The Story So Far

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ALAN LODGE - Photographer - Media One Eye on the Road tel: 0115 911 3804 mobile: +44(0)7712 836603 email: [email protected] web: http://www.gn.apc.org/tash wap: http://wappy.to/tash

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Intro.... 4 Beginnings 4 Stonehenge and the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’ 6 Further trouble and the Public Order Act 1986 14 Attacks on our ‘alternative economy’ 18 Raves, Dance Parties etc... 20 Castlemorton Common 21 Police Surveillance 23 Criminal Justice Act 1994 25 The aftermath 26 My Resume 27

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Some of the story so far......

one ought to be lord over another but the earth be free for everyone to live on. Garrard Winstanley 1649

Garrard Winstanley was an outstanding philosopher and political thinker of the seventeenth century. He became one of the principle advocates for the ‘Leveller’ and ‘Digger’ causes. Earlier in the century, the Royal Enclosures of common land had grabbed vast areas for their own use. Three quarters of the country was common land at this time. The common people suffered.

During the chaos left at the end of the Civil War, the new Establishment took advantage and seized Royalist land and further expanded their estates by shamelessly enclosing more of the commons. The new Parliament acquiesced to this and people remained landless and hungry. The common people suffered.

Over time, some were attracted to the principles of self help, non violent direct action, self sufficiency. To help themselves, nobody else is going to do it for them. After all, they had helped fight a war against the King’s tyranny and they where still dispossessed. On the 1st April 1649, the landless Diggers established a commune on St. George’s Hill, Surrey, intending to grow crops and graze livestock. The adventure lasted little more than a year before people where forcibly evicted.

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Park’ and the Isle of Wight Festival saw huge crowds. Intro.... Alongside the commercial events, ‘Free Festivals’ developed. People fed up It might seem strange to begin this tale in the with the exploitation, rules, seventeenth century, but some facts seem as squalor and general rip-off relevant today. Government seems remote from that so many events came to the people and knows little of their concerns and represent. They discovered situation. Pressures to conform, deviant activities something. It is a powerful being forcibly discouraged. The existence of the vision. People lived together, ‘underclass’, the dispossessed, of land or of oppor- a community sharing posses- tunities. Additionally now, we are increasingly aware sions, listening to great mu- of environmental considerations. It is an old strug- sic, making do, living with the gle which has taken new forms. (The tension environment, consuming their probably began between the farmers and the hunter- needs and little else. Parallel gatherers of the Stone Age!).

Glastonbury `main drag' Beginnings to all this, the squatting move- Gatherings in the open air with music are ment was taking off, and probably as old as anything human beings have groups such as the ‘Hyde Park ever done. Diggers’ were beginning to The ‘Pop Festival’ became a more modern question land rights. manifestation of peoples desire to gather and cel- It is from these beginnings ebrate. We are social animals. In the late 1960’s, that the 1970’s saw the es- they went to Woodstock and the Monterey Festi- tablishment of many commer- vals by the million. In the UK, the free ‘Stones in the cial and free events. The

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Windsor People’s Free Festi- invented the town. The following year however, val became an annual event the bank holiday event died due to much police over the August Bank Holiday. pressure and days of very heavy rain! As numbers continued to rise, The Stonehenge Free Festival had been held 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 braking up the site with much violence and injury. (They have been hitting us with sticks for over

at the Summer Sol- stice since 1974. However at the 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 at- Free Festival in South Wales, disused railway line. twenty years now!) tracting hundreds of thousands over a six week After finding a sense of period. community and purpose, some People looked at the various examples pro- for the first time in their lives, vided by gypsies here and in Europe. To nomadic many adopted an alternative people across the world. To try life outside the lifestyle and travelled between house in many different ways and to pick and events in the ‘season’. They select those means that make life comfortable, didn’t go ‘home’ in between. easy and meaningful. The ‘bender’, the Indian You got to choose your neigh- ‘tipi’, the Moroccan ‘yurt’, the Romany ‘bow top’, bours and defeated the aliena- the western two-man tent, the truck and the dou- tion that many had felt back in ble decker bus. the cities. Many developed a sense of common purpose In 1975, the People’s Free and identity. There was an acceptance that mod- Festival was re-established on ern life was too fast, expensive and polluting to the a disused airfield in Oxford- environment. We had discovered Anarchy in shire. Over 10,000 people action, and it worked! People began working out came and for two weeks, re- and managing relations within ‘our’ communities, without reference to Them.

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The temperature had been rising for some Something had to be time. Assisted by the representation in the press done! Stonehenge appeared and their invention of the ‘Peace Convoy’, a moral central to the situation. Po- panic was created. lice “Operation Solstice” was The papers were initiated. full of the shock - hor- ror that we have come to expect. The Sun’s Stonehenge and the - “Gun convoy hippies Battle of the attack police” (No mention of gun in the Beanfield article!). The News of the World contributed At a meeting of the Asso- - “The Wild Bunch - ciation of Chief Police Offic- Sex-mad junkie out- ers (ACPO), in early 1985, it laws make the Hell’s was resolved to obtain a High Angels look like little Noddy”. These were head- Court Injunction preventing lines read my millions of people and made modern the annual gathering at Stone- day `folk-devils’ out of essentially peaceful people. henge. This was the device to In objection to the American Cruise Missiles to be used to justify the attack at be stationed in this country, a peace camp was the “Battle of the Beanfield” established at Greenham Common and later at on the 1st June in Hampshire. Molesworth. However, in February 1985, ‘Field Well it wasn’t a battle really. Marshall’ Heseltine, the then Defence Secretary sent in huge numbers of troops to evict the three It was an ambush. hundred or so that had occu- It was a pied the site as magnificent the Rainbow convoy Village for stretching some months. and snaking Although its way over the authorities the Wiltshire found all this Downs, as far distressing, as you could there wasn’t see in either law effective in direction. It dealing with it. was a warm So they in- Saturday af- vented some. Convoy going to Stonehenge It the past, a police force generally felt that their ternoon as we drove through job was done when pushing people over their villages, people stood outside boundary. Thus mealy passing on the ‘problem’ as their garden gates, smiling they saw it. In the wake of the Miners Strike, the and waving at us. A carnival police had learned how to act as a national force atmosphere with little evi- under unitary direction. dence of the ‘local opposition’

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Police `ambush' at the Wiltshire / Hampshire border 1st June 1985

Seven miles from Stone- henge (the exclusion order was for that we had been lead to be- four and a half miles), just short of the A303 and lieve was one of the reasons the Hampshire / Wiltshire border, two lorry loads for obtaining the court orders. of gravel where tipped across the road. Up to this A police helicopter watched point, no laws had been broken. I got out of my overhead but there was little truck to take photographs when I first saw some other sign of trouble un- twenty policemen running down the convoy ahead til...... 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’

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helmets with visors and both full length perspex was called and I assisted the shields and circular black plastic shields. A ‘stand- attendant and helped convey off’ situation developed with sporadic outbreaks of the casualty through police violence. lines. The ambulance crew Working with the festival welfare agencies, I were initially apprehensive was directed to a number of head injuries that has about their safety but assur- resulted from the initial conflict on the road. All of ances were given. these injuries were truncheon wounds to the back In between the taking of of the head and some people were quite dis- photographs, the copious first tressed. I was shown one man, about 20 years old aid and concerns for my fam- who was semi-conscious with yet another head ily and friends, I attempted to wound. I was fear- start negotiations and set up ful of him dying. An ambulance

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lines of communications with police uniforms!!! the middle-ranking ‘line’ offic- They had been briefed that we were all ers. There was no ‘middle violent anarchists (see newspaper head- ground’ to be found, so, with lines earlier), rather than a bunch of others I organised a meeting young people and families with with Assistant Chief Constable children. Lional Grundy. He was in They charge of the overall opera- charged. tion. It was early evening before we were able to meet him. The The tone of the meeting was scenes ‘do what your told or else!’ He that fol- reiterated that people should lowed be leave their vehicle and be were re- arrested. corded by Because of the fear of what media that might intail (after viewing that had the violence earlier in the day), evaded those I met with were reticent the police about this. I met Grundy again block- a little later and attempted to ade. The reason further with him, story was but the ACC then international threatened news. ‘Dixon to arrest me of Dock Green’ for obstruc- type policing tion if I per- was dead. sisted. That which Police Britain was in full kit noted for had were now now changed massed in to para-military large num- operations bers and against minor- obviously ity groups. getting Kim ready to Sabido of ITN, charge. It turns out that police a reporter used to visiting the worlds ‘hot spots’ did had been arresting a lot of peo- an emotional piece-to-camera as he described ple around Stonehenge earlier the worst police violence that he had ever seen. in the afternoon. At 7.00pm, “What we - the ITN camera crew and myself Grundy had sixteen hundred as a reporter - have seen in the last 30 minutes policemen from six counties, here in this field has been some of the most brutal Ministry of Defence police and police treatment of people that I’ve witnessed in some believe, army officers in my entire career as a journalist. The number of

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When I got back to ITN during the following week and I went to the library to look at all the rushes, most of what Id thought wed 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 boot- leg tapes and was in- corporated into the Op- eration Solstice docu- mentary shown on Channel Four in 1991. 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 people who have been hit by policemen, who have obeyed the police directive to been clubbed whilst holding babies in their arms in stay behind police lines at the coaches around this field, is yet to be bottom of the hill “for their counted...There must surely be an enquiry after own safety”. what has happened today”. One of the few journal- There wasn’t. ists to ignore police advice and attend the scene was When the item was nationally broadcast on Nick Davies, Home Affairs ITN news later that day, Sabido’s voice-over had correspondent for The Ob- been removed and replaced with a dispassionate server. He wrote: narrator. The worst film footage was also edited “There was glass break- out. When approached for the footage not shown ing, people screaming, black on the news, ITN claimed it was missing. Sabido smoke towering out of burn- said. ing caravans and everywhere

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there seemed to be people ond World War. being bashed and flattened and Photographic evidence is scant because of pulled by the hair....men, the nature of the action. Ben Gibson, a freelance women and children were led photographer working for The Observer that day, away, shivering, swearing, cry- was arrested in the Beanfield after photographing ing, bleeding, leaving their riot police smashing their way into a Traveller’s homes in pieces.....Over the coach. He was later acquitted of charges of ob-

Police enforcing `exclusion zone' at Stonehenge. 1985 years I had seen all kinds of struction although the intention behind his arrest horrible and frightening things had been served by removing him from the and always managed to grin scene. Most of the negatives from the film he and write it. But as I left the managed to shoot disappeared from The Ob- Beanfield, for the first time, I servers archives during an office move. felt sick enough to cry.” A friend and fellow photographer Tim Malyon During the charge, I took narrowly photographs, but I put my cam- avoided era away. My (ex) - wife and I comforting and cuddles with each other for fear, before we were at- tacked.. 530 were arrested that day ( both at the Beanfield and at Stonehenge), the most in any operation since the Sec-

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the same fate: ian said “Need to preserve “Whilst attempting to take pictures of one pubic order does not permit group of officers beating people with their trun- the police to ride roughshod cheons, a policeman shouted out to get him and I over the rights of ordinary peo- was chased. I ran and was not arrested.” said ple”. After a four month hear- Malyon. For three days (and nights), without adequate food, sleep and many to a cell, we filled police stations across the south of Eng- land. From Bristol, where I was taken, to Southampton and Lon- don. 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 ing, (during which we were civil action against the made to feel like we were on Chief Constable trial), on the last day, the of Wiltshire for Judge made an order on court the wrongs costs that, as we were getting legal aid, meant we got nothing. What’s new!

As Lord Gifford QC, our legal repre- that sentative, put it: were “It left a very sour done to us that taste in the mouth.” day. Nearly six years To some of those at later at the High Court in the brunt end of the trun- Winchester, we won most of cheon charge it left a devas- our case and were each awarded tating legacy. damages against the police. The Guard- Things have never been

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the same again since the Bean- police tactics employed on the miners strike the field. Throughout the rest of year before. Many observers claimed the two the year, whether in small events provided strong evidence that government groups or at events, travellers directives were para-militarising police responses to crowd control. Indeed, The Police operation had been planned for several the confidential Wiltshire months and lessons in rapid deployment learned Police Operation Solstice from the miners strike were implemented. Report released to plain- Police Review June '85 tiffs during the resulting Crown Court case, states: “Counsels opin- ion regarding the police were continually harassed. tactics used in the miners strike to prevent a It had defiantly changed us breach of the peace was considered relevant.” in many different ways. There The news section of Police Review, published was one guy who I trusted my seven days after the Beanfield, stated: children with in the early 80s - “The Police operation had been planned for he was a potter, amongst other several months and lessons in rapid deployment things. A nicer chap you learned from the miners strike were implemented.” couldn’t wish to meet. The manufactured rea- After the Beanfield I soning behind such wouldn’t let him any- heavy-handed tactics where near them. I was best summed up saw him, a man of in a laughable passage substance, at from the confidential the end of all police report on the that nonsense Beanfield: wobbled to “There is the point known to be a of illness hierarchy and evil. It within the con- turned all of voy; a small nu- us and I’m cleus of leaders sure that ap- making the final plies to the decisions on all matters of impor- whole travelling community. tance relating to the convoys activities. A second There were plenty of people group who are known as the lieutenants or warri- who had got something very ors carry out the wishes of the convoy leader, positive together who came out intimidating other groups on site.” of the Beanfield with a world If the coercive policing used during the miners view of ‘fuck everyone’. strike was a violent introduction to Thatcher’s mal- The berserk nature of the intention towards union activity, the Battle of the police violence drew obvious Beanfield was a similarly severe introduction to a comparisons with the coercive new era of intolerance of Travellers.

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Further trouble and the Public Order Act 1986

In May and June of 1986, the tribes again tried to gather. Con- voys began assembling to cel- ebrate that years Solstice were chased around several counties, all over the south of England, by both huge numbers police and right wing media outrage, before finally finding some temporary recupera- tive respite on a site at Stoney Cross in the New For- est, Hampshire. More of the same was in store. Much stress!! 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 Com- mons as: “Hon. Members from the west country will be aware of the immense policing dif-

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ficulties created by the peace on the road. convoy, it is anything but Two days later on the 5th, Margaret Thatcher peaceful. Indeed, it resembles said that her governments is: nothing more “Only too delighted to than a band of do anything we medieval brig- can to ands who have no respect for the law or the rights of others”. The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) observed that this assertion

make life difficult for such things as `hippy convoys’”. On the same day, a cabinet committee was formed to discuss new legislation to deal with Travellers and festivals. Chaired by Home Secretary, Doug- las Hurd, it com-

was made without any evi- prised of the Secretaries of State for Transport, dence being presented that the Environment, Health and Social Security, and convoy contained a higher pro- Agriculture. portion of people with criminal Shortly after the ‘green light’, Hampshire po- records, or, evidence the trav- lice mounted “Operation Daybreak” on the 9th ellers were committing offences June. 550 police charged onto the field in support

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of bailiffs and an eviction order. Many arrests then Under the powers, the ensued, the convoy put up no resistance. most senior police officer Sixty four convoy members were arrested and present may direct people to Only too delighted to do anything leave land if it is reasonably we can to make life difficult for believed that: two or more such things as `hippy convoys. people are trespassers intend- Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher ing to remain on land for any 5th June 1986

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 or- period of time and have been dered to by po- asked to leave, damage has lice. been caused to the land or After the threatening behaviour used previous years against the occupier, or 12 or events, this sec- more vehicles have been tion is seen as brought onto the land. yet another ex- The Home Office had ample of how stated: the police are “That the clause was a being drawn into response to the `problems’ of enforcing the new age travellers and that Civil Law and the power is not aimed prima- deciding issues rily at Gypsy groups”. which until now, have been the province of the civil However, according to the courts. The first time for hundreds of years that National Gypsy Council, by trespass had become a criminal offence. It was a 9.27am on the day the act came most controversial measure, it had been inserted into force (1st April 1987), sec- into the Act hurriedly. tion 39 was being applied

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against Gypsies by Avon and This time the scuffles were more preva- Somerset police. lent with concerted attempts being The increasingly hostile po- made to break litical climate that followed, had through the police a dramatic affect on the travel- cordon. Secreted ling community, frightening around the area, away many of the families inte- however, were gral to the community balance thousands of of the festival circuit. waiting riot po- In 1987, people stood on lice and, as the the tarmac beside Stonehenge anger of the having walked the eight mile penned in crowd distance from an impromptu grew, number- site at Cholderton. As clouds less uniforms smothered the Solstice sun- came flooding rise, those who had walked the down the hill to distance were kept on the road, disperse the separated from the Stones by crowd with a lib- rows of riot police and bales of eral usage of truncheons and riot shields. razor wire. The anger mounted Andy Smith - now editor of Festival Eye - and scuffles broke out. The fol- finally received a £10,000 out of court settlement lowing year the anger was tan- from Wiltshire Police this year for a truncheon gibly increased and once again wound to the head received after he tripped and at Solstice dawn there were fell at Stonehenge in 1988. In the years following some who found the situation the event, he was diagnosed as suffering from too unacceptable. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. “I’d had recur- rent dreams about the episode and

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after eight years of raking over it, I needed to put mer. By selling crafts, serv- the event behind me.” ices, performance busking, tat The numbers of people prepared to travel to and assorted gear, Travel- Stonehenge and face this treatment naturally dwin- lers provided themselves with dled, resulting in a concentration of those who an alternative economy lend- were prepared for confrontation in defence ing financial viability to an itin- of what was considered as a right to cel- e r - ant culture. ebrate solstice at Stonehenge. Suc- Evidence cessive huge police suggests that the political cam- paign to eradi- cate festivals was aimed at breaking this economy. Indeed, a working party set up by operations backed by the Public Order Act 1986, the Department of Health and have become stricter and stricter in attempts to Social Security published a stop anyone from reaching the Stone circle at report on Itinerant Claimants Solstice. There are still a few however, who hug in March 1986 stating: “Local hedgerows and dart between the beams of police offices of the DHSS have ex- helicopters in order to be in view of the Solstice perienced increasing prob- sunrise at Stonehenge. lems in dealing with claims from large groups of nomadic Attacks on our alternative claimants over the past two economy or three years. Matters came to a head during the summer of 1985 when several large Up until 1985, the free festival circuit had groups converged on Stone- provided the economic backbone of all year round henge for a festival that had itinerancy. Traditionally the three cardinal points in been banned by the the festival circuit were the May bank authorities. The result- holiday, the Solstice and the August ing well publicised bank holiday. Without the need for confrontation with the advertising, festival goers knew to police was said to look out for these dates knowing a have disrupted the festival would be taking place some- normal festival where. The employment of two bank economy and large holidays as specific festival times was numbers of claims to designed to allow workers the oppor- Supplementary Ben- tunity of attending a festival without efit were made.” the inevitable bleary Monday back at It is obvious that work. The number of festivals in-be- as soon as they scared tween these cardinal points also blossomed, giv- away the punters it destroyed ing rise to the possibility of travelling from one to the means of exchange. Nor- the other (with choice) over the entire long sum- man Tebbit went on about

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getting on your bike and find- to oblivion, found the younger elements of a frac- ing employment whilst at the tured community prone to its clutches and its use same time being part of the spread like myxamatosis. Once again Traveller political force that kicked the families were forced to vacate sites that became bike from under us. ‘dirty’, further imbalancing the battered communi- In the years that followed, ties and creating a split between ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ the right-wing press made sites. much of dole-scrounging Trav- Lynn who still lives in her double-decker bus ellers, with no acknowledge- “I don’t park on big sites anymore. Heroin is ment that the engineered something that breaks up a community because break-up of the festival people become so self-centred they don’t give a economy was largely respon- damn about their neighbours.” sible. Many Travellers report incidents of blatant Another ramification of this heroin dealing going untouched by police, whilst tactic was even more insidious other Travellers on the same site were prosecuted and ugly. for small amounts of hashish. The implication of At the en- their claims trance gate to Norman Tebbit went on about getting on were that the the 1984 Stone- your bike and finding employment whilst at authorities rec- henge Free the same time being part of the political ognised that if Festival a burnt force that kicked the bike from under us. heroin took out car bore tes- hold of the trav- tament to the levels of self- elling community, their designs on its destruction policing emerging from the so- would take care of itself. Recalls Lynn cial-experiment. The sign pro- “So many times people got away with it and truding from the wreckage pro- there were very few busts for smack. They must claimed: “This was a smack know smack is the quickest way to divide a com- dealers car.” munity; united we stand and divided we don’t.” Dispossessed of their The other manifestation of community disrup- once thriving economy and fac- tion was the emergence of the so called brew ing incessant and increasing crew. These were mainly angry young Travellers harassment and eviction, the feeding themselves on a diet of special brew and break down of community left developing a penchant for nihilism, blagging and Travellers prone to a destruc- neighbourly disrespect. Whilst festival culture was tive force potentially more dev- healthy, the travelling community could cope, once astating than anything directly broken up however, the community had problems forced by the authorities. dealing with the exodus. “At one time smack wasn’t Decker Lynn says. tolerated on the road at all,” “To start with it was contained. Every family recalls mother of six, Decker had its problems but the brew crew was a very Lynn. “Certainly on festival small element around 1986, and very much con- sites, if anybody was selling or tained by the families that were around. But there even using it they were just put was a large number of angry young people pour- off site full stop.” ing out of the cities with brew and smack and the Heroin, the great escape travelling community couldn’t cope with the numbers.”

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quences of this festi-rave fu- Raves, Dance Parties etc... sion however. I have pointed out before that one of the main things I Towards the end of the 80s a cultural phenom- liked about festivals was go- enon began to emerge around the country resulting around fires and trucks ing in an injection of new blood and economy to the listening to accordions and festival scene. Rave parties were similar to free talking to people. When the festivals in that they were unlicensed events in ravers arrived, I couldn’t hear locations kept secret until the last possible mo- 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 fin- ished in 91 and no- one these days would know what we were talking about. Others, found re- newed enthusiasm in the cultural mutation. ment. Such events offered similar opportunities Having attended free festivals for adventure and began attracting huge numbers since 1984 and lived on the of young people from the cities. This scene grew road intermittently during that dramatically. Where some of these parties dif- period Steve Redshaw wel- fered from the free festivals was that they were comed the new blood: organised by groups such as Sunrise who would “Towards the end of the 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 Not everyone on the free festival scene was pleased with the conse-

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80s things were getting bad on According to Tony Hollingsworth, ex-events pro- the festival circuit. Then raves moter for the GLC and now part of the multi-million revitalised the scene and I got pound my faith back. “ com- Once again, political attention was now targeted against these new impromptu rave events, resulting in the En- tertainment (In- creased Penal- ties) Act 1990. Introduced by John Majors Personal Pri- vate Secretary, Graham Bright, this private mercial festival outfit Tribute: members bill brought in mas- “The motivation behind these festivals is no sive fines of up to £20,000 for longer passion, it is commerce.” the organisers of unlicensed Relative to the people-led festivals, the com- events. Once again this legis- mercial festival scene offers little more than an- lation had a dramatic affect on other shopping experience, where an attendant the free festival/rave scene, wallet is valued and encouraged far more than pushing event organisation into participation the hands of large commercial promoters with the necessary sums required to pay for li- Castlemorton Common cences and policing. Steve Redshaw observes: By 1992 leaked documents from Avon and “By 1993 the laws were Somerset Constabulary demonstrated the exist- having their effect on the free ence of Operation Nomad. Force Operational rave scene. Dance music then Order 36/92 marked ‘In Confidence’, revealed: moved into clubs and became “With effect from Monday 27th April 1992, more exclusive.” dedicated resources will be used to gather intelli- The nature of festival pro- gence in respect of the movement of itinerants and motion consequently swung travellers and deal with minor acts of trespass”. away from a community-based An intelligence unit set up by Avon and Som- orientation, as businessmen erset produced regular Operation Nomad bulle- and commercial club owners tins, listing personal details on Travellers and cashed in on the existing public regular festival goers unrelated to any criminal desire for adventurous festi- conviction. A Force Operational Order issued by val/parties in the countryside. the Chief Constable also stated:

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“Resources will be greatly enhanced for the that flew in the face of the period Thursday 21st May to Sunday 24th May Public Order Act 1986 and inclusive in relation to the anticipated gathering of the Entertainment (Increased Travellers in the Chipping Sodbury area.” Penalties) Act 1990. It was a This item referred to the annual Avon Free massive celebration and the Festival which had been occurring in the area biggest of its kind since the around the May bank holiday for several years, bountiful days of the Stone-

albeit in different locations. However, 1992 was the henge Free Festival. West year Avon and Somerset Police intended to put a Mercia Police claimed that full stop to it. As a result the thousands of people due to the speed with which it travelling to the area for the expected Festival were coalesced, they were power- shunted into neighbouring counties by Avon and less to stop it. Somerset’s Operation Nomad police manoeuvres. However, the authorities The end result was the impromptu Castlemorton used Castlemorton in a way Common Festival, another pivotal event in the that led people to suggest it recent history of festival culture. had been at least partly engi- West Mercia Police claim they had no idea that neered. After all, a large an event might happen in their district, the truth of number of people had been which relies on the unlikely situation that Avon and shunted into the area by Op- Somerset Police did not inform their neighbouring eration Nomad, was it really constabulary of Operation Nomad. likely that West Mercia police In the event, a staggering 30,000 Travellers, were unaware of this? The ravers and festival goers gathered almost overnight right-wing press published on Castlemorton Common to hold a free festival acres of crazed and damning

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coverage of the event, includ- the time it reached statute two years later, it ing the classic front page Daily included criminal sanctions against assembly, out- Telegraph headline: “Hippies door unlicensed music events, unauthorised camp- fire flares at Police”. The fol- ing, and ‘aggravated trespass’. The law also re- lowing mornings Daily Tel- duced the number of vehicles which could gather egraph editorial read: “New together from twelve (as stipulated in the Public Age, New Laws” and within two Order Act 1986) to six. months, Sir George Young, The news-manufacture used to prepare the then Minister for Housing, con- public palate for the coming law was incessant, firmed that new laws against with media descriptions of Travellers including Travellers were imminent “in “hordes of marauding locusts” (Daily Telegraph), reaction to the increasing level and “These foul pests must be controlled” (Daily of public dismay and alarm Mail). about the behaviour of some of these groups.” Police Surveillance Indeed, the outcry following Castlemorton provided the Many of us had felt under surveillance for basis for the most draconian some time, but since the Beanfield, their 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 Opera- tion Snapshot, an intelligence-gathering exercise on raves and Travel- lers, designed to establish a database of personal details, names, nicknames, vehicle registration numbers, Traveller sites and move- law yet levelled against alter- ments. Undercover operations car- native British culture. Just as ried out. Photographs taken. the Public Order This information was used Act 1986 followed as a backbone for the events at an ongoing intelli- Stonehenge in gence operation 1985, so the begun by the Criminal Justice Southern Central and Public Order Intelligence Unit Bill began its jour- (SCIU), operated ney in 1992, from Devizes in pumped with the Wiltshire and ini- manufactured tially co-ordinated outrage following by PC Malcolm Castlemorton. By Keene. The SCIU

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information, no matter how small on New Age Travellers or the Rave scene”. 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

held regular meetings with representatives of all the constabu- laries of Britain. Leaked documents revealed that Operation Snap- shot 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 objec- tives of the operation included the development of to cover the north of Britain, “a system whereby intelligence could be taken into was established and operated the control room, and the most up-to-date intelli- from Penrith in Cumbria. gence was to hand”..... “capable of high-speed Liberty has challenged input and retrieval and dissemination of informa- this police monitoring at the tion.” The meeting was attended by constabulary European Court of Human representatives from Bedfordshire, Avon and Som- Rights. They said: erset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucester- “Targeting the whole of shire, Dyfed-Powys, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, the travelling community is be- Kent, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, South Wales, yond the European Conven- Gwent, Staffordshire, Thames Valley, Warwick- tions’ limitations. Just be- shire, Surrey, Suffolk, West Mercia, West Midlands, cause someone is a `new age Ministry of Defence and the National Criminal Intel- traveller’ doesn’t mean that ligence Service (Hampshire and Essex sent apolo- they are involved in crime”. gies). At the conservative Party They were all asked and all agreed to provide Conference, the Prime Minis- the Southern Central Intelligence Unit with “any ter, John Major reminded the

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party faithful: the European Convention (Freedom of Assem- “Society needs to con- bly). Concern is expressed at the sections which demn a little more and un- apply to gatherings with music and are targeted at derstand a little less. New festivals and `raves’”. age travellers? Not in this For travellers and those involved in peaceful age! Not in any age!! “ protest on private property (environmental activ- ists), section 61 on the CJA is even more draco- Criminal Justice Act '94 nian than the previous Public Order Act. Section 61 now provides a power for the The scene was set for a senior police officer present at a scene to direct further tightening of the screw. trespassers on land to move if: In 1994, the government (a) six or more vehicles are present (previ- passed the Criminal Justice and ously 12) Public Order Act. This piece of (b) damage is caused to the land or property legislation is very lengthy and on the land. (previously damage to gates fences far-reaching. It has a number etc. now the land itself i.e.: tyre marks on the of provisions that directly affect grass!!). the lifestyles of many people Penalties for this offence, or to return with with which I have been involved. three months can mean £2,500 fine or three Travellers in particular and months imprisonment, or both. other taking direct action to deal Further, section 62 allows the police to seize with their housing situation are and remove vehicles when they have issued a primarily affected. The provi- direction and it has been ignored. Further sec- sions of part five of the Act tions of the act enable the seized vehicles to be have been given particular at- held until all removal and storage charges are tention by civil liberties groups paid. Fees to reclaim motors are likely to be high, such as Liberty. They believe from one of the five ‘holding pounds’ that have that many sections are effec- been established. An uncollected vehicle will tively designed to outlaw a eventually be destroyed and whole way of life and generally a further erode our human rights. charge had On these sections, Liberty for this! explain that: “No gathering of more than twenty people may take place anywhere if the police choose to object, unless some landowner has con- sented to his or her land being used for this purpose (in which case, the landowner may incur legal liability for the The Act at large criminalizes diversity and actions of those who gather)” dissent and thus has implications for the wider Further, they point out that: population such as say Trade Union activity and “These clauses are prob- local protests about services (the hospital, the by- ably in breach of Article 11 of pass, the local factory etc.). Fundamentally, many

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of its provisions are about land rights. What one cultural clampdown, some trav- can (and cannot) do on land. Which is of course, ellers remain secreted all over nearly always someone else’s. the country. Many are now in smaller groups, inconspicuous and unregistered if not draw- The aftermath ing benefit. Since the enactment of The extraordinary lengths taken by the au- the Criminal Justice Act and thorities to annihilate the new Traveller population the other measured described, in the UK are a testament to the treatment meted it is thought that many thou- out to cultural minorities outside ‘acceptable’ norms. sands of travellers have left The use of legislation, intelligence, targeted the country to places like Spain, harassment, changes to the benefits system and Ireland, Portugal and France. news-manufacture have been employed as a multi- In anticipation of the crackdown tactic approach stretched across a ten year pe- on their lifestyle to come. riod. Who knows what next!! Such strategies are often achieved without public knowledge; with the length of time over Some have gone to Eu- which they are employed, diffusing recognition of rope and beyond being con- their mechanism and ultimate intention. What is cerned for their families future clear, however, is that rather than seek to demo- in Britain. cratically accommodate an expanding community Perhaps I may join them! culture, Margaret Thatcher’s government and those who replaced her, sought instead to annihilate it. I believe that the commu- The social consequences are immense. nities described represent The festival circuit, once an evolving people- genuine endeavours in discov- led celebration and community co-operation, now ering enduring and sustainable lies largely in the hands of profit-motivated com- ways of life and conducting ex- mercial promoters. Meanwhile, the travelling com- periments in how we and the munity, fractionalised by an annihilation strategy, planet may survive. I wish them now displays symptoms reminiscent of the inner well in these uncertain times. cities from which many had fled. Don’t let the bastards However, despite the worst excesses of the grind you down!

y mind was not at rest, because nothing was acted; and thoughts ran in me that words and writings were nothing and must die; for action is life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing. Garrard Winstanley 1649

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PERSONAL RESUME

I am a photographer with a special interest to document the lives of travelling people and those attending Festivals, what the press describe as ‘New Age Travellers’. I have tried to say something of the lifestyles of the wide variety of people engaged in ‘alternatives’, and youths’ many sub-cultures. I have photographed many free and commercial events and have, in recent years, extended my work to include dance parties (‘rave culture’). An entire section is now devoted to current forms of environmental protest. Since 1982 and have built a body of work that has been widely applied by the media and others doing I self-published a book entitled ‘Stonehenge - research. In addition to my Solstice Ritual’, to describe aspects of the summer black and white work, I maintain solstice celebrations at the monument. a ‘Slide Library’ . In total, I have I provide photographs for the magazine ‘Festival about 50,000 odd images on Eye’. The material was designed to show the file. many aspects of festivals and of the travelling I have supplied pictures to lifestyle. It has a highly pictorial content. I am also illustrate articles in a variety of concerned with the editorial content of this publications including - magazine. Guardian, Independent, i-D I have contributed to an exhibition titled Magazine, Select, Sounds, DJ, ‘Stonehenge belongs to you and me’. The show Big Issue, New Statesmen & was organised by Dr. Barbara Bender, Professor Society and Squall of Anthropology at University College, London. Additionally, I have The exhibition has toured a number of civic sites contributed to a number of TV and museums and has promoted much public films including ‘May the Force debate about access to the monument. be with you’ and ‘Spirit of Albion’ With the onset of the Criminal Justice Act, I for Channel 4 . ‘An have prepared information booklets titled ‘The Englishman’s’ Right’ and Right to Party’. They contain imagery and comment ‘Trashed’ for BBC. I consulted on the main aspects of the law and the implications in making ‘Operation Solstice’, for the groups primarily affected. The publication a film about the bloody police and distribution was paid for by a series of benefit action to prevent the gathering events organised by the dance music systems of at Stonehenge and the civil the East Midlands under the label ‘All Systems action that followed. I have No’. also produced illustrated I helped organise, and performed, with the lectures to educational ‘Velvet Revolution Tour’ funded by the civil rights establishments. pressure groups, Charter 88 and Liberty. This

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drew together bands and sound systems, I have become interested installation art, theatre, video and information to in presenting slide shows in a raise awareness about these new laws. These multi-media context. I have events provided me with the maximum of been showing work in mainly opportunity to display images directly related to music and theatre venues, at the issues at hand. outdoor events such as the In 1994, The Victoria and Albert Museum Glastonbury Music and Arts mounted an exhibition titled ‘Street Style - Sidewalk Festival, and at performances to Catwalk, 1940 to tomorrow’. I exhibited prints with the ‘Mutiod Waste and also advised on matters relating to the travellers Company’ . I have also lifestyle. My photography also informed the base worked with bands such as research for this project. Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles, I am a graduate of Nottingham Trent University The Orb, The Levellers and with a BA degree in Photography. I specialised in Zion Train. I am especially issues surrounding representation, presenting interested in mixing myself in audio - visual format. I wrote my photography with lighting dissertation on “Positive images, evidence, public effects suitable for locations order & restrictions”. such as dance clubs etc. I My concern for this community has lead me to regularly perform with DIY, a actively be involved in welfare and advice agencies. dance music collective based I have been a field worker for the ‘Release’ in Nottingham, and with organisation and am currently on the management ‘Smokescreen’ from committees of several charities, including ‘Festival Sheffield. The latest show I Welfare Services’, the ‘Travellers Aid Trust’ and have produced, I have titled: the ‘Standing Conference on Drug Abuse’ (Scoda). “One eye on the road” http://www.gn.apc.org/tash

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