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COME DOWN TO DALE FARM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

The Court of Appeal has just rejected the residents’ right to a judicial review, which means that Basildon Council will be able to come on to conduct an eviction from now onwards.

We need supporters to come down as soon as possible to help resist this eviction. We need people to come willing to engage in civil disobedience as well as support residents and activists in resisting the eviction through non-arrestable roles. It may seem like a scary thing to do, but coming down to Dale Farm is one of the most important things we can do for the community here, and to protest the injustice that even the United Nations and Amnesty International have unreservedly condemned. This is a historic moment of resistance- let’s do something.

The residents have nowhere to go. They are united in resisting the eviction, and we have been working with them to develop plans and strategies. Travellers in the UK are at the receiving end of state violence. The way the Dale Farm community is being treated is a form of ethnic cleansing which criminalizes a people and a culture, and it is vital that we come together in solidarity to resist it. We are ready to resist the eviction, and we need more people to join us and the residents as soon as you can come down. Bring a sleeping bag, food and resistance paraphernalia. (For a full list of things to bring, how to get here – only 30 min from London- and other important info, see http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity/ or call 07583621312).

In addition to getting supporters down to Dale Farm, we still need a lot of funds to cover the work we have been doing so far. Please donate at: http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/donate/

Dale Farm residents and supporters have gone into “lockdown” in anticipation of an eviction.

Today the Dale Farm community were rejected the right to appeal the decision made last week which gave Basildon Council the go-ahead to evict. Mr Justice Ouseley, the judge responsible for making the decision last week, was responsible for the eviction of Hovefields Traveller site, also in Basildon in 2010.

In response to this news, residents of Dale Farm and their supporters reinforced the perimeter of the fifty plots which house 83 families, and placed the entire site into lockdown in order to resist eviction.

Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy said, “We’ve been left with no choice – we really have nowhere else to go, do you think we’d put ourselves through this if we did? The law is prejudiced against Travellers – we were told 15 years ago to get off the road and buy our own land, but now they are forcing us and our kids out onto the road again. The barricades are all that stand between us and homelessness now.”

Lily Hayes, a Dale Farm supporter, said:

“The law, planning regulations and the judicial system all discriminate against Travellers. Engaging in civil disobedience is the reasonable response to this senseless eviction which is making 86 families homeless. We will stand side by side with the residents to resist this eviction.”

Residents have expressed concern that Basildon Council has failed to give an indication of when the eviction will begin. Basildon Council only provided a date for the attempted eviction on the 19th September in response to significant pressure. Legal advisors have strongly urged Basildon Council to re-issue the 28 day notices due to the significant period of time that has elapsed since the latest set were issued.

Even before the court judgement was delivered, the Council sent in a helicopter to fly low over Dale Farm homes and bailiffs into the woods surrounding the land. Residents were intimidated and panicking, worried that an eviction would be launched with no prior warning.