On Saturday 7 January, the weekend before the tenth anniversary of the opening of the illegal prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, over 200 people from London and other parts of the UK converged outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to mark this unfortunate day in history and to stand in solidarity with the 171 prisoners who remain there. Organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign (LGC), the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC), the Stop the War Coalition (StWC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)

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. 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.

As the launch of Camp Constant ( http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity/ ) 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 ( http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR45/013/2011/en/0faf8cdd-f5a1-4024-af41-5a26f21d51a5/eur450132011en.html ) 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 Kartick Raj speaking to BBC Essex this week ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-14635807 )
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CAMP CONSTANT

On Saturday, 27th August, we will launch CAMP CONSTANT

( http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity/ ) a solidarity and resistance camp for supporters of the Dale Farm community. JOIN US. See http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/activity for more information, the long weekends schedule of workshops and a welcome pack.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA:

Any independent media people planning to come on to the site (with video, cameras, etc) please read this ( http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26043573/IND%20MEDIA%20CALL%20OUT.odt ) first and make contact…

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 ( http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/dale-farm-petition-to-no-10-and-meeting-with-union ) Thursday, 25th August to present a petition to the PM calling for the eviction to be called off.

DONATE:

use this paypal link ( link )
to donate some money to the camp.

LONDON INFO-EVENT & MEETING

2pm, Thurs, 25th August, at the Haircut before the party <http://thehaircutbeforetheparty.net/>, Whitechapel…see here <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26043573/DALE%20FARM%20INFO%20SESSION.odt> 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<http://dalefarm.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/demo/>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

Resist ethnic cleansing in the UK, fight the eviction of Dale Farm!

First they came for...

From the clearances of Roma camps in Italy and France, to the neo-fascist murders of Roma in Hungary, Romania and the Czech republic, recent events in Europe are becoming increasingly disturbing. Now the UK Government is engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Dale Farm, the largest Traveller community in the country.

On 4th July the residents were told that have until Midnight on August 31st to abandon their homes or face having their community bulldozed. This despite the fact that the families own the land on which they are living and have been offered no viable alternative housing. In the event of an eviction some 90 families will be made homeless, including many elderly, sick, and very young residents.

An astonishing £18M has been allocated for the eviction, being led by Constant and Co, a company notorious for their involvement in brutal evictions of Traveller sites. This eviction is racially motivated. It amounts to ethnic cleansing. It must be resisted.

Camp Constant, a mass gathering of national and international supporters of the Dale Farm community will begin Saturday, August 27th. We want to send the invitation far and wide for people to come and help the community resist the eviction, many of whom are determined to fight to the end. Different people will take different types of action, but we will take the lead from the community in what forms of resistance we use. Remembering the centuries of persecution Travellers and Roma have faced from the settled community since the 1500s, it's crucial we all act with real sensitivity.

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: dalefarm.wordpress.com/hrm for details. We also need people to spend the night at Dale Farm to provide around the clock support. We are looking for groups and individuals to pledge to stay overnight at smsalerts.tachanka.org/dalefarm

Dale Farm is within easy reach from London Liverpool St. Station. See dalefarm.wordpress.com/contact for directions and contact details

Please spread this message to your contacts and networks. Resist ethnic cleansing, fight the racist eviction of Dale Farm!

london catholic workers are part of a worldwide radical catholic movement started nearly 80 years ago in america. they have set up nearly 200 houses of hospitality for the poor, the homeless, and the dispossessed, mostly in america, but spreading into european and other countries too. yesterday saw the official opening of another house in east london.

yesterday's opening of the of the 'guiseppe conlon house' was attended by around 200 people including a wide mix of refugees, advocates, punks, hippies, vicars, activists, lawyers, squatters, academics, muslims, christians, atheists, buddhists, musicians, locals and internationals. the internationals introduced themselves in a welcoming ceremony with representatives from outer hebrides to japan, kosovo to france, and sweden to uganda among many others.

the house has already been functioning as a refuge for undocumented refugees and others in need of shelter and support, but the main building (originally a methodist church, then taken over by catholics and more recently disused for two years) has now been officially opened both as a continuing shelter and as a community facility.

the new centre is named after guiseppe conlon, who was the father of gerry conlon, who at the age of 21 was one of the four irish men wrongly convicted for the guildford bombings in the early seventies. despite no connection to the IRA, and sound alibis for gerry and one of the others, it took until 1989 for human rights lawyer gareth peirce to finally get them released, and another 16 years until the british government offered an apology when for political reasons tony blair made a surprisingly unreserved statement.

gerry was beaten in police custody until he made false confessions implicating completely innocent members of his family, and as a result guiseppe, an ex-marine, was arrested in london where he was trying to find a solicitor for his son. he was not a well man, and died, a convict, in prison in 1980. his widow sarah was charged £3500 to fly his body home, and the home office billed her for his repatriation - his body was flown back and forth four times as the press shamed him, before he finally rested

he was the only one from the guildford four, birmingham six, and maguire seven, who didn't live to be vindicated and see his freedom. his treatment remains a terrible blot in the dark history of irish repression.

the catholic worker communities, as well as offering shelter to people suffering injustice and violence, are also pro-active in seeking out and confronting the roots of those injustices. catholic workers have been involved in acts of challenging civil disobedience, and one of the organisers at the new centre was imprisoned for 13 months in the US for taking a hammer to a B-52 bomber. the hammer was returned on his release and was later used against BAe in the UK, returned once more, and used again in a recent ploughshares action.

after an opening welcome ceremony and a song from irish singer/songwriter joe black, the human rights lawyer gareth peirce took the stage to wish the project well and to movingly describe her experience of the lies and corruption around the guildford four and gerry conlon's family, the maguires, and guiseppe.

after more music from local duo, lovers electric, ciaron o'reilly spoke more about the project and the difficulties he has faced as an anarchist catholic - untrusted by the left as a catholic and untrusted by the catholic establishment due to his anarchist way of doing things and his past incarcerations in various nations round the world for acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

poet stephen hancock then provided some excellent conscious and political verse, before angolan journalist, rosario miranda, spoke about the campaign for justice for jimmy mubenga. jimmy was the man who during a forced deportation was killed at the hands of GS4 security aboard a passenger flight to angola. passengers, though concerned by the blood, his screams for help, and the violence of the guards, were either too intimidated or too disempowered to intervene. rosario compared the media attention some woman got for putting a cat in a bin - the cat survived, the woman was hounded, she lost her job, she was prosecuted and she was villified. in contrast, the GS4 officers remain in work, no-one was prosecuted, and the newspapers have forgotten the matter. he asked poignantly whether the cat was more precious than a black man?

joe black, who travelled from dublin then provided a full set of songs, including a special one written to celibrate the opening and to commemorate guiseppe conlon, and finally local singer raz ended the formal entertainment.

before and after the timetabled events, there was a huge spread of donated food and drink, and more entertainment from the 'bow creek ramblers string band'.

the guiseppe conlon house intends to continue its work with homeless refugees, and to act as a hub for non-violent resistance to the war machine.

for more information, including news of the current campaign to close down the "army shop" recruiting centre in a shopping mall in dalston, see the london catholic worker website.