UK MINISTRY STORMED
IN DALE FARM PROTEST
FROM TRAVELER SOLIDARITY
The UK Communities Ministry at Eland House,
London, was stormed yesterday (19 October) by 250 Dale Farm protesters
demanding an end to evictions. Angered by
minister Eric Pickles' latest round of anti-camping
legislation, they scaled the entrance to
raise Romani flags and blocked exit from the building for
several hours. There were a number of
arrests.
The demonstration, held on the anniversary of
Britain's biggest-ever eviction, the riot
police-led clearance of 80 families from the Dale Farm
estate, also marked 50 years of civil rights
struggle
by a now much enlarged Roma and Traveller
population estimated at 400,000.
Main organizers, the Traveller Solidarity
Network, have announced the start of a country-wide campaign to oppose forced dispossessions and
support the Roma movement for
self-determination, poliferating across Europe in response to
the heaviest repression since the
1930s.
The UK, once believed to be a zone of
comparative tolerance, has been shown up as
a hot-of bed anti-Roma racism and violence. Thousands of
established Romani families have been turned
off
their own land and recently arriving Roma
swept from central city
streets.
Frank Gavin, who heads PAAD, a Pavee
organization, said in an interview before the demonstration their corib [fight] began in the 1960s
with the legendaryoccupation at Cherry Orchard, Dublin. His
uncle of the same name took part, as did the
grandparents of Dale Farm residents.
"Cherry Orchard was what you'd call a squat.
We didn't own the land," Frank explained.
"Half a century later that ground at Dale Farm was
purchased and developed and made into a
real, happy
community. But they smashed it up all the same."
Pickles told the BBC earlier that he was giving further
powers to local authorities to block illegal
encampments. He said Travellers attempting to
set up their own places without planning
permission
would face instant stop notices and daily
fines.
"Dale Farm must never be allowed to happen
again," the minister commented, while
admitting that nothing had been achieved by the 10
million euro operation. He said planning
laws had to be enforced but he expected local
authorities to provide accommodation where a
traditional need could be proved.
The test of that statement will come next
month when Basildon Borough Council meets to
decide what action to take against families who
continue to live on aprivate entrance road
to the estate. It must also respond to the fourth planning application in ten years submitted for the
building of a mobile-home park for Dale Farm families.
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