DISCO DAVES TUNNEL GUIDE
Eviction team
Contrary to popular belief the most stressful and difficult period of a campaign isn't the actual eviction, it's living with people on a campsite for months on end prior to it. During this time you'll get a good idea of those people you like and those who you just have to bloody well co operate with for the good of the bloody campaign. Like the crew of an aircraft or ship the tunnel crew should work as a team. Consult everybody involved in the tunnel construction prior to making any changes. Everyone on a protest site is a general and a private combined it can be no other way. The authorities are constantly looking for leaders that they believe know everything and are running the show......Don't give them one. Everyone in the tunnel should know where the eviction stash is, and how the air system works.Thus, if any person in the tunnel is arrested prior to eviction it will be a sad loss but not a disaster. Having two people on reserve is a good idea to replace people who leave the tunnel for whatever reason. Under no circumstances should the entire tunnel team go off to the pub together. How can you enjoy a pint anyway, when you'd be just thinking of that damn hole in the ground with no one guarding it.
There's a mutual understanding between protesters that if someone puts in a significant amount of time and effort into building a tunnel then they should have a place within it come eviction or at least have some say who does. On the BNRR protest however the original tunnel builders of the Shovel and Bucket tunnel left long before the eviction began . This created a vacuum allowing, it seemed, all and sundry to move in, live, leave, move in, live, leave etc. The situation got so bad that the tunnel was renamed the Bucket hotel. Before eviction a security guard jumped the fence and became a protester. Though the press loved the story he didn't like the dirt and lasted only a few days down the tunnel. In all fairness the leap from security guard to protester then tunneller in two weeks would be a daunting prospect for anyone.
Before eviction anyone considering living in the tunnel should spend at least two consecutive nights below the surface or ideally be sleeping underground everynight. If they can handle awakening every morning to the pitch darkness then they've crossed the first hurdle. The next is dirt. Anyone wishing to have a wash every morning should forget it. As a tunneller you're digging and living within mother earth. The dirt should be as much a part of you as your right hand. Walking around all day every day a dirty dusty mess should become second nature. Though admittedly a nice bath once in a while is welcome, the removal of that layer of dirt from the skin of a dedicated tunneller, to whom it has become a part of their very nature, can leave one feeling a little vulnerable.
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