ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author sets out the particular (re)constructions of the body. She shows the relationship between specific political activity or philosophy and the actions or reactions of other social agencies, so that the element of ‘production’ that exists between form of protest and press representation can be discerned. The combination of the nature and depth of the media coverage during the November trials and a chain letter sent out to women across the country asking for support, led to the presence of over thirty thousand women on the common on the 12 December 1982, to ‘embrace the base’. The activities of the Greenham protesters, whether involving large demonstrations or smaller, more subtle forms of continual attrition, have attracted the repressive responses of different ‘control’ agencies. Discretion is a constituent element of the criminal justice process and many examples of its dubious use can be found in relation to the Greenham protest, particularly in charging practice and sentencing policy.
