Remembering Thatchers destruction of the peace convoy 25 yrs on

international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Thursday May 01, 2008 00:32

by hasan i sharba

Thatchers destruction of a the peace convoy

1985 marked not only Thatchers attack on the working class via the miners strike, terror in NI, inner city riots,but also Thatchers sending in paramilitary Police to stop the emergence of a counter culture made up of mainly unemployed young people who sought to challenge Thatchers material society.

In 1994 the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) abolished the 1968 Caravan Sites Act, which was set up to ensure official sites for nomadic people in the wake of over 100 gypsie deaths at the hands of vigilantees in the 1960's. In response to this drastic disappearance of traditional sites, some travellers have attempted to buy their own land, only to be denied planning permission in 90% of cases.

For the first time in British legal history tresspass has been made a criminal offence, thereby extending police powers to move travellers on. The number of vehicles that can now park-up together has now been limited to six. Failure to comply with any section of the law will result in travellers' homes being impounded and destroyed at the owner's expense.

"Fifty years ago, if it had been Hitler who had won the Second World War," Says Cookie, a traveller from Norfolk. "The Criminal [In]Justice Act would have become law in occupied Britain six months later."

This very real connection between the CJA and the Nazis persecution of the gypsies was not lost on the 200 people gathered at Stonhenge on VE Day. As they ringed the monument to observe the 3 minutes of silence, their anti-CJA banners dispelled the comfortable myth that tyranny had finally been banished from Europe 50 years hence.

Ten years after women and children were ambushed and beaten-up by police officers in a quiet corner of the Wiltshire countryside, the uneasy feeling that it could so easily happen again will haunt the Beanfield anniversary. The reality, however, is that for someone somewhere a minor Beanfield, either at the hands of the police or vigilantees, happens every day.

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 piece-to-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".

There wasn't.

When the item was nationally broadcast on ITN news later that day, Sabido's voice-over had been removed and replaced with a dispassionate narrator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3YtmBD_thM&feature=related