peace camp

Peace camps are physical camps that are set up outside military bases by members of the peace movement who for one reason or another oppose either the military bases themselves or the politics of those who control the bases. They began in the 1920's and then became world famous in 1982 due to the tremendous worldwide publicity generated by the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

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First peace camps

The first peace camps are known to have originated in the 1920s.

The eighties

The first modern peace camps were the various women-only peace camps at Greenham Common, England, set up in 1981. Other mixed peace camps sprang up in Upper Heyford, Daws Hill in High Wycombe, Molesworth common, Lakenheath, Naphill and Faslane, where the camp remains.

Naphill

A bunker was constructed for Strike Command on National Trust land (Bradenham Village) near High Wycombe, England between 1982 and 1985. Naphill Peace camp was set up to witness and oppose this construction. The Angry Pacifist magazine was produced out of Naphill Peace camp.

Brambles Farm, Waterlooville, Hampshire

Main article: Brambles Farm Peace Camp

Set up in 1982 on the site of a research and development facility for the production of the Spearfish 7525 torpedo for the Royal Navy. This camp, although anti-war and anti-nuclear in its beliefs, was also supported and attended by local people demonstrating against the loss of green space and the lack of public consultation. The protesters held up the construction work for a number of months and was visited by some 3,000 people from this country and abroad. A Torpedo Town festival was held in the area for a number of years afterwards, the largest in 1991 at Liphook in Hampshire when some 25,000 people danced to the Spiral Tribe sound system. These festivals fell foul of the rave party and free festival crackdown in the early 1990's by the Tory Govt.

Reasoning behind the protest

People came to live outside these military bases in order to witness and nonviolently protest against the presence of nuclear weapons in Europe that were directed against the then Soviet Union by the United States, calling for nuclear disarmament. The women at Greenham Common were particularly against the placing of US cruise missiles there, something they claimed made the area a direct target of Soviet Union aggression. During the 1980s the United States Air Force had land-based cruise missiles at several of the above locations, not only Greenham Common; they have since been moved back to the USA, though there remains a US military presence in the UK, and the UK continues to possess and develop nuclear weapons itself. Due to these factors the concept of the peace camp remains alive today; because of Faslane Peace camp there has continuously been at least one peace camp outside a military base in the UK since 1982.

Other manifestations

Other similar manifestations ghave included the road camps during the 1990s, and especially at Fairford (see Swampy and the Camp for Climate Action set up at Heathrow Airport in August 2007^[1] .

21st century

In 2001 Brian Haw set up a peace camp outide The Houses of Parliament. In August 2007 others who had joined him were evicted but he was allowed to stay^[2].

There is also currently a women's peace camp at Aldermaston for one weekend a month. A peace camp was set up at Fairford on 17th February 2003. On May 13, 2005 protestors set up a peace camp on Drake's Island, just off Plymouth.

In February 2005, peace activists and residents began a peace camp at the village of Daechuri, South Korea, in opposition to the expansion of Camp Humphreys, which declared autonomy from Korea on February 7, 2006. As of October 2006, resisting residents remain on-site, despite demolition of homes owned by residents who have accepted compensation.

In August 2005 Cindy Sheehan set up Camp Casey, a peace camp named after her son, outside the Texas ranch of United States President George W. Bush, through which she has attracted considerable media attention.

Different meanings of the word

The term "peace camp" is sometimes used to describe political factions before or during wartime that are opposed to a particular war. These are not a physical camps but political alliances. Currently, there is an Israeli peace camp.

In addition, the term is sometimes used for summer camps that bring together youth from different groups in conflict (e.g., Palestinian and Israeli youth) to work towards transformation and improvement of mutual relations. While the organizers of such camps clearly support peaceful solutions, participants may not do so or at least not to the same extent; in addition, these camps are not intended to "protest" against anything, but rather to constructively work towards their goals and bring about change in the participants, which are intended to serve as multiplicators in their home communities.

References

External links

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