The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill sets out new police powers and tougher sanctions against ‘unauthorised encampments’. Home Secretary Priti Patel has made it clear that this means Gypsy and Traveller sites. The proposed new laws will mean anyone trespassing with one or more vehicles and the intention to reside risks a three-month prison sentence and a £2,500 fine. Homes can also be seized for 12 months. Although the main target is clearly the Gypsy-Roma-Traveller (GRT) community, the measures could also be applied to protest camps such as those currently striving to stop the construction of the HS2 rail line.
The GRT community continues to come under sustained attack. The report by The Traveller Movement in 2017 called ‘The Last Acceptable Form of Racism?’ detailed how 91% of the GRT community has experienced discrimination, 77% have experienced hate crimes, and they are consistently discriminated against in education, healthcare and employment.
Patel says she ‘made a clear manifesto commitment to act on the issue of unauthorised encampments’ and remains ‘determined to ensure police have the powers they need’ – despite many police chiefs saying they already have sufficient powers in this area. As demonstrated in the eviction of Dale Farm in 2011, even when the GRT community own the land, racist planning laws prevent them getting permission to reside there, with 90% of planning applications made by GRT rejected by councils, despite an 80% acceptance rate for those from the rest of society. At Dale Farm the government spent over £6m to violently evict families from their homes. These latest attacks are part of this institutionalised discrimination against the GRT community, and are being presented in such a way as to garner favour from the most racist section of Tory voters. Now more than ever we need to stand in solidarity, organise, and defend ourselves against the attempt to subjugate and destroy the working class.
Trevor Rhys
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 281 April/May 2021
