Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace & Justice

The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice (WEFPJ) opened on July 4, 1983, as a place for women to gather to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe, specifically the Cruise and Pershing II missles. It was organized primarily through the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Upstate Feminist Peace Alliance in New York, on the model of, and in support of, the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in England, which had opened two years earlier. The choice of location was quite deliberate. In addition to believing that the nearby Seneca Army Depot was a key point for the shipment of nuclear weapons abroad, the proximity to Seneca Falls, N.Y., the site of the 1848 women's rights convention, helped to firmly establish the place of the encampment in the minds of the organizers as one in a series of important events in American women's history. That first summer an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 women went to Seneca to participate in encampment life and protest actions, some staying only a day or two, some many weeks or the entire summer.

The focus of the WEFPJ quickly grew from just militarism to embrace a whole range of issues, particularly social prejudices and injustices. The women worked against paternalism, right-wing oppression, anti-Semitism, U.S. intervention in third world nations, and racism. They developed a membership that was largely lesbian and bi-sexual, embraced a number of "women's" causes, and took on a number of other issues, including environmentalism, speciesism and vegetarianism. Regular protests were staged at the gates of the Depot, as were other actions such as the July 1983 march to Waterloo, N.Y., which ended in the arrest of 54 participants. By 1984, a greater emphasis was placed on education, and a number of workshops were held on feminism, non-violence and peace issues, consensus and facilitation, and civil disobedience training. In 1985, approximately 800 women attended the WEFPJ, with demonstrations held on May 12 (Mothers' Day) and July 7. Smaller actions continued in 1986-1989. In the summer of 1990, the organizers organized a series of discussions about the future of the WEFPJ, with the theme "transform or die," during which a number of options emerged. The goal was to establish a not-for-profit land trust (called Women of Peace Land) and an intentional community for women.

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