Before they imposed their law upon us, we were free. Now, only trespass is freedom. For a millennia, those in power have systematically wrenched our rights to exist from us through legislation, jurisidiction, and flat out violence.
One thousand years of enclosures. The theft of common land and its concentration in the hands of an oppressive minority. Innocents murdered by an occupying force of class traitors. There has only ever been one war, and that has been between those who would seize property for themselves, and those who would have it as a common treasury for all.
And we are fucking sick of it.
Easter weekend saw an uprising against the new bill that would not only increasingly criminalise our rights to protest, but also legalise the continued and historical vilification of those who would struggle to view the world beyond the context of property and ownership: people who live in vehicles, vans, boats and barges, on horse-drawn carts, those who squat land without permission or live nomadically. Travellers of no fixed abode. That weekend, there were 107 arrests as people actively, directly, sincerely resisted in the streets over Easter, as they did against the Criminal Justice Act, as they did at the Battle of Orgeave, as they did at the Battle of the Beanfield. As people did as they occupied cranes at the Clapham cop shop nearest to where Sarah Everard was abducted. As we did at the Pizza Shop in Soho that dared hand out free food As they did at Jones Hill and Euston Square against HS2. As they did in Bristol, Brighton, Belfast. As we do everywhere. As we always will, as its all we can do as they continue to squeeze our collective throats and try drive us into abject submission.
Taken from the Resist Anti Trespass site:
“The bill will criminalise protest, violent OR non-violent for its “disruptive nature”.
The bill will criminalise the act of trespass with intent to reside. This targets primarily Travellers, and it could also have unprecedented impact on the rights of squatters, protesters, rough sleepers, ravers, ramblers, van dwellers, boaters…”
Without a bail address, when arrested you can be remanded to prison to await trial. Under their law, to not have property means you have no rights upon the land, you have no right to be, you have no right to exist. Under their system, the only right is the right to own. The dynamic is clear: if you do not own, you must be owned. In their eyes, there is only master and slave.
Yet as ever, people getting organised. As state repression ramps up against the most vulnerable in society, groups continue to form to resist:
Taken from the Statement of nfATs … ‘No Fixed Abode Travellers (NFAT) Collective & Supporters A Direct Action Coalition Group:
Lynne Morgan, secretary for the Friends of the Horsedrawn Campaign, said the following:
‘This group supports ALL folk who wish to opt out of a corrupt society, whether in bricks and mortar or not. It supports folk currently NFA, those in transition and those friends and family who provide massive support to NFA who are being targeted by the current system. Our common ground is the battle : fighting against the demise of community, and seeking the eradication of the nuclear family and all things designed to disconnect us from each other and the land.’
