Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Generate your own contact table!
Greenham Common Womyn's Peace camp began on the 5th September 1981 when the 'Women For Life on Earth' march from Cardiff arrived at the United States Air Force base at Greenham Common, near Newbury, Berkshire. The march was protesting against the citing of US nuclear cruise missiles being stationed at the base, on British soil. The women protestors chained themselves to the gates and asked to hand a letter in to the base commander. The base commander quite famously sent them the message that he wasn't interested and as far as he was concerned they could stay there as long as they liked. And stay they did, for the next 12 years! Long enough to see the base close down, the cruise missiles leave and the last american soldier leave by the gates they had built. The women set up camp outside the base on the beuatiful common, and gradually more women joined them to protest against this nuclear madness threatning the whole world and the future of the earth. The next year in 1982 the women held an Embrace The Base action, to form a human chain all round the 9 and a half mile perimeter fence. And so they did. On the 12th December 1982 30,000 women joined hands around the base. The year after that in 1983 on the 11th December 50,000 women surrounded the base. By this time the protests had grown so big that several camps had to be set up at different points around the base perimeter. The camps collected around the various gates into the base and they called themselves after the colours of the rainbow. All the different camp sites began to grow their own unique identities. The women carried out many and various creative direct actions against the military. Blockades, trespasses, cutting down miles and miles of fence. Dancing on the nuclear missile silos, having teddy bears picnics on the base, cycling from one side to the other. Blockading the transport of cruise missiles in and out of the base. There were many arrests and prison sentences. There were evictions. The protest still stands as the biggest women-only peace protest the world has ever seen. Making the links between Feminism, pacifism and environmentalism the Greenham Womyn shaped the face of political activism and their contribution must never be forgotten.Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor
Myspace Layouts - Myspace Editor