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greengalloway

As all that is solid melts to air and everything holy is profaned...

Thursday, October 09, 2014

Tanith Livingston -road protestor


Newbury Road Protest-9 Jan 1996 : Attempts to start clearance work on the route of the Newbury bypass are foiled when hundreds of security guards and contractors are prevented from leaving their overnight base by protestors perched on scaffold tripods.


Here are scans of three road protest related documents composed by Tanith Livingtson (1962-1996)

First set- Newbury 1996
Tanith (aka Pinki) last piece of direct action was posthumous. On 4 January 1996 she reflected on her experiences at the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (from 1981 to 1984) to make some suggestions for the ongoing Newbury Road Protest. I typed them up on 5 January and took the pages through to show her in the bedroom ...only to discover that she was dead. However, thanks to her best friend Tinsel the suggestions got passed on and one of them- to blockade the bailiffs/ security guards/ contractors in their camp -was used successfully on 9 January.

Second set Bath 1994
In 1994 Tanith had been a protestor at the Bath Road Protest and been arrested- she reckoned it was her 24 'political' arrest. She was summoned to appear before Bath Magistrates Court 15 July 1994. Tanith had been a student at the London Schoolof Oriental and African Studies on and off since 1987 and had most recently passed courses on Public International Law and Law and the Environment.  She used this knowledge to construct a her defence based on international environmental law. However, although we all went down to Bath for the 15th, her case wasn't heard and seems to have been dropped.


Thirds set- Wanstead/ M11 1993
In 1993, Tanith was involved with the ant-M11 extension Road Protest at Wanstead in east London. The protestors occupied a couple of houses due for demolition and decided to declare independence for Wanstonia as they called it.[This was probably inspired by Frestonia ] Tanith decided to take this idea seriously and used her international law text books to explain how Wanstoniua could declare independence properly.

1. Newbury Road Protest 1995




2. Bath Road Protest 1994






3. M 11 Road Protest- Wanstead/ Wanstonia 1993 












The Peace Convoy 1986 Report



From 1986, a booklet about the Peace Convoy (new travellers) in the aftermath of the eviction of Molesworth Peace Camp and the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985. I contributed some discussion about punk and the 'bomb culture' (page 9). I met the authors Ann Morgan and Nick Mann at Glastonbury where survivors of Molesworth and the Beanfield were given refuge at Greenlands farm. This did not just create problem with the ordinary residents of Glastonbury. The 'new age' (crystals and mysticism) residents of  Glastonbury who had settled there since the late 60s and were  now almost respectable were also unsettled by the travellers. Although Ann Morgan and Nick Mann [author of 'The Cauldron and the Grail' 1985] were part of Galstonbury's mystical community, they were sympathetic to the travellers -hence this booklet. Bruce Garrard who is mentioned in the credits is still running his Unique Publications in Glastonbury.