Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.61.2
Object Name
leaflet
Title
'Sat, Oct 20th. Molesworth for bread, not bombs. Winter Planting Day and sending of first wheat shipment from Molesworth to Eritrea!'
Place
Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, UK
People
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Molesworth Peace Camp, Royal Air Force (RAF), USAF (United States Air Force)
Events
Molesworth Peace Camp
Description
A yellow printed leaflet. The title 'Molesworth for bread, not bombs' is a circle around a growing wheat sheaf which is erupting through the broken centre of a USAF Cruise missile. Together these features make up the CND peace symbol. Above and beneath is information about a 'Winter Planting Day and sending of first wheat shipment from Molesworth to Eritrea!' The reverse of the leaflet gives details about the schedule for the day, and the wheat planting programme at the peace camp. There is a map of the camp location, and a dove holding an olive branch drawn at the bottom.
The peace protesters from Molesworth Peace Camp, outside RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire, used some of the un-fenced land of the RAF base to plant wheat as a form of protest. The leaflet details how the first crop was fairly unsuccessful, but this did not deter the protesters from trying to sow a second crop. Wheat from the Molesworth peace camp - both grown and collected as donations - was sent to Eritrea, which was experiencing a famine at the time. The protesters were demonstrating that the land being used by the base to host weapons of death and destruction could be 'helping people and saving lives instead' according to the leaflet, which also states that despite a poor first harvest, they had gathered 2 tons of wheat, and had a goal of sending 20 tons. The fact the leaflet says 'offered' rather than 'donated' raises questions about whether the Molesworth protesters had contacts in Eritrea who wanted wheat to be sent to them.
Molesworth Peace Camp was established to protest the government decision to allow the United States Air Force to house 64 cruise missiles at Molesworth. The camp was set up by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) members in December 1981, and existed from December 1981 and until the cruise missiles were removed in September 1988. Unlike similar peace camps at RAF Greenham, the Molesworth Peace Camp was mixed gender, rather than women only, and had a strong Christian, particularly Quaker, element. The Camp also hosted a multi-faith chapel, named Eirene, after the Greek word for peace. Cruise missiles are a form of missile which can be used to carry nuclear bombs, and as well as general opposition to nuclear weapons, protesters feared that housing nuclear weapons would make the area a target for attack by opposing Cold War powers in the Soviet Union. Before their ultimate removal, the cost to make the base capable of housing cruise missiles was sixty million pounds.
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