Britain: history of Greenham Common peace women

From British daily The Morning Star:

History in their hands

(Sunday 03 September 2006)

PICK: Common Ground by David Fairhall (IB Taurus, £18.99)

KARL DALLAS follows the story of the intrepid women who blew the secret of Britain’s nuclear weapons base out of the water.

It is ironic, perhaps, that the story of the Greenham women is being told here by a man and reviewed here, furthermore, by another.

But, as David Fairhall writes in his apologia for his gender at the opening of this exciting and inspiring book, “This is not a memoir.

It is the story of a place, an ancient stretch of common land that accidentally became an international political arena in which the final scenes of the cold war’s nuclear confrontation were carried out.”

It is undoubtedly true that the Greenham women transformed the consciousness of literally thousands of their sex, not only among those who took part in massive actions such as “embrace the base” of Sunday December 12 1982 but also millions more throughout the world who were inspired by their example.

Not since the suffragette movement had women so taken control of their own lives.

Greenham Common women videos: here.

REBECCA JOHNSON was one of the activists who took part in the famous Greenham peace camp. Here she recalls how she and her sisters helped to spread their anti-militarist message around the world.

New book by Helen Caldicott: here.

Women’s wages lowered in Blair’s Britain: here.

Related articles

• Jean Kaye obituary (theguardian.com)
• Councils to be given powers to ban peaceful protests that might disturb local residents (independent.co.uk)
• Crisis Art (haroldjaffe.wordpress.com)