The War Game

THE WAR GAME

Far away from the world of records (and other commodities), if only Thatcher had not made the decision to refuse political status to the Irish Republican 'H-Block' prisoners and to refuse to be moved by their hunger strikes, then perhaps Bobby Sands MP would still be alive?

If Thatcher had not made that decision then perhaps an IRA bomb would not have subsequently been let off outside Chelsea Barracks in London that summer, killing one by-stander and injuring many soldiers?

This was the age of tension and quarrel where it was becoming increasingly difficult to escape from the results and effects of the political decisions being made by the Thatcher government. Clearly, war was very much on the agenda be it home-grown war between the Irish Republican Army and the British State or impending global nuclear war, with everyone being sucked into it and being forced to take sides whether you wanted to or not.

You either supported Thatcher's political decisions or you didn't but as silence was being interpreted as consent, the only way to register disagreement was to demonstrate it in whatever way able. So, whilst hundreds were taking to the streets in protest marches calling for Troops Out of Northern Ireland, thousands were attending mass demonstrations called for by CND as well as attending public meetings where the Cruise missile question would be addressed.

Often at these meetings a copy of the banned BBC docu-drama The War Game would be shown, which though being a work of fiction was still the truest depiction there was available at the time of a what a nuclear attack upon Britain would look like. The fact that The War Game had never been shown on British television since being made in 1965 only added to its power as an effective propaganda tool for CND, helping to convince a huge number of people that Thatcher's nuclear sabre rattling was seriously insane.

Apart from depicting the horror of a nuclear bomb being dropped upon the south of England, it was incredibly realistic scenes such as looters being lined up against walls and being shot by British policemen armed with rifles that made The War Game so effectively shocking.

Incorporating vox-pop style interviews, scientific reports, official Civil Defence documents and dramatic 'pre-constructions' shot in newsreel-style black and white, the film was fully reminiscent of old World War Two footage; in particular scenes of cities such as Dresden, Nagasaki and Hiroshima after being destroyed.

Whilst it was a total flashback to the horrors of WW2, the film also served to catapult the viewer into the future where the idea that there might be survivors of a nuclear war seemed to be an even more terrifying prospect than total annihilation.

Condemnation of and objection to the nuclear arms race being waged was coming from all sections and all levels of society: from clergy and retired army generals to middle class housewives; from academics, Trade Unionists, and the unemployed, to teenage (increasingly black-clad) Punk Rockers and beyond. Or as Poison Girls had put it: "Housewives and prostitutes, plumbers in boiler suits, wild girls and criminals, liggers and layabouts, accountants in nylon shirts, feminists in floral skirts, astronauts and celibates, deejays and hypocrites, liars and lunatics, pimps and economists, royalty and communists, rioters and pacifists, visionaries with coloured hair, leather boys who just don't care, garter girls with time to spare, judges with prejudice, dissidents and anarchists, strikers and pickets, collectors of tickets, beggars and bankers, perjurers and men of law, smokers with heart disease, cleaners of lavatories, the old with their memories." Persons unknown, essentially.

That summer's Glastonbury Festival featuring among many others New Order, Hawkwind, Gong, Ginger Baker and Aswad had been organised primarily so as to be a benefit for CND, subsequently raising over £20,000 for the cause - the largest single contribution CND had ever received.

In London, a demonstration called for by CND attracted around 250,000 protesters whilst from Cardiff, in Wales, a relatively small group of 36 people calling themselves Women For Life On Earth set off on a protest march to Greenham Common with the intention of delivering a letter expressing their opposition to the site being used as a Cruise missile base.

After having their request for a meeting with the Base Commander ignored, the women set themselves down just outside the perimeter fence and set up camp. The women's camp immediately became a Peace Camp that unbeknown to the Base Commander and even to the women themselves would remain there for the next 19 years, becoming an extraordinarily powerful and extremely provocative symbol of resistance.