Stonehenge and civil liberties

Hatred of Dissent: Reviewing Four Decades of Repressive Tory Laws on the 38th Anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield

1.6.23

My review of four decades of repressive public order legislation by the Tories, marking the 38th anniversary of the Battle the Beanfield, running from the 1986 Public Order Act to the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, and on to the 2022 Police, Crime Sentencing and Court Act and the latest version of the Public Order Act. Aimed at criminalising the way of life of Gypsies and Travellers, the legislation is also aimed at criminalising any form of even mildly disruptive protest, of the kind currently being undertaken by climate protestors, whose actions would chime with the beleaguered travellers, festival-goers and environmental activists of 38 years ago.

From Ignorance to Denial to Disaster: 60 Years of Living With Climate Change — Part Two: The 1980s

19.4.23

The second of four articles marking my 60th birthday, looking at how awareness of the climate crisis has developed, and been supported, ignored or resisted over the last 60 years. This article focuses on the 1980s, when I went from school in Hull and university in Oxford to living in London under the ravages of Thatcherism, which largely drowned out the growing awareness of the climate crisis through the emission of greenhouse gases in the US, where NASA scientist James Hansen finally secured widespread media coverage and public interest after a Congressional hearing in 1988. I also look at the impact Bill McKibben’s book ‘The End of Nature’ had on me when it was published in 1989.

38 Years Since the Last Stonehenge Free Festival, The Legacy of Those Who Destroyed It Is An Imminently Uninhabitable Planet

21.6.22

As crowds return to Stonehenge for the summer solstice, I look back on the days of the Stonehenge Free Festival, which last took place 38 years ago, and wonder how both Stonehenge’s builders, and the travellers and festival-goers of the ’70s and ’80s, would react to the currently unfolding environmental catastrophe of our own making, whose roots were sown when dissent was so brutally suppressed in the ’80s and ’90s, and the unfettered neo-liberal exploitation of everyone and everything took over.

On the 37th Anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield, Gypsies and Travellers Face an Unprecedented Threat From This Vile and Bigoted Government

1.6.22

Marking the 37th anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield, on June 1, 1985, when the police, under Margaret Thatcher, violently assaulted a convoy of travellers en route to Stonehenge to establish what would have been the 12th annual Stonehenge Free Festival, with commentary about how, today, Gypsies and travellers face a threat to their very way of life via legislation introduced by our dangerous and bigoted home secretary, Priti Patel.

Remembering the Stonehenge Free Festival 37 Years On, and the Video of Last Year’s Virtual Stonehenge Festival

21.6.21

My thoughts on the summer solstice, 37 years after the last Stonehenge Free Festival, as ‘Managed Open Access’, in place since the 15-year exclusion zone came to an end in 2000, was cancelled for the second year running because of Covid (although some revellers turned up anyway). Also included: the video of last year’s ‘Virtual Stonehenge Free Festival’, organised by Neil Goodwin, in which videos of musicians who performed online last year during lockdown are interspersed with footage of the Stonehenge Free Festival, travellers and the Beanfield.

36 Years Since the Battle of the Beanfield, the Tories Remain Committed to Eradicating the Nomadic Way of Life

1.6.21

Today marks the 36th anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield, when the police, under Margaret Thatcher, destroyed, with unprecedented violence, a convoy of vehicles containing men, women and children, as they tried to make their way to Stonehenge to set up what would have been the 12th annual Stonehenge Free Festival. Despite the trauma caused that day, the Tories continued to persecute Travellers, passing punitive legislation in 1986 and 1994, and now, under Priti Patel, are seeking to outlaw the entire nomadic way of life through a draconian clampdown on “trespass” in the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

The Dangerous Authoritarian Threat Posed by Priti Patel to Our Right to Protest and Dissent

14.3.21

My response to the police violence at the peaceful vigil for Sara Everard on Clapham Common, and its curious timing, coinciding with the second reading of home secretary Priti Patel’s horribly authoritarian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which seeks to legislate meaningful protest out of existence.

Thoughts on the Summer Solstice – and Video of The Four Fathers’ Set for the Virtual Stonehenge Free Festival

22.6.20

My thoughts on the summer solstice this year, as COVID-19 kept revellers from Stonehenge for the first time since the 1990s, when an exclusion zone imposed after the Battle of the Beanfield was in place. Also included: a video of my band The Four Fathers playing a set for the Virtual Stonehenge Free Festival set up by my friend Neil Goodwin to tide us through these times of isolation.

It’s 35 Years Since the Battle of the Beanfield; Where Do We Go Now?

1.6.20

It’s 35 years since 1,400 police, on the instructions of Margaret Thatcher, violently crushed a convoy of men, women and children trying to get to Stonehenge to establish what would have been the 12th annual Stonehenge Free Festival. The Battle of the Beanfield remains one of the most indefensible episodes of state violence in our lifetimes, and, while it didn’t crush dissent, it paved the way for sustained efforts to do so on the part of successive governments.

Change the World! A Life in Activism: I Discuss Stonehenge, the Beanfield, Guantánamo and Environmental Protest with Alan Dearling

29.4.20

An interview about my activism — involving Stonehenge and the Battle of the Beanfield, Guantánamo, the housing ‘regeneration’ industry in the UK, and the currently unfolding environmental crisis — as published in Gonzo Weekly and International Times, based on questions from the publisher and activist Alan Dearling.

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Andy Worthington

Investigative journalist, author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker. Recognized as an authority on Guantánamo and the “war on terror.” Co-founder, Close Guantánamo and We Stand With Shaker. Also, photo-journalist (The State of London), and singer and songwriter (The Four Fathers).
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