STONEHENGE
'82
Out at the
Stonehenge Free Festival in that summer of '82, the anarchic
free-for-all continued apace although even here tensions were rising
over what was deemed as unacceptable behaviour and acceptable
misbehaviour.
In this autonomous
space where anything was allowed, the one thing the festival
stalwarts objected to was the growing number of heroin dealers who
were setting up shop on site. Any other drug was viewed as being fine
(and dandy) but heroin came with a lot of problems and a lot of
anti-social baggage; and seeing as how Stonehenge was meant to be a
totally social affair, the use of heroin didn't square at all with
the festival's unspoken ethics.
These tensions
eventually erupted into some fighting along with damage to vehicles
being caused as heroin dealers were ejected from the site. For this
reason, perhaps it was just as well that Conflict didn't play there
or some of the methods used to take out the unwanted elements may
have been blamed upon and attributed to them?
For all this
trouble, the festival as a whole was another magnificent success
graced by an array of Punky/hippy bands, and was yet another kick in
the eye of authority. Apart from the solstice, of course, there was
even more cause to celebrate that summer due to the birth of the
first baby on site. More important than anything else, however, as
the festival drew to a close instead of setting off for home or for
the next free festival at Inglestone Common in Bristol, a large
number of festival-goers and travellers set off in a convoy of
various vehicles to join and support the peace campaigners still
camped out at Greenham Common in Berkshire.
This was the birth
of the Peace Convoy.
Since setting up
camp at Greenham Common in the autumn of 1981, the peace campaigners
there had been conducting a series of non-violent direct action
protests aimed at disrupting the establishing of the base in
preparation for the arrival of Cruise missiles. From cutting down
sections of the perimeter fence to stopping sewage pipes being laid
to blockading the main entrance, the tactics were diverse and brave -
and a major thorn in the side of the base authorities.
Influenced by the
actions of the protesters there, similar camps were being set up at
other military bases around the country such as Molesworth Common in
Cambridgeshire, Fairford in Gloucestershire, Burtonwood in Cheshire,
Burghfield in Berkshire, and Lakenheaf in Suffolk. At Greenham
Common, however, an inspired decision was made to have the camp there
be for women only. Not only would this tactic potentially prevent
soldiers and police acting violently towards the protesters but it
would send out a profound and unique political message.
Greenham Common was
on its way to becoming one of the most famous protest sites in the
world.
'If not you -
who? If not now - when?' asked a pamphlet handed out at the
Stonehenge festival. 'On Wednesday at 12 noon we pull out to
Greenham Common, the biggest convoy these isles of Albion has ever
seen, straight through the heart of the apathetic wilderness our
country has become.
Even as we sit
here on Stonehenge Free State, the death machine of Nuclear War
threatens our very lives. The time for sitting and talking about it
is over, we now need to DO IT.
The women at
Greenham Common have shown us all the importance of commitment by
sitting through one of the coldest winters on record to show their
implacable enmity for the whole Nuclear Death Machine. The least we
can do is lend these warrior women and all the other rainbow warriors
our support.'
Fired-up if not
somewhat frazzled from the Stonehenge experience, a rag bag
alternative army took up the challenge and set off for what was to be
a date with destiny. It was a sight to behold as the ramshackle
convoy of coaches, buses, trucks, motorbikes, caravans and other
assorted vehicles descended upon the prime future location for
Britain's Cruise missile national defence system.
Having navigated the
roads and the continuous police presence, the convoy by-passed a
police road block at the base and successfully landed; the travellers
immediately launching themselves into setting up the Cosmic
Counter-Cruise Carnival.
There followed weeks
of the usual (and unusual) festival frolics attracting thousands of
visitors, with much pulling down of perimeter fencing, smashing of
concrete posts with sledgehammers, and confrontations with MOD
police.
Society in general
might well have been fragmenting but this was a pivotal moment in the
cultural cross-pollination that was also occurring during the early
years of the 1980s. It was the moment when the core of the Stonehenge
festival crew announced themselves as the Peace Convoy and set off
for a confrontation with what was nothing less than western military
interests, and in doing so fully and completely politicising
themselves in the process. Joining with the women peace campaigners
already there at Greenham Common and displaying moral and physical
support in such things as drawing more public attention to the
campaign and showing the women how to build benders and other more
practical accommodation to live in rather than normal tents.
A common link
between the Stonehenge festival and the protest site at Greenham
Common was in many ways, Crass. From members of Crass being involved
in the initial instigation of the Stonehenge festival in 1974 to the
condemnation displayed by Crass of the Cruise missile plan and their
wholehearted support of the women peace campaigners.
Apart from being a
seminal Punk band, this was where the true worth and importance of
Crass lay.
