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Women's groups as Changemakers
Bulb Magazine
October 04, 2006

Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp
On the 5^th of September 1981 a group of women marched to the American military airbase on Greenham Common, Berkshire, England, to protest against the decision to site 96 cruise nuclear missiles there. They put up tents, parked their caravans and set up home, creating Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, refusing to leave until the nuclear weapons were removed.

Braving the bitter cold, the women stayed day after day without electricity or running water. They were manhandled by police and vilified by the British media, who called them lesbians, loonies and child abusers (for not being at home to look after their children). But to much of the public they were an inspiration. In 1982, 30,000 women congregated to create a blockade around the base by joining hands to ‘embrace the base’. In April 1983 70,000 supporters formed a 14-mile human chain linking Burghfield, Aldermaston and Greenham, 200 women dressed as furry animals entered the base to stage a protest picnic. Their determination, their 24 hour presence and their commitment to non violence gave the protest an authority that became hard to dismiss. Finally in 1991, all missiles were removed from Greenham Common. The women had helped put unilateral disarmament on the international agenda.

Chipko
The first tree-hugger died beneath the axe of a Maharajas tree cutter, according to 18^th century Indian stories. Her tactic of opposition, embracing a tree, gave the name Chipko (meaning embrace) to a movement opposing the felling of forests in the Himalayas. These activists were women of the villages who used the forest trees for fuel and its undergrowth for food for their families. Without the trees steadying roots, their villages were at risk of floods and landslides. They fought to control their own environment from unmeasured attacks of those who didn’t have to live with the consequences. In 1973 a sporting goods store had been given the contract to fell trees in the Uttar Pradesh. When the tree cutters arrived, 27 women led by an elderly widow, began hugging the trees and threatened to die with them. This simple act of love, captured the world’s attention. The contractors backed down, and the Chipko movement thus branched out to other areas of India. In 1980 they achieved a major victory as tree felling was banned for 15 years in the Himalayan forests. Since then they have significantly influenced natural resource policy in India.

Mothers Of The Plaza De Mayo
Every Thursday without fail in Buenos Aires’ main square, wearing white scarves, The Mothers would march around a circle in silence, before cold faced soldiers. They did not shout or scream, but with photos of their "disappeared" children hanging around their necks, their silent message couldn’t have been louder. Between 1976 and 1983 Argentina’s military dictatorship "disappeared" an estimated 30,000 people. When relatives would go to the police stations in search of their loved ones who had been abducted, they’d be told they did not even exist; their birth records had also "disappeared". The Mothers were told they were mad, then they were threatened, and some of them were "disappeared" themselves. But they kept on going, every week with their silent march and gradually captured the world’s attention. Sting wrote songs about them, U2 invited them on stage; they ultimately played a huge factor in the regime’s downfall. Today, The Mothers continue to march every Thursday demanding that ex-officials be brought to justice. Thanks to them, the military has officially acknowledged its crime against humanity; its "dirty war" looked upon with shame by Argentines.

The Suffragettes
At the turn of the 19^th century, the Women’s Social and Political Union (known as the Suffragettes) began presenting arguments to Parliament with the aim of obtaining female suffrage. Fed up with being ignored, the Suffragettes began a campaign of civil disobedience - they would no longer obey the rules if they didn’t have a say in them. They burned churches as the Church of England was against female suffrage, they chained themselves to Buckingham Palace as the Royal Family were against women having the vote; they sailed up the Thames and shouted abuse through loud hailers at Parliament as it sat. Many were thrown in prison and only released when they were about to die from hunger strikes. One woman died by throwing herself under a police horse. In these actions the Suffragettes challenged the perception of women as meek second-class citizens, demonstrating that this was a fight they would continue to the bitter end. It was not until after the 1^st World War, that the injustice of depriving women representation when they were put to work by the government, became so glaring that those who previously belittled the Suffragettes saw the sense in their demands. Women were finally made eligible for the vote in 1918.

Source: bulb (Bright Ideas From Underground) – www.bulbmag.com

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