Greenham Common

Greenham Common  by Vajra Koan
Respectfully dedicated to all the victorious heroes who took part in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, which forced the US military to take their nuclear missiles out of England and back to America; and dedicated also, with equal respect, to all the battered, defeated, bedraggled heroes who will never forget sacrificing themselves to the police violence at Stonehenge, and becoming, as a result, (as Obi Wan would say) a force more powerful than any policeman can possibly imagine.

Just outside Greenham Common, some women once won a fight

Against military policemen, who thought that might was always right.

While the newspapers insulted them, and the Government ignored,

The women there just soldiered on until the missiles left our shores.

And the protest march kept growing, day and night,

In the darkest darkness there still burned a light

In the eyes of those few brave enough

To stand up for what they believed in

And join the protests on the barricades

Confronting might with right.

You have a right called Freedom of Worship, so the United Nations say,

But every year, at Stonehenge, your rights are stolen away.

Some pilgrims get a good kicking, and no-one seems to give much of a damn

About the human sacrifices going on in the back of the police van.

But the protest march keeps growing, day and night,

In the heart of darkness there still burns a light

In the eyes of those few brave enough

To stand up for what they believe in

And join the protests on the barricades

Confronting might with right.

At nine o’clock each morning, the slaves oil their machine;

It keeps us locked in servitude; it keeps us all so squeaky clean;

And as we sell our lives away, so very sadly cheap,

We try hard not to feel too much, and not to think too deep,

But still the protest march keeps growing, day and night,

In the darkest prison cell still burns a light

In the hearts of those few brave enough

To give their lives for peace and justice,

And join the protests on the barricades

Confronting might with right.

And in our squalid little living rooms, we, the guilty, sit and chat

Of mindless trivialities, we pretend that’s where it’s at,

And we don’t blame our government, our church or our TV,

We just live lives of hopeless ignorance and bland complacency.

But the protest march keeps growing, day and night,

In the hearts of darkness set the fires alight,

Until everyone is brave enough

To go to Greenham Common

And join the protest on the barricades

Confronting might with right.