Miliband: a call for comments

The Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, has a blog too (which, like this blog, has occasional typos). And today, we're treated to a post about the Kinder Mass Trespass.

The intial irony is that he talks about 'responsible ramblers'. Exactly what Benny and Co were not - they dared to stray from the path. But the Minister wants us to keep within the boundaries and behave ourselves. Politicians love their contradictions, and the old guys and girls are conveniently no longer around to tell us the real story.

And they weren't convicted for trespass - something which was not a criminal offence then, but is very much so now, even more so under New Labour's raft of new laws - but for 'riotous assembly' and 'breach of the peace' (for scrapping with the Duke of Devonshire's gamekeepers, the police of the countryside in those times). Another myth that allows Labour to blather on about how good the the CRoW legislation is.

You'd expect him to trawl out some comments about Benny Rothman, as indeed he does. After all, it's good to butter up the Labour Movement, and there might still be a few votes amongst the CPGB. But I doubt even Miliband knows that Benny was at Twyford Down, or his history of opposition to road schemes. And even if he does, there's no chance of it popping up to spoil this picture of harmony that the blog post presents.

At the end, Miliband displays his knowledge of Ewan MacColl's 'the Manchester Rambler', which I wager someone mentioned to him on Saturday. And although the first verse mentions Crowden, the last verse is a battle cry for environmentalists:

So I'll walk where I will over mountain and hill
And I'll lie where the bracken is deep
I belong to the mountains, the clear running fountains
Where the grey rocks lie ragged and steep
I've seen the white hare in the gullys
And the curlew fly high overhead
And sooner than part from the mountains
I think I would rather be dead

MacColl's scene of tranquility, which can be found (relatively) at Swallows Wood and on the hills around Longdendale has nothing to do with this government which plans to wreck it all. The local MPs and Local Authorities all want to massively increase the traffic and pollution. Indeed, CO2 emissions will rise by 9%.

All of which will perhaps make interesting reading for this week's paper - because we're aware that local Green campaigners were invited to meet Miliband in Glossop. What did they say, and did the bypass get a mention? We wait with baited breath...

If you have the time and you support us, pop over to David'd blog and leave a comment. But going on the record of some other blogs like this, and websites like this (both coincidentally run by Labour Party people), a request for a link or a debate will not even yield a response.

(Oh, and by the way David - there were 400 Manchester ramblers, not 4000)

The Kinder Mass Trespass & Labour's Greenwash

Today and Sunday, people will gather to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout.

Much is being made of this anniversary. Indeed, there are several guided walks, exhibitions as well as a 'celebration' evening at New Mills Town Hall tonight. The Trespass is rightly celebrated as a hugely important event in a struggle in which ordinary people strove to reclaim land which was once held in common, that which has been stolen by the ruling class and policed and treated as if it were their own back garden, leading eventually to the creation of National Parks.



The local MP, Tom Levitt, is making the most of the limelight at tonight's event. You wouldn't expect anything else from such an opportunist, always eager to be seen in the foreground at a photo opportunity.

But if Benny Rothman (one of the best known Trespassers jailed for riotous assembly in 1932) were here, I'm pretty sure he'd have cause to object to Levitt's presence. Putting to one side the issue of Levitt's lick-spittle like (continued) backing of the Labour Party's war in Iraq plus his advocacy for the spending of countless billions on the replacement of Trident Nuclear weapons, he is a leading advocate of the Longdendale Bypass. But doesn't an MP love a contradiction? It's called having your cake and eating it: the man who will be introducing tonight's soiree, celebrating the trespassers and the National Park, is also the man who is declaring war on that same Park. He's brought the Environment Minister with him especially. As if we need our noses rubbing in it.

Why am I sure that Benny Rothman would object? Because he dedicated his life to society's struggles, not least that of the destruction for the environment by the forces of conspicuous consumption and capitalist accumulation. He played his part in objecting to and campaigning against many of Manchester's road schemes, as well as the destruction of Ashton Moss byTameside MBC. But in 1994, at age 83, he took part in another Mass Trespass, this time upon what remained of Twyford Down, where construction of the M3 motorway was underway after protests and mass actions against it. At the time, he wrote an article for publication in the Countryman magazine about his day. He saw no need to make a fuss about his actions - for him, this protest was the natural thing to do and he was energised by the then nascent radical environmental movement whom he regarded as comrades in the same fight, a parallel that went completely over the heads on many so-called radicals on the left.

Although Benny's presence at the 1994 Trespass is not widely known, the relevance of this event to the situation we face in the Longdendale Valley andGlossop could not be clearer. Just as the Tories carved up many of the green places in this land in the 1990s to built pointless and ultimately fruitless roads, the Labour government and their Barons in local government are proposing a new wholesale onslaught on the countryside, and all of this at a time when they preach to us about preserving the environment, curbing carbon emissions, and consuming less. This road and others will fundamentally contradict each of those so-called priorities. It's a lie -Greenwash masquerading as 'business as usual'.

The Mass Trespass was a tactic in the strategy of reclaiming the land from those who accumulated it as conspicuously as they did their wealth. In the times of the 6 day week, Sunday held a chance to walk the wild land in order to defeat spiritual poverty and leave aside material poverty, even if only for one day. 75 years later, the struggles we face are about preserving what we have fought for as well as the land itself, and about advancing a movement to change a mode of production that threatens our very existence as a viable species.

Benny Rothman's Twyford Down Mass Trespass recollections

The following text is copied verbatim from a piece of writing Benny submitted for publication in the Countryman magazine after taking place in the Mass Trespass at Twyford Down on July 4th 1994:

I arrived at Twyford a day before the scheduled Mass Trespass in opposition to the Criminal Justice Bill, and this gave me the opportunity to look at the site where such destruction of the environment had taken place and where history of the fight to oppose this devastation had been made. It also gave me the opportunity to meet up with the people who had led this now famous campaign of opposition.

The cutting to carry the road stood out glaringly white, broken chalk rock in the surrounding sea of green vegetation. Already some of the road had been surfaced and work was in progress with tarmac carriers, rollers and earth movers moving in the new surface. What was most outstanding was the constant movement of four wheeled vehicles carrying Group 4 security guards patrolling the road endlessly. No wonder the contractors are putting millions of pounds aside to maintain this picture of warlike hostility to any opposition. Hardly a sign of consumer friendly cooperation at this stage, more like an army of occupation in hostile territory.

My guide to the site was a young chap who was on the large list of people who had been served with injunctions prohibiting them from setting foot on the cutting and road, or with a hefty fine or term of imprisonment or both. The manner in which this group of 'injunctees' had been identified is a story in itself. Some of them had already served terms of imprisonment, for violating these injunctions. Many of them including young women have already been in jail and in some cases badly beaten up.

We walked into the surrounding countryside, rich in chalk down flowers which had grown there undisturbed for hundreds of years, many varieties of orchids, masses of dropworts, poppies and a host of flowers new to me. I also had pointed out to me the eroded roadways used by early inhabitants called dongas.

I wondered as I walked whether or not this rich harvest of flowers could survive the pollution which would come with the opening of the motorway.

When I was taken to the offices of the campaigning body called Road Alert, I could see how difficult it was for them to carry on, with only scrap furniture no real tables, old gift computers and office equipment.

They had very little more than tremendous enthusiasm to carry them forward. They were young in years but already old in accumulated experience, in touch with protest groups from all parts of the country.

I met ... an attractive young woman who had already served sentences of 28 days and 10 days for contempt against the trespass injunctions. She like many other young people had abandoned their jobs and degree courses at university to take part full time in the many protest groups. They were answering calls from all parts of the country. Organising and arranging press interviews drawing posters, checking arrangements for the 10001 minor events which were due to take place. Far from being eccentrics they seemed to be very down to earth intelligent youngsters.

I looked through the masses of photographs and press cuttings that they had accumulated, and saw some of the excellent posters they had made and mounted for exhibitions. It was of course all done on a shoestring.

I later hurried out with my guide who was due to give an interview to a local television station, after which I was driven to a little village by the river Hamble where I was given overnight hospitality, fed like a lord, and next morning transported down to Twyford where after helping in the general erection of a small marquee and odd tents and posters, I took part in a large press 'conference' I think it was called.

As speakers and representatives from many organisations were being interviewed photographed and videoed, more and more were arriving. I had already given an interview to a local radio station by phone the night before, and I met up with many more papers magazines and television crews at that gathering in the open at the hillside of St. Catherines Hill.

Then the crowds grew, and the temperature rose. Percussion bands played, music from a variety of instruments throbbed, chanting and signing from different groups all unrehearsed and spontaneous arose from all sides, and amid all this hubbub interviews were taking place. At one point I was in discussion with Joan Bakewell on camera but whether or not anything could be made out in the general explosion of activity and noise I don't know. Cameras were clicking, video and cam corders were clicking, and vast crowds were milling around. A platform of sorts had been erected, and I was meeting up with old and new acquaintances. Friends I had not seen for years came forward. I knew some, but could not remember others but it was all one happy determined band.

And still the sun blazed down and the temperature rose. I don't know if I was showing signs of distress, as unfortunately I had left my sun cap in my rucksack which was buried in an immense pile of bags and rucksacks so I had to take the full impact of the sun. Many good friends brought me water which dozens of the audience were drinking from plastic bottles, lukewarm but very welcome, fruit was being handed around, especially strawberries for which the area (Hampshire) was famous before many of the strawberry fields were converted into Posh housing and of course offices.

The Chairwoman of the meeting was doing an heroic job. Literally hundreds of speakers were coming to the platform and wanting not merely to be introduced, but wanting to 'say a word or two'. Still she coped marvellously and as I was saying my own word or two, the banners wee being picked up and an immense crowd set off onto the trespass along the main footpath with dozens of other groups from the hillsides following on along other footpaths.

Meanwhile I was being taken care of by the father and mother of one of the committee, with instructions to make sure I got to Winchester Station in time for my train. The masses of protestors walked on, with no signs of police or security guards, unto we reached a pushed over fence onto the Twyford Down Cutting. There was a small group of police and security guards assembled at that point wisely standing way back and looking on. A short distance beyond that point it was going back time for me, and together with my escort we turned back and after a long walk finishing off by the riverside reached a road where I was given a lift down to the station.

I was in good time with minutes to spare, only to hear an announcement from the railway loud speakers that the train to Manhchester would be late owing to a fire close to the line. Ultimately, I got back to my home about an hour later than I had expected, tired and sunburnt but very pleased to have been in such good company and for such a worthy cause.

The anti climax came on Monday when I looked through the Sunday and Monday papers to see what coverage had been given to the event. There virtually had been a complete blackout of the event either in the newspapers and on radio and television.

Why!

The largest event against the Public Order Bill which will probably become law during this month unamended in all its injustice, its attacks on liberty, and its probably effects in the future was surely worth some coverage somewhere. Dozens of journalists were in attendance, with cameras and television crews why the blackout on news.

Could it be political, or economic. I can only see that frustration and bitterness at such treatment of the public affected by many of the matters which the government was endeavouring to bottle up with this Public Order Bill will blow up in the faces of the inept politicians, and their 'politically correct' supporters in all quarters. They might get the genie in the bottle but can they keep it there. I have seen the determination and courage of the young people in this campaign, and my prediction is that even although the legislators might win on paper, they will lose on the ground. The more support we can give to campaigners involved in the numerous battles for social justice taking place the sooner we can end the farce of so called democracy and the abuse of power...

Trespassing in the Peak

Kinder Mass Trespassers in 1932 (Benny Rothman indicated)

I'm in favour of trespassing.

Let me qualify that statement. When 75 years ago, a group of young socialists trespassed upon Kinder Scout, they struck a blow for real freedom. In defiance of the law and the privileged landowning class, they showed the way to a possible future where people could wander to their hearts content upon mountain and moor, leaving behind the city and the worries of that other, crazy world.

If we are to be truly free, we need to maximise the time we can truly call our own. Theirs was, and still is, a truly profound vision of freedom, still to be realised.

But for these brave, principled individuals, we would not be able to enjoy the Peak District. They were the 'eco warriors' of their day, and people younger than them would do well to respect and understand the real meaning of that.

But, I'm not in favour of trespassing.

Again, I'll qualify that statement. This bypass is the thin end of the wedge for encroachment and trespass into green spaces and National Parks by road schemes and developers. That is good enough grounds to oppose it if nothing else is. Some of the more idiotic Tameside Councillors have argued that building more roads through the countryside allows us all to see more of wildlife. I can only presume they mean roadkill.

The whole point of a National Park is that you get out of your bloody car and walk! The fact that some people prefer to remain atomised and alienated from life in general is not an argument for a lifestyle which is slowly turning us into bloated, alienated machines.

Better late than never, the Peak District National Park have renewed their opposition to the bypass. They know full well that they would not exist without those Manchester lads and lasses who took to the moor in 1932. And those who value and cherish our National Park must move mountains to end this scheme.

The Highways Agency could not have chosen a more apt anniversary to try to gain legal backing for this scheme, through a Public Inquiry. They need to be clear that for every legal measure there are counter-measures, both legal and illegal. Our justification for such activity? Our heritage...