Inspiring NZ in-cinema premiere of this NZ -made movie about the amazing women of Greenham Common at the Wellington Film Festival today. Their years-long protest led directly to the INF treaty, a major advance in nuclear safety. It’s well worth seeing – a timely reminder in light of today’s news about NATO moving nuclear missiles around Eastern European nations on Russia’s borders.
The trailer for the movie is here. It is distributed on-line by Universal Pictures and is available on all the usual channels.
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty on 8 December 1987. One of the Greenham Common women claims in the movie that their sustained activity was the reason Gorbachev felt he could sign the treaty as he could trust them at least. Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the treaty in 2018 and this was completed in 2019.
The world is not a safer place because of this. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it has ever been. Military escalation on the Russian border and the China coast, coupled with escalation in the condemnatory rhetoric that is the historical prelude to war, mean that the lessons and the legacy of the women of Greenham Common, most notably their willingness to speak up and take action are needed now more than ever.
Global warming is not the only civilisation-ending danger we face.
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