Battle of the Beanfield Anniversary - Lest we forget.

The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours, ago today on the afternoon  Saturday 1 June 1985, when Wiltshire police prevented a vehicle convoy of several hundred New Age Travelers, known as the ' Peace Convoy'  from setting off from Savernake Forest in Wiltshire towards the twelfth Stonehenge Free Festival and setting up a free gathering and celebration of the summer solstice that had been taking place since 1974.

They were stopped by a  militarised police roadblock, following  which 1,300 police descended upon them and  British and brutally attacked  people that resulted in innocent unarmed people, women and children being violently beaten up in their own homes, after years of gathering  in the same place of celebration, by the combined  forces of the state, who armed with shields and batons ran savagely amok.

The traditional Stonehenge People’s Free Festival,  had taken place at Stonehenge for the summer solstice for a decade. The festival, which lasted for the whole of June, had become a countercultural highlight of the calendar for many people, particularly the growing number of people who had chosen to live on the road in Thatcher’s Britain. In 1984 an estimated 30,000 people had attended. 

The  marginalised and dispossessed  of this land  were brutally  targeted by a police forces  under the auspices of  Margaret Thatcher's right wing, repressive  Conservative Government,  as they suppressed a peoples thirst for freedom,  with  quasi military force that systematically carried out serious abuses of their power with such unrelenting  frenzied brutality following similar tactics  used  against striking miners  the one  in Orgreave the year before.,

On their way to a festival in the North the previous year travellers had encountered officers from the Met returning from the pit villages. As they drove passed them police held up signs with ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ emblazoned across them.

The ambush on June 1 resulted in the worst police violence in living memory, and involved 1300 officers from 6 constabularies. The government and  police, deciding to put an end to both the Festival and the travelling lifestyle that growing numbers of people were adopting. Using an increasingly para-militarised police force, as an extension of brute strength tactics employed against the miners the previous year. 

It was also just after the eviction of the Molesworth peace camp, which is where the traveller's Peace Convoy got it's name, at a time when anyone who opposed government policy was considered to be an 'Enemy Within' and investigated, infiltrated, marginalised, and often attacked, both physically and through the law.

A  truly  horrible time, like today, when people who live on societies  edges are attacked simply for being different. Women and their babies were left showered with glass after the police had smashed up their vehicles and homes and  the police cracked skulls (literally), It would subsequently  leave over 116 travelers  hospitalised and see  537 travellers arrested after their homes were systematically looted, smashed and burnt  with their possessions  being stolen.. At the time this represented one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War. ( the few that were arrested were never ever prosecuted) 

Innocent people  who were beaten and bloodied because they simply refused to conform or bow down to a rotten system, and had decided to try and live by their own set of alternative values. Who  simply wanted to gather under the stones to celebrate their lives, sing and dance.. The overall cost of this operation was a staggering £5 miillion. The media of the time played their part too, with footage of the most extreme police violence being subsequently lost, and the subsequent demonising of the traveller lifestyle. 

The travellers unexpected saviour at the time was the Earl of Cardigan, who at the times self-described  himself as "card-carrying Conservative" but  became an invaluable witness to the travellers' tales of police brutality, vandalism and unfair arrest. An interesting note - the Telegraph called the Earl of Cardigan a 'class traitor' for testifying about the violence he witnessed.

A dark day for British justice and civil liberties and freedom, marking a turning point after the injustices of  Wapping, and the miners strike in this supression of our civil liberties that we should never forget.the largest mass arrest in British history.

In a spiteful coordination, social services were on hand to take the children of the travellers into care. The last child was returned to their family in the early 2000s  It is important  to  remember that  there has never been a proper inquiry into the brutality - physical and systemic - used. and  years later people still  suffering the consequences ,and bearing the scars of this dark passage in history.

The stones remain, but we should continue to mourn  to  remember and mourn  the pain, and values of human decency that was lost on this day.
Footage of this day which you can see in following film should still make us all, shudder - it's the sight of power off the leash, police arrogant enough to know that they can beat up defenceless people in front of TV cameras without having to worry because they know their political masters had given  them them the green light to do what they like, a dark day reminding us  how British justice and civil liberties and freedom is eroded, that we  should never forget. Years later people still  suffering the consequences , and bearing the scars of this dark passage in history. 

In February 1991 a civil court judgement awarded 21 of the travellers £24,000 in damages for false imprisonment, damage to property and wrongful arrest. The award was swallowed by their legal bill as the judge did not award them legal costs.

The Battle of  the  beanfield remains  a  watermark event in radical history and in the fight for the commons. An indicator of what was to come, with increased surveillance and suppression of all dissenting voices, the battle of the beanfield will never be forgotten and the police  can never be forgiven  for  the  actions they  committed  on this  dreadful  day. 

Operation Solstice -- Documentary

  

 
Some good links here for more on this  tragic story

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-85.html

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

http://libcom.org/history/1985-battle-beanfield

The Levellers - Battle of the Beanfield

Hawkwind - Ghost Dance

Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Itinerant Child

Inner Terrestials - Free the land