The Criminal Justice Bill
Fast forward a couple of years and despite a huge and manipulated public perception campaign and growing frustration from the authorities the scene was still strong. By this time my friends had their own sound system and we were throwing parties in abandoned mansions, quarries, downlands and woodlands and attracting some big crowds in the process. We skirted the periphery of legality but basked in the glory and beauty of morality for we were a family built on love and respect for each other, and the land we partied in.
We lived for the weekends (long weekends) and bathed ourselves in basslines, lasers, and smoke machines, we were the children of the strobe and on the dance floor, we were reborn. The rave was our church, the decks the alter where we gave praise for the sheer joy of being together and being alive. The air crackled with the infectious energy of a thousand beautiful hive minds. Under the rising sun and the boom of the bass bin we were one, one movement with one purpose .. to dance .. and fuck did we dance!
Throughout this time the authorities had been plotting their revenge, the criminal justice bill! This law sought to outlaw convoys and repetitive beats, alongside other draconian human rights abuses they slipped in through the backdoor. Indeed it's now being twisted to suit other agendas and in reality they simply used the ravers as a pretext for greater control, as you can see here .
The Criminal Justice March
The traveller and rave community were justifiably angry at this infringement of their rights, an infringement that basically outlawed an entire way of life. A protest march was organised and people descended on the capital in their thousands. My friend organised double decker bus (which we filled) and intent on getting our voices heard off we travelled to London.
The march was initially good natured with sounds systems driving around pumping out music and people dancing in the streets, it was quite a spectacle! As we marched the police were filming and videoing everyone, this raised tensions as did some of the comments made by the observing officers. But equally this is not an excuse for what happened next and in all honesty the next few hours basically signed, sealed and delivered the bill to the eager clutches of the Tory government.
The Riot
As people began trading insults with the police the frustration began to boil over. It wasn’t until I found myself at the gates of Downing street that I realised this had the potential to spiral out of control. People were climbing the metal railings and hurling abuse at the officers behind them. A large crowd had gathered at the base of the gates and were shaking them with such anger and vitriol that they looked as though they could fall or burst open at any minute! This image was as shockingly visceral as it was symbolic and it marked a huge change in the atmosphere.
Suddenly all hell broke loose! Anarchists (many of whom were wearing masks) were suddenly everywhere, throwing bottles, tear gas and running around with wood taken from what were previously banners. I later learned that this was the third time that the crowd had tried to access Downing Street but this time the police response was as swift as it was brutal. First the mounted police and then the full riot squad.
Rocking the gates of Downing Street
Great memories for some not so much for others, I travelled with a girl during the early 90's who had been a friend of Leah Betts. The tragedy had her look at the life she and her fiends were leading at that that time and she had decided she needed out so she left the country and it probably saved her from a similar fate. The whole scene was one that really passed me by as I had already left on my travels but the stories she recounted made me glad I had taken no part. Doesn't take much to ruin a good thing. Great post dude. I'm glad your here to tell your tales buddy.
Hey my friend thanks for the great comment. Yes I can see what you mean but in all honesty 95% of the people I knew at this time have gone on to live very successful lives. I do remember Leah Betts, but I also remember that she was 15 at the time and celebrating a party at her home, the people that supplied those drugs to her should have been strung up :( Personally this was never really about consuming vast quantities of drugs and that's why (apart from the note of caution at the end) I didn't really dwell upon that aspect. This was more about capturing a moment in time for one day those with the memories will be gone. As I wrote in my cancer post I've always been a health freak, hell I've never even smoked cigarettes :D so I kept myself in check. There are always going to be people that become messed up in every avenue of life and indeed some of the people I used to drink at the pub with are now alcoholics.
It's difficult but much like the Teddy Boys, Mods & Rockers and the Punks this was a pivotal moment in the historical culture of British youth rebellion. The rebellion of youth has always scared the authorities, but now many seem to have been funneled off into faux mainstream rebellions and identity politics. And I feel that's far more dangerous to the future of our society :( .. Thanks for the great comment and perspective my friend, and yes I can certainly see where you're coming from.
as far as i am aware, leah betts died due to her being filled with too much water while unconscious - causing her brain to swell.
Hey @ura-soul yes that's correct, I think it was one of the first times she's taken ecstasy and she'd read that you needed to drink lots of water and so ended up drinking about five litres of it. It was a tragic case for sure.
The version I recall is that her family forced water down into her while she was unconscious - which I think is part of why they pushed so hard to demonise ecstacy.. avoiding responsibility for their own actions.
You may very well be right as that was from memory and you know what Chinese whispers can be like in such events. It was certainly a sad waste of a young life :(
Yes, definitely - ultimately I obviously wasn't there, so don't know for sure and I don't remember exactly where I heard that version, but it makes sense to me.
Another great post. I watched that documentary about the "Battle of the Beanfield". I couldn't believe what I was seeing at times. I would say I was surprised but police breaking the law and then covering it up isn't anything new, but the brutality shown to woman and children was shocking.
ITV & the police deleting their own footage of police brutality so it couldn't be used in court, police lying to protect themselves.
I can see why the state wanted to stop the Stonehenge gatherings. They couldn't have hundreds of thousands of people setting an example of how it was possible to live together without laws or the involvement of the state.
Month long festivals with communities and infrastructure being built by the people with no violence and people working together !!!!
That sort of thing simply cannot be tolerated.
Great post, opened my eyes to a lot of things and made me jealous I wasn't born earlier (I was born in 78).
What great times you got to experience !!!
Hey @jimbobbill thanks for taking the time to support and leave a comment, I really appreciate it. It's shocking to witness the fact that this type of brutality happens on British soil. If the video evidence wasn't there most people would never believe what had happened. I wasn't at the beanfield but I was at the criminal justice riots and if you'd watched it on the news you'd never have known the extent of the violence. It was around the time of the miners strike and they employed similar tactics on them.
I feel it's the sense of an alternative community that the government really hated. This could never be allowed to become a viable alternative. These people wanted freedom from the chains of the system and to the authorities the concept of freedom is a dangerous thing. Were they perfect? hell no, but give me a rough diamond over a polished turd any day of the the week! As we move to greater and greater state control over every aspect of our lives you can really see why this lifestyle threatened the long plan for us all.
Thanks again my friend!
What a great post @perceptualflaws !! I attended the last Stonehenge Festival that was peaceful back in 83 or it could have been 84 not so sure ! Was Amazing, I remember the little medieval style tents selling acid and mushrooms !! With Hawkwind playing live on stage and Fireworks going off over and "in " your head all night !! Yes I heard the rumours of police beating pregnant women at the last attempt to continue with this "Thatcher " decided illegal fun and frolics !!
Hey @gomeravibz what a beautiful picture you paint there my friend :) Hawkwind always used to turn up at these festivals and I can't believe they're still going! These events really did used to police themselves and indeed you'd have been far safer there than out and about in your local town on a Saturday night! Perhaps that was an aspect that really bugged the government for you couldn't have a self reliant community, policing and taking responsibility for themselves. That would never do :) Thanks for the great comment and support my friend, I've been a bit held up today but I'm looking forward to catching up with your latest post.
Yes thanks @perceptualflaws !! I rode down there on my Vespa 225 was a blast till I ran out of juice and had to leave it at a gas station to fill her up on my return !! Man that night was a pretty crazy time I can say and never did I feel in danger, was just pure love and good times for everyone i met there !!
Memories lol
Hey I remember this :D .. thanks for taking the time to read and share!
I remember this period, was involve with both free parties and demoscene/cracking, which for me were both related in free creativity in margin of law and mainstream economy, and i was very pissed with all the laws & harsh repression against this in the 2000 :) it was very weird and intense period for me lol
But i have so much good memories of those underground scene, never understood why the ban has been so harsh against it, and how they made a big deal to make it look very bad and criminal, while most were rather peacful and more in underground digital creativity out of companies and corporation.
But in a way corporate economy is always surrounded with violence to defend their interest.
Hey @hobby1 thanks for the great comment my friend, I really appreciate it! And yes exactly in many ways we were some of the first of that generation to fight against the system and in many ways the ripples of that rebellion reverberate throughout our society to this day.
I wrote these words but didn't include them in the post "As I've grown older and had time to reflect upon this pivotal moment in British cultural history. I've come to realise that it was never the music or even the drugs that scared the authorities. It was the unity and fellowship it created among the youth of a divided country"
Thanks again :)
Its something ive been wondering for a while, but as for authorities fear if unity, i dont think it was exactly this, because as i got more in the way of thinking of authorities and politics, like free mason or so, i know they are able to estimate the degree of unity and mobilisation of a group in term of capacity of achievement, of very strong bond on very clear principle like in free masonery and i dont think they would consider free parties as being structured enough to be a real threat in term of united force of mobilisation like in politics.
But still the repression has been very organized, and i saw the crack down happening methodically, and vast ressource being dedicated to kill legitimity of those motion, to only speak of them in bad term in the media, never promoting the posistive side of it, regarding international connections, digital art, way of life, only focused on drugs and accidents, and added to very strong police side.
In a way i was close to many organizers of those motions, who were into this since tje beginning, often emerging from getho culture, and police abuse, violence etc is quite a constant that is witnessed daily, and the whole trend only got worst with terrorism, emergency state, security bill after security bill, i would say even parties were only the emerged part of the iceberg, more seen as being a place were people can be themselves, out of clubs with harsh security, and rather expansive, where people from getho or rural poor place were not really welcome, and in the first period of raves, cops were a bit lost behind and it was exeptional to be able to have parties with our music, for free, without security, where all the getho and all come without fear of judgment and rejection at entrance of clubs.
But i think what disturbed more is it killed all the hype with clubs, where authority wete still able to select easily music played, and collect high fee in clubs and all while controlling the messages and environnement, where free parties made their own decoration and athmosphere, as a marking of alternative style, and showed it was possible to have alternative to clubs that was even better and cheaper, and this whole club hype was very fake and very boring for the high price.
For me the cracking/demoscene world was same objective, a bit killing the fake hype of corporate software, and showing other way to concieve software with video games, psycheledics graphics, and underground scene of computer programing, which ended with same thing with zero mediatisation of the positive side, and huge accent put on the illegal side, leading into massive raids and the whole thing being outlawed totally, and having the same philosophy than free parties with the goal not being to unite people under a flag in politics motion, but gathering alternative creative thinking to make an alternative to corporate thinking.
And drug addiction striked mostly people who were already lost before, like in tatcher era, loads of people were feeling abandonned by the state, and lot of depression and psychological problems to people who were not specially used to street way of constant on the go, surrounded by false friend drugs and cops, and no real solution, but the street wise people of the free parties knew better. For me it was really an escape from the dead end many people were parked into at that time, even if drug abuse have been maybe under estimated how it could turn wrong with certain persons.
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STOPWow! Great post! I can say from experience that 'riot cops' are typically some of the most deranged humans about. :/
Hey @ura-soul thanks for taking the time to read and lend your support my friend, it's greatly appreciated. I'm glad you said that, because in all honesty it's something you have to see to believe. They were really pumped up and ready to go at anything in their path.
I can imagine, sadly - although at least that is quite a rare thing today.. Albeit that might be because the will of the people to invite such violence through expressing freely has been temporarily quieted.
I have never been in such a situation, though have come close a few times. I did train in martial arts with a riot cop for a while and found that he seemed to be even sexually excited by causing pain - I would not trust him in inch in most situations!
Yes it's the mind that's on the frontlines of this generations battle. I've also trained in martial arts and certainly met some control freaks along the way. It really makes you wonder about the interview process these people go through.
I am fairly clear that the entire infrastructure is being designed and controlled by a form of unloving consciousness that has the primary aim of control and limitation of free will. while there are numerous individuals involved, they share 'prime directives' that result in activity that takes the form of a kind of 'hive mind'!
Carroll Quiqley exposed how some of the 'wealthiest' families have combined their vast money piles to facilitate a secret society that intends the same kind of agenda that ran the 'british empire'.
Yes I couldn't agree more, within the path of love and empathy lays the true nature and strength of humanity and I believe that's why these virtues are so denigrated throughout our society. Hatred, fear and anger can be manipulated but the path of true love is a far more powerful. It saddens me that with each passing year empathy is becoming a rarer commodity. I've been researching all of this for a great number of years and I've really come to the belief that this is the physical manifestation of the age old battle between the polarities of good and evil. An eternal war for the soul of humanity, but to understand the balance of the universe is to be released from the chains of fear.
I've come to believe that in this world of smoke and mirrors the words of Quigley hold a great validity .. whether that's because he was an insider letting us know the path of our future in order to negate some form of natural law is perhaps up for debate. Thanks for the great comment my friend.
I think the idea, originally starting this movement, was the pure and amazing. I love that these people found the balls to stand up. I think this is the spirit and lesson we should take from this.
The world without our 'legalese' would be much different to what everyone imagines........ <3 Great post @perceptualflaws <3 I am glad to know someone with such fascinating insights and teachings. <3
Hey @ancientmystique thanks for the support and great comment my friend, it's really appreciated! If these people had been allowed just a little bit of space and time to be themselves it could all have been very different. Much of what ensued was a reaction to the oppression of the state. In many ways these people paved the way for those who would later defy the government and many have gone onto to become great political activists both speaking out and visiting warzones. Thanks again @ancientmystique looking forward to sitting down and reading your post .. I know it'll be as brilliant as always :)
Unfortunately, if ANY of us were 'allowed' to experience our true individuality, we would all soon realise the perceptual flaws we have gained through our lifetimes and we may just be able to get this good stuff done, and for good. <3 great piece <3
And thank you! <3 <3 <3
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Good think.
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