New Year at the Common for Helen

FOR most people New Year's Eve was a cosy celebration with loved ones or - if you succumbed to the hype and extortionate price-hikes - a boozy night to remember.

But while the champagne flowed, streamers were set free and revellers counted down to midnight, a group of woman gathered where they once made history - and saw in the Millennium at Greenham Common.

They welcomed the new century huddled around camp fires in a symbolic return to the centre of the female protest against nuclear stockpiling and power, which grabbed the headlines the world over in the 1980s.

Among the women congregating at the spot, where she once chained herself to the railings of the former nuclear base, was Helen John, of Otley.

Mrs John, of The Oval, said: "The Millennium means nothing to me. It is an ordinary day in my life. The women I am going with are quite sane and we do not lend ourselves to hype - but the dawning of every new year offers some hope that we can bring about change.

"Greenham is a gathering place for women. It has entered history in the same way as the Suffragettes entered history. It has become a phenomenon."

It is a fitting pilgrimage for Mrs John, who has devoted her life to campaigning against nuclear armament and raising the profile of the risks of nuclear power.

She became a founder member of the peace protest at Greenham Common when women raised a united and newly-found voice against the effects of nuclear power.

The 62-year-old grew up in London and can recall vividly the moment which was to later set her on the path to campaigning.

She said: "I was seven years of age when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I remember seeing the visual effects of that bomb on a Path newsreel at the cinema with my grandmother. Although they had grown up through the blitz the response of the people was shocking because they knew something awful had happened.

"As a child I put it out of my mind but the impact of watching that newsreel of that expanse of land with not a building on it was with me for years."

It was not until she became a student nurse that she began to put her early convictions that nuclear weapons could only be harmful into practice.

She said: "I drove up to Birmingham and Coventry with my friends and joined that section of a march from Edinburgh to London. I wasn't very political in those days. It was quite an experience to meet people who told me not to buy South African oranges because apartheid was wrong. There were young and old people there and that was what was so encouraging - everyone had such a great respect for each other."

In 1974 Helen uprooted from London and moved to Powys in mid-Wales and was soon prompted to further action.

She said: "The Government were going to bury nuclear waste in Powys so in a sense the Government brought the problem to me and I started to be active in fighting nuclear waste."

The mother-of-five took part in a march in August 1981, from Cardiff to Greenham Common - little knowing that she would stay there for over a year as a core member of the women's protest.

She said: "I was one of four women who chose to chain themselves to the fence in the style of the Suffragette women and we understood that by sitting outside the base we were having more of an impact than by walking the 125 miles through towns and villages.

"We were told with such contempt by the base commander that as far as he was concerned we could stay there as long as we liked - we decided to take him at his word."

Mrs John spent a year at the camp, where the women were regularly evicted, and says the spirit was one of defiance, friendship and unity.

She said: "Women of all backgrounds came because they felt that their children were under great threat. It was very encouraging to see women who considered themselves to be just housewives who travelled and used their wonderful brains to obstruct the Government.

"There was a very very good atmosphere and some very strong friendships made."

Mrs John left the camp after 12 months to take on a more active role as vice-chairman of peace organisation CND, sharing political platforms with the likes of Robin Cook and Paddy Ashdown.

Greenham Common was eventually closed down and sold back to Newbury District Council but the land is still closed to the public.

Mrs John took some time out of activity before settling in Otley in 1993 after being drawn to the town to set up a Women Only Peace Camp against the American communications centre Menwith Hill at nearby Blubberhouses.

Mrs John met with other women who were also concerned about the activities of the base amid rumours that it taps into international communications to undercut business deals to the benefit of the United States.

She said: "We could stand outside the perimeter fence every day and we wouldn't see any activity which would make us feel threatened. But we know since the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo that increasingly this is the age of satellite warfare and Menwith Hill is America's largest spy satellite location link outside America.

"We acted to remove the secrecy which it needs to operate and now a lot more people know this base exists."

The women of the peace camp used to meet on the third weekend of the month, setting up a row of caravans where some chose to live, which stood as a female protest against the sinister golf-ball like buildings on the skyline

"I travelled a lot but I would go up there and camp from time to time. I chose to live in Otley to carry out the type of work we did at Greenham," she said.

The women were evicted after they launched a campaign of criminal damage at the site, and Mrs John was arrested for smashing the eight windows of the base commanders headquarters. After her case did not go to Crown Court she went back and smashed 14 more and the charges were eventually dropped when she admitted to causing millions of dollars of damage.

The pensioner is no stranger to active campaigning. She has 23 convictions against her name and has been imprisoned several times - most recently on remand at Holloway Prison for daubing graffiti on the House of Commons.

But Mrs John is unrepentant and vows to fight on: "I didn't believe what I was told when I was younger and I don't believe what I am told now. Going to prison has not changed my convictions, only strengthened my beliefs.

"I realised at Greenham that I would be campaigning on the nuclear issue for the rest of my life.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.