User:RNER0918/Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp

The article's content is well related to the topic, as well as a group to help edit and maintain the article. There is also great discussion on terminology to use, as well as things they want to improve or citations they are attempting to revise. The article is written in a neutral tone and almost every claim has a citation, there are a couple notes with clarification needed. I believe this does cover one of wikipedia's equity gaps, as this is a historically underrepresented topic. I think there could be more added to the Protest Strategies section, as well as possibly trying to find an image of their spider web symbol they used.

History:

The first act of resistance by the Greenham Common Peace Camps came about when, in September 1981, 36 women chained themselves to the base fence in protest against nuclear weapons. On 29 September 1982, the women were evicted by Newbury District Council but set up a new camp nearby within days. In December 1982, 30,000 women, responding to an unsigned chain letter,[clarification needed] joined hands around the base at the Embrace the Base event, in response to the third anniversary of NATO's decision to house nuclear missiles on British soil. The daringness and creativity of the Greenham women was reflected when a small group climbed the fence to dance on missile silos that were under construction on New Year's Day 1983 (Circling p 21)

Local and national opposition to the Peace Camp:

The Greenham women knew that their actions and presence were not entirely welcome. In an article Anne Seller, one of the Greenham women, remarked that the local pubs around Greenham refused to serve the women. People opposed to the protest would often meet in such places to think up ways of disrupting their activities. "Vigilante groups" would form to attack the women, noted Seller, making many of them afraid to venture into the town.

The local police were also not friendly toward the protestors. Often police officers would release detained Greenham women in the middle of the night and if they drove them back to the base, would drop them off far from any established camp. The women were forced to walk long distances to rejoin the protest.

The Greenham women also experienced opposition from a local group by the name of Ratepayers Against the Greenham Encampments, RAGE, who were shopkeepers, businessmen, former military officers, retired professionals and local housewives from Newbury who disagreed with the peace camps. Along with a local branch of Women and Families for Defense, the opposition groups would campaign in Newbury with slogans such as: "Peace Women: You Disgust Us" and "Clean Up and Get Out". RAGE aimed to use local opinion and government to remove the Greenham women protesters, claiming they lured in illegal immigrants as well as did not represent a real concern for humanity and the future generations, because they left their children at home and were considered naive children who did not understand the problems of international defense. (opposition)

The Ministry of Defense called for an increased police presence at the base. Terrorists might be trying to infiltrate the base, the ministry claimed, pretending to be Greenham protesters. The Greenham women saw this as one more attempt to hinder their protest. The British government also enacted a set of "Byelaws" in an effort to end the Peace Encampment at Greenham Common which made it illegal to enter the base without permission, and sent hundreds of women to prison in Spring 1985. These Byelaws were deemed unlawful in 1990 by the House of Lords, which was a monumental victory for the Greenham women.

Many feminists opposed the disarmament movement, claiming there were more important issues to address at home. The opposition came from the idea that women should try to focus on the issues in their daily lives such as health and work instead of dedicating the time it takes to dismantle the patriarchy at the top.

Protest strategies:

The first protest action undertaken at Greenham involved women chaining themselves to the fence of the base in September 1981. The most well-known protest actions that the Greenham women undertook were the Embrace the Base event and their human chain protests. At Embrace the Base, 30,000 women held hands around the perimeter fence. In April 1983, the Greenham women and their supporters created a 14-mile human chain. In late October 1983, the Greenham women arranged an action to take down the perimeter fence, which was described by the press as "our Berlin Wall", where about four of the nine miles of perimeter fence were cut down. By using a distraction of dressing up as witches to fake their partaking in a Greenham Halloween party, the women were able to prevent the police from suspecting the cutting of the fence before it happened. (circling 31) In December of that year, another human chain was created, circling around the fence, while some parts of the fence were cut.

Importance of Sex:

In February 1982 it was decided that the protest should involve women only, which established it as the first and longest lasting peace encampment (Circling the Missiles, page 18). This was important as the women were using their identity as mothers to legitimize the protest against nuclear weapons, all in the name of the safety of their children and future generations.