Some 30,000 women ringed the nine-mile perimeter of Greenham Common cruise missile base in Berkshire yesterday in an emotional demonstration against
nuclear weapons.
In such an inaccessible part of the country and in appalling weather conditions, it was a remarkable show of strength of the anti-nuclear lobby.
Police kept a low profile and in some places must have been outnumbered 1,000 to one by the demonstrators. Colleagues with riot shields had been ferried into the base on standby before first light but there was not a single incident.
Men were excluded from the demonstration and told to run the creche, prepare food, and keep out of the way.
At dawn marquees and tents began to be built at each of the eight gates into the base. The men were confined to Gate 8, making such things as wax torches and sandwiches. They made more than 3,000 Marmite sandwiches in wholemeal bread to be given free to the needy.
Among the first recipients were six coachloads of women from Edinburgh who had set off at 10pm the night before. It was snowing hard when they arrived and the organisers feared that many people would be put off coming to Greenham.
By noon the area was jammed with more than 60 coaches and thousands of cars. The weather improved and people were having to walk up to three miles to reach the base and join the demonstration.
Ms Rebecca Johnson, one of the women recently jailed for 14 days for refusing to be bound over to be of good behaviour, said: ╥It is beyond our wildest hopes. There are so many women we could ring the base three times. I stood shoulder to shoulder with thousands of them in protest against the bomb. It was a wonderful thing to be part of it.╙
The women were asked to attach some token from their lives to the 9-foot perimeter fence to show that they had been there. Many chose photographs of their children. Others wrote anti-war poems, and there were baby clothes, nappies, and a selection of teddy bears.
Today will mark a new phase in the demonstration. Seven-hundred women have pledged to take part in civil disobedience ╤ sitting or lying down at the entrance gates to the base in an attempt to shut it down. They have all accepted that they may be arrested and will go to prison if they refuse to be bound over.
