DISCO DAVES TUNNEL GUIDE
Tunnel safety/liaison person
While no one could argue that being underground isn't demanding, the role of the tunnel safety person could hardly be called a bundle of laughs. Sometimes thought of as being secondary in importance to being up a tree or in a tunnel, the truth of the matter is that the right person (or people) on the surface can help prolong an eviction by days, even weeks. If you're not up for getting arrested and are calm, collected and rational with a bit of backbone, previous eviction experience and a knowledge of tunnels you have the qualifications to make a tunnel safety person.
Once the eviction commences at the sheriffs officer discretion (meaning you need to bring out the charm as well). The only person (other than the media) to be allowed on site will be the safety person, whose job is to see that the eviction is being carried out competently and safely.
When the safety person is a local supporter returning daily or a protester, being on a site that is now occupied by crowds of generic uniforms is going to feel very intimidating. It's undoubtedly going to make the safety person angry to see their once picturesque tree village now being felled before them-allways a traumatic experience. The temptation to start trashing the bailiffs tents etc will be overpowering but it is a temptation that must be resisted. Getting arrested for smashing a generator may make you feel better but when you and and possibly your fellow safety staff are thrown off site you'll realize how foolish you've been, having failed in your job. The bottom line is you have to in effect become another person and learn to be detached and objective about what is happening around you. If you're the sort who can't keep their emotions in check or bite their tongue then don't bother volunteering.
With tunnel evictions getting longer its now apparent than one person should not, for the sake of their sanity, do the job alone. Two or three people on a rota should thus volunteer at the pre eviction safety meeting between protesters and the authorities.
It should be noted that until the Essex evictions in March 2000 it was believed amongst protesters that an eviction would not commence until such a meeting has been concluded, however at Essex the bailiffs began evictions the day of the meeting which not surprisingly created a great deal of ill feeling towards the sheriff and his not so merry men.
With the MIB being extremely safety conscious anyway, there sometimes seems little point in having any one to be safety person. However what shouldn't be forgotten is that for those underground for a number of weeks isolated from the rest of the world hearing a familiar voice on the intercom asking you if everything's "tickerty poo" is a definite comfort and morale booster.The tunnellers at Essex were greatly uplifted by the daily 10 to 20 minute chats to their tunnel safety person, just snippets of news from the world outside helped the five of them last an amazing 40 days and nights underground.
During the first rounds of evictions at Manchester airport in 1997 the tunnel safety officer experienced some intimidation from the police but it was by no means overpowering.
At the evictions on the route of the Birmingham northern relief road and at the Arthurs wood site, though the MIB respected the tunnel safety officers position the police and the bailiffs did not. They threatened them with arrest if they didn't constantly ask the protesters to give them selves up. At Arthurs wood the police went as far as to write out what the safety officer had to say down the intercom or she wouldn't be allowed on site. Her daily scripted message to the protesters was video'd by the police. So should the tunnel collapse and kill any protester she would be seen to have at least attempted to persuade the protesters to come out. Such intimidation didn't work on the Safety officers at Kingston up on Thames who refused to say what the police wanted and remained on site monitoring the intercom on 12 hour shifts.
You may think you have just been allowed through the security fence because the sheriff wishes to have good PR with the protesters. That to a degree is true. However it shouldn't be forgotten that the Bailiffs and the MIBS might try to prise information from you on the how big the tunnel is and what are its defences. As they really want to let the eviction drag on for as long as possible to make more money it may seem surprising that they will take you to one side to constant bombard you with questions then criticize you for the tunnels "breaking all the safety rules under the sun". But they have to because that's the what they're meant to do when under the watchful eyes of the police and sheriffs officer. As both the police and the sheriffs officer do not make any great cash boost from evictions, they, unlike the climbers, bailiffs and tunnellers are keen to see the end of their time standing around wind swept fields.Thus we have a quite bizarre conflict of interest: those who love to make more money and those who just want to go home. It's something that's worth bearing in mind .
At the end of the day you ultimately need to be like a person most protesters despise. A politician. Who can be polite but firm and not be bullied by uniforms. Combined with giving media interviews almost daily its a very hard job. So make sure the person or persons volunteering to do it have a warm cosy place to chill out in at the the end of the day. Not like the Essex liaison officer who just had a cold ambulance to live in for 40 days .
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