Notes- Greenham Common- Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp: A History of Non-Violent
Resistance 1984-1995
By Beth Junor (Illus. by Katrina Howse) Working Press 1995
&;#339;8.95

This book is a chronological account of the women's
activities, which include defending the camp from evictions,
tracking Cruise convoys as far as Salisbury Plain, appearances
in court, receiving visitors from all parts of the world and
in recent years resistance against the Nuclear Bomb making
factory at Burghfield and the Aldermaston Weapons Research
Establishment.

When the Russians were visiting Greenham, women were moving
about on hands and knees in the dark inside the Greenham
Military Base - making sure they could get near the building
where Russians were staying to demonstrate the conviction that
nuclear weapons are evil whoever owns them. This is what I
think the woman mean by non-alignment. The descriptions are
evocative. It makes one imagine being there with them.
Walking along roads on Salisbury Plain in the dark sounds a
scary exercise. Even though I know that I could not do it
myself I can imagine it. I do not think anyone walks anywhere
in Britain along dark country roads today. I used to do so
until 1978, when I was walking a dark country road to the rail
station after visiting my father, and this is a simple thrill
unknown in these comfortable times.

Beth tells us that some women from comfortable homes would
visit the camp to rubbish the women and this must have hurt.
Better-off people are often anxious to tell people in poorer
circumstances how to run their lives, which strikes a chord,
expressing something many think but hesitate to say.

This book conveys excitement and a sense of reality of
fighting the forces of evil while living close to nature -so
courageous and so rare.

Nuclear weapons are evil, and whether one agrees with the
political details in this book or not, it is well worth
seeking out and reading, especially because it is a unique
record.

ISBN 1 870736 93 1