Along with thirty others, including Dublin
Corporation councillor Mick Rafferty, he was there
to make the point that Basildon council (or I
should say its ruling Tory faction), is so hell-bent
on ethnic-cleansing, it's been cutting a few
legal corners.

What about the right of landowners to
access onto their own property? Don't Come Back
the local headlines ran. But on Saturday we were
back and, at least in gesture, chipping away at the
barriers of prejudice and far-right racism.

In the afternoon, Collins was holding all
spellbound with his one-man play Traveller In
Progress at nearby Laindon. Opening the night
before alongside ensemble Romani Rad at the
Brentwood Theatre, this agitprop-style
production covering forty years of life, love and
the fight for liberty, is certainly winning new
converts and supporters.

They signed up in droves at Laindon, despite
or perhaps because of the riot police parked outside
the hall. It made you feel like you were in Birmingham
Alabama in the l960s, rather than Basildon Essex in
the here and awful now.

Comforting words came from the Irish Embassy
representative Alma Ni Choigligh who assured us
that Ambassador O Ceallaigh had lately become well
aware of the plight of Travellers and what was
happening to them down in darkest Essex.

Quote of an eventful week must be that of Father
John Glynn, who stands to lose many parishioners.
In an 8 April article in the influential Economist magazine
entitled The Siege of Dale Farm he says: "I'll be up
there at the site if they evict the travellers. And my
poster will say This is ethnic-cleansing."

Meanwhile, Father Glynn took away with him
for presentation shortly to council leader Malcolm
Buckley a world-wide petition backed by Italian-NGO
International Alliance of Inhabitants calling on
Basildon to back off from its five million Euro plan
to destroy some 120 homes at Dale Farm and
nearby Five Five Acre Farm.

The 8 April euphoria continued into the night
with an after show party at Dale Farm, which brought
together Travellers, Roma and a young Pakistani
contingent from the newly formed Panjabi Human
Rights Monitoring Team, which like several other
groups, including Corin Redgrave's Peace & Progress
Party, are ready to be there should the bulldozers
be sent in.

The Red Wheels Festival was largely sponsored
by the Travellers Aid Trust and the post-performance
party by PakiTV and Veerendra Rishi of Kingfisher Beer.
It was, incidently, his father, Indian diplomat Dr W.R.Rishi,
who proposed during l971 lst World Romani Congree that
our national flag be henceforth embossed with the red
wheel, or Ashok Chakra, similar to that on the Indian flag.

ROKKER RADIO

And was this ancient link with India, so neatly
symbolised by the participation of Panjabis in this
year's Roma Nation Day, that Romani journalist Jake
Bowers emphasised in the opening programme
yesterday in Luton of the BBC's first Gypsy-oriented
broadcast Rokker Radio (info: 01582 441111).

Opening with the national anthem Gelem Gelem
Bowers spoke of the long migration of Roma from India
and the lack of acceptance of a minority, now
350,000-strong, in present-day Britain. Over those initial
two-hours the calls came in thick and fast, indicating that
this unique programme promises to become, like 8 April,
a permanent institution.

Importantly, another long-term fixture was made
on the eve of Roma Nation Day, when Cliff Codona, chair
of the UK Forum, led a delegation to the Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister. They included European Roma and
Travellers Forum representative Kay Beard, and Dale Farm
spokeswomen, Kathleem McCarthy and Nora Egan.

Codona said afterwards, addressing the festival audience,
that it was the first time the subject of evictions and the clearance
of private-yards by specialist companies like Constant & Co. had got
onto the agenda.

"We've had a lot of pussy-footing around in the
past by the so-called experts, voluntary and professional,"
he said, adding to much applause, "Now we're
representing ourselves - and I believe we're going to
get somewhere."

He said the ODPM had shown a willingness to
take a fresh look at the way some councils were conducting
evictions. Officials had invited the Forum to present
evidence of what has been going on, especially in respect
of adherence to health and safety regulations when heavy
machinery is used.

Extensive video film, already in the possession of
the Forum, bears witness to the careless disregard of human
life and limb, as well a property, during eviction operations
that have rendered thousand homeless in recent years. Some
of this film has already been seen in Brussels and Strasbourg,
and has gone to leading human rights NGOs in Geneva, Vienna
and Washington.

"I hope they are really listening this time," said
Kathleen McCarthy, a school governor."Our children stand not
only to loose their education but to be traumatised for life by the
terror of riot police and bulldozers."

Basildon sees the ploughing up of yards at Five
Acres as a prelude to the assault on Dale Farm. This week
(12 April), the result of the Five Acres judicial review will
come through. For those with homes at stake this can be
hardly less frightening than judgement day itself.