Women Against the Bomb
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In 1981 a group of women occupy the British military base at Greenham Common to protest against a stockage of U.S. nuclear missiles. Soon thousands of women from all walks of life will join the cause, challenging the state and the military, and inspiring hundred of thousands of women throughout the world to follow their lead.
The film unfolds in four chronological chapters, from the original march and occupation, direct actions and police violence, to the international media frenzy, the successful ratification of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 1987 and the camp's closure in 2000.
Through the voices of the original Greeenham women themselves, rich archive material and song, the film recounts the remarkable story of their movement, whose message has become a symbol of women's resistance to patriarchy and their struggle to protect the planet.
Citation
Main credits
Gonzalez, Sonia (filmmaker)
Labro, Anne (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, Amy Newstead; editing, William Roy; music, Verity Susman & Matthew Simms.
Distributor subjects
conflict,geopolitical,womenKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.840
Stand up, fight for your rights
00:00:11.840 --> 00:00:15.400
Defend yourself against nuclear death
00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:19.080
Now together we are strong
00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:21.960
Break the nuclear chain
00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:23.080
Watch the window!
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Do you feel you belong
to a political movement?
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Well, I very strongly want to
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rid the world of nuclear weapons.
00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:39.160
That is a movement.
00:00:39.160 --> 00:00:40.240
I trust it.
00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:44.560
Many women felt
00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:48.560
that there was nothing more important
than protecting
00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:52.040
the planet from destruction.
00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:56.680
And that trumped doing anything else.
00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:00.800
Greenham was successful
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in the way it was because it
was a women\'s action
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and a women\'s peace camp,
a women\'s movement.
00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.160
It felt like
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we had to be there.
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We had to try and stop
the nuclear weapons.
00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.040
We had to bear witness.
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Yeah, take those signs with us,
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♪♪
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I\'d always been
00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:18.920
a left inclined person,
I suppose, because of my parents.
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I\'d moved to live in Wales in 1977.
00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:28.920
When I lived in London,
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I lived in in a squat, in a squatted house
with a number of other people.
00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:36.600
Everybody was very political
00:02:36.600 --> 00:02:41.600
and I just got really fed up
with discussions and argument
00:02:41.600 --> 00:02:45.640
and I thought I just to go
and bring my kids up in the countryside
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really get away from all that
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They could be in touch with nature
00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:52.760
very simply.
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I was in my late twenties, early thirties.
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I was living in London, I was working,
I think it was 1981.
00:03:03.160 --> 00:03:06.160
I had a conversation with a friend.
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We were describing our dreams
00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:12.600
which were the same, and we thought that
00:03:12.600 --> 00:03:15.720
there must be other people
who were having the same dream.
00:03:15.720 --> 00:03:18.120
We\'re all dreaming the same dream here.
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And so I put an ad in Spare Rib, which was
a feminist women\'s magazine in the UK.
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And then I was really
surprised and overwhelmed
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by the number of letters I received,
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all saying the same dream
pretty much.
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There was more and more apprehension
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that a nuclear war from being something
that was completely unthinkable,
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looked as if it could actually happen.
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This is Carol\'s dream.
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There was a horrible smell of burning
flesh.
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Children was screaming,
running with their hands
00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:06.320
lifted up for help
and their skin was peeling off.
00:04:07.040 --> 00:04:08.960
This is Wendy’s dream.
00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.400
I rushed instinctively into a shed.
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There was no blood.
00:04:12.720 --> 00:04:14.760
In fact there was no liquid.
00:04:14.760 --> 00:04:16.000
This is Sarah\'s dream.
00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:17.720
Everything was dry and hot.
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On each side of me,
the Earth was opening up.
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This is Rebecca’s dream.
00:04:21.880 --> 00:04:25.080
And the bodies of thousands of
screaming naked people
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were falling into this abyss.
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This is Kate\'s dream.
00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:29.880
Everything was visual in the dream,
00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:35.480
it seemed mad to be
having these dreams
00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:37.080
and taking them so seriously,
00:04:37.320 --> 00:04:41.560
whereas in fact, madness was
what was coming from the outside.
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That was the era that I was born into,
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there was a genuine threat.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:59.320
For the first time that we could
annihilate ourselves as a species
00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:03.240
and the people in charge of us
perhaps were aggressive enough
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:05.920
to risk that in a sort of arms race
00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:09.200
in the same way that young people now
00:05:09.200 --> 00:05:12.640
rightly are viscerally frightened
of climate change, as we all should be.
00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:15.440
It was like that with the bomb.
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European defense ministers
are seeking agreement on the modernization
00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.640
of their forces by the deployment
in West European NATO\'s states.
00:05:30.840 --> 00:05:34.520
Of over 500 new American tactical
nuclear missiles.
00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:43.040
Well, you know, to
begin with,
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nobody knew anything about the decision
00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:48.280
because it was not announced
00:05:48.280 --> 00:05:52.200
except a very small announcement
in the newspaper.
00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:56.400
NAITO is modernizing its weapons
in Europe.
00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.280
Modernizing sounds like
you\'re getting a new
00:05:59.280 --> 00:06:02.840
washing machine or something
very domestic like that, right?
00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:05.600
It didn\'t say exactly what was happening.
00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.960
And I remember seeing it
00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:09.880
as a sort of glossy,
00:06:09.880 --> 00:06:13.320
pale sky blue leaflet about it,
00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:17.240
which was given out to people
in the local area, Newbury.
00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:22.080
It sort of saying you might notice
some large vehicles coming to your area.
00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:23.160
This is to protect you.
00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:26.160
These are cruise missiles and they are
00:06:26.280 --> 00:06:29.920
they are for your defense
and they\'re part of NATO\'s defense.
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:33.920
The theory was that a nuclear war,
00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:36.920
if unfortunately, if this were to happen,
00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:39.880
it could be confined
to the European theater.
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It\'s called a European theater of war.
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God, the trouble is,
we live in the European theater.
00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:54.480
The decision
to site cruise missiles in Europe
00:06:54.760 --> 00:06:59.360
was really a US
and NATO response to the Soviet Union.
00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:03.720
There was no discussion in parliament
and NATO
00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:08.520
decided on certain sites in Holland,
Sicily, Germany
00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:10.760
and so on.
00:07:12.840 --> 00:07:16.360
Greenham Common was where cruise missiles
00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.000
were going to be sited in UK,
00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:25.320
and this common
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Greenham Common was requisitioned
00:07:29.520 --> 00:07:33.960
during the war, given to the Americans
for use as an air base and continued
00:07:34.200 --> 00:07:37.440
and nobody ever thought to sort of
ask for it back.
00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:44.600
My reaction was,
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I can\'t believe that they\'re going to be
so mad as to do something like this.
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And other people also, you know,
were very angry and galvanized about it.
00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:01.960
I was in a local CND group
00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:05.360
that campaigned for nuclear disarmament.
00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:09.040
We were trying to write a leaflet
00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:12.040
about Nuclear Free Wales,
00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:15.240
and we were talking about crews
coming to Greenham Common.
00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:18.760
I just felt this
terrible sense of urgency,
00:08:18.760 --> 00:08:21.480
a real sense of alarm, almost panic.
00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:26.960
You know, this had to be a turning point,
that this really
00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:31.920
the arms
race had to be up on the headlines
00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:35.120
and not some little kind of thing
tucked away in the newspapers.
00:08:37.760 --> 00:08:40.080
And I saw a little article
00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:45.080
about Scandinavian women
walking from Copenhagen to Paris.
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I think it was.
00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:50.840
And I thought, what a brilliant idea.
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We could do that here.
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And that was how it began.
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That was the sort of spark.
00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:13.880
♪ We set out to march to Greenham ♪
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♪ making friends along the way ♪
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♪ Cardiff, Newport,
Bristol, Newbury ♪
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♪ Walking, walking for ten days ♪
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It was 1981
00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:35.000
and I was 26.
00:09:35.280 --> 00:09:38.560
I had very recently moved to South Wales
00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:42.480
to work on a kind of left wing magazine
00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:48.240
and one of the first things
that they asked me to do.
00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:53.960
There\'s some kind of women\'s march,
and they sent me to cover it.
00:09:54.760 --> 00:09:57.400
♪ And some of us ♪
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♪ brought our babies all the way ♪
00:10:00.280 --> 00:10:04.640
♪ We fear for the future
of these children ♪
00:10:04.640 --> 00:10:10.040
♪ We fear for the future
of all our children ♪
00:10:10.040 --> 00:10:14.440
♪ And the future of the living world ♪
00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:16.920
We decided that
00:10:16.920 --> 00:10:20.720
it would be fronted and led by women.
00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:25.480
And the aim of it was to give a platform
for women to speak about this.
00:10:26.040 --> 00:10:28.680
The people of this country have never been
00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:32.360
consulted of the nuclear defense policy.
00:10:34.280 --> 00:10:38.160
We therefore demand a public dialogue
00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:43.440
between politicians
and ordinary people on this issue.
00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.200
I guess they were trying to say,
00:10:47.920 --> 00:10:51.440
you know, the stakes couldn\'t
be any higher.
00:10:52.520 --> 00:10:55.520
This is about all life,
all over the earth,
00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:59.080
because nuclear weapons
have the power to destroy
00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:00.280
all of it.
00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:05.000
Along the route.
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.360
We had decided that four women
should chain themselves up
00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:11.000
to the gates of Greenham
00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:14.600
and the reason that happened
was because we were simply
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.760
not achieving the kind of impact
that we thought we should be
00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.280
and that we\'d hoped we would be.
00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:21.080
And it was the point of the march.
00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:27.680
We thought there must be
some sort of reaction to this,
00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:30.680
the kind of women
chained up to one of their bases.
00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:33.240
I think a reporter
00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:36.120
went up to London
to get some sort of reaction
00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.000
from the Ministry of Defense,
and they shrugged
00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.240
and they said, well, we don\'t care.
00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.160
They can stay there as long as they like.
00:11:47.560 --> 00:11:51.280
And so it turned
one night, turned into two
00:11:51.280 --> 00:11:54.360
and then turned into having
local people lent us tents.
00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:57.760
So some of us came back home
and I think I did come back home.
00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.840
I went back again with a tent
and we carried on
00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:06.240
and we stayed and we
didn\'t get much coverage at all.
00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:10.640
Until somebody in our group
00:12:10.640 --> 00:12:14.080
had the clever idea of
00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:17.040
doing a bit of theater.
00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:24.880
It was a good photo.
00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:28.200
And it was on the front page of the main
00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.200
Sunday paper the next day.
00:12:31.400 --> 00:12:34.760
And that got people going there
00:12:34.880 --> 00:12:37.040
and it got people interested.
00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:41.200
So people began
00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:45.880
going in much greater numbers to Greenham
and I felt able to come back here.
00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:50.400
I felt it was like a baby
that I had nurtured
00:12:50.400 --> 00:12:54.000
and it had become a toddler
and now it had feet to it had legs.
00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.720
It was walking. It was independent of me.
00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.720
And I could come back to my own toddlers.
00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:09.120
I was helping to design
a playground with children
00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:13.800
and I had some friends
who heard about the peace camp.
00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:19.400
I first went there in February 1982,
00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:23.160
and what was partly significant about
that was the women of the camp
00:13:23.520 --> 00:13:26.280
had made a decision that this should be
00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:29.280
a women only action
00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:31.560
To begin with, it wasn’t.
00:13:31.680 --> 00:13:35.040
And women decided
they wanted to be the spokespeople.
00:13:35.280 --> 00:13:37.080
They wanted to be in leadership.
00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.560
They wanted to have a place
to express their anger
00:13:40.920 --> 00:13:44.920
and their fear
about this whole nuclear arms buildup.
00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:46.920
The way it
00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:51.200
affected me personally was I thought,
oh, this is a space
00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:54.960
that women have created,
you know, could I participate in this?
00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.840
Do I want to participate in this?
00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.840
You know, my answer was yes.
00:14:11.160 --> 00:14:13.560
For me, that was crucial.
00:14:13.560 --> 00:14:17.320
I might have visited the camp on and off
if it had stayed,
00:14:18.040 --> 00:14:20.480
you know, a mixed camp.
00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:23.480
But I don\'t think I\'d have ever
gone there to live.
00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.280
One of the things that women
00:14:26.280 --> 00:14:30.120
were very frustrated with
was the fact that other
00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:35.600
political groupings were at that time
very male dominated,
00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:38.080
like many things in 1982.
00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:41.640
So it was incredibly empowering
00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:45.000
to be doing things in a different way
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.360
That was new at the time.
00:14:54.800 --> 00:14:57.480
By being women only,
00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:01.360
Greenham could explore
and choose and discuss and develop
00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:07.320
new ways to do nonviolent
direct action, new ways to resist
00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:10.680
the military industrial patriarchy.
00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:12.840
And we weren’t the only ones
that were doing it.
00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:15.840
The Women\'s Pentagon action
in the United States,
00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:19.080
which started, I think it was 1980,
00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:24.280
had done an encirclement of the Pentagon
and had woven webs
00:15:24.280 --> 00:15:29.280
that actually closed the Pentagon
with women\'s woven wool.
00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:34.160
And these kinds of ideas
percolated into what Greenham was doing.
00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:37.160
And then we took them into other areas.
00:15:38.160 --> 00:15:39.480
In the other side of the fence,
00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:44.400
it was all razor wire and metal,
and we were making it difficult
00:15:44.400 --> 00:15:47.400
for the military to see through
00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:50.760
by covering it in embroidery.
00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.120
Policemen don\'t have scissors
00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:01.440
they didn\'t know how to deal with this.
00:16:05.920 --> 00:16:06.600
You know, as
00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:09.600
more people came to Greenham
and got interested
00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.440
and the news that
00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:16.080
they were building the silos
for the missiles, women at the peace
00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.360
camp wanted to increase our actions
00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:23.760
and try to stop business as
usual going on at Greenham.
00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:39.840
What the action show,
00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:41.400
overall, perhaps.
00:16:41.400 --> 00:16:45.240
is the women\'s gift for storytelling,
because actually,
00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:50.440
you know, if you have states
and governments and military
00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:54.960
sort of levels of investment in security
and so on,
00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:58.120
and you\'ve got a handful of women,
you know,
00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:03.120
in a bunch of tents, you know, the
the asymmetry of power is so acute
00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.920
that you have to do something symbolic.
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:10.280
One group of women
00:17:10.280 --> 00:17:13.280
decided that what they do
is that they would put a
00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:16.280
bicycle lock on the gates.
00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:19.200
That\'s made in America.
00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.280
Sorry? American locks.
00:17:21.600 --> 00:17:23.000
They’re American made.
00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:26.160
That was the gate
where everybody came to work.
00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:27.560
And everybody came in and out.
00:17:27.560 --> 00:17:29.920
And they, you know, the security
was on the front gate.
00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:33.320
And the security guys come out
with a bolt cutter
00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:35.280
and try and, you know, break it.
00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:37.640
They can\'t do it.
00:17:40.280 --> 00:17:43.280
And so they go and they get another bigger...
00:17:43.800 --> 00:17:45.040
They can\'t do it.
00:17:45.040 --> 00:17:46.760
And then they go
and get something even bigger.
00:17:46.760 --> 00:17:49.960
And then there\'s two of them hanging on
either ram because it\'s so heavy,
00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:51.600
the tool.
00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.960
For one moment instead of it
being us on the outside,
00:17:57.960 --> 00:17:59.360
them on the inside,
00:17:59.600 --> 00:18:01.920
us on the offensive,
them on the defensive,
00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.320
it suddenly
they can\'t even enter their own world.
00:18:05.360 --> 00:18:11.520
You know, they are excluded
and made impotent by this very small act.
00:18:12.800 --> 00:18:13.480
And it sort of
00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:16.560
escalates until they start literally.
00:18:16.560 --> 00:18:19.560
Shaking the gate itself.
00:18:32.280 --> 00:18:34.160
They couldn\'t deal with a small problem.
00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:35.760
They had to shake the gate down.
00:18:35.760 --> 00:18:39.240
And I think most of us found at that time
that that was a
00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:43.080
sort of a
a stunning metaphor for the arms race.
00:18:43.280 --> 00:18:45.440
You know, you just do more, more, more,
more, more, more.
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:49.640
You blow up the world instead of actually
dealing with the inequities
00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.640
and differences at the beginning.
00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.040
My Lords, ladies and gentlemen.
00:18:56.040 --> 00:18:59.040
Mr. President Regan.
00:19:01.720 --> 00:19:06.120
In June of 1982, Reagan visited the UK.
00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:07.960
Thank you very much.
00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:11.440
People were outraged
that, you know, he would be able to come
00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:12.760
and speak in Parliament.
00:19:12.760 --> 00:19:16.840
It really showed Britain\'s
kind of lack of sovereignty.
00:19:17.280 --> 00:19:20.280
And that was an important thing
for many people.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:24.160
This moment occupies
a special place in my heart
00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:26.200
and in the hearts of my countrymen.
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:29.000
Speaking for all Americans,
00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:31.440
I want to say how very much at home
00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:34.760
we feel in your house.
00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:38.400
Seeing Thatcher
in the middle of that story
00:19:38.800 --> 00:19:41.520
with Reagan made it feel more dangerous.
00:19:41.520 --> 00:19:45.600
They both felt like
they had a kind of particular image
00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:48.720
that they wanted to project
about themselves to the world.
00:19:49.320 --> 00:19:53.200
It also felt very bizarrely
like a sort of love fest between them.
00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.960
You know,
I\'ll do anything you say kind of thing.
00:19:58.560 --> 00:20:00.360
There\'s always been that in terms
00:20:00.360 --> 00:20:05.040
of the special relationship,
unquote, between the UK and America.
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.080
And I think their relationship
sort of underlies
00:20:08.080 --> 00:20:11.080
how special it was,
a very one sided relationship.
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:15.120
The UK has never had very much power,
much agency in that,
00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:18.720
but she liked to portray it
as though they were equal partners.
00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:23.400
And we discussed the action
00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:26.720
that we would take the next day,
which was to stock exchange.
00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:29.520
This was where the money was made.
00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:33.480
That was fueling the escalating arms race.
00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:36.480
Cruise missiles, Pershing missiles.
00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:40.920
And we wanted that to be stopped.
00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:05.040
But I also felt very confident.
00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:08.760
I felt very supported,
and I felt quite strong.
00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:13.320
And there was a lot of clarity
00:21:13.320 --> 00:21:14.560
in what we were going to do.
00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:17.120
And we knew who was going to lie down.
00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:19.600
We were talking to people.
00:21:19.800 --> 00:21:23.160
The police actually couldn\'t
get to the stock exchange
00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:24.120
to arrest us,
00:21:24.120 --> 00:21:26.920
because all the roads blocked.
00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:30.240
We had leaflets explaining
what was happening
00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.640
and so I had gone planning to do that.
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:35.960
When I actually got there,
00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:41.520
I saw that the first line of women
that I came to was one short.
00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:46.520
There was a gap and there was a guy
who was trying to drive through the gap.
00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:49.920
I didn\'t really think this.
00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:52.920
I just ran to that gap and lay down.
00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:57.200
And then I felt, you know,
a lot of adrenaline, right?
00:22:00.560 --> 00:22:02.280
I think one of the reasons
00:22:02.280 --> 00:22:05.560
why in that year, that early time
00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:09.400
being a women\'s only protest was effective
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:12.920
because it did disorient
and confuse the police.
00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:17.480
They were not used to dealing with
women in public, like that.
00:22:32.760 --> 00:22:34.600
Lottie and Sally unwilling
00:22:34.600 --> 00:22:38.440
to take part in direct action,
but happy to cook our evening meal.
00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:42.840
Food continues to taste wonderful
and we are all hungry
00:22:42.840 --> 00:22:45.840
and happy as we gather squashed
around our little tables.
00:22:46.520 --> 00:22:49.520
Kitchen in the back of the van
proves easy and cheerful.
00:22:49.560 --> 00:22:51.960
And gets many a comment,
00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:54.960
all of us feeling helpful and supportive.
00:22:55.040 --> 00:22:58.040
Lottie again says
how happy she is to be here
00:22:58.120 --> 00:23:00.600
and how glad that I was determined.
00:23:00.600 --> 00:23:03.880
This makes me feel glad that at one point
I felt brave enough to
00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:05.080
start the ball rolling.
00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:11.800
When my mum found Greenham,
00:23:12.040 --> 00:23:13.920
I think she found a community that she felt
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.920
really comfortable and empowered with it
00:23:17.360 --> 00:23:20.360
and passionate about.
00:23:21.560 --> 00:23:23.040
And I remember wandering
00:23:23.040 --> 00:23:26.720
around as a little one
and going in between tents
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:28.680
and I remember the fires.
00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:33.160
I always remember being tiny
and sitting on women\'s laps and, you know,
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:37.200
being cuddled and held
and passed around in a nice way,
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:40.920
you know, having all my grannies,
as I used to call them when I was tiny.
00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:42.840
And then they kind of became mums.
00:23:42.840 --> 00:23:45.840
And I remember being really small
00:23:49.560 --> 00:23:52.560
When I first visited Greenham, I was 16,
00:23:53.520 --> 00:23:55.080
I think I was about 18
00:23:55.080 --> 00:23:58.680
when I gave up my room
in the place that I was a lodger
00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:02.520
and moved to Greenham full time
and I didn\'t have any other address.
00:24:02.520 --> 00:24:04.360
That was my sort of legal address.
00:24:07.120 --> 00:24:09.680
There was a sort of inevitability about it.
00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:13.200
Why wouldn\'t you go to where
the nuclear weapons were?
00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.240
There was barely any decision
making involved.
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.240
It was like this gravitational pull.
00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:20.880
Of course I go to Greenham.
00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:26.800
Greenham Common
00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:29.880
was incredibly inclusive in so many ways
00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:34.320
cause some of the women who came to it
from no political tradition at all.
00:24:34.600 --> 00:24:37.600
They\'d never done anything like this
before.
00:24:37.600 --> 00:24:41.120
Other women had been quite seasoned,
you know, socialist
00:24:41.120 --> 00:24:45.400
campaigners, trade unionists
or feminists, radical feminist.
00:24:45.760 --> 00:24:49.280
So we were a big range of women
and we had to take account
00:24:49.280 --> 00:24:52.280
of all those different experiences
and learn from them.
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:01.800
I think that was just
00:25:01.800 --> 00:25:04.560
also a product of it
being such a kind of women
00:25:04.560 --> 00:25:08.360
only campaign that we kind of knew
how to look after each other.
00:25:08.360 --> 00:25:12.960
And that was incredibly important
and women who sustained women at the base,
00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:15.920
you know, some of them local women,
you know, come to my house, have a bath,
00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:19.840
people who brought cooked food,
you know, those
00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:23.400
those are heroes, too,
because without it, you know,
00:25:23.520 --> 00:25:26.520
none of this could have continued
for as long as it did, really.
00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:30.720
By being here for the last year,
I think we brought Greenham
00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:33.960
to the attention of not just people
in this country, but all over the world.
00:25:34.040 --> 00:25:35.760
What\'s going on here.
00:25:35.760 --> 00:25:39.480
We continually say
we don\'t want these missiles here.
00:25:39.480 --> 00:25:40.520
We don\'t want you to come here.
00:25:40.520 --> 00:25:41.360
They\'re not here yet.
00:25:41.360 --> 00:25:42.680
That’s the advantage we have.
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:44.480
It\'s not something we\'re trying to stop happening.
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.800
We\'re trying to prevent it happening,
like good medicine.
00:25:46.800 --> 00:25:48.360
It\'s preventive.
00:25:48.360 --> 00:25:50.760
How how long will you stay here.
00:25:50.760 --> 00:25:53.040
Until we stop cruise missiles.
00:25:53.040 --> 00:25:55.480
That could be a long time. Yes.
00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:03.320
I had read that
00:26:03.320 --> 00:26:06.320
the Women\'s peace camp was facing eviction
00:26:06.320 --> 00:26:11.160
and that they desperately needed support
from more women to come down there.
00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:16.640
On August the ninth
00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:19.640
of 1982, I\'d finished my exams.
00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:25.880
I was writing my thesis on
US/Soviet rivalry
00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:27.600
over the reconstruction of Japan,
00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.320
and I chose Nagasaki Day
00:26:31.320 --> 00:26:34.120
as the day that I loaded up my motorbike
00:26:34.120 --> 00:26:37.120
and rode down to Greenham.
00:26:37.840 --> 00:26:41.080
And that was my decision
to be there for a week,
00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:44.520
only didn\'t quite work out that way
00:26:44.520 --> 00:26:46.720
because I was there for five years
00:26:55.080 --> 00:26:56.520
As they were evicting the camp,
00:26:56.520 --> 00:27:00.480
that\'s the time when a group of us
got round the fire at Greenham and said,
00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:04.200
We have to do something that will bring
00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:07.320
thousands of women to Greenham.
00:27:07.320 --> 00:27:11.360
And we decided on this thing
that we started calling Embrace the Base
00:27:11.360 --> 00:27:13.040
from very early on.
00:27:13.040 --> 00:27:15.480
How many women would it take holding
hands?
00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:17.160
It\'s a mathematical question.
00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:22.360
How many women would it take holding hands
to go round this nine mile perimeter?
00:27:22.360 --> 00:27:24.960
I think it was about 11 or 12,000.
00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:29.400
And we thought, well,
we could extend it with scarves.
00:27:30.120 --> 00:27:31.760
Yeah. Okay.
00:27:31.760 --> 00:27:33.360
So we decided to
00:27:34.840 --> 00:27:36.080
try and do it.
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:39.120
And the way we organized
00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:42.120
it was with a chain letter.
00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:46.120
It was an invitation.
00:27:46.120 --> 00:27:47.040
And the idea was
00:27:47.040 --> 00:27:51.280
you would send it to ten people,
so you don\'t bother sending it to people
00:27:51.280 --> 00:27:54.280
you know will never come,
you know, not interested.
00:27:54.440 --> 00:27:57.440
You send it to people
who are most likely to be interested.
00:27:59.520 --> 00:28:00.720
I was at film school
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.800
right at the beginning, and so my idea
00:28:03.800 --> 00:28:07.440
was to go away with a camera, learn
how to use the camera.
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:10.760
And I just wanted to go to Greenham
for the weekend.
00:28:10.760 --> 00:28:12.160
There had been a big call out
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:16.160
to go to Greenham and Amanda Richardson,
who\'s my co-director.
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:19.080
We met in the canteen
and we just decided to go.
00:28:19.080 --> 00:28:20.560
There was no big plan.
00:28:20.560 --> 00:28:22.320
There was no long term plan.
00:28:34.120 --> 00:28:36.240
On the morning.
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:38.640
It was very misty
00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:42.560
and people started coming.
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:44.840
From all parts.
00:28:44.840 --> 00:28:48.320
And so it was like
people emerging out of the mist.
00:28:49.080 --> 00:28:51.480
It was a sort of a remarkably
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:57.360
poetic and exciting and sort of evolving
00:28:57.360 --> 00:29:00.480
image of people
coming out of this mist, out of this mist.
00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:03.720
And then, of course, the mist goes away
as the morning comes
00:29:04.080 --> 00:29:06.800
and there\'s more and more and more women.
00:29:06.800 --> 00:29:10.920
And then there\'s a sort of a joyfulness
when you realize you\'re part of something
00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:13.920
that is exceptional and happening.
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:16.920
In real time in front of you.
00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:21.720
All through the day, women arrived.
00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:34.840
And we met at the different gates
00:29:35.160 --> 00:29:39.840
in groups
and then spread out along the fence
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:45.240
until each line from the
you know, from the gates matter.
00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:58.840
And what was extraordinary
was that we could hear it.
00:29:59.800 --> 00:30:02.800
We could hear the singing
from the other side of the base.
00:30:06.320 --> 00:30:06.960
We could hear it
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.440
coming from all around the base.
00:30:10.040 --> 00:30:13.040
It was absolute incredible.
00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:18.600
And I remember just
00:30:18.600 --> 00:30:21.600
holding hands with my mum on one side
00:30:21.840 --> 00:30:24.840
and a woman I didn\'t know on the other
and just looking up at them.
00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:28.200
And there is all this singing
and they\'re both smiling down at me.
00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:32.320
And I just remember thinking,
Oh my God, women are so cool,
00:30:32.360 --> 00:30:36.120
my mum is so cool and I\'m going to be
a woman one day and
00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:37.760
that’s gonna be so cool.
00:30:51.200 --> 00:30:52.440
We went for the weekend
00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:55.920
and at the end of the weekend
I turned around Amanda and said,
00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:57.760
Well, we\'re not going back are we?
00:30:57.760 --> 00:31:00.240
And and she said, No, I suppose not.
00:31:06.120 --> 00:31:09.120
I think they reckon there
were about 30,000
00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:12.840
because of the worldwide coverage.
00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:17.880
And it sort of seemed to
send kind of thumping, enormous
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:22.320
wave going out from it worldwide, really,
00:31:22.560 --> 00:31:25.560
really worldwide.
00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:33.920
It was a turning point for us
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:37.360
because we realized the power that we had,
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.600
it must have been a big turning point
00:31:40.600 --> 00:31:43.600
for Thatcher and her government
because they realized it too.
00:31:44.280 --> 00:31:47.040
And we weren’t armed.
00:31:47.040 --> 00:31:52.080
We weren’t armed aggressors,
but we could really destroy their entire
00:31:52.080 --> 00:31:55.240
policy if if we continued to build up
00:31:55.240 --> 00:31:56.960
the support that we were building.
00:32:16.360 --> 00:32:20.480
The police were walking around
smiling sometimes on horses,
00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:24.440
but in a very sort of non-aggressive way,
00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:30.120
you know, posing
to have pictures taken with women.
00:32:31.800 --> 00:32:32.720
But from the very
00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:38.160
beginning of close the base,
I think they had not anticipated
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:39.520
so many women coming.
00:32:56.280 --> 00:32:58.320
I hadn\'t encountered violence
00:32:58.320 --> 00:33:02.000
like that in my life before then.
00:33:05.600 --> 00:33:07.080
Very scary.
00:33:07.080 --> 00:33:08.920
Very scary.
00:33:14.920 --> 00:33:16.920
And then the media
00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:23.640
that came up after close the base was of,
you know, burly lesbians in big boots.
00:33:23.840 --> 00:33:28.360
You know, now the nice women have left,
which was like code for,
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:31.520
you know, white middle class
housewives, mothers
00:33:31.520 --> 00:33:32.880
and grandmothers.
00:33:37.040 --> 00:33:39.720
Yes, there were lesbians in the camp.
00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:42.800
There were lesbians
in every women\'s action.
00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:46.560
You want to name lesbians are part
of the movements for change.
00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:50.400
But this focus
00:33:50.760 --> 00:33:53.560
was always when we did something
00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:59.040
that the military industrial,
you know, bureaucratic academic
00:33:59.520 --> 00:34:02.520
supporters and enablers of nuclear weapons
00:34:03.280 --> 00:34:06.560
wanted to discredit Greenham with.
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:11.000
The British government,
00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:14.000
were very, very concerned and worried.
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:17.080
It has since been revealed
00:34:17.080 --> 00:34:20.160
about the unpredictability
of Greenham women
00:34:20.560 --> 00:34:23.560
and the threat they would constitute
00:34:23.560 --> 00:34:26.560
to the security of the American base.
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:48.440
The atmosphere really hardened
00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:51.360
and became more frightening.
00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:53.120
And, you know, Greenham
Common was in a place
00:34:53.120 --> 00:34:56.120
which was, you know,
fairly conservative leaning.
00:34:56.320 --> 00:35:00.400
And so you started to see
a build up of hostility locally.
00:35:01.680 --> 00:35:05.160
They are very anxious to be
considered martyrs.
00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:09.200
They will never be a martyr
in a thousand years.
00:35:09.600 --> 00:35:12.400
But I\'ll tell you who are the martyrs.
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:16.560
And that is the children
that they have left behind.
00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:20.680
It got to the point where you couldn\'t
go to certain pubs.
00:35:20.680 --> 00:35:24.000
You can go to certain
shops, people would drive past
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:27.240
shouting horrible things.
00:35:27.240 --> 00:35:30.880
So, you know, at the very top,
you in a sense had a government
00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:32.160
that was creating this
00:35:32.160 --> 00:35:36.680
climate of extreme hostility
that actually also led to, you know,
00:35:36.680 --> 00:35:40.880
individual women, I think, being attacked
and and a lot of hatred and a lot of
00:35:42.520 --> 00:35:46.520
really powerful hostility against us.
00:35:59.960 --> 00:36:02.520
This hostile press
00:36:02.520 --> 00:36:07.320
that came to vilify women
for how they live,
00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:11.160
to vilify women for their sexuality,
vilify women
00:36:11.160 --> 00:36:14.160
because they had some trouble
in their past
00:36:14.720 --> 00:36:17.840
really try and undermine
00:36:18.080 --> 00:36:21.360
the purpose
by taking very personal attacks
00:36:21.600 --> 00:36:26.520
and sort of indicating
that they were somehow less than.
00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:29.320
The great British public.
00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:33.200
And literally there\'s
00:36:33.200 --> 00:36:36.320
this moment where I turned to Amanda
and say we\'ve got a different story.
00:36:36.600 --> 00:36:41.440
That is not any kind of truth, yeah,
as we would perceive it.
00:36:41.680 --> 00:36:43.240
And let\'s go tell our story.
00:37:05.040 --> 00:37:07.400
1983 was
00:37:07.400 --> 00:37:12.240
when NATO was going
to bring in these cruise missiles
00:37:13.480 --> 00:37:15.000
and we were going to stop them.
00:37:20.840 --> 00:37:24.000
We decided that we would go on ladders
00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:26.760
and put carpet over all the
barbed wire at the top
00:37:27.320 --> 00:37:31.000
and get on top of one of the
nuclear weapons silos
00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.320
being built to house the cruise missiles.
00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:39.880
Amanda and I decided not to go in
so that we could witness
00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:44.160
because actually there was nothing
against the law about us sitting there.
00:37:44.160 --> 00:37:47.280
And if the worst had happened,
at least we would be filming.
00:37:49.240 --> 00:37:50.760
I don\'t know if I would have been
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:54.080
courageous enough to actually go over
with the camera with them on that day.
00:37:54.080 --> 00:37:57.080
It didn\'t come up,
but I\'m not going to pretend that
00:37:57.080 --> 00:37:59.120
I absolutely know I would have.
00:38:01.120 --> 00:38:02.400
And I started doing that
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:05.400
kind of fear, reaction of dry retching.
00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:07.520
I was actually in the base.
00:38:07.520 --> 00:38:10.920
I could get shot, you know, that\'s that.
00:38:10.920 --> 00:38:12.120
It was really frightening.
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:14.720
But I reached up a hand for
00:38:14.720 --> 00:38:18.800
the next woman coming down,
and then another woman took our hand.
00:38:19.240 --> 00:38:22.200
We started towards the silos
and just by holding hands,
00:38:22.200 --> 00:38:25.200
we gave each other strength.
00:38:29.520 --> 00:38:32.280
We danced on the silos.
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:36.920
So they sent the police who arrested
us women
00:38:37.120 --> 00:38:40.320
for breach of the peace
00:38:40.560 --> 00:38:46.240
What peace will be left us
by trident and cruise?
00:38:46.240 --> 00:38:48.520
We\'ll stay here at Greenham
00:38:48.640 --> 00:38:51.120
We\'ll stay here at Greenham.
00:38:51.120 --> 00:38:54.360
We won\'t move from Greenham or
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:56.640
Europe is lost.
00:38:56.640 --> 00:39:00.840
No, we won\'t move from Greenham.
00:39:02.800 --> 00:39:07.000
Or peace is all lost.
00:39:15.240 --> 00:39:17.760
They found us all guilty
of breach of the peace.
00:39:17.760 --> 00:39:20.760
600 year old law meant to be about,
00:39:21.120 --> 00:39:24.120
you know, men
getting drunk and causing a nuisance.
00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:26.520
But this was the one they used on us.
00:39:34.080 --> 00:39:35.920
We went to prison quite a lot,
00:39:35.920 --> 00:39:38.200
and I cannot tell you
how many times I went to prison.
00:39:38.400 --> 00:39:42.040
I think it was probably about seven times.
00:39:42.680 --> 00:39:47.640
And it varied from,
you know, three days in a police station,
00:39:47.640 --> 00:39:50.640
which I don\'t really think counts to,
00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:54.360
you know, a custodial sentence
of four months, of which I did, too.
00:39:54.720 --> 00:39:57.800
But mostly it was like a couple of weeks
remand here,
00:39:58.680 --> 00:40:01.200
a couple of weeks remand there.
00:40:03.280 --> 00:40:05.640
We had legal advice.
00:40:05.640 --> 00:40:09.440
We had solicitor phone numbers as back up.
00:40:09.640 --> 00:40:14.960
It was quite well planned to actually
mitigate a certain amount of fear.
00:40:15.160 --> 00:40:17.320
Everyone that went on knew
they were going.
00:40:17.320 --> 00:40:18.600
They were up for getting arrested.
00:40:18.600 --> 00:40:20.240
That was the plan,
you know.
00:40:22.600 --> 00:40:24.120
You\'re prepared to go to court.
00:40:24.360 --> 00:40:25.920
You\'re prepared to go to prison.
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:28.000
You’re prepared to pay the fine or not.
00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:30.920
You\'re prepared to sit at home
waiting for the bailiffs to turn up.
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:33.440
So there was quite a lot of preparation.
00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:37.560
And for me, the adrenaline overrides
00:40:37.560 --> 00:40:39.000
any fear factor.
00:41:13.560 --> 00:41:15.760
All of us together.
00:41:15.760 --> 00:41:20.160
Absolute nobodies,
you know, with, wearing clothes
00:41:20.160 --> 00:41:22.240
that have been donated to us.
00:41:26.360 --> 00:41:28.120
Could make things happen.
00:41:28.120 --> 00:41:31.120
And going to prison
was part of making things happen.
00:41:37.880 --> 00:41:42.120
I can’t ever remember thinking
‘this isn’t worth it’.
00:41:42.200 --> 00:41:45.200
I can\'t ever remember thinking that
because it was.
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:48.880
And actually,
when any any of us were in prison,
00:41:49.040 --> 00:41:52.240
one of the things it would do,
not just me but other women,
00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:56.480
it would sort of galvanize the rest of us.
00:42:01.960 --> 00:42:04.000
I had been accepted for the Ph.D.
00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:07.360
and I knew that if I was arrested
a second time
00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:11.760
and especially if they sent me
to prison again, probably
00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:14.480
I would
would not be able to carry on with that.
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:15.560
And that\'s what happened.
00:42:15.560 --> 00:42:19.520
I couldn\'t do both Greenham and my Ph.D.
00:42:19.560 --> 00:42:20.720
I had to make a choice,
00:42:22.360 --> 00:42:24.240
and I chose Greenham.
00:42:26.080 --> 00:42:27.200
If they don\'t get rid of cruise
00:42:27.200 --> 00:42:30.240
missiles and start showing really clearly
00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:34.840
that they are winding down their idea,
that might is right and that they can
00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:36.720
solve things through force.
00:42:36.720 --> 00:42:39.280
Yes, I\'ll go back and I\'ll go back.
Then I\'ll go back.
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:42.280
To just carry on with your protest.
Oh, yes.
00:42:42.360 --> 00:42:45.360
I am prepared to go to prison again.
00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:48.000
Yes, I guess so.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:49.680
When the time comes.
00:42:55.960 --> 00:42:58.200
At Greenham Common,
there was a sudden and massive
00:42:58.200 --> 00:43:01.560
build up of police of midday by the fence
at the end of the main runway,
00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:04.800
a policeman every few yards for two miles
00:43:05.600 --> 00:43:08.320
At Greenham Common today,
Tomahawk cruise missiles
00:43:08.320 --> 00:43:11.440
and possibly warheads
arrived in substantial numbers.
00:43:19.640 --> 00:43:22.560
These small pieces
being rolled onto trucks and covered with
00:43:22.560 --> 00:43:25.680
canvas are thought to be
the missiles, nuclear warheads.
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:31.200
I should inform the house earlier today.
00:43:31.200 --> 00:43:34.200
The first cruise missiles.
00:43:41.960 --> 00:43:44.360
A lot of us
00:43:44.360 --> 00:43:45.800
were heartbroken.
00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:51.680
The peace women now realize
they won\'t be able to stop cruise
00:43:51.680 --> 00:43:56.200
being installed here, but say the fight
to oppose the missiles is still on target.
00:43:57.000 --> 00:43:58.200
They need to
00:43:58.200 --> 00:44:01.080
have an exercise to see
if they can actually use these things.
00:44:01.080 --> 00:44:04.040
They can\'t be used from here.
They won\'t get out.
00:44:04.040 --> 00:44:06.240
It\'s not going to make us go away.
00:44:06.240 --> 00:44:07.920
We’ve been here for two years.
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:22.200
There will only be a few cruise
00:44:22.200 --> 00:44:25.200
missiles here by the end of this year.
00:44:25.200 --> 00:44:29.280
The rest will come in slowly over
five years.
00:44:30.160 --> 00:44:32.560
They are easily transportable
00:44:32.560 --> 00:44:35.240
and could be returned to the United States
00:44:35.240 --> 00:44:39.800
as soon as a satisfactory agreement
was reached with the Soviet Union.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:51.600
The other side of the fence,
00:44:51.600 --> 00:44:53.760
there were Americans in balaclava helmets
00:44:53.760 --> 00:44:56.920
so you couldn\'t recognize
you would never be able to identify them.
00:44:57.120 --> 00:44:59.400
Men in balaclavas.
00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:02.160
There were American soldiers with guns
00:45:02.160 --> 00:45:05.040
directing those guns at us.
00:45:05.040 --> 00:45:07.080
I must have been on the ground.
00:45:07.080 --> 00:45:08.160
Somebody had knocked me to the ground.
00:45:08.160 --> 00:45:12.520
And one of these guys in the balaclava
helmet came and jumped on my ankle,
00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:14.840
which is really agony.
00:45:14.840 --> 00:45:17.840
You know, I couldn\'t walk on it
for days afterwards.
00:45:18.680 --> 00:45:22.360
And I remember just saying to him,
How does it feel to do that?
00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:24.920
You know, I\'m a defenseless woman.
You know why I\'m here?
00:45:24.920 --> 00:45:26.240
How does it feel to do that?
00:45:26.240 --> 00:45:28.600
He said, Fucking A.
00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:42.360
After the cruise missiles came in,
00:45:44.040 --> 00:45:47.040
Britain\'s defense secretary,
Michael Heseltine,
00:45:47.640 --> 00:45:52.160
essentially gave permission
to the Americans to shoot Greenham women.
00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:56.720
And at the same time
he announced in Parliament
00:45:57.520 --> 00:46:01.680
that Greenham women couldn\'t get to
any of the sensitive areas of the base.
00:46:01.680 --> 00:46:05.240
So the missiles were safe, but
Greenham women were not going to be safe.
00:46:08.600 --> 00:46:09.640
I\'d like to see him try.
00:46:09.640 --> 00:46:11.360
I mean, can you imagine what
would happen if he did.
00:46:11.480 --> 00:46:14.520
A woman getting shot
on an American base, an unarmed woman
00:46:15.240 --> 00:46:17.320
is there to show peace?
00:46:18.240 --> 00:46:19.840
I don\'t see it happening.
00:46:25.040 --> 00:46:27.560
The mood actually was strong.
00:46:27.560 --> 00:46:29.840
We were going to turn it round.
00:46:30.360 --> 00:46:34.000
We knew that once the missiles
came in to Greenham, they were going to be
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:38.400
taken out of Greenham on nuclear war
games and exercises.
00:46:38.680 --> 00:46:41.240
They were supposed to,
in the words of the military,
00:46:41.240 --> 00:46:43.000
melt into the countryside.
00:46:43.200 --> 00:46:45.440
We were going to stop that happening.
00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:49.440
The convoys would come out of the base
roughly once a month,
00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:52.960
and there wasn\'t a single point
where they ever melted
00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:56.600
into the countryside because we would be
there as they came out
00:46:56.840 --> 00:46:58.920
and we would follow them as they went.
00:47:07.560 --> 00:47:12.240
We were monitoring and tracking
and taking photographs and recording
00:47:12.600 --> 00:47:16.680
so that it made it impossible
for the convoys
00:47:16.680 --> 00:47:19.680
to melt into the countryside.
00:48:01.400 --> 00:48:04.560
It was intolerable to those in power
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:07.800
to be undermined in this way.
00:48:07.800 --> 00:48:12.840
And I think that was one particular time
where, I mean, if it wasn\'t every day
00:48:12.840 --> 00:48:16.320
it was every other day, we were being just
evicted, evicted, evicted, evicted.
00:48:20.160 --> 00:48:22.680
I remember the bailiffs coming
and it was like they used to come in
00:48:22.680 --> 00:48:25.920
these massive trucks or lorries,
I don\'t really recall,
00:48:25.920 --> 00:48:28.920
but they were huge to me
as this little five, six year old.
00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:32.480
And I remember them
walking across the tents, these men
00:48:32.760 --> 00:48:37.680
and being really rough,
like shaking tents and and pulling things.
00:48:37.680 --> 00:48:43.160
And one of them literally walked by me
and pulled the teddy bear out of my hands.
00:48:43.760 --> 00:48:47.960
I know it sounds like a making up
is not a made up story.
00:48:47.960 --> 00:48:49.040
It\'s true.
00:48:49.040 --> 00:48:52.520
And I remember being terrified.
00:48:55.160 --> 00:48:57.240
They had a full time team of
bailiffs
00:48:57.240 --> 00:49:00.520
who were literally Monday morning
to Friday night.
00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:06.080
They spent all day going down the nine
mile perimeter fence and evicting us.
00:49:06.080 --> 00:49:08.840
So sometimes we\'d be evicted
twice in one day.
00:49:14.160 --> 00:49:16.080
You know, the more people
who were arrested,
00:49:16.080 --> 00:49:17.520
the more women came.
00:49:18.080 --> 00:49:22.520
And so their strategy
of trying to close it down,
00:49:22.520 --> 00:49:24.880
trying to figure out who
the ringleaders were,
00:49:25.240 --> 00:49:29.040
was actually not an effective strategy
because they were not closing it down.
00:49:31.360 --> 00:49:34.360
They had hard, shiny weapons and
00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:37.120
a will to violence.
00:49:37.120 --> 00:49:40.360
And we had laughter and humor
00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:44.400
and singing and creativity
00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:49.920
and that you could confront
the biggest industrial military complex
00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:54.080
in the world with song,
I mean, it\'s extraordinary
00:49:54.080 --> 00:49:57.200
and sort of sounds absurd,
but it happened.
00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:27.480
We were actually putting
forward very much a green
00:50:27.480 --> 00:50:30.800
kind of eco-feminist challenge
00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:34.840
to both the military industrial
00:50:34.840 --> 00:50:38.520
patriarchal complex of NATO
and the militaries of both
00:50:38.640 --> 00:50:40.880
East and West.
00:50:46.040 --> 00:50:50.440
We called on women to carry the feminist
00:50:51.360 --> 00:50:55.080
anti-military, anti-nuclear,
anti-war message of Greenham
00:50:55.400 --> 00:50:59.240
into their own lives, in their own homes
all over the world.
00:51:13.520 --> 00:51:14.800
We were not alone.
00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:17.800
And they were not alone.
00:51:18.680 --> 00:51:21.320
There was a lot of cross-pollination.
00:51:21.320 --> 00:51:23.040
And it was very encouraging.
00:51:34.600 --> 00:51:37.840
It changed the atmosphere that really from
00:51:37.840 --> 00:51:41.160
one of expecting nuclear war to happen.
00:51:41.160 --> 00:51:46.120
And what do we do about it too, being one
where nuclear war must not happen
00:51:46.520 --> 00:51:50.760
and something has
to be done to prevent this.
00:51:52.120 --> 00:51:54.200
It was part of a pressure
00:51:54.200 --> 00:51:59.000
upon the political governments,
00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:00.840
upon the political powers.
00:52:01.280 --> 00:52:05.640
Just as West German groups
made connections with East German groups
00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:10.320
from Greenham, some of us started to
to go on trips to Russia
00:52:11.040 --> 00:52:14.040
and actually tried
to make connections with
00:52:14.800 --> 00:52:18.000
women who were opposing the militarism
00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:20.480
that was going on in the Soviet Union.
00:52:23.880 --> 00:52:27.680
Then in 1985 came a new leader,
00:52:28.160 --> 00:52:31.160
Mikhail Gorbachev.
00:52:32.160 --> 00:52:33.000
You could see that
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:36.000
Gorbachev was going to take things
in a different direction.
00:52:36.160 --> 00:52:39.480
And our job, in a sense,
was to encourage him.
00:52:46.920 --> 00:52:50.280
When Gorbachev and Reagan
decided to meet in Geneva,
00:52:50.280 --> 00:52:53.240
that was a very big international
moment for Europe.
00:52:53.240 --> 00:52:56.960
And I was really lucky enough
to be one of the women who went to try
00:52:56.960 --> 00:53:00.240
and encourage them
still further to reach an agreement.
00:53:26.120 --> 00:53:30.360
We claimed it as a victory for our action.
00:53:30.400 --> 00:53:33.640
Of course, the authorities
didn\'t say that it was due to us. But,
00:53:34.680 --> 00:53:37.360
you know, we claimed it.
00:54:04.160 --> 00:54:06.640
It was a really, really joyous day.
00:54:06.640 --> 00:54:09.600
We were ringing bells.
We were running down the fence.
00:54:09.600 --> 00:54:12.480
I took a lot of pictures of the planes
leaving just because I couldn\'t quite
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:15.480
believe it was happening.
00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:17.760
That was a celebration.
00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:19.680
That was a celebration.
00:54:19.680 --> 00:54:22.560
And the job wasn\'t done because we still
had to get rid of the military base.
00:54:22.560 --> 00:54:25.560
But, you know, we\'d done
what we set out to do.
00:54:26.080 --> 00:54:28.440
Cruise had left. This was Cruise leaving,
00:55:01.040 --> 00:55:05.080
Greenham women were ways ahead of the exact
same things we\'re facing now.
00:55:05.360 --> 00:55:06.600
You know, you look at the
00:55:06.600 --> 00:55:09.560
the climate change actions,
you look at the MeToo movement,
00:55:09.560 --> 00:55:12.040
you look at the huge
kind of rise in veganism.
00:55:12.040 --> 00:55:16.320
These are all things that Greenham women
are modeling for us in a way, way
00:55:16.440 --> 00:55:18.200
40 years before?
00:55:23.280 --> 00:55:24.760
It distresses me enormously
00:55:24.760 --> 00:55:27.640
that we don\'t talk about
Greenham like the fact that we
00:55:27.840 --> 00:55:31.680
so many thousands of women
would have been changed by it,
00:55:32.160 --> 00:55:36.720
and yet within their own lifetimes, it\'s
been just completely pretty much erased.
00:55:36.920 --> 00:55:40.400
And it\'s just a cultural robbery
because women inspire women, don\'t they?
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:41.520
It\'s really important
00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:44.840
that we tell each other what we did
and that we give the next generation
00:55:44.840 --> 00:55:47.400
the shoulders of giants
for them to stand on.
00:55:47.400 --> 00:55:48.600
And I think it\'s no,
00:55:49.720 --> 00:55:51.160
no coincidence
00:55:51.160 --> 00:55:54.240
that we haven\'t shared this information
about these
00:55:55.360 --> 00:55:58.360
radical dissidents, ill behaved,
00:55:58.680 --> 00:56:01.680
really awesome women
who got a lot of stuff done.
00:56:53.400 --> 00:56:56.840
It\'s not a circle from there to here,
but it\'s like a spiral, right?
00:56:56.880 --> 00:57:01.120
We get to see the same issues
just recurring.
00:57:02.040 --> 00:57:07.080
And I feel like the working together,
the linking of the building
00:57:07.080 --> 00:57:10.480
strong political community
are still very profound
00:57:10.480 --> 00:57:12.240
lessons for today.