TRAVELLING communities have vowed to fight government attempts to “eradicate our way of life” after hundreds joined a new coalition’s rally against the policing Bill today. 

Proposals in the legislation, which passed its third reading on Monday, seek to criminalise Gypsy, Traveller and Roma (GTR) communities for trespass, enabling police and courts to fine, imprison and confiscate their vehicles.

As a result, travelling communities and organisations have launched the Drive2Survive campaign.

The campaign group said: “The police Bill is the single biggest threat to the traditional way of life of Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers in our lifetime. 

“Drive2Survive is a coalition of Romany Gypsy, Irish Traveller, nomadic activists and community organisations who are determined to use peaceful protest and civil disobedience to highlight this threat to the freedoms of all people.

“If we join together we can make Priti Patel and Boris Johnson think again about their intention to eradicate a way of life that is many hundreds of years old.”

Hundreds of people joined a rally led by the coalition today outside Parliament, and heard from members of the GTR community about the devastating impacts of the Bill. 

Alison Hulmes from the GTR Social Worker Association warned that the Bill will “inevitably lead to more of our children being looked after in some form by the state.
 
“Too many of our families have experienced the bitter legacy of forced assimilation and state intervention in our private and family life with no redress, no repair and without atonement,” she told the gathering. “And we will not allow this to continue.”

GTR Socialists founder Luke Smith warned that the Bill would criminalise the 15 to 20 per cent of their community that are still nomadic. “These are some of the most vulnerable, most abused families in our country and we should not allow them to be thrown under the bus,” he said. 

The crowd also heard from Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, who has vowed to fight provisions targeting GTR communities when the Bill passes to the House of Lords. 

And Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy urged people not to be disheartened after MPs voted for the Bill earlier this week, saying: “This fight is not going to be won in here: it’s going to be won outside, on the streets.” 

Drive2Survive has the backing of rights organisations Liberty and Amnesty International and trade union Unite.