Catalogue Number
NMLH.2014.21.19
Object Name
Badge
Title
Greenham December 1986
Events
Greenham Common Womenâs Peace Camp
Date
1986
Description
Yellow circular badge with green text reading "december 1968 Greenham" above a red line drawing of a Venus symbol intertwined with a peace symbol. Around the edge is barbed wire in the same green colour as the text.
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 upcoming Trident Programme.
The gender symbol for female, also known as the Venus symbol, is a circle above a cross. Two interlocking female symbols like this represent the lesbian community.
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