Setting up, Camping and Visibility

It was pouring heavily with rain when the first few women arrived at 8.00 am on Sunday, so to begin with we set up gazebos on either side of the North Gate and decorated the fence with banners, photographs, placards and ribbons in the Suffragette colours. There was an enormous and jittery police presence, well over a hundred at the gate and police vans parked opposite the Faslane cemetery, around 100 yards past the North Gate. The police were anxious, wanting to know how many more women were expected. We played with them, keeping them guessing about numbers and whether some women might be going to the South Gate or even Coulport.

We had sent out a press release a few days before going to the base, and I did a radio interview from Faslane for BBC Radio Scotland's morning 'faith' programme, which, according to the producer who phoned me back a couple of hours later, resulted in the station being 'inundated' with emails wishing us luck!

There were around 60-70 women on the first day, and because this group had come together in the ad hoc 'Greenham' way, Sunday was devoted to discussing the issues, reccying the terrain, doing nonviolence training and getting a detailed legal briefing, as well as getting to know each other and networking. Although we did not quite make the hundred, some more women came over the next two days, making the overall number who participated around 80-90, though some also had to leave early.

In addition to the banners and messages, we pushed the boundaries of visibility by setting several tents up against the fence by the North Gate, including a modest toilet tent with a bucket, and also on the grassy (somewhat boggy) verge by the cemetery turn-off, on the other side of the road. We were not prevented from parking cars, vans and a minibus in the cemetery car park, opposite the police vans.

No-one seemed to mind there being a short-term camp on the verge, including a campfire. The MoD did try hard to make us take the tents away from the gate, but since they seemed rather confused about who owned the verge between the A814 and the base fence, we faced them down and camped anyway. This was very important, as maintaining high visibility was part of the strategy for the women's action, and meant that some of us were on hand in case anyone had tried to sabotage or take down the banners or gazebos overnight (they didn't). Though a little noisy, a good night's sleep was possible, and we encourage all groups to consider doing this. It is highly visible, upsets the base, and solves your accommodation problems! They will tell you you can't, but they appear to be on shaky legal ground, so it is worth pushing.