For nineteen years, a group of women maintained camps around the perimeter of an American base at Greenham Common in Berkshire, protesting the storage of nuclear weapons. The actions were part of a wider movement, spearheaded by CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). The American military eventually withdrew from Greenham and in 2002, a memorial garden opened at the site.
Marches had long been adopted by many of the peace movements. This form of protest was adopted in 1958, when the first Aldermaston March aimed to publicise and disrupt the development of materials related to nuclear war. But the public had become accustomed to the sight of large people marching through their towns and villages on the the way to Aldermaston in Berkshire. The protest at Greenham was a new tactic.
The protest at Greenham Common began in September 1981. The first individuals to arrive were four women who formed the vanguard of a peace march walking from Cardiff to Greenham. By the time the march reached the Severn Bridge it became clear that the media were not interested in another March for Peace. The women discussed how to attract attention to the cause. One of them had seen an article about a group of Scandinavian women who had used the technique of chaining themselves to fences.
Therefore the first women arrived, informed the mystified policeman at the gate of their intentions, and chained themselves to the outer fence. The majority of the the rest of the group settled down for the night.
From that first arrival grew a community that lasted for eleven years. The protest had been an ad-hoc decision so there was not much preparation for the living conditions. Many local women, including Joan Ruddock, arrived with blankets and food.
Systems of coexistence amongst the campers were developed; groups with different approaches set themselves up at different camp gates. One early split was between men and women protestors. By early 1982, it was decided that the protest would be women-only. A woman-only protest would deliberately disrupt gender stereotypes. Women left their homes and invaded and occupied a male, military space. Another reason was the need to keep the level of violence used to a minimum, with men responding violently to the often extreme provocation of the authorities, while the women were more committed to passive resistance.
The authorities were at first puzzled at the fact that the camp remained and the style of protest, which included chanting and the tying of ribbons to the fence. As the protest continued, the authorities increased their actions against the women, removing tents and other forms of shelter, confiscating property and undertaking night raids on the camps. During the raids, bailiffs would descend on the camps and remove all cooking utensils. In response, women from surrounding towns and members of local CND groups would prepare meals and deliver them to the camps. Many of the authorities’ actions resulted in scuffles, which often ended in arrests and subsequent court cases.
Initially there were no missiles at the camp as the buildings to house them were prepared. Larger demonstrations were organised by the national peace groups, with the hope of effecting a change of plan. The largest demonstrations were held in 1983, but were unsuccessful and the missiles arrived in October that year.
Once the missiles were installed another form of protest started. The missiles regularly left the base and were taken on ‘runs’. This was meant to reassure policy makers that missile bases would not be targeted by an enemy, as it would never be known where the missiles were at any particular time. The protestors developed a system of ‘Cruise Watches’, which depended on support from around the county. This involved coordinating watchers with and without cars and a telephone ‘tree’ of information gathering. The idea was to demonstrate that the weapons could not be moved without someone (including a possible enemy), knowing about it.
Although the protesters had many supporters, there was some local antagonism, particularly as the protest wore on. This was partly due to the disturbance caused by the heavy police presence and partly due to the unsanitary conditions caused by some of the camp. Despite this, during the eleven years, backing for the camp grew.
The Impact of the Protest
In 1991, the missiles that were the focus of the protest were removed and returned to the United States. The site itself closed in 1992. The protest had caused an enormous amount of embarrassment to the British authorities, who could not prove that they were in control of the situation.
On the other hand, it is also true that changes in military strategies were occurring at this time, such as the development of submarine based nuclear weapons. Therefore, a base that had to be defended so publicly seemed to lose its value.
The effect on individuals, however, was much more noticeable. Many of the women involved discovered within themselves abilities and strengths they did not know they possessed. Through their encounters with the legal system they learned how to stand up and defend their rights.
Even if the protestors cannot be directly credited for the removal of the missiles, the camp at Greenham Common is now embedded in public memory. Furthermore, the women involved came to believe in the power of people to express their opinion and effect change.
By Jenny Cooper, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project
Bibliography
Greenham Common Changed My Life, a Time/Shift production for the BBC (DVD)
Minutes of the Maidenhead & Cookham CND group.
Materials held by Maidenhead Heritage Museum.
Duncan Campbell, The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier, American Military Power in Britain.
