The Archive
Formatted at 800 X 600 minimum - created March 2002. Updated May 2012.
Greenham Common Peace Camp
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The Free Festivals and the saga of the Peace Convoy. 1981-1982. |
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The dummy Pyramid stage - Greenham Womens Peace Camp festival 1981. Photo © Justin Warman
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The Greenham Common Womens Peace camp was a major thorn in the side of the Thatcher Government throughout the 1980s . The camp, established in 1981, was situated outside the Greenham Common Airbase ,the aim was to protest peacefully against the government plans to install nuclear warhead equipped Cruise missiles supplied by the US .
Following the Stonehenge free festival in June 1982, a" Peace convoy" of over 100 vehicles made the decision to join the women as a gesture of solidarity. The free festival proved to be a moveable feast, establishing itself wherever its participants were- much to the consternation of the authorities......
Peace Convoy Rolls Over Cruise Missile Site.
JULY 1982 .
This summer saw some of the largest free festivals in Britain since the early 1970s , when a military style dawn attack at the Windsor free festival by the notorious Thames Valley Police force signalled the event of an official hard line against such anarchistic manifestations. Some 500 police were able to attack and destroy the remnants of a 30,000 strong crowd, making 700 arrests. But times have changed and the authorities must content themselves with a policy of containment . In 1981, when two people were arrested by the police at Stonehenge, they were freed by a large crowd of people ( many of them alerted from the main festival area by CB radio ) The mobile police HQ was trashed when kids let loose with catapult fire . This was one of the first flare ups in a summer which would see by its end molotovs and plastic bullets flying and riots across Britain from Bogside to Tunbridge Wells in the marmalade and toast belt-one of the peachiest of the Tory Blue strongholds. Right: Juggling for Peace- 1981 festival. Photo © Justin Warman |
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At Stonehenge 82 the main rule
of law seemed to be the illusion that there was none - except your own ."
You are now entering a liberated zone" -
read a big sign on the gate" Its never too late
to enjoy your childhood "
Inside was a massive encampment . At its peak , on the summer solstice , when
the sun slices precisely through the stones at dawn, there were more than
50,000 souls , a tent city, a rabble army encampment , a crazy circus - full
of contradictions - open drug dealing next to natural childbirth ... a liberated
zone , with capitalism going strong .. hells angles smashing a bottle in someone's
face and a baby being born ( the mother almost dying )in a tipi - at least
one death.
"I'm glad my daughter isn’t here" , said the man in charge
of police operations . In fact though uniformed police did not venture on
site in large numbers, plainclothesmen were definitely at work , as many who
were picked up after they left the site found to their acute discomfort.
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Festival summer. In Britain during the summer it is possible to start in early June and be at or on the way to a festival till late September's Psylocibin Celebration in Wales. Thatchers cabinet is even known to consider such events a useful safety valve after last years riots. With employment unabated , more and more "marginal people" have opted for the traditional remedy of Britain's underclasses and take up the festival trail , from Stonehenge through various Peace gatherings, more commercial rock festivals and even a festival on the estate of trendy lord ( just like in feudal times ) all combining the mercantile aspects of traditional country fairs with new age politics and New Wave ballyhoo . |
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It was only natural that a caravan or convoy formed up out of the buses vans and other vehicles of the festival hardcore , the Rainbow people who live in tipis , or Ukrainian Tibetan Mountain Troupe who travel in buses all year and kept on picking up more and more recruits. One immediate advantage was an obvious rule of strength in numbers - the local constabulary through which this totally illegal juggernaut now rolled were usually only too happy to see it roll on by - constrained by the fact that the local gaols have only a few places to spare.
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Enter the Peace Convoy
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After the summer solstice , through some arcane internal consensus , participants in the convoy decided to join the full weight of their forces with the Women's Peace camp with had been going for nine months just outside the main gate of the US base at Greenham common , demanding the halt of the installation of US cruise missiles . The convoy left Stonehenge some 100 vehicles strong , for the first time calling itself the Peace Convoy , bound for one of the largest military bases in Britain . Ahead of them lay a full blown confrontation in progress , where the authorities were already completely absorbed in ridding the area of the three dozen or so women of the Peace Vigil. |
Above- The Peace Convoy leaves Stonehenge, bound for Greenham Common.
During
the nine arduous months of the Vigil, relations between the women and the
local municipal council had deteriorated into bitter acrimony , long before
the Peace Convoy was even formed . Parliament having passed legislation
enabling the council to oust such squatters from village commons- 'said
council was now embroiled with the Vigilers in court , doing just that.
The Vigil women claimed on documentation proving that their site was on
private land and that they had permission to be there.
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Above Corrina and the Androids of Mu perform in the Tibetan Ukranian Mountain Troupe tent at Greenham Common Festival of Life , March 81.
photo courtesy Big Steve.
© Justin Warman |
Greenham Common 1982 © Janet Thomson |
Greenham Common festivals and the Peace Convoy 1982-83
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Travellers
Tales how the freaks outsmarted the fuzz at Greenham common.
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