Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.194.2.4
Object Name
Postcard
Place
RAF Greenham Common
Events
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
Date
circa 1984
Description
Postcard featuring a black and white photograph of a woman using heavy bolt cutters to cut a section of chainlink wire fence at Greenham Common, 29 October 1983.
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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