Britain: Greenham Common women against nuclear weapons

This is a video about Greenham common women’s peace camp in 1982.

Sacrifice for peace

(Monday 05 September 2005)

Greenham by Sarah Hipperson
(Greenham Publications, £10)

PAUL DONOVAN follows the struggle of the Greenham peace activists who successfully campaigned against cruise missiles.

This book from Sarah Hipperson charts the ultimately successful struggle of a group of women during the 1980s and ’90s to get cruise missiles removed from Greenham Common.

The story is an inspiring one of hardship and success set against all odds.

Sarah Hipperson’s is a remarkable story as she went from Glasgow midwife to suburban housewife and peace activist.

Hipperson was a founding member of Catholic Peace Action (CPA) in 1982.

CPA was dedicated to opposing the British government policy of nuclear deterrence through faith and acts of civil disobedience.

Read more here.

11 thoughts on “Britain: Greenham Common women against nuclear weapons”

I was the Assistant Secretary of the Open Spaces Society in 1988 when I helped a group of commoners to assert their registered rights over Greenham and Crookham Commons. Although my contacts at Violet Gate understood the importance of my specialist advisory role, the Yellow Gate women attacked me as if I was helping the establishment, and tried to stop me exercising the rights! Although some commoners sold out, enough dissidents stood firm and the rights remain registered, otherwise the area would not still be registered as a common. Although there was some friction between residents and the peace camps the role of the dissident commoners was vital. If our small group had not proved that the rights were exercisable, by lawful means, the byelaws would have been upheld and the convictions of the women and my own prosecution would not have been overturned. Where is our role in saving the common acknowledged? Brian Wright

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