21.03.1996

Newbury campaigners harassed

Protesters against the Newbury bypass have been met with the full force of the state’s thugs.

This road has been defended by the government with constant misinformation. It attempted to suppress a report by the Highways Agency which stated that the bypass would not solve the local traffic problems. It was only exposed after the campaigners utilised the Environmental Information regulations.

Communists are of course sympathetic to any campaigns to improve transport for everyone rather than efforts to create space for yet more traffic to flow. However these campaigns can be limited when they do not address capitalism’s drive to develop production for profit, rather than for use.

When asked why the Friends of the Earth did not campaign for free public transport, their spokesman, Andrew Wood, said that this would raise too many social issues for them to deal with and suggested that the solution was taxation on vehicles. When I asked him if that would not have a disadvantageous effect on the working class, as the rich can always afford more than us, he commented that I was raising questions of the distribution of income which were beyond the scope of their campaigns.

Poverty is a major environmental hazard, but Friends of the Earth, who are leading the campaign in Newbury, fail to make the vital link.

Nevertheless, they are leading a fight against state oppression. They oppose the state’s utilisation of its resources for private capitalist interests. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is being used against the campaigners in a particularly draconian way. Individuals, without being found guilty of any specific crime, are being given bail on condition that they report to the police every day at their home address - an action aimed at keeping them away from the protest. The police are also using section 241 of the Trade Union Act 1992 against the protesters - a typical situation where an Act directed against one section is inevitably used against the whole population.

Simultaneously, no action is being taken against frequent breaches of the Health and Safety at Work legislation. No safety clothing or equipment is being used when tree felling takes place and trees are being felled while people are within 20 metres standing. The contractors are burning noxious material to smoke out the protesters from their camps and creating a fire hazard. In one particular case they burnt rhododendron foliage which can generate hydrogen cyanide, banned under the Geneva Convention.

These are examples of the increasing lawlessness of government agencies. It is no coincidence that ministers are finding themselves in conflict with judges.

The working class must be in the forefront of the struggle to defend civil liberties and the right to protest. We must constantly challenge the notion that there should be one law for the rich and another for anyone who challenges them. Under capitalism all judges and magistrates should be subject to election and recall.

John Bayliss