welcome to the PeaCe eNCaMPMeNT HeRSToRy PRoJeCT: April 2008

Saturday, April 12, 2008

SNaPSHoT 2007 - Peace down below

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF SENECA ARMY DEPOT (2007)
Prepared by Karen Edelstein, 5 April, 2008 using ArcGIS with imagery from NYS GIS Clearinghouse

Imprint of peace on the roads network.

Close-up of bunkers.

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What was the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice?

WEFPJ was an all-women’s community of protest and challenge to violence and militarism housed on 52 acres bordering the Seneca Army Depot in upstate New York.

Commonly known as the Seneca Women’s Peace Camp or Seneca, the encampment was modeled after the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in England (1981-2000) where hundreds of British sisters were creating nonviolent protest in the face of the scheduled deployment of U.S. Cruise missiles.

Though the U.S. military steadfastly refused to either “confirm or deny” the presence of nuclear weapons at the Seneca Depot, the base was uniformly regarded as a storage site and departure point for both the Cruise and Pershing II weapons bound for Europe.

In the summer of 1983, 12,000 women from around the world participated in nonviolence trainings, direct actions and civil disobedience at Seneca resulting in 950 arrests.

In 1994 the encampment transitioned into Women’s PeaceLand, an intentional community whose purpose was to promote and implement the principles of peace, nonviolence and anti-oppression.

Due to limited resources and waning outside interest, the peace camp farm and land was reclaimed by Seneca County for back taxes in March 2006.

The Seneca Army Depot was approved for base realignment and closure in 1995 and closed in 2000. By 2008, however, a portion of the base was reopened to serve as a training ground for soldiers from Ft. Drum.

CoNTRiBuTe To THe PeHP BLoG

Were you at Seneca or Greenham, even for just an afternoon? Share your story with the rest of us by commenting on the blog. Click on comments below the post, write what you have to say in the box, click on other, write in your name, skip your web page (unless you have one...), type in the letters of the word verification (so advertising machines don't bombard us) and then click on publish your comments. YOU DID IT! If that doesn't work for you, you can always email us at peacecampherstory@yahoo.com

HeRSToRieS

001 Carrie Stearns (t)

002 Carolyn Mow (t)

003 Karen Beetle (t)

004 Michelle Crone (vt)

005 Becky Condon

006 Shad Reinstein (v)

007 Doreen Cornwall

008 Suzanne Sowinska

009 Bird aka Johna Cochran (vt)

010 Jody Bear aka Jody Laine

011 Claire Beach (v)

012 Judi Kelemen (t)

014 Linda Field

015 Z aka Deborah Zubow

016 Susan Shachter

017 Barbara Reale

018 Elliott BatTzedek (vt)

019 Brenda Miller

020 Otter aka Karen Escovitz

021 Sarra Lev

022 Laura Boswell Thornton

023 Maria Herlihy

024 Wolfgrrl aka Billijo Wolf

025 Andrea Doremus

026 Lucinda Sangree (v)

027 Samoa aka Kim Blacklock

028 Helen Freedwomon aka Helen Friedman

029 Amy Bat Tzipora

030 Ruby Hohawk

031 Linci Comy

032 Janette Sperber

033 Cristina Biaggi (vt)

034 Dorothy Emerson

035 Nancy Clover

036 Michelle Murray

037 Grace Ross

038 Laura Flanders

039 Quinn Dilkes

040 Rosalie Regal

041 Charlotte Koons

042 Jennifer Miller

043 Helene Aylon

044 Alessandra Nichols

045 Martha Mollison

046 Mary Loehr

047 Clare Grady

048 Marilyn Rivchin

049 Susie Kossack

050 Ellie Rosenburg

051 Louise Cummings

052 Chris Huston

053 Tracy Sabo

054 Bryna Fireside

055 Lars Friend

056 Karen Edelstein

057 Cathy Sherwood

058 Cat Tague

059 Arora Crone

060 Judy Besemer

061 Sorrrel Hays

062 Marilyn Ries

063 Carol Baum

064 Barbara Gerber

065 Nancy Osborne

066 Carman Sivill Bradshaw

067 Karen Kerney

068 Julie Hammer

069 Diana Cramer

070 Mary Ann Zeppetello

071 Karen Mihalyi

072 Walter Putter

073 Claudia Gebhardt

074 Ruth Putter

075 Kathleen Rumpf

076 Andy Mager

077 Arlene Ahl

078 Linda DeStefano

079 Jane Begley

080 Beth Howe Miller

081 Renee-Noelle Felice

082 Sally Roesch Wagner

083 Sera Brown

084 Eugene Korvos

085 Mima Cataldo

086 Lucille Povero

087 Twilight

088 Sita Lang

089 Lynn Varricchio

090 Evelyn Bailey

091 Claire Parker

092 Estelle Coleman

093 Alice O'Malley

094 Hershe Michele Kramer

095 Louise Krasniewicz

096 Wanda Metcalf

097 Phenix Hearn

098 Pam Anndagah aka Flanigan

099 Leeann Irwin

100 Catherine Allport

101 Bobbie Falls

102 Jeanne Michele Charbonnet

103 Terri Fredlund

104 robin earth

105 Rachel Flanigan

106 Woody Blue

107 Miriasiem Barnes

108 Jasmine Laine Kramer

109 Penny Batelli

110 Terri Shay

111 Laura Briggs

ReSouRCeS

BooKS

Common Women, Uncommon Practices: The Queer Feminisms of Greenham by Sasha Roseneil, Casssell, London, 2000.

Greenham Women Everywhere: Dreams, Ideas and Actions from the Women's Peace Movement by Alice Cook and Gwyn Kirk - South End Press, 1983.

Nuclear Summer: The Clash of Communities at the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment by Louise Krasniewicz - Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Panhandling Papers by Kady - Common Wealth Printing, 1989.

Prisons That Could Not Hold by Barbara Deming - Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1995.

Rocking the Ship of State: Toward a Feminist Peace Politics edited by Adrienne Harris and Ynestra King - Boulder: Westview Press, 1989.

Walking to Greenham: How the Peace-camp began and the Cold War ended by Ann Pettitt - Honno: South Glamorgan, Wales, 2006.

We are Ordinary Women: A Chronicle of the Puget Sound Women's Peace Camp by Participants of the Puget Sound Women's Peace Camp - The Seal Press, Seattle, 1985.

We Are the Web: The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice by Catherine Allport - Artemis Project, NYC, 1984.

The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice: Images and Writings edited by Mima Cataldo, Ruth Putter, Byrna Fireside and Elaine Lytel - Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987.

MuSiC

Peace Camp Sings, 1987. Tallapoosa Music, New York, NY.

The Great Peace March: Wild Wimmin for Peace, 1986. To order, call: 412-361-3022

The Average Dyke Band: Songs from Seneca, December 1985.

ViDeo

Every Woman Here: Remnants of Seneca 1982-2006. Peace Encampment Herstory Project, 2007. 33 min.

C.D.: the Ritual of Civil Disobedience. Sorrel Hays, Marilyn Ries and Sara Halprin, 1987. 23 min.

Stronger Than Before: The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice. Women's Video Collective, 1983. 26 min.

aRTiCLeS

Deming, Barbara. Dec. 1984. "Building the 'Beloved Community.'" The Nonviolent Activist.

Doremus, Andrea, compiler. Fall 1999. "Seneca Stories: Responses to a call for Memories." Iris. pp. 36-47.

Finkelstein, S. Naomi. Winter 1994/95. "McRunes and Mazdas." Sinister Wisdom, #54, pp. 72-79.

Joy, Margaretta. April-August 2003. "We are the Web": Letter Writing and the 1980s Women's Peace Movement," Prose Studies, Vol. 26, #1-2, pp. 196-218. Routledge.

McDaniel, Judith. "One Summer at Seneca: A Lesbian Feminist Looks Back in Anger." Heresies, #20, pp. 6-11.

PaPeRS

Chmielewski, Wendy E.: "Resisting Nuclear Madness: The Utopian Vision of the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice," presented at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, New Brunswick, New Jersey, February 6, 2001.

welcome to the
PeaCe eNCaMPMeNT HeRSToRy PRoJeCT

Saturday, April 12, 2008

SNaPSHoT 2007 - Peace down below

What was the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice?

CoNTRiBuTe To THe PeHP BLoG

PHoToGRaPHS

NeWSPaPeR aRTiCLeS

SoNGS

WiND WaLKeRS

HeRSToRieS

PReViouS PoSTS

aRCHiVeS

LiNKS

We aRe THe WeB

ReSouRCeS