state and media use racism to control us

The Dale Farm Eviction and the Whiff of Fascism

Cops and bailiffs began their invasion at seven this morning. Despite courageous resistance by families and a group of activists, Basildon Council are continuing their eviction of Dale Farm residents, backed up by the iron fisted brutality of Essex riot cops. Harrowing and devastating though the episode is for the people being oppressed, it also has dark implications for society as a whole, in the UK and globally.

While the corporate media routinely spreads the deception that Dale Farm is an “illegal site”, it is in fact legally owned by the travellers

themselves. In one part, residents constructed buildings having won planning permission to do so. In the other – where eighty families had been camped before today- no such permission has been won. However, the lack of legal rights for travellers is part of a broader issue, and cannot justifiably be used to excuse one of the largest mass evictions in the country’s recent past. It should be noted that 90% of planning permission applications by travellers are rejected.

The land currently called Dale Farm has been disputed for decades. Though it is often referred to as “green belt”, it was used as a scrapyard by the council as early as the 1960s. English travellers first lived there in the 1970s, but they mostly left around ten years ago, when Irish travellers moved in.

Legal battles have been raging between Basildon Council and the travellers for years, and the latter have exhausted every possible avenue in defending their homes. But when the High Court verdict was handed down last week, it became clear that the council’s eviction would be going ahead.