1980s Britain was stamped by Thatcherite politics, unemployment, and a rising pop culture. Alongside this, amidst the climactic conclusion of the Cold War, fears of nuclear attack swept through the British public. In 1981, President Reagan named Greenham Common, Berkshire, as a base for US cruise missiles to be positioned in by 1983, galvanising fear of nuclear attack. By 1991, these missiles had been removed from Greenham. There is only one group who can be credited for this removal, one group united in their campaign of disarmament: the Greenham Common Women. Through the years 1981 to 1983 these women, in the name of protecting the future generations, marched, chained themselves to fences, camped out, and even took to the Supreme Court in their fight for peace.
This movement dates back to 1981, after the announcement of Greenham Common as an airbase for US missiles. In September 1981, 32 women, 4 men, and several children marched from Cardiff to Berkshire, arriving at Greenham Common after one hundred odd miles of walking. Despite such huge efforts, this failed to gain any traction in the media; entirely ignored by the government, it did not achieve the public attention they had hoped for. However, these women were not prepared to give up; they were determined to gain widespread awareness for the anti-nuclear campaign and spark public debate with the government. This determination brought about the establishment of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.
In January 1982, the camp commenced the year with just 25 women, living with no water or electricity in the height of winter. By the end of the year, this figure was utterly transformed; the camp population drastically rose to thousands of visitors, with many people dropping in on the weekends. This stemmed from their huge success in gaining mass media attraction within the year. A paramount moment for the Greenham women was their decision to invade the sentry box at the entrance of the air base. Several women broke into the box, singing anti-nuclear songs while the police dragged them out one by one. This put them on the map. They headlined British news as the women went to court, and in refusing to sign an agreement of peace, were imprisoned for 14 days. This caused a stir among the British public, to say the least. Ordinary housewives and mothers, many from the Welsh ‘valleys’; getting locked up in jail was not a regular occurrence. After this moment, virtually every British household had heard of the Greenham women, even if they knew them as ‘kooky’, radicalised ‘hippies’.
By December 1982, the Greenham women, with this nationwide media attention, were able to organise their first mass protest. On the 12th December, thousands of women joined the campers in a peaceful protest, linking hands to create a ring around the Common, to “Embrace the Base” in their words. 30,000 women joined hands around the perimeter of the base; it was a monumental event. The women attached pictures of their families, of their children, and children’s clothes to the fences, decorating the fence with life in the face of what the base represented: death. Gender was absolutely central to their protest; their identity as mothers drove their anti-nuclear ideology, as their campaign for disarmament centred around protection of their children and future generations. Photos of families were tied to the fences to compel the military, and the British public, to confront the reality of the danger posed by the placement of nuclear missiles near innocent children. 1982 was a crucial year for the Greenham women; their profile was raised from scarcely known to headlining the news.
This high-profile accelerated in 1983, with the organisation of another mass anti-nuclear protest at Greenham Common in April that year. Thousands of women arrived at the Common from across the country, uniting once again to link arms around the air base. The Greenham women successfully created a 14-mile human chain blockading the base. More success came in October, as, in a mission to dismantle the fence, four of the nine miles of fence were torn down. As the demonstrators were more drastic with their measures, the government cracked down on the protest, ramping up security and arrests. However, this failed to put a stop to the Greenham women. Just weeks before the anticipated arrival of the missiles, the women decided to take it to the US Supreme Court, forming Greenham Women Against Cruise Missiles v President Reagan. While they failed to win the court case, this highlights the high-profile nature of the protest and their achievement in gaining worldwide attention.
Six years later, from 1989 to 1991, the US cruise missiles were removed from Greenham Common, the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp had finally paid off. Historically, this has frequently been credited to the UK government, hugely overlooking the Greenham women’s major contribution and failing to give them the credit they deserve. The protests of these women are the reason Greenham Common looks the way it is today, empty of missiles. Their resistance to and rebellion against the military, government, and their opponents is inspirational to all. The women united, created community, and radicalised themselves with feminist ideas, all in the name of the anti-nuclear movement, the campaign for peace.
By Miriam Alston