IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 106 7JTR
Held at: Women's Library
Title: TRUMAN, Jill
Date(s): [1980-2000]
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.5 A box (4 folders)
Name of creator(s): Truman | Jill | fl 1980 | writer
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Jill Truman (fl 1980s-) is a writer and peace campaigner. She visited the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp regularly in the 1980s-1990s when she wrote a column for the Bristol Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) newsletter entitled 'News from Greenham'. She also wrote a play about Greenham, 'The Web', which was produced at the Tabard Theatre, Ealing, directed by Jilly Bond, in 1991.
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (1982-2000) was formed in response to NATO's decision in 1979 to base ground cruise missiles at Greenham Common. RAF Greenham Common had first became home to the US Army Air Force in Nov 1943, when the 354th Fighter Group moved in as part of the Allies efforts to meet the Nazi Government's aerial operations. Greenham Common, near Newbury in Berkshire, became a bomber operational training unit. Following the invasion of France, the Americans transferred their resources to France and Greenham Common reverted to RAF control until it was closed in 1946. However, as the Cold War began, it was reopened in 1951 as a US Strategic Air Command, coming into American Air Force operational control in Jun 1953. It was closed once more in 1961 only to be reopened in 1964, when it also became a NATO standby base. NATO's decision in 1979 to base ground cruise missiles at Greenham Common was a response to the proliferation of nuclear forces, which occurred throughout that decade. It was in the wake of this announcement that the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp opened at this site. In Sep 1981 a Welsh group of 36 individuals opposed to nuclear power, called Women for Life on Earth, walked 120 miles from their headquarters to raise awareness of this issue and to protest against NATO's decision to site cruise missiles at Greenham Common. On reaching their destination they chained themselves to the perimeter fence and subsequently established a 'peace camp' there which was to remain for another two decades. The 'camp' itself consisted of nine smaller camps: the first was Yellow Gate, established the month after Women for Peace on Earth reached the airbase; others established in 1983 were Green Gate, the nearest to the silos, and the only entirely exclusive women-only camp at all times, the others accepting male visitors during the day; Turquoise Gate; Blue Gate with its new age focus; Pedestrian Gate; Indigo Gate; Violet Gate identified as being religiously focussed; Red Gate known as the artists gate; and Orange Gate. A central core of women lived either full-time or for stretches of time at any one of the gate camps with others staying for various lengths of time. From the beginning, links were formed with local feminist and anti-nuclear groups across the country while early support was received from the Women's Peace Alliance in order to facilitate these links and give publicity through its newsletter. In Mar 1982 the first blockade of the base occurred, staged by 250 women and during which 34 arrests were made. In May the first attempt to evict the peace camp was made as bailiffs and police attempted to clear the women and their possessions from the site. However, the camp was simply re-located to a nearby site. That same year, in Feb 1982 the camp went onto a women only footing and in Dec 1982, in response to chain letter sent out by organisers 30,000 women assembled to surround the site and 'embrace the base'. In Jan 1983 Newbury District Council revoked the commonland bylaws for Greenham Common, becoming the private landlord for the site and instituting Court proceedings to reclaim eviction costs, actions that were ruled as illegal by the House of Lords in 1990. In Apr 1991, CND supporters staged action which involved 70,000 people forming a 14-mile human chain linking Burghfield, Aldermaston and Greenham. However, the first transfer of cruise missiles to the airbase occurred in Nov 1983. Another major event occurred in Dec 1983 when 50,000 women encircled the base, holding up mirrors and taking down sections of the fence, resulting in hundreds of arrests. In 1987, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty was signed by the USA and the Soviet Union, and two years later in Aug 1989 the first step in the removal of cruise missiles from the Greenham Common airbase occurred, a process that was completed in Mar 1991. The American Air Force handed control of the base to the Royal Air Force in Sep 1992, who handed the base over to the Defence Land Agent three weeks later. On 1 Jan 2000 the last of the Greenham Common Women protestors left the camp. A memorial garden was erected after this - the only individual name included in the memorial was that of Helen Wynn Thomas who had died in an accident at Greenham on 5 Aug 1989.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
The archive consists of papers relating to Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp including articles by Jill Truman for the Bristol Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) newsletter and a typescript copy of a play by Jill Truman, 'The Web', with copy photographs and related publicity material.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The following publication was removed from the archive as a duplicate is held in The Women's Library Printed Collections:
Chant down Greenham [and other songs] (Classmark as at Apr 2007: 781.592 CHA)
Several Greenham-related press cuttings were removed from the archive and are now held with the records of Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp - Press cuttings series (Ref: 5GCW/E).
Conditions governing access:
This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Finding aids:
The Women's Library Catalogue
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Donated by Jill Truman, 2005. Copy photographs donated by Jilly Bond, 2006.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
The Women's Library also holds 5GCC Greenham Common Collection, 5GCW the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (Yellow Gate) archive, 7JAN Papers of Jayne and Juliet Nelson, 7PBB Papers of Pam Baum Barker and 7RTH Rebecca Thackray & Catherine Thackray Letters.
The Women's Library Museum Collection contains a number of objects, such as postcards and posters, related to Greenham. This includes a number of items created by the Women for Life on Earth, Greenham Common group. The Women's Library Printed Collections holds a number of publications about Greenham including Greenham Common newsletters (see also women's liberation periodicals from the period for references to Greenham).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Finding aid created by export from CALM v7.2.14 Archives Hub EAD2002. Edited for AIM25 by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: 28/02/2008