30,000 women held hands around the 6 mile perimeter fence of the former USAF base, in protest against the UK government’s decision to site American cruise missiles. Image: ceridwen Wikipedia Creative Commons.

It’s 34 years since thousands of women descended on the US Greenham Common airbase to protest against the siting of nuclear cruise missiles in Britain during the Cold War.

The protest for peace generated intense media coverage.

The imaginative ‘carnivalesque’ methods of protest eventually extended to the Royal Courts of Justice when Newbury Council tried to end the camp with eviction orders.

Tim Crook reports for IRN/LBC in 1983 when Newbury Council sought eviction orders against the Greenham Common peace women.

Beeban Kidron has argued that the Greenham Common women developed the nature of civil disobedience in the modern age.

It’s certainly the case that the women set new boundaries on the role of feminist protest.

The impact of the protest was discussed at British government cabinet level.

The release of papers under the thirty year rule revealed that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher thought the peace women were eccentric rather than significant.

The Women’s Peace Camp at the base continued long after the Cruise Missiles were removed and remained active until the year 2000.

Greenroom Common Peace Sign By HardingPhotography.co.uk – self-made, CC BY 3.0

An imaginative interactive website called yourgreenham commemorates the camp with multimedia interviews and archives.