ABSTRACT
Greens and their predecessors have endorsed struggle against environmental and human degradation, but have tended to believe that such a campaign should be non-violent. Fundamental to their philosophy has been a revolt against authority and an emphasis on creating face-to-face grass-roots democracy. The Green movement is keenly decentralist in its vision of a better society. Non-violent direct action is practised as a form of opposition to environmental destruction and militarism. In particular a major influence on the growth of European Green politics has been the campaign launched in the early 1980s against the deployment of cruise missiles. German Greens such as Petra Kelly were at the forefront of this protest movement, which drew in millions of activists all over Europe. The women’s protest at Greenham Common provided particular inspiration, uniting radical left politics, feminism and pagan spirituality. Several Greenham women contested the 1983 general election as Women for Life on Earth/Ecology candidates. Greenham built upon a tradition of non-violent women’s protest, which included the Suffragettes’ struggle for the vote in the Edwardian era, as well as the efforts of women peace campaigners during the First World War and in Cold War America. A Gandhian strategy transmitted via the Committee of One Hundred, led by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, had earlier given rise to direct action in the 1960s.
