SAVE THE DALE FARM COMMUNITY!

[Mark]

PEACE & PROGRESS
www.peaceandprogress.org
info at peaceandprogress.org

INVITATION

SAVE THE DALE FARM COMMUNITY!
NO MORE EVICTIONS

Jubilee Room, House of Commons

Wednesday 8th June 2005 10.00 a.m.

SPEAKERS

Lord Avebury, Secretary, All Party Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Group
Shami Chakrabati, Director, Liberty
Sylvia Dunn, Founder, National Association of Gypsy Women
Nick Harvey MP
Grattan Puxon, Secretary, Roma Federation
Kathleen McCarthy, Chair, Dale Farm Residents’ Committee
Corin Redgrave, Peace & Progress


600 Gypsy and Traveller people living at Dale Farm, near Crays Hill in Essex,
are facing the threat of brutal eviction.  Constant & Co., the specialist
firm
which forcibly evicted Traveller communities at Twin Oaks in
Hertfordshire, and
Meadowlands in Essex, have been retained by Basildon District Council. 
The Council’s
Development Control and Traffic Management Committee will meet on the evening
of June 8.
On their agenda will be the future of the Dale Farm community.

In the year in which we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the defeat of
fascism, the Roma people, the most oppressed in Europe, are still
suffering mass
deportations, forced sterilisation and brutal eviction.  One of Britain’s
first
responsibilities as we prepare to assume  the Presidency of The Council of
Europe
is to show an example to all member states in the protection we afford and
the
care
we take for the human rights of Gypsies and Travellers.

RSVP: sue at peaceandprogress.org or  07888841586

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

JOIN HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORING TEAM
TO STOP EVICTION THROUGH   L-E-G-A-L  RESISTANCE
TO TRESPASS BY CONSTANT BAILIFFS
Call Grattan on 01206523628 or emal: ustiben.5 at ntlworld.com

*****************************************************

"HANDS OFF DALE FARM"

A group of Traveller solidarity activists dropped a banner over Constant
and Co's offices at 66 Harpur st, Bedford today. This was an action
carried out in solidarity with Dale Farm. The banner read "Hands off Dale
Farm, Constant: paid for ethnic cleansing". Leaflets were distributed to
passers by.

The largest Traveller site in the country with over a thousand residents,
Dale Farm in Crays Hill, near Basildon and Wickford, Essex, is under
threat of eviction. Basildon council will make a decision by the 28th of
May, but have already paid bailiff company Constant and Co £20,000 to make
a plan for eviction. The whole site is not facing immediate eviction but
around 40 - 60 families are. The council is planning to spend a million
and a half of ratepayers money to make these families homeless. After Dale
Farm there really is nowhere to go.

Dale Farm has been a refuge in the last few years for families evicted
from other sites. The impossible odds of actually receiving planning
permission for Traveller sites (over 90% rate of refusal) means brutal and
violent evictions across the country. The size of Dale Farm is an attempt
to find safety in numbers, which the council want to stripped away. The right
wing press has made headlines in the last few months claiming that the
Gypsy - Traveller community is using Human Rights law for their own
benefit. The European Convention on Human Rights does protect the rights
of communities to live in a way that is culturally significant to them,
and also stops people being moved away from vital services. Children will
lose their education through eviction, the ill will lose their medical
treatment, the elderly will lose their care.

To join the campaign to support Dale Farm come to the meeting or visit
www.travellersupport.org.uk  info at travellersupport.org.uk
SAVE DALE FARM - Public Meeting Sunday 29th May 1pm @ Ramparts, Rampart
St. off Commercial road near Aldgate East.