Hatfield Moor blockaded for three hours – 35 arrests

Monday 25th

After a long drive we arrived in South Yorkshire and headed directly towards the Peat works having arrived too late for the morning meeting. We were just in time to see a procession of about 100 people with pink flags heading down the road in the direction of the works. We parked up and hurried to catch up. The crowd was enjoying the warm and sunny weather and the provission of tunes from a mobile sound system blasting out from a bicycle trailer. A large proportion wore carnival masks and there were kids and drums and stuff. Walking in front of the crowd were three or four coppers who seemed to walk backward the entire time.

It was a long walk from the main road and in the distance we could make out the peat works and lines of police and their vehicles. Just as we approached a sign that read ‘assembly start’ our assembled mass started to leg it across a field. It shouldn’t have worked – a bunch of people running across a lumpy muddy field with kids, a wheel chair and a bike plus sound system while the police had a smaller distance to cover and tarmac to do it on – but somehow we made it across to the single track that provides the only access to the peat works.

We occupied the track, celebrating our surprising achievement with drum and dance. The police moved up to our position and spent a long time figuring out what to do. In the meantime, people played football and a crèche was set up for the kids. We were unmolested for a couple of hours I guess although there were frequent false alarms about the police preparing to move in. It latter transpired that there was a section 14 order in place forbidding any assembly outside of a designated area. It seems that few people were aware of this as every time the police tried to speak to us they were drowned out by jeers and load music.

Sadly, any plans there may have been for using hardware in the blockade failed to transpire and when the police came in we had nothing better to do than sit down and link arms. Almost half of those present made the ‘stand’ and were picked of one by one by the filth who used pressure points to torture those resisting removal into letting go. The level of violence was quite surprising. It wasn’t the usual angry type of police aggression but cold, calculating and deliberate. There were no mainstream media bods around and the police had formed a wall of riot cops around were we sat so people outside could not easily see what was going on.

It took perhaps half an hour at most for the cops to clear the road (although it remained blocked by their own vehicles for some time longer as they did what ever faffing around cops do in this situation. Those arrested went on to enjoy up to ten hours in police custody – some being refused water or other basic rights for the entire time. The majority were charged under the public order act for failing to comply with a section 14 order and bail to reappear on various dates within the next two weeks. One person refused to accept the bail conditions and insisted on going before the court the next day.

Police fucked up with there bail conditions and some of the people found themselves barred from going with two miles of Hatfiled Village while for others the two miles was from the peat works. This meant that some people were banned from the squatted base camp providing accommodation and food for the rest of the four days of action while being ‘allowed’ at the peat works. Other were banned from the works while free to go to the camp and the majority of the southern part of the peat extraction area. The cops didn’t seem to happy.

Actions continued the next day (and beyond). There was a Friends of The Earth demo and various other things happening while police used unlawful means to extract names from people wandering around and hassling the drivers of vehicles.

I can’t really comment on anything else. Thanks to the Anarchist Tea pot for the great food and to everyone involved in the prisoner support work done. In fact, well done to all who made the effort to get up to Hatfield to make a stand for this important habitat.

Just a few final gems about Monday. 1) The protester in wheel chair demands his right to equal access to public services and arrest when police discovered they couldn’t get him into a van. 2) The heroic leap and successful sprint to freedom by the someone about to be stuck in the back of a police van. These things make us smile.