1. Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Greenham Common Peace Camp.

2.  Military dictatorship 1976-1983  State sponsored violence against left-wing guerrillas and their unarmed sympathisers, (trade unionists, activists and students.)  Highest estimate of the number of people abducted = 30,000.  “Disappeared” originally referred to those pushed out of planes into the Atlantic Ocean. Jorge Videla, President of Argentina 1976-1981.

3.  Protest against arrival of cruise missiles at the American airbase at Greenham Common.  Began 1981 when a march carried out by “Women for Life on Earth” ended up at Greenham Common.  A camp was established. Over the years it became more populous. It lasted 19 years, until 2000.  1 st April 1983 tens of thousands of protestors formed a 14-mile human chain.  Other tactics included blockades of military personnel, dancing on missile silos.

4.  1970s new wave feminism associated with Greenham  Patriarchy as a system of violence against women many feminists taking pacifist positions.  This is similar to the links the Suffragettes drew between militarism and anti-suffrage: both use force to dominate the weak.  Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have become involved in campaigns against domestic violence and unequal pay, although their struggle was not feminist, it was against injustice.

5.  ‘Women the world over have but one passion and one vocation – the creation and preservation of human life.’ Pethick Lawrence.  ‘We fear for the future of all our children and for the future of the living world which is the basis of all life.’ Women for Life on Earth

6. White head scarves of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and photographs of the “disappeared”. Children’s clothes and toys at the Greenham Common Peace Camp.

7.  Solidarity amongst women globally  Exclusion from politics meant that women were less nationalist and also had little desire to uphold political status quo through war (seen as self-interested, aggressive and male)  Greenham women have travelled all over the world, delivering lectures on importance of nuclear disarmament.  International cooperation of the suffragettes, e.g. 1915 Congress at the Hague attended by 1336 women from countries such as the U.S., U.K., Germany and Hungary.

8. ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES  Ability to invoke sympathy from the opposition. Domesticating politics? – Jennifer Schimer.  Ability of female non-violent movements to transcend national barriers.  Women are less likely to be suspected of participating in opposition activity.  Much more difficult to justify the use of violence when the victims are women.  Harder to co-operate with authorities as women have fewer links to politics  Easy to invoke image of women as weak, irrational and guided only by their emotions. Such images have an ability to discredit female struggles, e.g. the labelling of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as ‘madwomen’.

9.  Women can be very successful in non- violent struggles, especially through exploiting the emotional appeal to motherhood.  However………………

10.  Suffragette / Suffragist split 1903. The former used violent tactics and supported the war when it broke out, the latter were peaceful and campaigned for an end to the war  Role of women in raising patriotic children who are prepared to fight for their country, e.g. Germany, U.S, India.  Female revolutionaries in India participated in assassination raids on the British authorities.

11.  With gender increasingly being seen as a social construct, are women as likely to be successful in non-violent movements?  You Tube link  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rrob S7cbEc (News clip from Christmas 1982 at Greenham Common) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rrob S7cbEc