Background

In this chapter we discuss to what the extent the Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Coalition (GTLRC) can be seen as a social movement within the framework already drawn in Chapter One from Freire, Gramsci and Habermas. The GTLRC was an umbrella group of Gypsy and Traveller organisations that came together in 2002 as the culmination of a campaign for more sites, a campaign that had begun as the failure of the Blair Labour government to honour its promises in opposition became apparent. This earlier pledge to address the shortage of sites came about in part because of the lobbying of the Labour Campaign for Travellers’ Rights (LCTR), which was launched in 1986. Hertfordshire County Councillor Martin Hudson, Paul Winter, Tommy Doherty, Peter Saunders, Bristol Councillor Jenny Smith and the Sheffield Gypsy Traveller Support Group with Acton and Charles Smith formed the nucleus (Hudson, 1987). The LCTR gained the energetic support of Peter Pike MP (shadow minister) but Blair did not include him in the government. This led to Traveller issues being sidelined in the first phase of the Labour government. As the LCTR imploded in shame, in a series of conferences the founders of the GTLRC protested against the injustice of a lack of sites and evictions, demanded human rights for Gypsies and Travellers, challenged hostile, inaccurate and stereotyped media reporting and engaged with policy makers to promote law reform. As a social movement it was indeed ‘a reaction to social problems, an expression of fear and dissatisfaction with society as it is and a call for changes and the solution of problems’ (Fuchs, 2006, p 113).

We start our analysis from the question of how the initiators of the GTLRC developed a ‘frame’ (in the sense of Snow and Benford, 1988) to construct meaning for participants and steer strategy and action (Vicari, 2010). The GTLRC as a social movement focused on a constructive critique of government policy that outlined practical and achievable reforms that can still be seen as part of a more general programme of emancipation. This showed how effectively Gypsy and Traveller communities could mobilise in transformative action, overcoming the internecine disputes between organisations of the early 1990s that provoked stereotyping comments like: