BY TONY HUNT AND JULIE CRAWFORD
LONDON - "The Countryside March," a reactionary demonstration of 250,000, took place here March 1. It was dominated by wealthy opponents of a possible ban on hunting with dogs, which had been proposed by a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP). The Financial Times described the march as the "middle-class equivalent of the peasants' revolt." Hard-pressed exploited farmers and other social layers from rural areas, impelled by the impact of the capitalist economic crisis, also participated in the event, which had been heavily publicized in the media.

The Daily Telegraph built the demonstration and, along with other right-wing papers, celebrated the appearance of social unity it presented. Referring to fox-hunting - the main target of the proposed ban - the Telegraph, editorialized "something that has worked...for centuries is told that it must now be abolished because of an urban, anti- Christian ideology.... Respectable Britain is on the march...the backbone of the nation...those who have always been ready to fight for their country when required." The organizers did not feel confident, however, to hold a rally at the end of the march, which might have exposed the real differences underlying the appearance of unity.

The protest also opposed so-called "right to roam" legislation that would give people the right to travel over private land, the building of houses in rural areas, and the possibility of further restrictions on guns.

Many participants carried the "Union Flag," reflecting the chauvinist character of the demonstration. At the same time there were many marchers holding the national emblems of Scotland and Wales, oppressed countries within the United Kingdom. In addition there was a contingent of "country sports" supporters from Ireland marching behind an Irish tricolor and a small contingent from British occupied Northern Ireland. Popular slogans on placards were, "Don't ban our way of life," suggesting common interests between different social classes in the rural areas, and "Say no to the urban jackboot," emphasizing divisions between "town" and "country."

Ralph George Algernon Percy, described as "the 12th Duke of Northumberland," owns 120,000 acres, including 170 tenanted farms. He told The Observer before the march, "I think most people who live and work in the countryside feel they are facing a grave threat to their way of life."

One protester who would not give her name angrily told Militant reporters she was protesting the fact that Legal and General, a large insurance company, had bought up farmland for property development in Hertfordshire, a county near London.

Protectionism
Nationalist and protectionist slogans were also popular, such as "Be British, eat British." Two pig farmers from the Isle of Wight carried a sign reading, "Make the Danish squeal." Danish pork producers are among the main European competitors to Britain. One of the pig farmers, who gave his name as Fiddler and said he employs two people, told the Militant, "Pig prices have dropped 50 percent - we have been hit hard." He thought the biggest problem was European Union (EU) hygiene regulations, which he claimed were unfairly applied to farmers in Britain.

The continuing BSE or "mad-cow disease" crisis was another issue. In March 1996 the then-Conservative government admitted a possible link between British beef infected with BSE and the deaths of a small number of people from Creutzfeld-Jakobs Disease, its human equivalent. A worldwide EU ban on British beef exports followed, and is still in force today. This ban exacerbated the crisis facing farmers, prompting reactionary protests in December 1997, including dumping Irish beef.

Late last year the government banned sales of "beef on the bone" after scientists stated that there was a slight risk that bone tissue could carry BSE. In response Jenny Williams, a smallholder from Kent who took part in the Countryside March, told the right-wing Daily Mail, "It's become a nanny state."

The demonstration was organized by the "Countryside Alliance," formed last year by landowning and business interests. Its central leaders are Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a capitalist farmer who was educated at Eton, the top ruling- class school in Britain, and Eric Bettelheim, an attorney for a U.S. law firm in London. Among the other leaders are Gerald Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster and reportedly the richest private landowner in the UK, and Hugh van Cutsem, a landowner in Norfolk described as a shooting companion of Charles Windsor, the heir to the British throne.

Conservative party leader William Hague and other Tory leaders participated in the protest. Initially the Labour party junior agriculture minister, Elliot Morley, denounced the march. In the end a junior minister for the environment, Michael Meacher, participated representing the government, according to The Times. A small number of pro-hunting Labour MPs and Liberal Democrat leader Patrick Ashdown also marched. The bill to ban hunting with dogs was the private initiative of Labour MP Michael Foster. It was effectively killed March 6 by Conservative filibustering and lack of support from the Labour government of prime minister Anthony Blair. Prior to the march his government also retreated on two other issues: watering down the proposed "right to roam" law and plans to build housing in rural areas.

A small number of rural workers attended the Countryside March. David Morton, a sawmill worker from Inverness in Scotland, spends his weekends hunting rabbits with dogs for local cattle farmers. The rabbits, he said, eat the crops farmers use to feed their cattle. Stewart Frost from Gloucester works full-time at this form of pest control. Foster's bill would make his livelihood illegal, he said.

Communist League opposes hunting ban
Peter Clifford, Communist League candidate for Lambeth Council in south London, commented in an interview, "I'm opposed to a ban on fox hunting or other so-called country sports, regardless of the fact that these are mainly, but not exclusively, the pastimes of the wealthy and privileged. It is rarely in working people's interests to support a capitalist government taking more power to ban activities."

Clifford explained that the March 1 demonstration was the kind of action that sows the seeds for a fascist movement in the future. "This right-wing mobilization was the first time in recent decades we have seen angry middle-class people out on the streets in such numbers. It is from actions like this, and events like the emotional hoopla that surrounded the death of Diana Spencer last year, that a fascist movement can begin to take shape." Clifford concluded "the workers movement must oppose all chauvinist, `Britain First' and other slogans and demands that pit working people against each other-across borders and between town and country.

"But at the same time we need to champion the demands of exploited working farmers and others in the countryside for measures that protect them against the ravages of the capitalist crisis. Working farmers should be guaranteed a living income for what they produce through their labor," Clifford said. "It is vital that the workers movement take this stance in order to forge a fighting alliance of workers and working farmers. The goal of that alliance is to wage the fight to take power out of the hands of our common enemy the landowners and capitalists of town and country and bring to power a workers and farmers government."

Julie Crawford is a member of the Amalgamated Engineer and Electrical Union in Manchester, England.  
 
 
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