On Saturday January 20th a van full of folk left Cambridge at 3am to reach one of the three lairages at 5:30. In a change of tactics designed to drain maximum amount of police resources some 500 protesters simultaneously indulged in various protests at the three lairages and at number of sites along the route to the docks.
By 8:30am four Cambridge protesters (including a seventy five year old woman) were sitting in the claustrophobic confines of a prison van arrested for a variety of heinous criminal offences such as standing on what the police declared was private land, but otherwise known as the grass verge, spitting on a Gorden Gilder truck crammed with sheep and running to the aid of one of the arrested. They were released eight hours and no food later and bailed to appear on aggravated trespass charges in the middle of February.
In between shouting for the release of their comrades outside the police shop the rest of the Cambridge group joined in with the general mayhem in Dover town and along the routes from the lairages to the port. This included the van stopping at a petrol station at the bottom of Jubilee Way roundabout entrance to the docks and having 20 hysterical policemen run to the van where they asked all the people inside for their ID. They had no right to ask anybody but the driver for ID, so we all refused. They then told us we were trespassing and would be arrested if we didn't move, so we had to leave without buying any petrol.
At one time the A20 was brought to a complete standstill as protesters sat and laid in the road. The tactics would appear to have worked as the police struggled to regain their dear law and order. People from Cambridge are aiming to go to Dover once a fortnight at least. If you want to go to Dover and help end/interrupt this vile trade ring Joan 01223 311828 for details.