Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.159.2.15
Object Name
Newsletter
Title
Burtonwood Snowball Newsletter March 87
Place
Burtonwood; Warrington
Events
Snowball campaign
Date
1987
Description
Photocopied hand-drawn newsletter booklet titled "Burtonwood Snowball Newsletter March 87". The front cover is a cartoon of police guarding a fence while snowmen appear to roll large snowballs towards them. The back cover has a photograph of a snowman with text advertising the "July Snowball...A walk to Burtonwood, probably from Warrington". Burtonwood was a RAF and USAF (US Air Force) base until its closure in 1991.
The Snowball Campaign was a direct-action campaign, calling on the UK government to vote for multi-lateral disarmament, to encourage the USA to do the same, and to cease the Trident and Cruise missile programmes. Activists cut the perimeter fence at nuclear bases including USAF (US Air Force) base Sculthorpe, alongside producing articles and TV programmes, newsletters, and letter writing. Starting in 1984 with three people, each organised wire-cutting event aimed to increase, or snowball, the numbers of people cutting the fence who would then hand themselves into the police and be charged with criminal damage, which generated media and political interest in the campaign.
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