SoNG: Beth's Song: Ballad of Greenham

Video: Seneca Army Depot truck gate, August 1, 1983 - Women's Video Collective

Music: Helen & Hershe from Peace Camps Sing, produced by Sorrel Hays and Marilyn Ries, 1987

Beth's Song: Ballad of Greenham

by WEFPJ Average Dyke Band - Helen 
PeHP Source: ADB songsheets 1985-87; Peace Camps Sing Cassette,1987

"I wrote this song in 1986 after a woman at Greenham, stood trial for trespass and destruction of property. Some of the words were based on things she said in the courtroom."  ~ Helen

When you rape the earth you rape my body

I can feel her trembling in my soul

As you rip her roots you clog my life's blood

With your poison weapons of control 

 You say you only follow orders -

it's just your job the day's routine

To kill then justify the murder

As you guard and drive your death machines   

Your strength is an illusion

Your lies are an intrusion

on my life, my sacred space.

And the words we've written on your doors to destruction

might be wiped clean but their truth can't be erased.

You'd rip me open like a test site.

Colonize my body like the land

With the law protecting your need for the might

to make sure we know who's in command

You dare to say I damage property

while you destroy and damage lives

You may swear to God I'm guilty

but I say it's you who is being tried. 

The truth is stronger

Women are stronger

than any force that you exert

Ours is the power of the wind and the water

Love for our sisters and our love for the earth.  

You think you're going to stop me

with your laws, your walls, your prison bars

But as I rise up in this struggle to be free

I'll expose your lies for what they are.

I'll be back to cut your fences

Each hole restoring sacred ground

Cut through your lies and pretenses

Until all the walls of fear come down.

The truth is stronger

Women are stronger

Than any force that you exert

Ours is the power of the wind and the water

Love for our sisters and our love for the earth

* The Average Dyke Band (ADB) sprang up at the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace & Justice in the summer of 1985.  The theory they put into action was that songs, singing, and musical instrumentation were not the domain of an exclusive, talented few. They had found that far too many of their sisters fell silent musically because somewhere along the way they were told they didn't have a good voice, couldn't carry a tune, couldn't keep a beat. The ADB, then, was the musical counterpart to WEFPJ's consensus process philosophy and practice - every woman's voice would be heard. They were inclusive, they were average, and they had a damn good time.