A WAY OF LIFE - artwork by Bongo For 7 months Claremont Road was home to the M11 campaign, but it was always far more than a squatted campaign site. With an Art House, two cafes, a stage, bicycle workshop & information centre, Claremont was an ongoing work of performance art, an experiment in communal living & car free space. 'Homes not roads' was the slogan that had defined the campaign for much of its life, but with the arrival of the Criminal Justice Act the political ground had shifted. Claremont Road became as much about "Defending diversity & dissent', a key slogan of the summer of '93. For this was the flowering of the art of activism, whose motto is "Creativity, Courage & Cheek." The Situationist call to "Be realistic - demand the impossible" became a way of life at the M11. They didn't just demand it, they did it. Non-violent Direct Action is both deeply theatrical & fundamentally political. "Direct action is a theatre, The media like that. A mixture of symbols & decision making - wars & celebrities. " Allison, M11 campaigner. This was political art that grew from life. At Claremont Road a hole was cut in every single wall of a row of 30 houses to create a tunnel that linked every home. Conceived as strategy to evaded the bailiffs, it became a physical expression of community.The 100 foot scaffolding tower was the crowning glory of Claremont Road. It could be seen for miles & for its brief life became a local landmark. But during the siege of Claremont, the longest eviction in post war history, the tower was destined to be the dramatic stage for the final showdown. The evening of November 27 th 1995, & the scene is set. There was an electric expectancy as people arrived at Claremont that night. We had heard the word - Tomorrow was the big one,the 'Mother of all evictions' as some wit named it. We wandered around in the crowded darkness, greeting old friends & meeting new ones, telling stories & reassuring newcomers that all would be well. I went to find a space to sleep quite early. Evictions tend to happen first thing, & I wanted to be prepared. How naive. Quite how anyone could be prepared for the days ahead, I really don't know. This ?2 million extravaganza had an all star cast: 500 protesters, 700 police & 400 security guards. "It was probably the most amazing week I've ever experienced in my life, the most rich, intense thing - furthest removed from anything I've ever expe;rienced in my life." Phil, the last person evicted from Claremont Road. The next day was bright & cold. No sign of a dawn police invasion, so we headed for the cafe. The day dragged, & tension mounted. There were several false alarms that sent us scrambling for a secure spot, only to emerge half an hour later feeling slightly cheated. When they finally arrived it felt like a relief. The Prodigy's Music for a Jilted Generation blasted out from the tower as the uniforms flooded in, clearing the road of anyone who wasn't physically attached to it. People were locked into holes in the road, sealed in basements, & hanging in netting. Every tree had a treehouse & the roofs of houses were crammed, while number 15 had the famous 100 foot tower - the last refuge. Things started badly with the police removing all legal observers & press: Without independent witnesses no-one outside would know what went on there. The area for a radius of quarter of a mile around was sealed off by police roadblocks & the press were kept in a small pen across the railway tracks, away from the thick of the action. Then they cut the power to the tower. The music was obviously not to their taste, but the silence didn't last. The return of the music was to be the first of many surprises as electrical power, supplies & people could be channelled into the exclusion-zone via an underground tunnel affectionately known by the code-name 'Vicki'. Although the Tower was the prize, the nets were also a prime target as they were a very effective means of communication. As Martin, an M11 campaigner, said: "The nets were a major success. Supplies were coming in & people could go up & down the whole street on the nets... The nets connected everything, we started loosing when the nets went - we were suddenly individuals not connected up." Hours passed, and night fell, leaving the street lit with the acid light of halogen like the film set of some apocalyptic movie. From my perch on a roof cut off from the main terrace of houses, I could see the scurry of the police & bailiffs working through the night to clear the road of locked on protesters. Occasionally a figure would appear from below, held aloft in a cherry-picker platform to tempt us with offers of hot tea & a free passage off the site. We sat on the roof wrapped in blankets, huddled together for warmth & refused his kindness. Martin wa

The name Lavarone appeared for the first time in 1184, in a papal document, in which the Pope Lucio III declared that he was placing the temporal property owned by the Bishop of Feltre in various locations under his own protection, including localities on our High Plateau. Prior to this date there is no other known documentary testimony of the name; there are however material findings and testimony, which allow us, in the current phase of research, in any case, to formulate only some conjecture as to the area's most remote chronicles. In fact, traces of ancient smelting furnaces and waste deposits in some localities, such as Millegrobbe, for example, demonstrate the area's precocious anthropisation. Nineteenth century historiography also hypothesized the existence of a prehistorical castle on the hilltop of Chiesa. To date, however, systematic excavations similar to those that brought to light significant discoveries concerning the areas of Luserna, Fiorentini, Elbele and the shelter under the rock of Cogola near the village of Carbonare (municipality of Folgaria) have not yet been conducted. Neither has the hypothesis been confirmed to date, which appears likely, moreover, according to which the area was crossed by a trail in prehistoric times, which connected this part of what is today the Trentino with the Vicentine area. Little is also known of the presence on the High Plateau of the populations that successively occupied and dominated northern Italy and the Trentino region: The Gaules, Rhaetians, Romans, Francs and Lombards. Roman penetration in the Trentino dates from slightly before 100 BC. In 40 AD, the Romans definitely dominated Trentino up to the confluence of the Isarco and Adige Rivers. Due to the particular position it occupied, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, our region acted as a stronghold against the first barbarian incursions. In any case, the invasion of the Lombards reached Trentino, which was transformed into a Lombard Duchy in 569 and retained this status until 774, when it became a border region of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany, under the government of Charlemagne. It is difficult to say whether Lavarone was frequented only as a stopover or whether there were permanent human settlements during this entire period. It is certain, in any case, that the Roman coins, other coins and a pair of earrings dating from the Lombard period, found in the Covelo di Rio Malo, provide evidence that the place was frequented by these peoples. Lavarone was definitely part of the wide territory between the Astico and Brenta Rivers that the emperor Berengario gave to the Bishop of Padua Sibicone between 917 and 921, however. At that time, the Princedom of Trento, of which Lavarone was to be a part, had not yet been instituted. The act with which emperor Henry II founded the Bishop Princedom to compensate the Bishop Udalrico for the assistance provided against Arduino of Ivrea was dated 9 April 1004 (the imperial document which is presumed to have existed has been lost). The imperial diploma that confirms the donation conferred by Corrado II the Salico on 31 May 1027 included areas, such as the Upper Valsugana and therefore Lavarone, in the temporal dominion of the Trentino Bishop, which did not belong to the Trentino Bishop from the ecclesiastic point of view, but to the Bishop of Feltre, in our case, whose diocese Lavarone belonged to until 1786. Lavarone probably owes much of its importance and future events to the fact that it was a sort of long, ancient Ancino road; similarly, the fact that it is situated in a strategic bordering area has also been decisive for its history (when it belonged to the jurisdiction of Caldonazzo, when it belonged to the Trentino Princedom and when it belonged to the Hapsburg Empire), in a frontier region that had never been defined and which was therefore subject to continuous disputes, conflicts and incursions. The importance of the High Plateau for transit was proven as early as the XI century. The ancient Ancinum Way passed through here, climbing up from the Astico Valley and descending towards Caldonazzo, therefore connecting Germany and the Empire with Italy in the south, in addition to and as an alternative of the Valsugana. The need to ensure the practicability and efficiency of this road on occasion of their trips to Italy led the emperors to confirm and extend the powers of the governing family in Caldonazzo, to whose territory Lavarone was added. The road probably belonged to the Princedom of Trento starting from its foundation. It cannot be excluded that the Prince Bishops placed armed guards in the vicinity of Covelo di Rio Malo, a large cave overlooking the road, from where they could control circulation from a distance; a toll was definitely paid at this site, which was conferred first to the Marcato family and then to the Trentino family of the Belenzani in 1276. The entire territory of the High Plateau had been joined to Caldona