Stonehenge '82

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.