Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
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Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham to protest against the decision of the British government to allow cruise missiles to be stored there. After realising that the march alone was not going to get them the attention that they needed to have the missiles removed, women began to stay at Greenham to continue their protest. The first blockade of the base occurred in March 1982 with 250 women protesting, during which 34 arrests occurred. The camp became the central focus of the British peace movement and a global symbol of the antinuclear struggle and the centrality of women to it. Despite the installation of cruise missiles at Greenham in 1983, the protests, historian Martin Shaw argues, contributed decisively to the 1987 INF treaty which led to their removal in 1988. The camp was brought to a close in September 2000 to make way for the Commemorative and Historic Site on the land that housed the original Women's Peace Camp at Yellow Gate Greenham Common between the years 1981 and 2000.