Greenham Common

Interesting thread. Thanks!

There is a 2021 film about Greenham called ‘Mothers of the Revolution’ narrated by Glenda Jackson. It’s available in several streaming platforms and seems to have been quite well received…. The 2021 New Zealand International Film Festival noted that "this extraordinary story shows how traditional ideas about mothering and womanhood were subverted as women faced down hostile locals, police, military, media and, ultimately, global superpowers to take their protest worldwide".

I will be watching it tonight in my quest to work out whether it was all in vain. My initial gut feeling is that the impact of the Womens Peace Camp at Greenham was broader and wider than the goals they set out to achieve.

As M0nica accurately states, the activities of those protesters made ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE to any policy re missiles, it just occasionally wasted time and resources of the local police.

It may have made them feel better, and -- in their own minds -- given them some purpose in life, but that's all.

Just like the 'Just Stop Oil' fruitcakes ("yes dear, chucking orange paint or powder at Stonehenge, or a museum painting, will surely make world leaders think you're committed" -- or at least, should be). . . .or those protesting re Palestine (Chump & Netanyahu fearfully awaiting their every appearance?!). Good causes, but wildly misguided (frankly, bonkers) ways to try and get the points across.

Cossy

I have the greatest of respect for these women, as I do the suffragettes. Willing to give up so much and enduring so much for their beliefs.

This. Sums up their courage and determination very accurately. I only went on two demos (Surround the Base and the huge match) but my daughter is very proud of the photo of her (aged 4) standing under the signpost to Greenham Common while on the demo - it's inspired her throughout her life.

YES

I was at that time a member of CND.

I also went on the Greenham common protests.

This was in the 1980’s, but now CND seems to have died a death.
Although I still believe in the disarmament of nuclear weapons.

labazs

I was underage but I wanted to join the women. I did find it sad so many marriages broke under the strain but then it shows that they had the courage of their convictions. maybe they were the type of meek housewives that until then did what the husband dictated and this was pure rebellion on their part?

It wasn't just women living at Greenham Common protest that had the marriage break-ups.

I was in a large active CND group and marriages were definitely a casualty there as well and I was watching some disintegrate around my ears.

It is a "heavy load" to carry to be an activist on top of leading a "life of one's own".

I was basically single and so I didn't land up "paying that price" - but I got unfairly dismissed from a job because I was active in CND. I was told I was good at the job and I knew that was so - but I walked into my bosses office one day to see him with a copy of a newspaper in his hands and asking "What is a secretary of a mine doing doing this?". I pointed out the blindingly obvious - and managed to do so in a polite tone of voice - that I hadnt mentioned where I worked/what job I did/absolutely nothing to do with my job and that I'd done the action concerned "in my own time and it was perfectly legal". There was no connection whatsoever between what I'd done as "myself in my own life" and "that job I was doing for money" - but I got unfairly dismissed soon after that (and they even stole a bit of my job pension money I'd paid in to boot - as when I asked for it to be transferred to my next job pension scheme they denied it existed and I hadnt realised they'd steal from me and so hadnt kept my payslips to prove that money does exist!!!). So - dirty tricks all round. I was far from the only one.

I just had to be grateful that I didn't receive the same treatment as a friend of mine that was also very active - and he and his wife came back to their own house one day to find "someone" had been in. That "someone or someones" weren't thieves - but what they had done was go through all his (our!) papers from the group and then deliberately "gone to the loo" in his house (to besmirch it) - and nothing had been stolen! So we knew/they meant us to know they were not thieves - they were worse! He promptly told us all - and he and the rest of us thought "We are not going to be bullied and spied on like this" and we carried right on as normal. Despite the state of his house....despite odd phonecalls where we could swear (I could swear....) there was someone else on our phoneline and they weren't even trying to hide it wasnt acting normal.

So yep....a lot of us were made to "pay a price" - even if we hadnt knowingly put ourselves in that position and were just being an employee from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday and being "ourselves" outside those hours and doing absolutely nothing illegal.

I'm still gobsmacked looking back at the way some of us (perfectly conventional and law-abiding people) were harassed like that....

boheminan

Yes, I spent a lot of time at Greenham women's peace camp. It's an experience I am very proud to have been a part of. I stayed in a bender at Violet gate, cut many a wire and was arrested.

It's strange that it's so long ago c40 years. A couple of years ago the base had an open day that a friend (from Yellow Gate) and I went to and found we were practically mobbed by a little gang of visitors to the base that were very excited to have met 'real Greenham wimmin' (very strange) it was odd to be on the other side of the fence.

Apart from cutting wire what did you achieve?

I was underage but I wanted to join the women. I did find it sad so many marriages broke under the strain but then it shows that they had the courage of their convictions. maybe they were the type of meek housewives that until then did what the husband dictated and this was pure rebellion on their part?

Usedgobeblonde

I don't think so!!!

They were mostly selfish individuals who were just an earlier version of the wealthy and entitled people who have recently thought their cause re JSO of throwing paint on valuable and historic paintings and holding up traffic so that people couldn't get to their hospital appointments etc etc were completely justifiable. It wasn't. And the Greenham selfish oddballs weren't justified either.

(And I speak with the experience of an absent mother whom, I realised later, was just off enjoying herself and enjoying the freedom she'd had as a teenager. We were never able to bond and have been distant ever since. And, yes, she did sit on motorways in recent years. She still acts like an entitled silly child. But thank goodness for my lovely dedicated and hands-on Father and later my fabulous step-mother)
.

CariadAgain

The missiles are gone - so yep...it did work.

I'm ashamed to say my former brother worked there and even requested (via our mother) that I stop supporting the idea of closing the base. Blimmin' cheek - and I'm the older one of us at that! But I did laugh at my mother saying "It might harm your brothers career" - yeah right.....career...he was just a driver there. I hadn't asked her to "ask" him to stop shaming me by working there...

My side of protesting involved other things basically - so I just had one visit there in the event - and do remember how freezing cold it was and was pretty admiring about women camping out there throughout the year.

The missiles are a couple of miles away at AWE. I used to live on the outskirts of the village and drove through Greenham Common every day taking my daughter to school.

Now that Putin has become aggressive and the US a less reliable ally we in Europe and the UK need to consider our future defence needs. Protesting for peace and placating a modern-day Hitler won't cut the mustard. A pity we wasted the so-called 'peace dividend' rather than investing in the capabilities of future defence.

I'm not ashamed that my late husband worked there. He was a member of the USAF Security Police, and just doing his job. There was nothing peaceful about the day to day protests. The American servicemen didn't engage directly with the peace women. That was left to the RAF Regiment. However, my husband was regularly verbally abused and had urine thrown over him on several occasions. One of his RAF Regiment colleagues lost part of a finger trying to prevent the fence being cut.
As previous posters have stated, the missiles were removed due to the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Nothing to do with the Peace Women, some of whom remained in the camps for another 9 years after the missiles had been removed.

Astitchintime

Sorry, have to confess……….when I first read the title of this thread I thought there’d been a spate of manky ham on sale in the supermarkets 🤭🤭

Snap! I thought, ‘is this a new food trend, and some think it’s common?’

I have a friend who was there and has spent her life protesting, organising political events and waving banners. She visited me recently, dressed from head to foot in black and draped in controversial symbols. I don’t think my village is ready for what looked like a terrorist and I find her ardour just boring.

NotSpaghetti

I think that's irrelevant Oreo,
Surely?

It’s a side issue yes, though an interesting one in a social history kind of way.

boheminan

Oreo I have a lot of women friends...it doesn't make me a lesbian, albeit a couple of friends are in very happy long relationships with other women. I find your remarks very odd.

It was in a documentary I saw Boheminan that the camp became well known for it and it ruined family relationships for the women that had up to then been married.
I don’t care either way, but obvs feel sorry for any children whose Mums didn’t return.

ayse

Cossy

I have the greatest of respect for these women, as I do the suffragettes. Willing to give up so much and enduring so much for their beliefs.

Yes 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

No, I have o time for the suffragettes who were violent and nasty and delayed women getting the vote.

I have every respect for the suffragsts whose long years of careful talk and negotiation was on the edge of success when the suffragettes ruined it witheir antics

Oreo I have a lot of women friends...it doesn't make me a lesbian, albeit a couple of friends are in very happy long relationships with other women. I find your remarks very odd.

I think that's irrelevant Oreo,
Surely?

Not just talking friendships tho, there was a lot of lesbian relationships formed there, often with married women according to a documentary I saw.

Oreo and Usedtobeblonde Yes, you are quite right, a lot of the women at the camp made life long friendships with other women there. I still sometimes see (the happily married mothers) I made friends with when I was there and my three daughters are friendly with the children of these women.

Sorry, have to confess……….when I first read the title of this thread I thought there’d been a spate of manky ham on sale in the supermarkets 🤭🤭

Usedtobeblonde

Yes I remember some changed “sides” forming very strong relationships with other women.
It must have been a bonding experience.

Or something 🤭

Yes I remember some changed “sides” forming very strong relationships with other women.
It must have been a bonding experience.

ayse

Cossy

I have the greatest of respect for these women, as I do the suffragettes. Willing to give up so much and enduring so much for their beliefs.

Yes 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

A lot of them had a great time, even leaving their husbands and shacking up with other women instead.