Trespassing

The every day Nonviolent Direct Action womyn did was "going on an adventure" in the base, trespassing: you ventured in, and never knew what would happen next, on your part or the military and police occupying the land.

For us, the fenced land was Common Land and that entrance was a right, actually. Actually, there should be no fence, no base there! But the police and the military working in the base considered it trespassing, so if we were caught we would be arrested and taken to a portacabin in the base for the Custody Record. Sometimes from there we would be taken to Newbury nick, and from that there would be a court case, even imprisonment in Holloway (London). But because trespassing actions were still daily and due to the trespassing herstory of GW, in these last years of camp, we were simply set free or returned to camp, this is, imprisonment was not that common -- also because numbers had dropped and there were only two camps now.

NVDA: 'No Trespassing' Signs on the Fence

A very common civil disobedience action at camp was going inside the base to get a No Trespassing sign, which then we would turn around to announce Common Land. This fence is illegal. Public open space before putting it back in its place on the fence.

In 1986 two Greenham womyn, Jean Hutchinson y Georgina Smith, took the Bylaws to court. The Bylaws were the legal tool introduced by the Ministry of Defence, 25 Apr 1985 to arrest womyn "trespassing", among other things. This "legal challenge was based on the grounds that the 1892 Act made provision for Bylaws on common land, provided that no rights of Common existed on the land, which was not the case with Greenham Common. Over the course of four years, this case progressed from Magistrate's to Crown to High Courts, eventually reaching the House of Lords. The Bylaws were pronounced invalid by the House of Lords on 12 Jul 1990." (Source: National Archives )

This explains why in 1990 we imagined and engaged in the Bye Bye Bylaws actions.

Why civil disobedience?

One of the legal / NVDA points was that the base was on Common Land, so it was illegal, and that the byelaws were incompatible with commoner's rights.

But there was also the pacifist reason: activists felt that it was their moral duty to stop the military responses to problems, and contribute to the building of nonviolent societies, where people's well-being and the protection of nature were priorities.

Text by michelle November 2022. Wanna add or modify something? Please, let us know.

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