Catalogue Number
Temp.2024.4.19
Object Name
flyer
Title
BUILD FOR PEACE NOT WAR
Place
RAF Molesworth; RAF Greenham Common
People
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Events
Greenham Common Womenâs Peace Camp
Date
1983?
Description
Printed flyer titled "Build for Peace Not War" with an image of a road sign that reads "DANGER! TARMAC - BUILDING FOR DESTRUCTION - at Greenham". The reverse lists why Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) are protesting against Tarmac - as it was involved in building the missile silos at RAF Greenham Common and Molesworth, as well as profiting from Apartheid in South Africa.
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.
RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire was one of three sites chosen to deploy 64 US Cruise missiles during the Cold War. In 1980, various peace campaigners started building a protest camp on the land, called 'Peace Corner'. In 1985, over 100 people were living there until the camp was evicted by police in April that year. Despite this, the campaign continued with various protestors camping in or around the site. Nuclear missiles were removed from the RAF Molesworth base in 1987 when The United States and The Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the camp officially disbanded in 1990, just before the end of the Cold War.
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