Save Dale Farm

[cleef]

Monday 4th July, some 90 families at Dale Farm, the UK’s largest Traveller community, were delivered final notices of eviction, giving families until midnight on August 31 to abandon their homes, or face their entire community being bulldozed. The central government and Basildon Council have set aside over £18m for the eviction battle that could last three weeks. It will be the biggest clearance of its kind involving the ploughing up of 54 separate plots which were created out of a former concrete scrap-yard, purchased by the Travellers ten years ago. These notices were left attached to peoples homes (see photo, left). Here are copies of the letters: Eviction notice p1 Eviction notice p2 Eviction notice p3 Eviction notice p4

Dale Farm is only a 30 minute train ride from London, and hundreds of people have pledged to join residents in nonviolent resistance to the destruction of Dale Farm. The residents of Dale Farm have encouraged their supporters to establish a base at Dale Farm, Camp Constant, to resist this eviction and house human rights monitors.

THIS IS A MASS CALL OUT FOR ACTION: JOIN CAMP CONSTANT NOW!

Camp Constant, a mass gathering of national and international supporters of the Dale Farm community will begin Saturday, August 27th:
* Starting with a weekend of Traveller history & celebration
* Plus practical eviction resistance training
* Training for legal observers and human rights monitors
* Opening party, Saturday night
Sleeping space is available in caravans or you can bring a tent if you can stay Saturday night. The eviction could go ahead right after midnight on August 31st, so we will be staying at Dale Farm before then in preparation.
* You can sign up to our email bulletins here: http://lists.ucrony.net/cgi-bin/mailman/...solidarity
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STAY OVERNIGHT AT DALE FARM: Urgent call for Support
After the August 31st, an eviction could happen at any time, and we might not know when. We’ll need people to be on standby to come up to Dale Farm in the event of an eviction.
See: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/hrm/ for details.
We need people to spend the night at Dale Farm to provide around the clock support to the community and resistance to the eviction. We are looking for groups and individuals to pledge to stay overnight.
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DIRECTIONS:
Dale Farm is within easy reach from London Liverpool St. Station. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact/ for directions.
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ALERTS
If you can be on eviction alert, or spend a night at Dale Farm, please sign up here:
https://smsalerts.tachanka.org/dalefarm

Also, please ask your friends to ask their friends to pledge to stay a night: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170414852985935
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ACTIVITY WEEKENDS
For planning meeting/discussions with Dale Farm residents/legal observer training/resistance activity workshops…
For more information, and to check the dates of activity days, keep up to date at: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity
and
https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_124229427082

JOIN US at Dale Farm, SATURDAY, 9th JULY, from midday…
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BE AWARE THAT:These eviction notices have been issued despite the fact that Dale Farm residents have consistently offered to leave their land willingly and peaceably, if given viable alternative plots to move on to, which would enable them to rebuild their homes while maintaining their community, their children’s schooling and their health care. No alternative viable housing has been offered to the families of Dale Farm. This means that in the event of an eviction some 90 families will be made summarily homeless, including many elderly, sick, and very young residents.

The council has not adequately considered the individual health and social needs of the Dale Farm residents whom they plan to evict, nor the rights of this community to have somewhere safe to live free from the constant threat of eviction. This leaves the Council and Home Office liable not just to a £18 million eviction bill, but also to the legal and compensation costs resulting from the inhumane treatment of many vulnerable Dale Farm residents, and the targeted persecution of a minority community. Instead of spending money on local community services, on local housing, on community education facilities, or on community race relations, the council is spending half its income pursuing a racist campaign to remove Gypsies and Travellers from Basildon.
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PLEASE GET ORGANISING AND GET DOWN TO DALE FARM & PLEASE PASS THIS ON…

* Email: savedalefarm@gmail for more information.

*For press information, see: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/press/

[cleef]

update:

DALE FARM UNDER SIEGE…
Posted on August 24, 2011 by dalefarmsupport
As the launch of Camp Constant on August 27th approaches, the authorities appear poised to blockade Dale Farm.

ROAD BLOCK WARNING: Notices have gone up along Oak Road, adjacent to Dale Farm, saying that the road will be closed to all but residents from Friday, Sept. 2nd. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact for details. Both ends of Oak Road will be blocked (blocking access via both Hardings Elm Road and Gardiners Lane North). Additionally, the lay by on the southern end of Oak Lane (leading on to the A127; by the white ‘Basildon onion’ water tower) will be blocked. There will be a no stop zone on the footpaths on the A127 between A176 at Billericay and A132 at Wickford. Residents are feeling under siege, with children asking how many more nights they are going to be able to sleep in their beds. Dale Farm is a big site, so it should be possible to find routes in, but be advised that after Sept. 1, it will be harder to get in, and likely impossible to get vehicles in.

WATER AND ELECTRICITY TO BE CUT: The Council have released information that they intend to cut water and electricity supplies from Dale Farm after the eviction notice period expires on midnight 31st August. This will leave sick, elderly, young, and pregnant residents without access to water or electricity. Amnesty International have condemned the removal of vital water and electricity in these circumstances, and asked their supporters to put pressure on the council to cease this action which represents a serious violation of human rights. An injunction has been sought in consideration of two residents who are dependent upon a constant electricity supply for nebulisers, without access to which their lives are placed in serious jeopardy. See Amnesty’s Kartik Raj speaking to BBC Essex this week.

CAMP CONSTANT: On Saturday, 27th August, we will launch CAMP CONSTANT a solidarity and resistance camp for supporters of the Dale Farm community. JOIN US.

See: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity for more information, the weekend’s schedule of workshops, and a welcome pack.

DESPERATE PLEA TO UN: Richard Sheridan as president of the Gypsy Council has been involved in eleventh-hour negotiations with the UN Commission on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva; the Special Raporteur has already entreated the UK Government to cease the evictions and to ensure the families at Dale Farm are offered viable culturally appropriate alternative sites. Lord Avebury will accompany Dale Farm residents to 10 Downing Street on Thursday, 25th August to present a petition to the PM calling for the eviction to be called off.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA: Any independent media people planning to come on to the site (with video, cameras, etc) please read this first and make contact…

DONATE: use this paypal link to donate some money to the camp.

LONDON INFO-EVENT & MEETING: 2pm, Thurs, 25th August, at the Haircut before the party, Whitechapel…see here for more info.

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS: Workshop, Sunday Sept. 4th, 2pm, Camp Constant, Dale Farm. Freedom of Movement and the Right to Stay! This is the rallying cry for Roma, Gypsies and Travellers and of migrants throughout the world. A common thread of persecution, of forbidden lands, eviction and deportation connect the struggles for migrant rights and the rights of Gypsies and Travellers. These realities have met dramatically in the crack-down and deportations of Roma people from France and Italy. Come to the Workshop organised by No One Is Illegal and London No Borders including speaker who is an activist in Amnesty International’s campaign against the persecution of Roma in Europe.

TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THE DEMO: Sat, 10th Sept, 1pm, see here for more information and email: savedalefarm@gmail.com to add your group’s support to the list…

RISE UP!: We cannot stand by and do nothing while the UKs largest Travellers site, home to hundreds of families, including many children, elderly and sick residents, is brutally evicted. Travellers should not have to live in constant fear of eviction with their lives and communities under constant threat. They should not have to be forced out of their homes and off their land by bulldozers and police. This constant hounding, marginalisation, and lack of provision is how rural England does ethnic cleansing. It is time for a resurgence of support for Gypsy and Traveller communities. Time to stand against the extreme racial discrimination faced by Gypsies and Travellers. Time to defend the right of Gypsies and Travellers to land, life, respect, and dignity.

http://dalefarm.wordpress.com

[Fuzzly Bear]

wow i wonder what's going to happen..

[cleef]

Well they lost the emergency injunction so it looks like the government is ready to just make 86 families homeless...

story run by the daily mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...psite.html

[1871]

Persecution. Where will they go anyway? The State will end up paying even more. Fools have power in this country and many travellers were persecuted out by the Irish government and councils.

[cleef]

bumped this as this is happening today

Quote:Residents are voicing a plea for resolution, and have asked Basildon Counci to negotiate with them in order to find a way to avoid a forced eviction. Basildon Council have yet to begin the eviction that residents have been expecting from 8am this morning. Over the past several years, the Dale Farm community have been attempting to find a resolution to avoid a forced eviction through proposing alternative sites and through legal processes.
Local Bishops as well as the United Nations have offered to mediate between the Dale Farm community and the Council. However, recently the Foreign Office refused the request of the European Represenatve of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jan Jarab, to visit Dale Farm and attempt to conduct negotiatons. (Emails available as evidence up request).
The offer of negotiations comes at a time when Basildon Council is being criticised for not maintaining open communication with the residents. The residents have been increasingly distressed at the lack of information about what time the eviction is due to start. The mixed messages continue as the Council discusses with the press that they were considering negotiations while saying the eviction is going ahead.
The community living on the former scrapyard at Dale Farm are in the Royal Courts of Justice at 11.30 today. While the chances of success are limited, the case shows that Basildon Council’s statements that all avenues to solve the problem are exhausted are incorrect.
Several Dale Farm residents also have planning permission applictions lodged with Basildon Council pending decision in October.
Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy told the Today Program this morning, “We will give Basildon Council our land if they build us a site… The law keeps us breaking the law.”
Basildon Council leader Tony Ball repsonded, “The Council is offering suitable accommodation’ to Dale Farm residents.” and and that “all avenues” for alternatives had been “exhausted”.
Letters from the Homes & Communities Agency to Richard Howitt MEP show that they offered land and funds to allow Dale Farm residents to move to a legal site. (Letters available on request). Basildon Council deemed relocation in the Basildon area unacceptable and unilaterally left the multi-agency ‘Altenative Sites Working Group’ in October 2010. Immediately after leaving the group they employed notorious anti-Traveller baliffs Constant & Co to undertake the eviction.
Since then Tony Ball has been more interested in courting the media than honestly communicating with Dale Farm residents. They get their information from the press, and not Basildon Council.

http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/2011/09/19.../#comments

[Fuzzly Bear]

so where is this place they're getting moved to?
why can't they just stay where they are and the council can have whatever they were planning for the residents, or is dale farm too valuable to lose like this?

[cleef]

Well there is an injunction until friday that they won yesterday, but up until now no alternative settlement has been provided (which is why they are refusing to go)

Quote:Questions have been raised about the motivations for pushing for the eviction as plans are revealed for 900 homes on greenbelt land in the neighbouring district to Basildon. Plans for homes on Jotmans Lane Benfleet have the support of Tory councillors, and face a final vote on the 27th September, after a report by a government inspector highlighted the need for more homes.(Basildon Echo, 13 September 2011, P7)

[Fuzzly Bear]

oooooohhhh what a surprise
how much do you reckon they're getting from such a deal. prolly sitting on the board of directors

[1871]

The travellers were persecuted in Ireland. I saw it. You could go there over ten years ago and along the roads you'd see the travellers. Now you see em just outsiode Limerick but all those fucking local councils forced them off the road because all of a sudden they wanted to be bourgie and build massive mansions and become complete snobs.

I saw one time that he travellers went into the park and the Gardai locked the gates to lock them in before they could call on enough manpower to move them on. This shit at exactly the same time that the Irish government and the EU were pumping money into huge public relation billboard campaigns purported to be against discrimination against travellers - the fucking hypocrites. Then a lot of travellers came over to the UK from 'celtic tiger' Ireland.

There also used to be lots of gypsies in the UK and they were persecuted in the same way.

[Kian]

horrible misers, the whole lot of them, the council directorate look for any petty excuse to inculcate their insidious fucking plans, I really hoped to have gone, poor kiddys always in the midst of these greedy altercations.

[Fuzzly Bear]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/o...tions-live