Experience of giving legal support 26th and 27th October

A team of seven provided Legal Support for the Eastern bloc.

After an early a meeting about Faslane 365, there was a constant stream of e-mails to garner support and offer workshops to learn about blockading. As Legal Support person, I sent e-mails in every direction I could think of to find enough people for at least two to be on duty at any one time.

On the evening of departure, three of us went to meet the Blockaders and collect their forms. We sorted these into affinity groups, so that when the police rang we could find them quickly. Early next morning we were telephoned with news of arrests in progress and from then on we had a fairly constant stream of calls on both the mobile and landline. Sometimes looking for forms became manic! We had another batch of arrests during the afternoon and evening as Arrestables blockaded the second shift of workers. There was a flurry of legal phone calls as it was discovered that some arrests might have involved more force than necessary. Advice was offered from the legal team in Scotland.

The processing of those arrested was lengthy. We thought of them, sitting in vans and cells. We thought of their support people, watching, encouraging, keeping a constant flow of information to their base in Glasgow, to the media, to us in Norfolk. We thought of the person at base who was coordinating food, drivers, information. We were in contact with the person who was on constant standby for media coverage.

On Friday morning we began learning of releases. Luckily, the police only used two police stations. They seemed to work in batches, although sometimes finding out who was in which batch was difficult. Two drivers collected those who had been arrested as they were released. One phone kept running out of battery and necessitated borrowing someone else’s. At one point, keeping track of who was on which number was the $64,000 question! And then we heard that everyone was out except one, then they were all out, no they weren’t, yes they were!