SoNG: Blood on Your Hands

Blood on Your Hands

Helen Freidman and other Greenham women
PeHP Source: ADB* songsheets 1985-87, Peace Camp Sings cassette, 1987

"This song came about when some of us from Greenham were walking around the streets of London after Ronald Reagan was elected and we were really angry and shouting, "Blood on you hands!" We came up with these verses and it's been a Greenham song and a Seneca song."    ~ Helen

You who create the war machine

You've got blood on your hands

Your violent exploitation is obscene

You've got blood on your hands

Chorus:

You're raping my body 
And you're raping the land

'Cuz you're a warmonger

You've got blood on your hands.

You who destroy in the name of greed

You've got blood on your hands

Stealing away from the wimmin's needs

You've got blood on your hands

Chorus

You macho men who claim the right to control

You've got blood on your hands

The anger of the wimmin you'll never console

You've got blood on your hands

We're reclaiming our bodies

We're reclaiming the land

From the warmongers

You've got blood on your hands!

We're taking back our bodies,

And we're taking the land

From the warmongers

You've got blood on your hands!

* 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.