Greenham veterans open Peace Festival

Maxine Peake, star of BBC1 series Silk, joined peace campaigners Rae Street and Pat Sanchez and other veterans of the Greenham Common Peace camp at the weekend at one of the opening events.

A Carry Greenham Home celebration at the People's History Museum in Spinning Fields, Manchester, marked the 30th anniversary of the Embrace the Base demonstration, when in 1982 35,000 women encircled the military base to protest against the imminent arrival of nuclear missiles from the US.

Greenham veterans shared memories and songs from their years of campaigning at the base and recalled events including the protest on April 1, 1983, when 70,000 protesters formed a 14-mile human chain from Greenham to the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Cruise nuclear missiles were finally removed from Greenham in 1991 and the common was restored to the people of Newbury in 1993. The area is now designated public parkland with memorials marking the Greenham women's victory.

Ms Street, from Littleborough in Lancashire, who spent many nights at the peace camp and helped to organise support in Rochdale, said: "We all learned a lot from our time at Greenham. In particular, we learned that we must never give up our struggle against the evil of nuclear weapons and the evils of war.

"After many years, we succeeded in removing Reagan's and Thatcher's nuclear weapons of mass destruction from Britain, but in 2012, we face the same struggle to rid our country of the Trident nuclear weapons system, of US spy bases and of the Nato alliance which has sent so many of our young men and women to kill and be killed in its disastrous wars."

The festival includes walks, exhibitions, story-telling, debates and concerts, celebrating peace and justice, and raising awareness about threats to peace locally and globally.

Events will include a debate with Tony Benn and Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday October 2. The festival continues until October 6.

Festival box office: (0161) 273-8282, email gmdcnd@gn.apc.org website http://manchesterpeacefestival.wordpress.com/