Banning the Bomb: Women at the Forefront

By Kirthi Jayakumar

Source: BBC

On September 5, 1981, a group of Welsh women stood in protest, having chained themselves to the main gate of the US airbase at the RAF Greenham Commons in Berkshire. These women had walked several hundred miles from Cardiff, carrying banners saying "Women for Life on Earth," in shades of green, purple, and white. These women were resisting the potential for nuclear war, and fought hard to push the world toward east-west nuclear disarmament (Johnson, 2023).

These women came together to create the Greenham Commons Women’s Peace Camp, a series of protest camps that sought to resist the placement of nuclear weapons at the RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire,  England.

Beginning in 1981, the arrival of the Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth at Greenham to protest the British government’s decision to store cruise missiles on site there kickstarted the camp (Cortright, 2008). What began as a march turned into a stay-in protest, as the Women stayed on in Greenham (Liddington, 1989). The first group to block the base in March 1982 comprised 250 Women. As many as 34 were arrested, and 1 was killed (Hipperson, n.d). The camp remained a site of active resistance for 19 years,  before it was disbanded in 2000 (Hipperson, n.d.).

Chronicles of Resistance

"The world is run by a handful of mad old men, indulging their ghoulish, expansionist fantasies. Disenfranchised women, despite the vote, we are campaigning against Cruise missiles, but in doing so we are also taking on the world." – Gwyn

In September 1981, 36 women chained themselves to the base fence in protest against nuclear weapons (Hipperson, n.d.). In February 1982, it was decided that the protests will involve women alone (The Guardian, 2013). They decided to use their identify as mothers to legitimize the protest against nuclear weapons, and to call for the protection of future generations (Shepherd, 2010).

They were evicted in September 1982, by the Newbury District Counicl, only to set up a new camp within a few days (Liddington, 1989). A chain letter was circulwted by some of the Women,  which garnered more support.  By December,  the movement grew to include 30,000 women (Hiperson, n.d.). In 1983, as many as 70,000 protestors formed a human chain, over a stretch of 14 kilometres,  from Grenham to Aldermaston and the ordnance factory in Burghfield (Brown et al., 1983). This inferiority propels people across Europe to create other Peace camps (Cortright, 2008). Following this,  in December 1983, another group of 50,000 women encircled the base in protest.  This time,  they were meet with a crackdown,  as sections of the fence were cut and several professors were arrested (Cortright, 2008). After being evicted from the camp in April 1984, the Women returned by nightfall. 

Sustaining their protest, nine groups of women maintained smaller camps at various gates around the base (Kissed, 1984). They name themselves after different shades of the rainbow, in contrast to the shade of green that became associated with the base (Kissed, 1984). The camps also had their specific areas of focus: Blue Gate had a new age focus,  Violet Gate had a religious focus, and Green Gate was women-only and did not allow male visitors (Hipperson, n.d.).

The final missiles left the base in 1991 because the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. However, the camp remained in place until 2000, after the protestors won the right to house a memorial on site (The Guardian, 2000). The Commemorative and Historic Site was inaugurated at the old site on October 5, 2002.

Peace First

"The military is the most obvious product of patriarchy. For the same social and historic reasons men have usually taken the lead in the Peace Movement, but when this leads to a confrontation situation, men confronting men, this becomes a microcosm of the original problem. At the Women's Peace Camp, with the support of both women and men, women are exploring a different way to deal with the weighty problem of disarmament.” - Greenham Common Newsletter

Recognizing peace as a means and an ends, the Women of Greenham Commons used actions, posters, and songs to protest against nuclear missiles in general and the storage of nuclear weapons. The first action of protest involved the women chaining themselves to the fence at the base. They also mobilized to create a human chain to draw attention to their cause.  The Women also dressed in black, saying that they were mourning the days of children who might be killed in nuclear war (Burton, 1984).  The women also used songs they composed, with lyrics specifically dedicated to their anti-nuclear cause (Fairhall, 2006).

Even as the women prioritized peaceful methods of protest,  they were met with oposition. The women were attacked by vigilante groups,  detained by the police and released in the middle of the night. This forced them to walk long distances to reach the site of protest (Seller, 1985).

A long-standing legacy

"No more wars. We won't be a party anymore to men using us as an excuse to be protective. We will leave home for peace. We will have no more of your wars. And if every woman in the world stood up and said that we couldn't have a war. You men would have to go and play on some other planet." - Jane (grandmother) from Carry Greenham Home

Despite the protests at the camp, the first cruise missiles were brought to Greenham in 1983 (Bindel, 2021). The women fought hard, resisting day in and day out to assert their stand. In 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed between the US and Russia, which led to the removal of cruise missiles from Greenham between 1989 and 1991. In 1992, the US air force left the base, and the UK followed suit. The women continued to protest nuclear weapons until 2000.

The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp inspired peace movements world over, too. For instance, Window Peace was a live installation in New York City that carried a rotating series of art installations in Manhattan, as a tribute to the women in the camp. It also inspired a protest by the Moscow Trust Group, which called for the establishment of trust between the USSR and USA.

A feminist protest that called for a significant shift in the military industrial complex, the women adopted a spider web as a symbol, representing fragility and resilience. On some occasions, the women showed up dressed as witches, reclaiming the symbol of the evil witch, while entering what was effectively considered a male-dominated space. On some occasions, women dressed as teddy bears, as if to reflect how nuclear weapons would threaten the lives of children in the future.  

References

Bindel, Julie (2021). "Greenham Common at 40: We came to fight war, and stayed for the feminism." https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/29/greenham-common-at-40-we-came-to-fight-war-and-stayed-for-the-feminism

Brown, Paul; Perera, Shyama; Wainwright, Martin (2 April 1983). "Protest by CND stretches 14 miles". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/story/0,,1866956,00.html

Burton (1984). Harford, Barbara; Hopkins, Sarah (eds.). Greenham Common: Women at the Wire. London: Women's Press.

Cortright, David (2008). Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas. Cambridge University Press.

Fairhall, David (2006). Common Ground: The Story of Greenham. I.B. Tauris.

Hipperson, Sarah. "Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Commemorative & Historic Site". Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk/historic.htm

Johnson, Rebecca (2023). Date with history: What we Greenham Common women achieved  https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2023-08/date-history-what-we-greenham-common-women-achieved

Kissed, Anna (8 January 1984). "Moles & Lemmings". Red Rag.

Liddington, Jill (1989). The Long Road to Greenham: Feminism and Anti-Militarism in Britain Since 1820. Virago Press.

Seller, Anne (1985). "Greenham: A Common Reality". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 8 (2): 26–31.

Shepherd, Laura J. (2010). Gender Matters in Global Politics. New York: Routledge.

The Guardian (n.d.) Your Greenham: Chronology https://www.theguardian.com/yourgreenham/chronology/0,,2071806,00.html

The Guardian (2000). 19-year Greenham Common campaign to end. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/sep/05/1