Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

If it's free, it's not allowed! - Oxford party closed down

Angry of Oxford | 21.06.2004 16:51 | Free Spaces | Oxford

On Saturday night a wonderful free party on the outskirts of Oxford was closed by police.

The location was spectacular: a wide-spaced, well-canopied wood near Forest Hill on the A40, with no neighbours to disturb. The rain had stayed away, and the wonderful sound system crews were doing their uncoiling, cabling and generating stuff to create a party where people did not have to pay to get in, could bring their own booze and stuff to share, and where we could each make an individual adult decision when we wanted to go home, rather than be cast out onto the street by an expensive nightclub. We were so ready to dance!
But, with an awful sense of inevitability in authoritarian, neo-liberal, Blairite Britain, the party-goers weren't the only people there. When we arrived the police had already brought several vehicles and were threatening that this was an "illegal gathering" in an offensive way. Remember that in contemporary Britain, if you don't pay for your fun, you'll be treated as scum. A helicopter circled pointlessly, and most absurdly of all two fire engines stood guard, their lamps piercing the forest gloom with a quite appropriate disco-light effect. When I asked a fire officer where the fire was, he pointed to the small bonfire below. Was he serious? Members of the FBU, I've supported you in your fight for better wages and conditions, so please don't do just any crap thing the police ask you to do. I guess you like to party too? You probably have a lot more in common with us than the killjoy police. Anyway, after a while you went away. But I've got another question: how much did this whole operation cost? I think Oxfordshire tax-payers have a right to know how much money is being wasted stopping a few people having a good time. And isn't it unsafe to take fire engines away from frontline duty?
The sound system started up and played for a brief but glorious half-hour, before the arm of the law was made longer by confiscating generators and carrying them out of the wood. The somewhat embarassed ordinary coppers said they were only following orders (be careful with this line, guys, I think it's been used somewhere before), and seemed to have no idea why they were doing it. I wonder if, when they first joined the force, they imagined that this is what they would end up doing? Or perhaps they're just sad Daily-Mail-reading bastards who do it out of envy.
Anyway, how should we respond? How can we assert the right to do that most fundamental of human activities - to party? The state fears it because it can liberate us from its control. The capitalists fear it because it's free, and so much better than what they provide. How do we take them on??

Angry of Oxford

Comments

Display the following 7 comments

  1. simple... — xxx
  2. yeah and — party goer
  3. it's easy...[humour!!!] — Captain Wardrobe
  4. Not really really scared — villan
  5. Rights or wrongs? — Fred
  6. Thames Valley — Ex-Oxford
  7. FAO: Angry of Oxford — Matt S
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech