lemonzorba wrote:
there are protest sites around, who are always up for more people to come down and help, (try checking out
http://www.eco-action.org/ as a starting point) and there are lots of people living in bits of woodland dotted round and about if you know where to find them (often without planning permission, so they try to keep low key).
some of my old friends live in a wood on the borders between Reading and Wokingham district for months before they had to move on..
@Rach – its not all hippy love and peace though, as if you are not careful you will get the more ruthless pikeys trying to either muscle in on your site or rob your tat and things can get very dodgy,
Also it can be ropey for girls being the only girl on a site/squats or in situations where girls are outnumbered, particularly late at night when there are lots of blokes on drugs/pissed around.
Not trying to put you off but explaining what the score is from someone who was around during the time of the Newbury protests and the heyday of the Reading squat scene.
The rainbow gathering does have a lot of rules but these are probably to protect people, and political correctness/hippy feelings have their limits and primal desires / bullying macho culture can take over, and there are sadly quite a few predatory scum who try to latch on to the site/squat scene.
So sadly, absolute freedom has to be limited to protect those who may be more vulnerable.
I also think we have unfortunately lost 25 years of progress with regard to gender and race equality too… (even today the Aldermaston peace camp is usually women-only after dark!)
that said eco-protest sites are usually safe (due to the sort of people who get involved) – but they are often in harsh environmental conditions with few comforts and can be evicted abruptly at very short notice.
