It has taken us over two years to sort, conserve and catalogue this wonderful collection about the peace activist Helen John. In 2009 Helen donated to FAN some materials on women’s peace camps, as well as some prison correspondence. After her death in 2017 her family gave a further large donation of a range of documents and other artefacts. We have now merged these into a single collection.

Helen was a founder member of Greenham Common women’s peace camp, and later helped set up the women’s peace camp at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, the site of an American eavesdropping base. Apart from her activism at these two camps, she took part in innumerable direct actions and was arrested many times. She also stood against Tony Blair in the 2001 general election while she was in prison.

While working on this collection we have laughed a great deal reading about the sheer audacity of these women peace activists, and have been amazed by their commitment to keep taking direct action despite setbacks. You can see the collection catalogue here.

Apart from a small collection of key feminist texts, our archive doesn’t normally hold books. However, when feminist writer Zoe Fairbairns offered us a selection of her publications, we couldn’t say no.

Zoe Fairbairns joined the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970 and has remained involved ever since. Her writing (both fiction and non fiction) has been a key part of her activism. Here Today won the 1984 Fawcett Book prize; Benefits was shortlisted for the Hawthornden Prize for imaginative literature and the Philip K Dick award for science fiction; and in 1998 Other Names was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association award. You can view the collection here

The sixth National Women’s Liberation Movement conference, held in Edinburgh in 1974, was a significant one. It led to the adoption of the fifth and sixth demands of the WLM: for legal and financial independence for all women; and the right to a self-defined sexuality.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conference a number of organisations, including GENDER.ED at the University of Edinburgh and Women’s History Scotland, have come together to organise a series of public engagement events and blog posts on the history of the 1974 conference and its relevance for feminist activism today. The project involves collecting memories of the event and situating them within wider historical and contemporary contexts; and to connect past with present and future campaigns. More information about the project.

One of the events is an evening reception and panel discussion with speakers including writer Zoe Fairbairns and Furrah Riaz from the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre. It is taking place on Friday 21 June in Edinburgh. More information and booking.

Author Ajay Close is returning to Leeds in June to discuss her novel What Doesn’t Kill Us, about feminists in Leeds at the time of the Peter Sutcliffe murders. Her talk is part of the Leeds Lit Fest and takes place at the Leeds Library, 4pm on Saturday 15 June. Tickets £6. Information and booking.

 

We are delighted to have received a donation of two prints of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp by the artist Helen C. Houlston. They were donated by Tony Hall, who bought them in 1984 at a fundraising event for Greenham held in Northumberland.