Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.62.7
Object Name
poster
Title
Hands off Greenham!
Place
RAF Greenham Common; Newbury
Events
Greenham Common Womenâs Peace CampÂ
Date
1983
Description
"Hands off Greenham!" poster with green and purple text on white background. The text references a deal between the Ministry of Defence and Newbury District Council that would have brought some of the 'Gates' (camps) into the borders of the military base.
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp protested against nuclear weapons between 1981 and 2000. Thousands of women, many from the lesbian or wider LGBTQIA community, travelled from all over the UK to live at the site for weeks, months or years.
The RAF base at Greenham Common was one of three sites within the UK chosen to deploy US Cruise missiles during the Cold War. The protest started in 1981 when a group of mainly Welsh women chained themselves to the fences that surrounded the base. Shortly after, in 1982, a women's-only protest camp was established in order to resist further deployment of nuclear weapons. Cruise missiles were removed from Greenham Common in 1987, following the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, shortly before the end of the Cold War in 1991. Despite multiple eviction attempts, the camp remained standing until 2000 to oppose the UK government's nuclear deterrent Trident Programme.
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