| Location: | Totnes |
| Story Number: | Story-042 |
| Themes: | 1980s, Art Action, Environment, feminism, Greenham Common, networks, nuclear |
| Listen: | |
| Transcript: | Transcript by Jayde Stevenson My mother was an activist you see and she just passed it down. They were talking about breast feeding on the radio and I was thinking, yeah my mum gave me that and I gave it to my daughter, same with activism, my mum just always said ‘you have to speak out, you have to stand up for what you believe in’. So I went to Aldermaston and I’ve got a picture of me at… at Aldermaston when I was 15 we did the Aldermaston march. Nuclear weapons and nuclear power have always been something I have… um protested. Whereas through my peace group, my women’s peace group which was, um based at the Totness women’s centre which we set up together as I mentioned. We went up for the first big action at Greenham, and of course there’d been the first big march down from Wales and then there was this first big action, which was around the base. And thirty thousand women went to that, they came from everywhere round the country and my mother was there and I was there and I took my son… one of my sons and my daughter with me, um, and it was so exciting because these women kept coming and coming and we were all putting things on the fence and the military inside were all looking a bit worried and then a cheer went up and all the way round it was passed ‘we’ve done it, we’ve joined hands around the base’ – it was lovely, it was the first… so that was the first action I went to and then from then on I went to all the major actions and then after the dancing on the silos action, when my mother went to prison, I decided I needed to live there part time, so I used to hare up from Totness – a two and a half hour drive up to Orange Gate, and spend the weekend there in my… in my um bender which we built and uh… hare back down again… um… so… for about two and a half years. Oh, well a bender is made from bending saplings… so you bend saplings into the centre and tie them and then you put… we with us we put plastic over it – normally you’d put a tarp, it’s a bit like a yurt really… put tarp over the top and then you put a blanket between, um…. on… on the inside because it… the minute you were inside the condensation – because it was plastic it wouldn’t breathe, so condensation would happen. So you had blankets on the inside, it was very damp, but it was fine for, you know – I mean there were damp cold nights cos we couldn’t heat them, but they were great! They were… they were better than anything else and we had them all along the fence and I called mine chez moi – at home (laughs). And I was at Green Gate first – there was Main Gate and then there was Green Gate that way, um and going this way is Orange Gates over here so I went to Green Gate which I loved, which was um… a very active gate but it was incredibly damp – it was in… on the edge of… of a woods, so we would wake up, you know… just with our feet in water literally, and I thought no I need to move somewhere better cos I was bringing my three year old with me from time to time so I moved to Orange Gate which was on the other side. The only big action I took part at Greenham with was the dragon action – I don’t know if you know but people made banners all over the country and I knitted a big banner for Totness Women of Peace. Um, and we took them up and for the weekend we sewed them all together and made a long dragon. It’s in the Carry Greenham Home video, um and it was the most creative thing we’d ever done together because we’re always cutting down fences and fighting things, and this was about: this is what we want. Creativity… and there were no press there and I thought that was the first big action we’d done – no press. Notes Aldermaston march Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp Find out more – |