DISCO DAVES TUNNEL GUIDE
The other side
How and when the authorities will mount an eviction of a camp is anyones guess. In Britain the eviction process is planned and co ordinated by a sheriff officer.There are apparently only 40 of them in the UK with the job of hiring the various specialist personnel required.
To safely mount an eviction is a costly and complex undertaking and must be something like organizing a smaller version of the D Day landings.These were the people employed during the BNRR evictions and could be as follows.
1/ Police Superintendent
Has overall control.
2/Sheriff officer
Commands the eviction process
3/Local police
Who are not authorized to evict protesters . Merely they arrest people handed to them by the Welsh bailiffs.
4/F.I.T.S
Forward intelligence teams ie evidence gatherers these are also police personnel.
5/Bailiffs
From Wales and dressed in green.They are employed to secure the immediate eviction arera before arresting protesters who are on the ground, or ones handed to them by the climbers or the MIB's . They then in turn hand them over to the police. Like the MIBs and the climbers they are keen to see the eviction go on for as long as possible to significantly increase their bank balance.
6/Climbers
Generally dressed in white employed to evict the trees
7/Security guards
The poor sods paid a pittance to stand for hours in all weathers guarding the surrounding security fence .
8/Bailiff Tunnellers (MIB's)
9/ T.S.G Tactical support group
The polices hard nuts waiting around the site in black overalls looking forward to a riot.
The Men In Black
The Specialist rescue international (or Men In Black from the Black overalls they wear) have been digging out protesters since the first protest tunnels were constructed at Newbury and Fairmile in the mid 1990's. Based in Redhill in Surrey they are specialists in underground rescue be it removing miners from mine collapses in the former Yugoslavia or getting pot holers out of sticky situations in the Uk. Treating the eviction of protesters as just another rescue of people who curiously don't want to be rescued .They are the people the under sheriff calls on when there is a tunnel "problem". Also being a private company and holding a monopoly on this type of work it is in their interests that the eviction goes on for as long as possible, which of course is in the protesters interest as well, as the people paying the bill are the developers. Up until late 1998 the MIB would shore parts of a tunnel which they thought was unsafe. Now with new Health and safety guidelines they have to shore the entire tunnel which means more work for them but a lot more expense for the developer. From experience the protesters expected the Arthurs wood tunnel to last 10 days and they thus had enough food to last that period. With the MIB having to shore the entire tunnel the eviction lasted 22 days. Though a number of the MIB are ex military they are not as first thought serving soldiers "doing a bit of civilian work on the side".
It's difficult to find anyone who's been through a tunnel eviction to make a derogatory remark against the MIB. They are by all accounts a professional well motivated team imbued with a cheerful if somewhat overtly laddish sense of humour. Working for the other side they may be. But there's little point shouting obscenities at them while they dig nearer and nearer to you. Everyone's patience runs out eventually and there's nothing stopping them simply switching off the the air supply for an hour until you start to behave.* Once they've reached your position in the tunnel. you have the option of resisting (ie having a fight with the MIB which you will lose) or going out of the tunnel and being offered a cup of tea and a cigarette by the MIBs before being arrested by the police. After over a week underground the latter option is the wisest.
*When on site the MIBs immediately disconnect your fan and attach their own compressed air supply to your air inflow pipe. This normally takes around 10 to 15 minutes and so as not cause alarm they will inform you before hand via the intercom.
Pumping in air up to a maximum of 40 PSI (pounds per square inch, you can ask them to increase or decrease the flow slightly). This strong influx of air will none the less still be significantly more than what was pumped in by your small air fan. So much so that the constant noise of air blasting in may prove annoying, not to mention could cause sore teeth to hurt. This is something to bear in mind when you first install your airpipe. Do not for instance have the end fixed rigid to the shoring and into somones sleeping area.As it's unlikely they will not be able to sleep properly with cold blasting up their backside so fix the pipe so the end of it finishes at ground level in a corner. A place where you can cover it with a large rag so as to impede (obviously not stop) the annoying whooooosh of air coming in. Alternatively have an extra piece of pipe to gaffer tape on during the eviction so that you can send the air influx away from where you sleep. At some time during the day or night the air supply will suddenly stop. This is because they have to change the filter on their air compressor, a process that normally takes about an hour. While you may be alarmed at this Don't forget they've been blasting down probably 30 times as much air as you had with the small computer fan so even if the filter change took an hour and a half there will still be more than enough air to keep you alive. That said for piece of mind its always best to ask them when they will be turning the air back on.
e-mail the author with your comments