Campers unite in crusade
Making it happen
Why are dedicated women (and men) going out of their way to protest, often camping out, these days, over matters they may have little hope of changing? “It is ordinary people trying to make other people aware of the issues — whether they have an effect on the military is not so important,” explains Barbara Leonard, an ex-patri-ate American now living permanently in Christchurch.
She was one of the group which recently attempted to camp outside the United States Navy Deep Freeze headquarters at Harewood. “We are protesting the United States military presence at Harewood, and the way that New Zealand is tied so totally into the United States military establishment.”
Mrs Leonard says that the campers were heartened by the attitude of passersby, and particularly by those who came out to Christchurch Airport specially to see the little encampment.
“Some came back the next day and congratulated us for still being there,” she said.
The campers were politely but firmly evicted after two days. Mrs Leonard says there was no way that they could continue the encampment.
The success of protest camps depends, she points out, on access to public land, or the co-operation of owners.
Holocaust mignt not nave happened. Greenham Common and the brief Harewood encampment are only two manifestations of a world-wide phenomenon of peace camps situated close to military bases.
While stopping' activities at the bases is the heart of the peace strategy, the development of the camps themselves and of the concept of a women’s community based on a philosophy of feminism and peace are also important. Thousands of Australian women have demonstrated at Pine Gap, in central Australia, which is the largest C.I.A. communications installation in the world outside of the United States. Demonstrations continued throughout much of 1983, with financial support and many of the campers coming from Women For Survival groups in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns, Armidale, Newcastle, Melbourne, and smaller centres.
Other major camps are: Seneca, in New York State, where The Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice is situated by a storage site for the neutron bomb, where Pershing II missiles are also handled.
More than 3000 women demonstrated there last August, and a core of 15 to 20 women have camped there ever since. About 100 Sicilian women are camping at Comiso, next door to an airport where cruise missiles arrive. Six hundred other Sicilian women marched to a United States military base holding some 1500 United States soldiers and technicians.
Another peace activist comments that if hundreds and thousands of Germans had sat down before the gates of the Krupp gas oven plants and troubled the hearts and minds of the German people, maybe the
In early August, police clashed with protesters at a mass demonstration, injur-
ing 70 people (including four members of the Italian Parliament). An encampment established in June, 1983, alongside the Boeing plant in the state of Washington, U.S., is on land rented from the city. Women there are protesting about the manufacture of cruise missiles. Other women’s and mixed peace camps have taken place in West Germany, Scotland, Norway, and Sweden.
Recently, women organised a peace camp outside an airbase in Arizona where battalions are training to accompany cruise missiles to Europe. Women are also camping at Clam Lake in Wisconsin to protest the United States Navy’s Extra Low Frequency (ELF) Project (a new communications system), and at the Savannah River Plutonium Production Plant in South Carolina.
Country garden party
A country garden party, hosted by Barbara and Phil Stewart at the Mt Thomas Gatehouse for the Save The Children Fund, opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 14. Country cooking, country fruit and vegetables, country crafts and country meat will all be on sale. Games of skill for children, pony rides, and farm cart trips, Devonshire teas are all part of the day’s programme.
To get to Mt Thomas, drive through Loburn to Ashley Gorge, over the Hooker River and Bullock Creek. The fair will be put off till Sunday if it rains on Saturday. Stimulating day A stimulating day is planned for next Saturday, April 14, by the Women’s Studies Association. To be held at Hadfield House (corner Park Terrace and Salisbury Street), it includes sessions on how to deal with male put-downs, and a discussion on Dale Spender’s book, “Invisible Women.” It will also give participants the opportunity to become acquainted with educational programmes designed to foster equality, and with the issues surrounding the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Films will be running for most of the day. These include “Bread and Dripping,” women’s reminiscences of the depression in Australia; “Killing Us Softly” (about advertising and women); “Women in Management — threat or Opportunity?” and “Right Out of History.” During the evening there will be poetry, art, and music. During the poetry workshop, participants will be encouraged to read their own work, or bring along any poems which they feel particularly express women’s lives and thoughts. The 12-hour programme starts at 11 a.m.
“Profits will go to help victims of the African drought and to give assistance to the Christchurch Save the Children Fund nurse, Olwen Gillespie, who is working in Uganda,” says S.C.F. publicity officer, Eva Gilmore.
“Please bring a lunch to share, plus a spoon, fork, and plate,” says co-ordina-tor Avril Toohey. “We will provide Chinese food for dinner for a small cost. There will be no cost for the day.”
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Bibliographic details
Press, 12 April 1984, Page 16
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920Campers unite in crusade Press, 12 April 1984, Page 16
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