 in the open air with music are as old as anything human beings have ever done. Some of the tensions that result on the use of land probably began between the farmers and the huntergatherers of the Stone Age! "For most of us, a crowd can be an alluring thing, because the desire to be among the throng seems to be innate. Gathering together for ritualistic celebrations – dancing, chanting, festivalling, costuming, singing, marching – goes back almost as far as we have any record of human behaviour. In 2003, 13,000-year-old cave paintings were discovered in Nottinghamshire that seemed to show “conga lines” of dancing women.

According to the archaeologist Paul Pettitt, the paintings matched others across Europe, indicating that they were part of a continentwide Palaeolithic culture of collective singing and dancing.

"In Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2007 book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, she draws on the work of anthropologists including Robin Dunbar to argue that dancing and music-making was a social glue that helped stone-age families join together in groups larger than the family unit, to hunt and protect themselves from predators."3 The 'Pop Festival' became a more modern manifestation of people’s desire to gather and celebrate. We are after all, social animals. In the late 1960's, they went to Woodstock and the Monterey Festivals by the hundreds of thousands. In the UK, the free 'Stones in the Park' and the Isle of Wight Festival saw huge crowds.

Alongside the commercial events, 'Free Festivals' developed. People fed up with the exploitation, rules, squalor and general rip-off that so many events came to represent.

They discovered something. It is a powerful vision. People lived together, a community sharing possessions, listening to great music, making do, living

with the environment, consuming their needs and little else. Parallel to all this, the squatting movement was taking off in the cities and groups such as the ‘San Francisco and ‘Hyde Park Diggers’ were beginning to question land rights. " ....so in 1969 you've got this vacant lot in San Francisco4 which is taken over by the hippies, the professors, the people in the local university and they transform it into a community garden, a new space where also there's rock music played, where there's a children's playground, and so on."

It is from these beginnings that the 1970's saw the establishment of many commercial and free events. The Windsor People's Free Festival became an annual event over the August Bank Holiday.

“It began as an experiment in a new society of love and mutual co-operation, functioned for six short days as a model world where all differences of creed, colour and politics were non-existent and ended in a nightmare that

bore more than a passing resemblance to the Wounded Knee massacre. The third Windsor festival was not a pop music festival, but a gathering of thousands of people, young and old, to experience for nine days the realisation of living what has been termed an alternative society. The creation of a tent city of people who longed to return to the simpler life of tribal concept. While the world outside looked in and saw nothing but the stages from which blared rock music, those who penetrated deeper became aware that by comparison to what was actually taking place, the music was incidental. Windsor 74 was broken up by the police in a brutal attack on peaceful festival-goers, the like of which wouldn’t be seen again until the so-called Battle of the Beanfield in 1985.”5 As numbers continued to rise, and with the politics of the situation, (after all, we were in the Queen's back garden), in 1974 Thames Valley police eventually acted. Forcibly breaking up the site with much violence and injury. I was drinking a cup of tea; sitting on a log round a fire when a line of police arrived and little ol’ naïve me thought that they would just say something like …. “Now come along now, move along” or somesuch. Not a bit of it. A police sergeant, without a word being spoken raised his truncheon and whacked me round the side of the head. I fell off my log, spilt my tea …… and I’ve never been the same since! Quite an education and has continued to shape some of my attitude and politics. (They have been hitting us with sticks for over fifty years now!)

After finding a sense of community and purpose, some for the first time in their lives, many adopted an alternative lifestyle and travelled between events in the 'season'.

They didn't go 'home' in between. You got to choose your neighbours and defeated the alienation that many had felt back in the cities.

In 1975, the People's Free Festival was re-established at Watchfield6 on a disused

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Hill at the beginning of May via Horseshoe Pass, Stonehenge, Ashton Court, Inglestone Common, Cantlin Stone, Deeply Vale, Meigan Fair, and various sites in East Anglia, to the Psilocybin Fair in mid-Wales in September, it was possible to find a free festival or a cheap community festival almost every weekend.

Young people from traditional travelling families began to come into the festival scene and people from the cities began to convert vehicles and live on the road. As the habit of travelling in convoy caught on, larger groups of performers were established. They were joined by a wide variety of traders of different kinds. So the New Traveller culture was born, emerging into public view at Inglestone Common in 1980 with the New Age Gypsy Fair."7

airfield in Oxfordshire. Over 10,000 people came and for two weeks, re-invented the town. The following year however, the bank holiday event died due to much police pressure and days of very heavy rain!

"By the end of the 1970s a regular summer circuit had been established. From May

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“The prehistoric monument at Stonehenge has long held a fascination for the mystically inclined and so it was only natural that those within the counterculture who believed that the ancients situated their sites at places containing special powers would want to hold a festival there. After all, at their best when the music was right, when the people acted in unison and that rare communal ecstasy came to pass - (if only fleetingly) festivals could conjure up a heightened awareness.

It was this search for IT that inspired many freaks to take the annual pilgrimage to the

Henge, in addition to the general feeling amongst hard core hippies that their psychedelic explorations happened to mimic the mind-set of the ancients, it was also an excuse to get down and party hard for (as the festival progressed until its demise in 1985) increasingly long amounts of time. So, for a significant minority, the stones of the Henge became THE place to be to hold the hippie/punk/ anarchist/bikie/ traveller ritual of festival.�8 The Stonehenge Free Festival9 had been held at the Summer Solstice since 1974. However at 1977 event, numbers suddenly increased and this became the Annual People's Festival. Since then, the numbers involved doubled each successive year. The 1984 festival attracting hundreds of thousands over a six week period. It was the last.

“It was not a haphazard conglomeration of people trying to get by', but an event controlled by the long term travellers who also wanted to maintain a healthy environment.

What people don't realise is that it was all organised. Money was collected from traders for the rubbish crew, who went round 3 times a day, there was a [sort of] security squad and cash went from the dealers to pay St. Johns and stuff." [Andy]. From June 1st onwards, the party grew, until it is estimated that well over 30,000 were in attendance. The site seemed well-organised with a trackway system laid out, toilets and standpipes... alcohol, food and crafts and of course drugs, were on sale. Bands played all over the site

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almost 24hrs a day! First Aid, Samaritans and Lost Children tents were on site... it was a spontaneous experiment in human trust

those means that make life comfortable, easy and meaningful. The 'bender', the Indian 'tipi', the Moroccan 'yurt', the Romany 'bow top', the western two-man tent, the truck and the double decker bus.

Many developed a sense of common purpose and identity. There was an acceptance that modern life was too fast, expensive and polluting to the environment. We had discovered Anarchy in action, and it worked!

People began working out and managing relations within 'our' communities, without reference to Them.

and co-operation.. to live an alternative without the State." [John Harrison].�10 People looked at the various examples provided by gypsies here and in Europe.

To nomadic people across the world. To try life outside the house in many different ways and to pick and select

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"Free festivals were in their ascendancy and gatherings, that for many years had been small hippy affairs, swelled to many thousands of people. Suddenly, life on the road in an old £300 1960's bus, truck or trailer seemed like a bloody good option weighed against the prospect of life on the dole in some kakky city where the only values being espoused by the Tory Government were those of me, me , me and more me - what was a poor boy to do. Five of you - £60 each , forget about the Tax and Insurance (fascist claptrap), let’s just chuck a few mattresses in the back of the Bella Vega and head for the nearest festival where we will be welcomed with open arms and be swallowed up into the new age traveller family bosom - and what a beautiful, bountiful and jolly socially diverse bosom it was; anarchists, venusians, pikies, pixies, conspiracy fugitives, old school, new school, never been to fucking school wheeler, dealers, medicine spielers - tryers, flyers, out and out liars - saints, sinners, all of

them winners - all of them strangers in their own very strange land."11 The temperature had been rising for some time. Assisted by the representation in the press and their invention of the 'Peace Convoy', a moral panic was created.

The papers were full of the shock - horror that we have come to expect. The Sun's - "Gun

convoy, hippies attack police"12 (No mention of gun in the article!). The News of the World contributed - “The Wild Bunch - Sex-mad junkie outlaws make the Hell's Angels look like little Noddy."13 These were headlines read my millions of people and made modern day `folkdevils' out of essentially peaceful people.

In objection to the American Cruise Missiles to be stationed in this country, a peace camp was established at Greenham Common and later at Molesworth.

However, in February 1985, 'Field Marshall' Heseltine, the then Defence Secretary sent in huge numbers of troops to evict the three hundred or so that had occupied the site as the Rainbow Village for some months.

Although the authorities found all this distressing, there wasn't law effective in dealing with it. So they invented some. It the past, a police force generally felt that their

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job was done when pushing people over their county boundary. Thus mealy passing on the 'problem' as they saw it. In the wake of the Miners’ Strike, the police had learned how to act as a national force under unitary direction.

Something had to be done!

Stonehenge appeared central to the situation. Police "Operation Solstice" was initiated.

At a meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), in early 1985, it was resolved to obtain a High Court Injunction preventing the annual gathering at Stonehenge. This was the device to be used to justify the attack at the

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"Battle of the Beanfield" 14 on the 1st June in Hampshire. Well it wasn't a battle really.

It was an ambush.

It was a magnificent convoy stretching and snaking its way over the Wiltshire Downs, as far as you could see in either direction. It was a warm Saturday afternoon as we drove through villages, people stood outside their garden gates, smiling and waving at us. A carnival atmosphere with little evidence of the 'local opposition' that we had been lead to believe was one of the reasons for obtaining the court orders. A police helicopter watched overhead but there was little other sign of

trouble until........

Seven miles from Stonehenge (the exclusion order was for four and a half miles), just short of the A303 and the Hampshire / Wiltshire border, two lorry loads of gravel where tipped across the road.

Up to this point, no laws had been broken. I got out of my truck to take photographs when I first saw some twenty or so policemen running down the convoy ahead

of me smashing windscreens without warning and 'arresting' / assaulting the occupants, dragging them out through the windscreens broken glass.

I and others who saw this were fearful of the level of violence used by the police in making arrests. Clearly we were in for a beating, again! Running back to our vehicles, we drove through a hedge in to the adjacent field.

The scale of the police operation was becoming obvious. The same level of violence had been applied to the rear of the convoy. Large numbers of police in many lines deep could be seen on the road forming up.

From then on, the situation grew more tense.

More police reinforcements were brought up wearing one-piece blue overalls - without numbers!, 'Nato-style' helmets with visors and both full length perspex shields and circular black plastic shields. A 'stand-off' situation developed with sporadic outbreaks of violence.

Working with the festival welfare agencies,

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I was directed to a number of head injuries that has resulted from the initial conflict on the road. All of these injuries were truncheon wounds to the back of the head and some people were quite distressed. I was shown one man, about 20 years old who was semiconscious with yet another head wound.

With symptoms, I was fearful of him dying.

An ambulance was called and I assisted the attendant and helped convey the casualty through police lines. The ambulance crew were initially apprehensive about their safety but assurances were given.

In between the taking of photographs, the copious first aid and concerns for my family and friends, I attempted to start negotiations and set up lines of communications with the middle-ranking 'line' officers. There was no 'middle ground' to be found, so, with others I organised a meeting with Assistant Chief Constable Lionel Grundy. He was in charge of the overall operation. It was early evening before we were able to meet him. The tone of the meeting was 'do what your told or else!'

He reiterated that people should be leaving

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their vehicle and be arrested.

Because of the fear of what that might entail (after viewing the violence earlier in the day), those I met with were reticent about this.

I met Grundy again a little later and attempted to reason further with him, but the ACC then threatened to arrest me for obstruction if I persisted.

Police in full kit were now massed in large numbers and obviously getting ready to charge. It turns out that police had been arresting a lot of people around Stonehenge earlier in the afternoon. At 7.00pm, Grundy had sixteen hundred policemen from six counties, Ministry of Defence police and some believe, army officers in police uniforms!!!

They had been briefed that we were all violent anarchists (see newspaper headlines earlier), rather than a bunch of young people and families with children.

They charged.

The scenes that followed were recorded by media that had evaded the police blockade.

The story was international news. 'Dixon of Dock Green' type policing was dead. That which Britain was noted for had now changed to para-military operations against minority groups.

Kim Sabido of ITN, a reporter used to visiting

the worlds 'hot spots' did an emotional pieceto-camera as he described the worst police violence that he had ever seen. “What we the ITN camera crew and myself as a reporter - have seen in the last 30 minutes here in this field has been some of the most brutal police treatment of people that I’ve witnessed in my entire career as a journalist. The number of people who have been hit by policemen, who have been clubbed whilst holding babies in their arms in coaches around this field, is yet to be counted...There must surely be an enquiry after what has happened today.”15 There wasn't.

When the item was nationally broadcast on ITN news later that day, Sabido’s voiceover had been removed and replaced with a dispassionate narrator. The worst film footage was also edited out.

When approached for the footage not shown on the news, ITN claimed it was missing. Sabido said. “When I got back to ITN during the following week and I went to the library to look at all the

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rushes, most of what I’d thought we’d shot was no longer there,” recalls Sabido. “From what I’ve seen of what ITN has provided since, it just disappeared, particularly some of the nastier shots.”

Some but not all of the missing footage has since surfaced on bootleg tapes and was incorporated into the Operation Solstice documentary shown on Channel Four in 1991.16 Public knowledge of the events of that day are still limited by the fact that only a small number of journalists were present in the Beanfield at the time. Most, including the BBC television crew, had obeyed the police directive to stay behind police lines at the bottom of the hill “for their own safety.”

things and always managed to grin and write it. But as I left the Beanfield, for the first time, I felt sick enough to cry.” 17

One of the few journalists to ignore police advice and attend the scene was Nick Davies, Home Affairs correspondent for The Observer. He wrote: “There was glass breaking, people screaming, black smoke towering out of burning caravans and everywhere there seemed to be people being bashed and flattened and pulled by the hair.... men, women and children were led away, shivering, swearing, crying, bleeding, leaving their homes in pieces. .... Over the years I had seen all kinds of horrible and frightening

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During the charge, I took photographs, but I put my camera away. My partner and I comforting and cuddles with each other for fear, before we were attacked. 530 were arrested that day (both at the Beanfield and at Stonehenge), the most in any operation since the Second World War. Photographic evidence is scant because of the nature of the action. Ben Gibson, a freelance photographer working for The Observer that day, was arrested in the Beanfield after photographing riot police smashing their way into a traveller’s coach.

He was later acquitted of charges of obstruction although the intention behind his arrest had been served by removing him from the scene. Most of the negatives from the film he managed to shoot disappeared from The Observers archives during an office move.

A friend and fellow photographer Tim Malyon narrowly avoided the same fate: “Whilst attempting to take pictures of one group of officers beating people with their truncheons, a policeman shouted out to get him and I was chased. I ran and was not arrested.” Tim’s negatives have also been lost with only a few prints surviving.

“One unusual eye-witness to the Beanfield nightmare was the Earl of Cardigan, secretary of the Marlborough Conservative Association and manager of Savernake Forest. He had travelled along with the convoy on his motorbike accompanied by

fellow Conservative Association member John Moore. As the travellers had left from land managed by Cardigan, the pair thought “it would be interesting to follow the events personally”. Wearing crash helmets that disguised their identity, they witnessed what Cardigan described as `unspeakable’ police violence.

After the Beanfield, Wiltshire Police approached Lord Cardigan to gain his consent for an immediate eviction of the travellers remaining on his Savernake Forest site. They said they wanted to go into the

campsite `suitably equipped’ and `finish unfinished business’. Make of that phrase what you will, says Cardigan. “I said to them that if it was my permission they were after, they did not have it. I did not want a repeat of the grotesque events that I’d seen the day before.”

Instead, the site was evicted using court possession proceedings, allowing the travellers a few days recuperative grace.

As a prominent local aristocrat and Tory, Cardigans testimony held unusual sway, presenting unforeseen difficulties for those seeking to cover up and re-interpret the events at the Beanfield.

In an effort to counter the impact of his testimony, several national newspapers began painting him as a `loony lord’, questioning his suitability as an eye-witness and drawing farcical conclusions from the fact that his great-great grandfather had led the charge of the light brigade. The Times editorial on June 3rd claimed that being “barking mad was probably hereditary”. [ancestor was Earl of Cardigan who lead Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854!].

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“I hadn’t realised that anybody that appeared to be supporting elements that stood against the establishment would be savaged by establishment newspapers. Now one thinks about it, nothing could be more natural. I hadn’t realised that I would be considered a class traitor; if I see a policeman truncheoning a woman I feel I’m entitled to say that it is not a good thing you should be doing. I went along, saw an episode in British history and

made an order on court costs that, as we were getting legal aid, meant we got nothing.

What's new!

As Lord Gifford QC, our legal representative, put it: “It left a very sour taste in the mouth.”

reported what I saw.”18 For three days (and nights), without adequate food, sleep and many to a cell, we filled police stations across the south of England. From Bristol, where I was first taken, on to Southampton and London.19 We were then charged with the serious offence of 'Unlawful Assembly'. Most charges were eventually dropped after all of this.

Some had lost everything they had. Parents where frantic in locating their children that had been taken into care. Vehicles had been taken to a 'pound' some 25 miles away and people had to go through further humiliation in reclaiming what was left of their homes.

Twenty-four of us took out a civil action against the Chief Constable of Wiltshire for the wrongs that were done to us that day.

Nearly six years later at the High Court in Winchester, we won most of our case and were each awarded damages against the police.20 The Guardian said “Need to preserve pubic order does not permit the police to ride roughshod over the rights of ordinary people."21 After a four month hearing, (during which we were made to feel like we were on trial), on the last day, the Judge

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To some of those at the brunt end of the truncheon charge it left a devastating legacy.

Things have never been the same again since the Beanfield. Throughout the rest of the year, whether in small groups or at events, travellers were continually harassed.

The berserk nature of the police violence drew obvious comparisons with the coercive police tactics employed on the miners’ strike the year before.

Many observers claimed the two events provided strong evidence that government directives were para-militarising police responses to crowd control. Indeed, the confidential Wiltshire Police Operation Solstice Report released to plaintiffs during the resulting Crown Court case, states: “Counsels opinion regarding

the police tactics used in the miners’ strike to prevent a breach of the peace was considered relevant.”

The news section of Police Review, published seven days after the Beanfield, stated: “The Police operation had been planned for several months and lessons in rapid deployment learned from the miners’ strike were implemented.”22 The manufactured reasoning behind such heavy-handed tactics was best summed up in a laughable passage from the confidential police report on the Beanfield: “There is known to be a hierarchy within the convoy; a small nucleus of leaders making the final decisions on all matters of importance relating to the convoys activities.

A second group who are known as the lieutenants or warriors carry out the wishes of

the convoy leader, intimidating other groups on site.”

If the coercive policing used during the miners’ strike was a violent introduction to Thatcher’s mal-intention towards union activity, the Battle of the Beanfield was a similarly severe introduction to a new era of intolerance of travellers.

In May and June of 1986, the tribes again tried to gather.23 Convoys that began assembling to celebrate the Solstice were evicted and chased around several counties, all over the south of England,24 by both huge numbers police and right wing media outrage, before finally finding some temporary recuperative respite on a site at Stoney Cross 25

in the New Forest, Hampshire.

More of the same was in store. Much stress!!

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It was the 1st June, when we first arrived at Stoney Cross. The whole issue was on newspaper front pages for a week! Politicians again whipped up the moral outrage. On the 3rd June, the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd described the convoy in a speech to the House of Commons as: "Hon. Members from the West Country will be aware of the immense policing difficulties created by the peace convoy, it is anything but peaceful.

Indeed, it resembles nothing more than a band of medieval brigands who have no respect for the law or the rights of others."26

The National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) observed that this assertion was made without any evidence being presented that the convoy contained a higher proportion of people with criminal records, or, evidence the travellers were committing offences on the road.

Two days later on the 5th, Margaret Thatcher said that her governments is: "Only too

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delighted to do anything we can to make life difficult for such things as `hippy convoys.'"27 On the same day, a cabinet committee was formed to discuss new legislation to deal with travellers and festivals. Chaired by Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, it comprised of the Secretaries of State for Transport, Environment, Health and Social Security, and Agriculture. Shortly after the 'green light', Hampshire police mounted "Operation Daybreak"28 on the 9th June. 550 police charged onto the field in support of bailiffs and an eviction order. Many arrests then

ensued, the convoy put up no resistance.

Sixty four convoy members were arrested and 129 vehicles impounded after policemen carried a large amount of documentation on people onto the site and also were armed with DoT files on every vehicle. The police also came armed with care orders for the travellers’ children, though a tip off had reached the camp beforehand and the children had been removed.

It was against this background that the now famous 'anti-hippy' clauses where put into the Public Order Act, these powers began to operate in 1987. Section 39 of the Public Order Act makes it a new criminal offence for a trespasser on land not to leave it after being ordered to by police.

After the previous year’s events, this section is seen as yet another example of how the police are being drawn into enforcing the Civil Law and deciding issues which until now have been the province of the civil courts. The first time for hundreds of years that trespass had become a criminal offence. It was a most controversial measure; it had been inserted into the Act hurriedly.

Section 39 of the Public Order Act says: Power to direct trespassers to leave land.

(1) If the senior police officer reasonably believes that two or more persons have

entered land as trespassers and are present there with the common purpose of residing there for any period, that reasonable steps have been taken by or on behalf of the occupier to ask them to leave and— (a) that any of those persons has caused damage to property on the land or used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards the occupier, a member of his family or an employee or agent of his, or (b) that those persons have between them brought twelve or more vehicles on to the land, he may direct those persons, or any of them, to leave the land. 29

Under the powers, the most senior police officer present may direct people to leave land if it is reasonably believed that: two or more people are trespassers intending to remain on land for any period of time and have been asked to leave, damage has been caused to the land or threatening behaviour used against the occupier, or 12 or more vehicles have been brought onto the land.

The Home Office had stated: "That the clause was a response to the `problems' of new age travellers and that the power is not aimed primarily at Gypsy groups."

Yea right!

However, according to the National Gypsy Council, by 9.27am on the day the act came into force (1st April 1987), section 39 was

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being applied against Gypsies by Avon and Somerset police. The increasingly hostile political climate that followed had a dramatic effect on the travelling community, frightening away many of the families integral to the community balance of the festival circuit.

In the following years, attempts continued to gather at Stonehenge with concerted attempts being made to break through the police cordon. Secreted around the area, however, were thousands of waiting riot police and, as the anger of the penned in crowd grew, numberless uniforms came flooding down the hill to disperse the crowd with a liberal usage of truncheons and riot shields.

The numbers of people prepared to travel to Stonehenge and face this treatment naturally dwindled, resulting in a concentration of those who were prepared for confrontation in defence of what was considered as a

right to celebrate solstice at Stonehenge.

Successive huge police operations backed by the Public Order Act 1986 have become stricter and stricter in attempts to stop anyone

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from reaching the Stone circle at Solstice.

There are still a few however, who hug hedgerows and dart between the beams of police helicopters in order to be in view of the Solstice sunrise at Stonehenge. The event has now turned into a ‘managed access event’, organised by English Heritage with the associated security and policing. Not my sort of thing anymore…….

Up until 1985, the free festival circuit had provided the economic backbone of all year round itinerancy. Traditionally the three cardinal points in the festival circuit were the May bank holiday, the Solstice and the August bank holiday. Without the need for advertising, festival goers knew to look out for these dates knowing a festival would be taking place somewhere. The employment of two bank holidays as specific festival

times was designed to allow workers the opportunity of attending a festival without the inevitable bleary Monday back at work. The number of festivals in-between these cardinal points also blossomed, giving rise to the possibility of travelling from one to the other

(with choice) over the entire long summer. By selling crafts, services, performance busking, tat and assorted gear, Travellers provided themselves with an alternative economy lending financial viability to an itinerant culture.

Evidence suggests that the political campaign to eradicate festivals was aimed at breaking this economy. It is obvious that as soon as they scared away the punters it destroyed the means of exchange. Conservative Norman Tebbit MP went on about getting on your

bike and finding employment whilst at the same time being part of the political force that kicked the bike from under us. In the years that followed, the right-wing press made much of dole-scrounging travellers, with no acknowledgement that the engineered break-up of the festival economy was largely responsible.

Dispossessed of their once thriving economy and facing incessant and increasing harassment and eviction, the breakdown of community left travellers prone to a destructive force potentially more devastating than anything directly forced by the authorities. “At one time smack wasn’t tolerated on the road at all,” recalls mother of six, Decker Lynn. “Certainly on festival sites, if anybody was selling or even using it they were just put off site full stop.“

Heroin, the great escape to oblivion, found the younger elements of a fractured community prone to its clutches and its use spread. Once again traveller families were forced to vacate sites that became `dirty’, further unbalancing the battered communities and creating a split between `clean’ and `dirty’ sites. Lynn who still lives in her double-decker bus, “I don’t park on big sites anymore. Heroin is something that breaks up a community because people become so selfcentred they don’t give a damn about their neighbours. To start with it was contained.

But around 1986 there was a large number of angry young people pouring out of the cities with special brew and smack and the travelling community couldn’t cope with the numbers.” The so called `brew crew’ caused constant disruption for the festivals still surviving on the decimated circuit and provided an obvious target for slander-hungry politicians and right-wing media, with the entire scene regularly painted with the inevitable all inclusive black brush.”30 All of this resulted in the virtual end of the Free Festivals as we knew them.

Some disagree with me on how or why, but a 'second wave' of events then started. If section 39 says that we may not 'reside there'. What if we don’t reside there, but stay up all night and 'make a racket' ?? :-) …. thus, the beginnings of the Free Party Scene. A new style developed and convenient for getting round the law. It is obvious though, that many of the same people with the same tackle from the festivals were instigators in the party events. Many of us felt more optimistic at these events, since towards the end of the 80s things were getting bad on

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the festival circuit and simply turning into a refugee column. Then raves revitalised the scene.

offer. And although ideological and sartorial differences remained, both shared an interest

They began to emerge around the country resulting in an injection of new blood and economy to the festival scene. Rave parties

Not everyone on the free festival scene was pleased with the consequences of this festi-rave fusion however. I have pointed out before that one of the main things I liked about festivals was going around fires and trucks listening to fiddles, guitars and accordions and talking to people. Many had families and wanted to put the kids in bed! When the ravers arrived, I couldn’t hear anything other than the beat.

A mass influx of young ravers who were not clued up as to country life did attract a lot of unwelcome attention to travellers, but without them the festival scene would have finished in 91 and no-one these days would know now what we were talking about.

were similar to free festivals in that they were unlicensed events in locations kept secret until the last possible moment. Such events offered similar opportunities for adventure and began attracting huge numbers of young people from the cities. This scene grew dramatically. Where some of these parties differed from the free festivals was that they were organised by groups who would charge an entry fee and consequently make large amounts of money in the process. Not all such rave parties were of this nature however, and the free festival scene began to merge with the rave party scene producing a hybrid with new dynamism.

"In 1990 an alliance between travellers and ravers began to take shape. The travellers had the sites and the know-how to staff and run an event that would run for days rather than just hours. The ravers had the electronic sounds and the seductive, new synthetic ecstasy. It certainly seemed a lot better than what either the Brew Crew or the increasingly dated free festival rock stalwarts had to

26

in getting high and dancing all night." 31

Once again, political attention was now targeted against these new impromptu rave events, resulting in the Entertainment (Increased Penalties) Act 1990.32 Introduced

by Graham Bright MP, this private members bill brought in massive fines of up to ÂŁ20,000 for the organisers of unlicensed events.

Once again this legislation had a dramatic effect on the free festival/rave scene, pushing event organisation into the hands of large commercial promoters with the necessary sums required to pay for licences and policing.

The nature of festival promotion consequently swung away from a community-based orientation, as businessmen and commercial club owners cashed in on the existing public desire for adventurous festival/parties in the countryside. According to Tony Hollingsworth, ex-events promoter for the Greater London Council and now part of the multi-million pound commercial festival outfit Tribute: “The motivation behind these festivals is no

longer passion, it is commerce.”

Relative to the people-led festivals, the commercial festival scene offers little more than another shopping experience with added music and sometimes a funfair bolted on where an attendant wallet is valued and encouraged far more than participation.

The story progresses to 1992 when leaked documents from Avon and Somerset Constabulary demonstrated the existence of Operation Nomad. Force Operational Order 36/92 marked `In Confidence’, revealed: “With effect from Monday 27th April 1992, dedicated resources will be used to gather intelligence in respect of the movement of itinerants and travellers and deal with minor acts of trespass”. An intelligence unit set up by Avon and Somerset produced regular Operation Nomad bulletins, listing personal details on travellers and regular festival goers unrelated to any criminal conviction. A Force Operational Order issued by the Chief Constable also stated: “Resources will be greatly enhanced for the period Thursday 21st May to Sunday 24th May inclusive in relation to the anticipated gathering of travellers in the Chipping Sodbury area.”

This item referred to the annual Avon Free Festival which had been occurring in the area around the May bank holiday for several years, albeit in different locations. However, 1992 was the year Avon and Somerset Police intended to put a full stop to it. As a result the thousands of people travelling to the area for the expected festival were shunted into neighbouring counties by Avon and Somerset’s Operation Nomad police manoeuvres.

The end result was the impromptu Castlemorton Common Festival, another

pivotal event in the recent history of festival culture.

West Mercia Police claim they had no idea that an event might happen in their district, the truth of which relies on the unlikely situation that Avon and Somerset Police did not inform their neighbouring constabulary of Operation Nomad.

In the event, a staggering 30,000 travellers, ravers and festival goers gathered almost overnight on Castlemorton Common to hold a free festival that flew in the face of the Public Order Act 1986 and the Entertainment (Increased Penalties) Act 1990. It was a massive celebration and the biggest of

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its kind since the bountiful days of the Stonehenge Free Festival. West Mercia Police claimed that due to the speed with which it coalesced, they were powerless to stop it, short of asking for military assistance!

Minister for Housing, confirmed that new laws against travellers were imminent “in reaction to the increasing level of public dismay and alarm about the behaviour of some of these

However, the authorities used Castlemorton in a way that led people to suggest it had been at least partly engineered.

After all, a large number of people had been shunted into the area by Operation Nomad, was it really likely that West Mercia police were unaware of this? The right-wing press published acres of crazed and damning coverage of the event, including the classic front page Daily Telegraph headline: “Hippies fire flares

At Castlemorton, "What started out as a

at Police.”33 The following mornings Daily Telegraph editorial read: “New Age, New Laws” and within two months, Sir George Young, then

28

groups.” 34

small free festival for travellers not only went down in history as the biggest illegal rave ever held in the UK, resulted in a trial costing £4m and the passing of the Criminal

Justice and Public Order Act. The resulting publicity also had drastic consequences for the 'alternative' lifestyle of the so-called New Age Travellers who started the event and for the underground rave movement who gatecrashed it.

"Mrs Spragg, who gave up travelling in 1995, says what happened at Castlemorton had an adverse effect on the community she belonged to. The travelling scene did carry on but it was a very different change of lifestyle

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for people - they moved onto farms instead of living on free sites so much, and people were a lot more scared. If it had been a big event, [which] had been staged [and] had cost thousands of pounds it would have been all right. But because it was poor people, with no money, doing something they haven't been granted permission for, suddenly it was the crime of the century. It did mean the end of the travelling scene in a lot of respects."35

public. The time has come to put that right. I want to make sure that it is criminals that are frightened, not law-abiding members of the public.”36 Indeed, the outcry 37 following Castlemorton provided the basis for the most draconian law yet levelled against alternative British culture. Just as the Public Order Act 1986 followed the events at Stonehenge in 1985, so the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill began its journey in 1992, pumped with the manufactured outrage following Castlemorton.

The news-manufacture used to prepare the public palate for the coming law was incessant, with media descriptions of travellers including “hordes of marauding locusts”38 and “These foul pests must be controlled.” 39

So, again, the Tory government thought we can’t have all this and the Home Secretary of the time, Michael Howard said at the Conservative Party conference that he promised grass-roots supporters the most comprehensive programme of action ever launched against crime. Listing 27 measures, Mr Howard said: “In the last 30 years, the balance in the criminal justice system has been tilted too far in favour of the criminal and against the protection of the

30

At the conservative Party Conference, the Prime Minister, John Major reminded the party faithful: "Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less. New age travellers? Not in this age! Not in any age!!"40

By the time it reached statute two years later, it included criminal sanctions against assembly, outdoor unlicensed music events, unauthorised camping and `aggravated trespass’. The law also reduced the number of vehicles which could gather together from twelve (as stipulated in the Public Order Act 1986) to six.

Thus was set for a further tightening of the screw. In 1994, the government passed the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. This piece of legislation is very lengthy and farreaching. It has a number of provisions that directly affect the lifestyles of many people with which I have been involved.

Travellers in particular and other taking direct action to deal with their housing situation are primarily affected.

The provisions of part five of the Act have been given particular attention by civil liberties groups such as Liberty.

They believe that many sections are effectively designed to outlaw a whole way of life and generally erode our human rights.

On these sections, Liberty explain that: "No gathering of more than twenty people may take place anywhere if the police choose to object, unless some landowner has consented to his or her land being used for this purpose (in which case, the landowner may incur legal liability for the actions of those who gather)" Further, they pointed out that: "These clauses are probably in breach

of Article 11 of the European Convention (Freedom of Assembly). Concern is expressed at the sections which apply to gatherings with music and are targeted at festivals and `raves'."

For travellers and those involved in peaceful protest on private property (environmental activists), section 61 on the CJA is even more draconian than the previous Public Order Act. Section 61 Power to remove trespassers on land.

(1)If the senior police officer present at the scene reasonably believes that two or more persons are trespassing on land and are present there with the common purpose of residing there for any period, that reasonable steps have been taken by or on behalf of the occupier to ask them to leave and— (a)that any of those persons has caused damage to the land or to property on the land or used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards the occupier, a member of his family or an employee or agent of his, or (b)that those persons have between them six or more vehicles on the land, he may direct those persons, or any of them, to leave the land and to remove any vehicles or other property they have with them on the land.41 (Previously, damage to gates fences etc.

Now the land itself i.e. tyre marks on the grass!!).

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Penalties for this offence, or to return within three months can mean ÂŁ2,500 fine or three months imprisonment, or both.

Further, Section 62 42 allows the police to seize and remove vehicles when they have issued a direction and it has been ignored. Further sections of the act enable the seized vehicles to be held until all removal and storage charges are paid.

An uncollected vehicle will eventually be destroyed and a further charge had for this!

The Act at large criminalizes diversity and dissent and thus has implications for the wider population such as say Trade Union activity and local protests about services (the hospital, the by-pass, the local factory etc.). Fundamentally, many of its provisions are about land rights. What one can (and cannot) do on land. Which is of course, nearly always someone else's.

The more famous section of the Criminal justice and Public Order Act 1994, was their effort in trying to get a legal definition of what they mean.

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Section 63. Powers to remove persons attending or preparing for a rave (1)This section applies to a gathering on land in the open air of 20 or more persons (whether or not trespassers) at which amplified music is played during the night (with or without intermissions) and is such as, by reason of its loudness and duration and the time at which it is played, is likely to cause serious distress to the inhabitants of the locality; and for this purpose— (a)such a gathering continues during

intermissions in the music and, where the gathering extends over several days, throughout the period during which amplified music is played at night (with or without intermissions); and (b)“music” includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats. 43

So, “…. Having readied themselves for an evening of "sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats," a group of

"ten or more persons" waiting for "such a gathering to begin there," will find themselves being asked to "leave the land and remove any vehicles or property," they happen to be in possession of on said land. Given that most promoters were hoping for 10,000 partygoers, this was a sure fire way of stopping raves dead in their trespassing tracks. Police officers who found themselves, "at least the rank of superintendent," were granted permission to make arrests and seize equipment” 44

A Criminal Justice Fact: The people are growing stronger, in truth it is a fact.

That the power of the people's from the criminal in-justice act They thought that they could put us down, then right before their eyes.

All oppressed united join hands and swiftly rise.

The act it seems was drafted for a chosen few's convenience, So what's left for the rest of us, Downright disobedience 45

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So, next to this tightening of the screw with these laws, there had to be the enhanced gathering of intelligence to effectively deal with it all. Many of us had felt under surveillance for some time, but since the Beanfield, there was a marked increase in their activities. Records were being made of names, nicknames, vehicle registration and undercover operations carried out. Photographs taken. The year after Castlemorton Common, the police set up Operation Snapshot, an intelligencegathering exercise on raves and travellers, designed to establish a database of personal details, names, nicknames, vehicle registration numbers, traveller sites and movements. Undercover operations carried out. More photographs taken.

“Travellers who drove on to farm fields for a legal festival in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, were probably unaware that their every move was being tracked by police across England and Wales as part of a national surveillance operation that has alarmed civil liberties groups. Last year, the Forest Fayre was followed by an illegal gathering at Castlemorton, near Worcester, that attracted 25,000 travellers and ravers and left West Mercia police with a huge bill. There were 100 arrests. Police forces nationally were determined to ensure that such a gathering never happened again.

“Now every traveller's vehicle is logged on computer, along with its whereabouts.

An estimate of the number of persons in a convoy is included, together with details of any targeted individuals. Many of the vehicles and their occupants have been photographed. Last Thursday, Cumbria police's Illegal Trespass Intelligence Unit knew for certain that there were 272

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travellers' vehicles in the 15 police forces that make up its area. A board in the small office shows how many are in each police area and their exact location. Regular bulletins are circulated to the 15 forces. Sergeant Peter Sharkey, one of the three members of the unit, said: 'We are now far better organised.

Police forces will not be caught unawares as they were before.' Details of the travellers were gathered during a 48-hour operation codenamed 'Snapshot'. Some forces used helicopters to track vehicles. Some were stopped and the occupants questioned by uniformed officers who established the identities” John Wadham, legal officer at Liberty, said: “The problem is there are no controls on the police. The travelling community and those who want to go to

parties are not necessarily criminals and they shouldn't be targeted by police. They are being targeted because of their lifestyle.” 46 Leaked documents revealed that Operation Snapshot had estimated there to be around 2,000 travellers vehicles and 8,000 traveller’s in the UK. In the minutes of a meeting held at Devizes on March 30th 1993, the objectives of the operation included the development of “a system whereby intelligence could be taken into the control room and the most up-to-date intelligence was to hand”.....

“Capable of high-speed input and retrieval and dissemination of information.” The

meeting was attended by constabulary representatives from Bedfordshire, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Dyfed-Powys, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, South Wales, Gwent,

consumption, globalisation and green politics at large. The party scene [except the licenced and overpriced paying gigs] were increasing finding it hard to operate at scale because of the laws, surveillance and police operations described above. Small

Staffordshire, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, Surrey, Suffolk, West Mercia, West Midlands, Ministry of Defence and the National Criminal Intelligence Service

gatherings of friends still continued, hiding in the woods, but advertising more widely invariably drew increasing police attention.

They were all asked and all agreed to provide the Southern Central Intelligence Unit with “any information, no matter how small on New Age Travellers or the Rave scene”. 47 The leaked minutes revealed the database was designed to hold one million items of information. Clearly this is a number far in excess of those that have committed any offences. After a short period the Northern New Age Traveller Co-ordination Unit, designed to cover the north of Britain, was established.

Gatherings started to morph again. Many of us considered ourselves environmentalist [even before the label was invented], treading lightly on the land, to think about community,

In London and other major cities, folks had gathered for protest and street assembly to show objection to the passing of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. While there, they would listen to music, ‘with sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats’ and party, having it large! The model was further extended and became ‘Reclaim the Streets’.48 The idea tied in directly with the advancing ‘anti-roads’ movement. That government policy was for the construction of more roads for economic development [they say],

35

many had concerns about the associated consumption and resulting pollution.

Woodland and landscapes were being carved up in pursuit of these policies. In the city, communities were being divided and cars were king. Anti-road protest camps had been established at places such as Claremont Road in objection to the M11 in East London and Twyford Down, South of Winchester with the M3 motorway extension.

half of the nineties, organized illegal raves of a political character. Its playful forms drew on the idea of generating a TAZ, of creating practical, utopian, paradoxical moments situated between social dreams and conflict.

The group was to play a fundamental role in the reformulation of the aesthetics of protest that took place in the 1990s.49

“Reclaim the Streets was an anti-car direct action movement which used street parties as political protest. The aim was to seize roads and in this way to prevent cars from being able to access them. The street parties halted the normal flow of things so spectacularly, that passers-by would be made to stop and question the reasons for the disruption. The first actions took place in London in 1995, closing Camden High Street on 14 May and Upper Street in Islington on 23 July. A year later, the largest street party of several thousand protesters closed an elevated section of the M41 motorway in Shepherds Bush on 13 July 1996.”

George McKay [professor of cultural studies] also talks of DiY culture. "Direct action, the creation of alternative media (fanzines, video activism, use of the internet) and the construction of activist spaces (squatted houses, activist camps or any other attempts at 'Temporary Alternative Zones). These enclaves sink their roots into the magma of the counterculture which has exploded since the 1960s. Both the TAZ and the areas generated by DiY culture speak of a tendency to generate space that finds its place in the long tradition of civil disobedience and direct action. We could talk of spatial disobedience, or of disobedient places, where a series of desires that have normally been repressed are set in motion.

"These notions have particular relevance to the practice of the British group Reclaim the Streets which, starting in the second

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“The Criminal Justice Act strengthened links that already existed between ravers and protesters by criminalising them with the same definitions of 'nuisance' and 'trespass'.

Finding themselves criminalised, ravers became politicised, and 'raving' became a defiant act.” 50 What was attractive about these events was that they were city centred. London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield 51 …….. The rural roadblocks that were stopping us gathering

in fields could not easily be set up in such urban scenarios. The mix of environmental concern, local communities and all of the fun of the party was such a powerful mix and the authorities were often getting wrong-footed.

In London especially, with many going down the underground and who knew where they would pop up again!

If I can’t dance it’s not my revolution!

Armstrong’s song What a Wonderful World sounds through the loudspeakers.

"The experience of being during the party is different from life away from it: ordinary norms disappear and people express themselves by dancing, playing music or making artistic interventions on any available surface.

The economic system of the celebration is abundance and generosity. For Jordan, it is the ‘perfect propaganda for the possible.’"52 A national police clampdown on the activities of Reclaim the Streets had followed July ’96 successful street party on the M41 in London RTS organisers had been arrested before, during and after events – suggesting the police are making use of the surveillance to which RTS groups had been subject for many months. A London activist was arrested in August, shortly after July’s M41 party, following two police raids in which documents were seized. A Birmingham activist was also arrested, following a raid, shortly after a successful street party in Birmingham in August.

RTS say they expected police harassment after the M41 “Seven thousand people committed the offence of obstruction of the highway and had a wicked party, the police chose to arrest eight on the day for public order offences and one after the event.“

"Fundamental to the idea of subversive leisure is the tradition of free festivals, large countercultural celebrations that emerged in England in the 1970s. The RTS parties also want to create situations that are fitting for a better world. British artist John Jordan, one of the co-founders of the group, speaks of how the street celebration seeks to prefigure an ‘imagined world’. This would be ‘a vision in which the streets of the city could be a system that prioritized people above profit and ecology above the economy’.

Significantly, in Upper Street [Islington] Louis

In Brighton 80 people were arrested as they attempted to hold a “beach party” in the streets in August and in Cambridge in September, riot police ensured a peaceful party in Mill Street ended with arrests and trouble. In Brighton there were reports of police from outside the area picking out known organisers for the local constabulary to “take out” on the day of the action [the infamous Forward Intelligence Unit of the Metropolitan police], including legal observers.

37

Some of the CJA demos also included support for various unions and disputes since they were also included in the Tory’s targeting of undesirables. On Saturday 28 September 1996 this was taken yet further with a humungous party and gathering over several days in Liverpool with support for the Dockers in their dispute.

Around 10-15,000 people joined the parade down through Liverpool to the Pierhead.

The message from all these events is just how much potential there is when people get together, organise themselves, unite with others from many groups and campaigns, take to the streets, protest and party and aim for things worth fighting for – a world run by people ourselves, with respect for each other and for the environment. `Make the vinyl spin and the system pound, providing a vibe with the underground sound.

Of illegal music they just can’t stop, gonna crush their laws making party’s rock.

So dance with us, come stomp your feet, cuz your future lies with `repetitive beats!!’ 53 "RTS saw the streets as the urban equivalent of the commons: The commons, in need of reclaiming from the enclosures of the car and commerce and transformed into truly public places to be enjoyed by all. RTS became most known for its street parties, which served not only as a protest vehicle against car culture but also as a vision of what city streets could be in a system that prioritized people over profit and ecology over the economy.

Earth First’ers, trade unionists, Dockers, road protesters, Kurdish groups, a large contingent of anarchists, Workers’ Power and other assorted itinerants all joined the demonstration. All this before progressing to issues about globalisation ……

Solidarity was the name of the game, as groups from all over the country came together in Liverpool, to form alliances and unite in action under the banner of ‘Reclaim the Future! Stop The Clampdown!’

Bringing together the unemployed with workers struggles and raising awareness of animal rights, ecological issues and workers’ concerns and thousands came out in support of the 500 Dockers sacked for refusing to cross a picket line. Overcoming all reservations associated with the political implications of such an event, for many it was to become one of the best actions this year.

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"Reclaim the Streets was successful because it did not look or feel like a typical protest. Much political action is predictable and boring; street parties are quite the opposite. All sorts of people got involved because they knew it would be both a political adventure and a brilliant party. RTS’s political audacity — “let’s hold a mass carnival in the financial district or a rave on a motorway” — ignited hope, and hope is the catalyst for the formation of new movements.

Another key reason for its popularity was that it involved a simple, adaptable formula: disseminate an invitation over the still-young Internet, get a sound system and occupy a street. Its creativity came from its diversity — from artists to anarchists, unionists

to ecologists, ravers to cyclists — all came together to experiment with new forms of mass action.

"The RTS meme soon spread across the UK and the Western world. A global street party in seventy cities occurred in May 1998, coinciding with the G8 summit. A year later, a “Carnival against Capital” on June 18th, coordinated by RTS and the People’s Global Action network, saw simultaneous actions in financial districts across the world, from Nigeria to Uruguay, Seoul to Melbourne, Belarus to Dhaka. Six months after that, a carnivalesque mass street action shut down the WTO in Seattle, an event that proved to be the coming-out party for the antiglobalization movement."

54

Many sound systems contributed to these events, some preferred to remain anonymous others included Rink y Dink, DiY,55 Smokescreen and of course, Desert Storm.56 Perhaps a quote from David Evans, MP for

Welwyn Hatfield best sums up the less than enlighten attitude of the people who are trying to squash such dissent. He goes off about drugs …. But think he wants to hang people {all minor offences} for illegal parking!

“We have recently heard much about the crime-fighting concept of zero tolerance.

Zero tolerance cannot be applied selectively.

All minor offences must be punished. Being found in possession of a quantity of drugs should be treated as a serious offence, irrespective of whether it is a small quantity or a first-time offence. If individuals fear being caught with drugs, they are less likely to purchase them, thus hitting the dealers.

However, the system currently in operation does not punish possession—that is wrong.

I propose a system of zero tolerance for drug abusers, which would mean that those found in possession of an illegal substance would be given an automatic gaol sentence.

If I thought that it was remotely possible, I would advocate the death penalty for those in possession of drugs. That works in Singapore and Malaysia, so why not here?” 57

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Now bringing this tale up to date ….. some of us have been crying about yet further review of the law. So many times in the past, I have tried to point out to people that they do mean YOU. Many people always seem to think in these developments, that the law is pointing at someone else. They were wrong then and they are wrong now .…

I say that when this finally comes out as a bill, it will include a shed-load of further trouble for a whole load of different people engaged in such a wide variety of activities.

Aggravated trespass, protest, union activities, festivals, parties, assemblies of a variety of sorts. Even the ramblers are worried it might restrict access to the countryside. [I think that this does show such a wide variety of people are likely to be affected].

Those that bring vehicles and equipment on land would then not just have them confiscated and returned a bit later … but destroyed.

Police Powers to Tackle Unauthorised Encampments: Strengthening Police Powers to Tackle Unauthorised Encampments: Written statement - Home Office: 04 November 2019 Made by: Priti Patel (Secretary of State for the Home Department) HCWS80

In November 2019, the Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel MP announced a review of the law to extend the Public Order Act 1986 and the Criminal Justice Act 1994 in dealing with Police Powers to Tackle Unauthorised Encampments. This review has concluded in March 2020.

Those that even knew that this was happening think that she just means gypsy travellers at the side of the road or on private land. Hence mostly only those folks and their representatives took the trouble to respond and say all this strengthening of the law is a bad idea.

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Today I am announcing the Government’s plans to consult on criminalising the act of trespassing when setting up an unauthorised encampment in England and Wales. I recognise the distress and misery that some unauthorised encampments cause to many communities and businesses across the country. Currently, this kind of trespass is a civil matter and the powers available to the police are limited.

My predecessor, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, announced to the House of Commons on 6 February that we would carry out a public consultation on amending the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to lower the criteria that must be met for the police to be able to direct people away from unauthorised sites.

He also announced that the Home Office would conduct a review into how trespassing while setting up an unauthorised encampment could be made a criminal offence in England and Wales, learning lessons from other countries like the Republic of Ireland, where this is already a criminal offence.

I am announcing today that having

considered the legislation in the Republic of Ireland, I would like to test the appetite to go further than the original proposals. I would like to broaden the existing categories of criminal trespass to cover trespassers on land who are there with the purpose of residing in their vehicle for any period, and to give the police the relevant powers to arrest offenders in situ and to seize any vehicles or other property on unauthorised encampments promptly.

Tomorrow, we will launch a public consultation on whether criminalising unauthorised encampments would be preferable to the amendments we originally proposed to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and if so, how it should work. The consultation will be available tomorrow at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ strengthening-police-powers-to-tackleunauthorised-encampments and will be open for four months. A copy of the consultation will also be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

I thank Members for their continued engagement on this important issue. 58

We have lost each of the matters I describe here. After all, whoever you vote for, the government gets in!

What I am absolutely positive about though, is that people involved in these scenes,

DID NOT DO ENOUGH ABOUT ANY OF IT AS IT HAPPENED AND NOW IS STILL GOING ON. But I do believe that the communities described represent genuine endeavours in discovering enduring and sustainable ways of life and conducting experiments in how we and the planet may survive. I wish them well in these uncertain times.

Home Office Consultation paper: Strengthening police powers to tackle

The plot continues ‌..

unauthorised encampments [27page pdf] 59

Please, don't let the bastards grind you down!

There are and always will be gatherings / parties. But I am particularly interested in ‘parties with a purpose’ especially those that help to bring about social change.

We will continue. Many events and issues are now surrounding climate change and consumption. 'Climate Camps', Extinction Rebellion etc.

Alan Lodge, photographer 60 Nottingham.

August 2020 One Eye on the Road http://alanlodge.uk

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References, Notes & Further Information: 1

Fairlie, Simon. A Short History of Enclosure in Britain. The Land [issue 7]. Summer 2009 https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/short-history-enclosure-britain 2 Lodge, Alan. Gatherings: https://issuu.com/alanlodge/docs/gatherings 3 Hancox, Dan. The power of crowds. Guardian. 2 June 2020 4 The winding garden path: Radicalism amongst the flower beds. Conv with Laurie Taylor and George McKay. Open University 12 May 2016

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/the-winding-garden-path-radicalism-amongst-the-flower-beds 5 Ferguson, Brian. Maya Magazine. 1974 6 UK Festivals: The Watchfield Free Festival. 23-31st August 1975. http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/watchfieldfestival-menu.html 7 Aitken, Don. [Festival Welfare Services]. ‘20 years of Festivals’. Festival Eye 1990 8 Lepchani, Lucy. History of the Stonehenge Free Festival :1972-1985. http://www.ukrockfestivals.com 9 Stonehenge Festivals Campaign and newsletters http://www.stonehengefestivalcampaign.co.uk 10 Earle, Fiona. A Time to Travel: An introduction to Britain’s newer Travellers. 1994 11 Convoy Steve. “Henge Convoy Tales” http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-convoy-tales.html 12 “Gun convoy hippies attack police”. The Sun. 6 August 1982 13 “Sex-mad junkie outlaws make Hells Angels look like Little Noddy,” News of the World. 9 Jun 1985 14 Worthington, Andy. “Battle of the Beanfield”. Enabler Publications. 2005 15 Sabido, Kim. ITN News. 1 June 1985 16 Operation Solstice - The Battle of the Beanfield. YouTube https://youtu.be/V1doyDQDZtc 17 Davies, Nick. “Inquest on a Rural Riot”. Observer. 9 June 1985 18 Carey, Jim. “A Criminal Culture”, Squall No 14. Special: festivals, raves, travellers & the law. Autumn 1996 19 My cell notes, written covertly in the cells http://digitaljournalist.eu/OnTheRoad/battle-of-the-beanfield-notes-from-my-cell/ 20 Mullin, John, “Beanfield Trial Victory”. Guardian. 7 February 1991 21 Campbell, Duncan, “Need to preserve order does not permit police to ride roughshod over rights”. Guardian 15 February 1991 22 News: Wiltshire Operation Solstice, Police Review. 8 June 1985 23 On the Road to Stoney Cross. Festival Eye. 1987 24 Brown, Paul. Police sweep into action against convoy. Guardian. 2 June 1986 25 New Age Travellers - Seven Days At Stoney Cross. BBC. YouTube. https://youtu.be/sIlWi05I-mo 26 Home Secretary, Hippy Convoy (New Forest), Hansard. House of Commons. HC Deb 03 June 1986 vol 98 cc733-9 27 Prime Minister, Hansard. House of Commons. HC Deb 05 June 1986 vol 98 cc1081-6

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/jun/05/engagements#S6CV0098P0_19860605_HOC_127 28 Operation Overkill. Editorial. Guardian, 10 June 1986 29 Section 39, Public Order Act 1986. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/64/section/39/enacted 30 Carey, Jim. “A Criminal Culture”, Squall No 14. Special: festivals, raves, travellers & the law. Autumn 1996 31 Collin, Matthew. Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. 2009 32 Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/20/section/1/enacted 33 O’Brian, Barry, “Hippies fire flares at Police”. Daily Telegraph. 26 May 1992 34 Brown, Colin, “Gypsies targeted in crackdown on illegal camp sites: Proposals put forward yesterday mark a determined effort to end the

nomadic way of life”. Independent 19 August 1992 35 Chester, Jerry. Castlemorton Common: The rave that changed the law. BBC News. 28 May 2017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-39960232 36 Brown, Colin, “Howard seeks to placate ‘angry majority’: Home Secretary tells party that balance in criminal justice system will be tilted

towards public“ Independent. 7 October 1993 37 Michael Spicer (Worcestershire, South), Travellers, HC Deb 29 June 1992 vol 210 cc688-94

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/jun/29/travellers 38 “New Age, new laws” Daily Telegraph. 27 May 1992 39 “Hippy invasions are here to stay” Daily Mail. 27 May 1992 40 John Major, Conservative Party Conference. October 1992 41 Section 61, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/61 42 Section 62, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/62 43 Section 63, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/section/63 44 Baines, Josh. Looking back at the Legal Bill that Killed off British Rave Culture. Vice. 08 March 2017

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/xypmmw/looking-back-at-the-legal-bill-that-killed-off-british-rave-culture 45 Ant, Plumstead 46 Prestage, Michael. Police keep tabs on the travellers. Independent. 16 May 1993 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/police-keep-tabs-on-the-travellers-2323342.html 47 Campbell, Duncan. “Police log travellers for crackdown”. Guardian. 25 Feb 94 48 Reclaim the Streets - The Film (reloaded). YouTube. 31 Jan 2013. https://youtu.be/-2snn3XDbLg 49 McKay, George. ed, DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, Verso, London, 1998 50 Reclaim the streets. British Library. http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/counterculture/disruption/reclaim/reclaimthestreets.html 51 Reclaim the streets...DStorm Style! YouTube. 29 May 2006. https://youtu.be/5lEPZ5jrnGs 52 Blanco, Julia Ramírez. Reclaim the Streets! From local to global party protest. 23 February 2014. https://greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/reclaim-the-streets-from-local-to-global-party-protest 53 Anon 54 Jordan, John. co-founder of Reclaim the Streets. https://beautifultrouble.org/case/reclaim-the-streets 55 DiY, Digs & Woosh, Castlemorton. [photos, Alan Lodge]. 1992. YouTube https://youtu.be/9bUgtdAgClU 56 Desert Storm, Carl Cox Intro, YouTube. 3 Dec 2006. https://youtu.be/rbOKxC6rDk4 57 David Evans, Welwyn Hatfield) Public Entertainments Licences (Drug Misuse) Bill. HC Order for Second Reading. 17 January 1997 58 Statement Home Sec Priti Patel: Strengthening Police Powers to Tackle Unauthorised Encampments: House of Commons. 4 Nov 2019 59 Home Office Consultation paper: Strengthening police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments [27page pdf] 60 Lodge, Alan. MA Photographic Portfolio, A Closer Look. http://youtu.be/-pppgBmuzGQ

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hotographer covering social, political and environmental issues and actions.

Work has been produced for publication, galleries, digital and slide projections at events and presented at large scale in public space. Moving beyond photography, he has experimented with mixed media involving printed text and projected imagery.

A post-graduate of Nottingham Trent University with an MA degree in Photography, Lodge specialised in issues surrounding representation, presenting himself in print and audio-visual format.

A member of the National Union of Journalists, he is a documentary photographer, a photo-journalist and ‘storyteller’ always on the lookout to cover the different strands of related issues.

E: alan@alanlodge.co.uk W: http://alanlodge.uk Copyright © Alan Lodge 2020 Nottingham. UK

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