Greenham Common becomes in my mind the place where many of us as lesbian feminists countered the reality of male violence. Our strategies were many and various some gave up their settled lives and lived at the camp becoming the conscious of the nation demanding attention to the abomination of American nuclear bombs on British soil. Others slipped to the base on regular trips to support the women living in benders, fragile plastic tents, bringing food, and supplies. Others of us went to the big weekends where thousands of us congregated and embraced the base. It was a miracle of ingenious communication, in those pre internet and mobile phone days, guestetnered leaflets and telephone trees did a very effective job. Once there we met with many intrepid women who were also organising reclaim the night marches demanding safety for women on the street, pro abortion marches and setting up refuges for battered women.
Looking back it is noticeable that lesbians were selflessly tackling issues that in the main affected heterosexual women. The police in those days were not keen to do much about what they called domestics. We challenged their apathy, we set up refuges and we silenced the endless wolf whistles and shouts that used to pass for compliments from building sites.
What we were doing in those days in the eighties, was seen as shocking by the right wing, the tabloids regularly ran articles which ridiculed us and stereotyped us, as aggressive, man hating, hairy legged, dungaree wearing, dykes.Now all that we campaigned for is seen as mainstream. Domestic violence is still rife, a woman is murdered by her male partner or ex partner every three days in this country, however at least the police now take it seriously. What is interesting was the need for the media to label us aggressive, when all the demonstrations round the base were non violent, the reclaim the night marches were candle lit and non aggressive. We were challenging violence yet somehow we were smeared with that image. A common ploy when you want to discredit a movement.
25 years on, many of us are still challenging violence, working to enable the police and councils to deal with hate crime effectively, urging our communities to report abuse, and our schools to tackle all forms of prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping.
NEW! Greenham Common History Website: Click here
See images from Greenham Common in Powerpoint:
Links to Greenham Common information
http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk/
Imperial war museum info on Greenham Common with audio clips of women talking about their experience of living at the camp, demonstrating and the police and army guys talking about their experiences of dealing with the demonstrations.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/22/greenham/peacecamp.htmGreenham Common sculpture
BBC: several packages and audio clips on Greenham activities
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/11/99/greenham_common/503602.stm
