RAINBOW VILLAGE ON THE ROAD

After the eviction of Rainbow Fields Village from Molesworth on February 5th/6th 1985, the Rainbow Villagers spent more than two months still in the area, moving from site to site and eviction to eviction, constantly surveyed and often harassed by the police, but out-manouvering them at every move and building up an almost indestructible group spirit.

The poems, prose descriptions, songs and articles in this booklet tell the story of those times, in the Rainbow Villagers’ own words. It takes the story up to Easter, when CND held a large (but muddy and muted) demonstration around Molesworth airbase. By then, in spite of continuous hassles and no support from the official peace movement whatsoever, the Rainbow Village were still the only ones able to provide any dry space for people who arrived in the pouring rain the day before the demo.

By May, most of the Rainbow Village had broken up into small groups; but they came together along with many other travellers for the attempt to set up Stonehenge Free Festival on June 1st. Of the 500 people who were ambushed, beaten, and had their homes wrecked by police that day, over 100 were from the Rainbow Village.

Extract: The ‘A Team’

Rainbow Village has been constantly under police surveillance ever since the great eviction on February 6th. At Grafham Water there were always two or three police vehicles on the entrance, and a squad of police in the fishermen’s club hut at the water’s edge observing us with binoculars and cameras. These were not just Cambridgeshire police, but included officers from the ‘Met’ and elsewhere.

When we got to Desborough airfield, we had at first a quiet week, with only one car on the gate and daily helicopters overhead. However, last Monday, as the miners went back to work, a special squad of 35 ‘national’ police took over Corby police station in order to deal with us.

We call them the ‘A Team’. They are from outside of Northants and are accountable to a central office – possibly the National Reporting Centre used for the miners strike. They include at least one representative each from the serious crimes squad and the Metropoitan Police drugs squad, but exactly who all the others are we don’t know – Special Branch, MI5, SPG, even the SAS; any or all of these are good possibilities.

On Monday evening (4th March) they began pulling in members of the Rainbow Village …

On Thursday a coach went to Corby to take people to the dole office. Three were called to the counter for queries about their claims; all three were subsequently arrested in the town. Rainbow Villagers were followed around town by police (both uniformed and plain clothes), and at one point the whole of Sainsburys was surrounded. Of the three arrested, two were held on warrants for outstanding minor offences. The third was jumped on by five officers in a side street and woke up in a cell with a big bruise on his face. He was held for about eight hours before being released without charge …

Brig Oubridge (reprinted from ‘The Molesworth Bulletin’)