‘The smears and propaganda actually show us we are beginning to have an effect, to influence a change in the world’
Annie Tunnicliffe
Annie Tunnicliffe was involved in the Greenham Common protests in the 1980s. Here she reflects on the similarities of those days with the political situation today.
First, a story.
In 1981, when a march of a handful of women and children (and some supportive men) from Cardiff to Greenham arrived at the base, it was unreported, of no interest to the media. The base commander remarked with contempt when he heard four women had chained themselves to the fence that “they can stay there forever as far as I’m concerned”.
Some days after their ignored arrival, at seven thirty in the morning, the single policeman on the gate was approached by a woman who started reading from a typed piece of paper: “This is an open letter from Women for Life on Earth to the base commander…”. He was clearly baffled by this and interrupted her with the words “Aren’t you a bit early?”. “What do you mean by that?” she asked. “Well,” he said, “the cleaners don’t usually arrive until eight. You are the cleaners I take it?”*
Fast forward to today and here we go again – the familiar smears and insults, the propaganda and threats that those of us who were a part of the 1980s peace movement remember vividly. The protest actions at Greenham Common, Upper Heyford and other nuclear sites, coupled with the exponential growth of CND moved through the same trajectory as the protests for Palestine today.
By 1983, when Michael Heseltine, then the Defence Secretary, donned a combat jacket for his appearance at the base and remarked that if the women got too near the missiles they would be shot. Propaganda against the women’s camp and nuclear disarmament campaigners more generally was at its height. The right wing press constantly promulgated the smear that the women and the wider peace movement were in the pay of the Soviets. They were constantly vilified, infiltrated, and undermined. Then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tried to dismiss the women as an ‘eccentricity’ and ‘the enemy within’, but they had captured the public imagination.
Sound familiar? The upside of course is that we only get this kind of attention from the establishment when we begin to have power and influence. What appears to be a negative development actually shows us we are beginning to have an effect, to influence a change in the world.
So – onward! Keep it up! We must continue to protest – both for a ceasefire in Palestine and for a world without nuclear weapons.
*Story first reported in ‘Walking to Greenham’, by Ann Pettitt.
- Annie Tunnicliffe is a member of CND and was involved in the Greenham Common protests in the 1980s.
- You can find more information, or join CND, here.
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