9 January 2025

Author's note: Asked to speak at the Newbury Reunion Rally on 10 Jan 99, the third anniversary of work starting on the Newbury Bypass, this was written the night before to get my thoughts straight in my head.

Having seen the tree protests be responsible for the slashing of the government's road-building plans by two-thirds, people talked a lot about how this made Newbury a great victory. Something about that never quite seemed right to me.

'We lost the battle but we won the war'. This is largely true, and we should be proud of what we made this mean. But we mustn't let ourselves believe this wasn't predominantly a victory for greed, cruelty and destruction. This land and the life it supported have been lost forever.

Despite our best efforts, despite subsequent admissions from the politicians that they knew this road was an ineffective pointless travesty, this land is lost. Once we lose the places we never get them back.

We mustn't count this loss as a victory. We must recognise that this road is an outrage and always will be. Individually, personally, we mustn't lose that sense of outrage, we must use it to keep us motivated and focussed in the broader ongoing struggle for what we know to be just and fair, in our most important task - to be worthy trustees, to be responsible ancestors.

We must not lose that outrage as a motivation, but we also mustn't lose the connection back to why we have that outrage - our sense of wonder, and understanding of what a truly beautiful planet this is. It's the contravention of these, the deepest of loves, that is at the root of our actions. Every day of every life is a wonder.

There is only one earth to sustain us. Intertwined with the love of life is a deep-seated element of self-preservation. We're not 'saving the earth'- the earth will survive us no matter what we do. We're saving ourselves, we're trying to stop those who are taking a sledgehammer to our only life-support system.

And how many guises they come in. Many of those who still had faith in the established party-political system were shocked that here at Newbury the Liberal Democrats - who usually portray themselves as environmentally responsible - had the council and MP here, all ferociously cheering on this road, the most environmentally indefensible of schemes.

The campaign at Newbury proved, again, that when it comes to the crunch those who we pay to represent our interests cannot be trusted. Be they David Rendel [Newbury's MP], English Nature who approved and assisted the destruction, the Health & Safety Executive who wilfully ignored illegal and dangerous practices in the eviction of the camps, the bailiffs and police who beat and bullied the protesters, English Heritage and archaeologists who lent a veneer of expert authority to the ruination of the historic sites.

It cannot be said too often or too clearly - direct action is not a last resort for when authorities fail us; on the contrary, leaving things that matter to other people is the last resort. We have the right to directly affect the things that directly affect us.

Power over us is maintained by fear and bluff. They pretend they're expert in order to prevent us from acting on our instinct to be decent and humane. But they are bluffing, and, as we learn time and again with direct action, morals and motivation are enough.

They are enough because our morality serves an enduring truth that leaves behind the narrow short-term vision and pathetically small dreams of the profiteers.

Ours is a common feeling for how good life could and should be for us, all of us, as a diverse but common humanity. We're not here for what we're against, but rather against that which obstructs what we're for.

This, for me, has been the real lesson learned here, the real unequivocal victory of the campaign against the Newbury Bypass; the permanent lesson to all of us involved in this protest that the things which supposedly separate us are not really divisions, just variants of our common living humanity. We can work together and leave the world a better place. We are as strong and powerful as we dare to be. We can be what we want to be.

It's easy - all you need is love.