Security

The Night-Watch

In periods were men would come to try to hurt us, we organized the night-watch, so there was always someone awake, who could shout and wake us all up. I was at camp when one day some soldiers from the base cut with a razor the outside of a bender or tent two wimmin had put up in the forest and pierced two long and sharpened logs in criss-cross. Fortunately, the wimmin had rolled to one side as they slept. Otherwise, they could have been killed or seriously wounded. In another occassion, some loud men (civilians) in a car threw animal guts to our bender, and stones.

Hitch-hiking

A lot of wimmin hitch-hiked for they had far too little money, so we exchanged information on security and tried to hitch-hike in pairs when possible.

Getting Shot, by Kay

There were nuclear weapons in there and the US Americans would employ what they referred to as 'Deadly Force' in protection of those weapons if necessary.
(Mick Marsh, RAF Commander, 1983-1986)

People, usually journalists (link to The Media), always thought we would be shot if we entered the base, crossed the runway, went near the high security area or even into the high security area. The fact is, though, lots of women frequently did all these things for years and years and weren't shot.

I thought I'd been shot once but it turned out there was a plane about to land and the runway bird scarers were going off. There were loudspeakers along the edge of the runway that broadcast a noise like the sound of a crow being slowly strangled to death, followed by some loud gun shots. With my reputation for wimpiness in the face of improbable danger intact, I immediately surrendered and my pleas of "don't shoot" were accompanied by much ribald laughter from colleagues and police alike.

During missiles movements the USAF would patrol the fence in armoured vehicles with machine guns trained on anyone walking past. Given that it was a public common, that included ordinary Newbury rate paying residents. Nuclear weapons were often flown out and back for maintenance, in rickety old aircraft that used to bank away from Newbury as they took off but eventually this was deemed too dangerous as the rickety old aircraft might not make the turn, so they flew straight over the town instead.

Wrong Perception, by michelle

This issue of security was really weird. "Average citizens" would call us names for being at camp and fighting against war there, without realizing the most obvious thing: all that costly military security was useless when people (pacifist activists) could just get into the base at any time, spend hours there if wished and do lots of activities in the base illegally, in spite of the weapons and the surveillance.

How people manage to see what their prejudices tell them and not see reality is something that always amazes me.

Mainstream media were no better. They totally ignored us generally speaking, which was OK with us, because, probably unconsciously / as a result of traditional approaches and practices, they would not believe that in spite of the plummeted numbers, the struggle was going on. Here I must say that it's always the same: they prefer to think that the fact of nuclear weapons leaving the base and the Common being returned to the people living there was the result of the Power-holders' decisions! It's amazing how it's always the same! And it's easy to understand why: believing actual events would mean it is possible to build a better society, and most people are still believing that Violence by Power-holders is their safest choice. Which is crazy and sad and terribly wrong.

They thought the struggle ended c. 1986 or so, I suppose. But it didn't it continued till 1994, till the Common was returned to the people in that area (many of whom insulted us and blamed us of housing prices dropping because of us stinky good-for-nothing's). The two targets pursued from its beginning were achieved in the 1990s, I mean, when according to these uninformed / unwilling to be informed people the Wimmin's Camps did not exist any longer.

Mix up: Security and Night Watch - fix - here too link to: slander/disinformation + the media, why we were reluctant (cf. with Spanish activism)