93 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
Twyford Down and the State
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TWYFORD DOWN IS a beautiful area of high ground lying
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SE of Winchester in Hampshire.
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It is rich in historical features such as the site of an Iron Age
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village, pre-Roman field systems, and ancient trackways known as
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the Dongas, which a group of protesters have named themselves
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after. They have been camped on the site to defend it since at
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least last summer and constant actions have been going on with
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locals, Friends of the Earth supporters (who soon dropped out) and
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above all Earth Firsters who have been consistently in action
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against the proposed M3 eight-lane motorway beside the already
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existing four-lane bypass near Winchester College. Their
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tactics include sabotage against the main construction company
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slowing down work and a national Day of Action last November in
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which they stopped some destruction of landscape.
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Then on 9 December Winchester College got an eviction order from
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their land which they had sold to the Department of Transport.
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Group 4 Security guards were hired and physically fought with
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the protesters and brought in bulldozers. There was considerable
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violence on this day, including some alleged sexual assaults on
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women protesters. Now the earthmovers have moved in as of 23
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February to start the destruction of' the Down .
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The fight to save the Down lasted a week, with the protesters
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finally being evicted with great brutality. In one opinion poll only
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five per cent of Winchester's population wanted the Twyford
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Down cutting. 'Green celebrities' like Porritt and Bellamy as well as
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the Friends of the Earth lent their support to the campaign and
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direct action to save the Down was even mooted by the thoroughly
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respectable Residents' Association and Twyford Down Association.
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But this was all rhetoric and was, unsurprisingly, never put into
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practice when the DOT with the hired security men ruthlessly
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evicted the Dongas protesters .
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Class Struggle
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To many, Twyford Down may seem like another Not in My
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Backyard (NIMBY) of little relevance to class struggle activists. But
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the Twyford Down affair, like the planned destruction of Oxleas
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Wood for similar reasons, is part of an international attack on the
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countryside and the environment for the needs of capitalism. The
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British State will tolerate no opposition to its plans, and will use
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State violence if it feels it to be necessary. The government has
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the powerful backing of the road lobby, and has need of a road
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infrastructure geared to compete with the high-speed rail link to
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the Channel Tunnel. Besides Twyford Down, there are over 15 new
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road schemes in preparation or under construction
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Government expenditure on road schemes has gone up
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phenomenally since 1979. A vast number of historic and
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environmental sites are under threat. And this is just in Britain.
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The road scheme here is part of an international plan to provide
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Europe with a modernised road system geared to the free trade
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principles of the Single Market. France plans to double its road
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system by the year 2000, including driving a road though the
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Massif Central mountains. The European Commission plans a 50%
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growth of the road infrastructure.
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This is not all. 'The European Community is providing funds f or
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several environmentally damaging hydro-electric projects. 'These
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include the diversion of' the Aeheloos River in Greece, which will
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threaten many species of bird and ruin the livelihood of hundreds
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of fishing families; the funding of 250 dams in Spain, which will
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destroy more than 100 ecological sites; the funding of a large
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bridge over the Tagus in Portugal, where the most
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environmentally damaging of three routes was chosen.
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The fight against the Twyford Down cutting has
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relevance to the fight backs against roads in the rest of Britain
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nation-wide fight back again t roads would include mobilisations
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against the Oxleas Wood development and the M11 link road
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through Hackney Marshes. It would need to link up with the
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developing opposition to road schemes and other forms of
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ecological damage throughout Europe.
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The fight at Twyford Down was bogged down in legalistic appeals
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to the European Court, and a letter-writing campaign to the
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Government and the Queen! The Dongas Tribe, to their credit did
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attempt to use direct action to stop the development. What was
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lacking however, was a mass mobilisation, so that the cutting
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could be physically stopped due to weight of numbers. There is an
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urgent need to link up the fight against road schemes to the fight
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of rail workers and bus workers. The car economy promoted by
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capitalism has to be directly related to the attacks on public
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transport, and the vision of a new society which would be geared
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to environmental harmony and the expansion of a free public
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transport system. The fight in the countryside has to go in tandem
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with inner-city actions against road schemes, such as
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Carmageddon mass blockages of roads that are beginning to
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develop.
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Organise! No. 30 Apr-Jun 1993
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