ground at Greenham
We spent the tirst night of our short women.
uneasy most of the time. The women
Every time I heard a vehicle approach I wondered whether another disturbed him) but for the newcomer at Greenham it's a new and not very
And the hostility doesn't just come
Socialist Viewpoint, No. 2, November 1984. Page 13
GREENHAM COMMON
OMES the time I was there a soldier sat a few paces away on the other side of the fence. He had a spotlight which he trained on anyone who moved in the Camp - which was already lit up by the arclights round the base.
Every twenty minutes or so a jeep would drive up, often sounding its horn to wake up the sleeping
The soldiers would talk loudly for a few moments, lacing every comment with obscenities designed to be offensive to the women there.
I found it hard to understand so much hostility from those strangers, young enough to be my son, and who seemed not to see us as people but as some strange creature, the Greenham Woman.
The next day at Emerald Camp we experienced a third kind of harassment, one more familiar to women all over the country: a flasher. Women from the camp chased him, caught him and dealt with him — peacefully. That particular man is unlikely to come back but the sexual threat is always there, whether voiced by the soldiers or possibly lurking in the bushes.
Looking back over this I wonder how I managed to come back feeling so high, with batteries recharg ed! It might sound trite, but I found talking to the women there was in-
spiring. One woman of only 18 was talking of conducting her own defence at the Crown Court "because the lawyers are so busy with the miners' pickets"! Another, well past retirement age and troubl ed with rheumatism, although spending most of her time at Greenham, still found time to be active in her local Peace Group.
Another two women turned up at two o'clock in the morning during my Cruise Watch. When asked where they'd come trom they just said "In There" , pointing at the
Palestine