The Danish Peace Academy
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Songbook
17 Carry Greenham Home
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Hand in hand, the line extends
All around the nine-mile fence,
Thirty-thousand women chant,
Bring the messsage home.
Chorus: Carry Greenham home,
yes,
Nearer
home and far away,
Carry
Greenham home.
Singing voices, rising higher,
Weave a dove into the wire,
In our hearts a blazing fire,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
No one asked us if we cared
If Cruise should be stationed here,
Now we've got them running scared,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
Here we sit, here we stand,
Here we claim the common land;
Nuclear arms shall not command,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
Singing voices, sing again,
To the children, to the men,
From the Channel to the glens,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
Not the nightmare, not the scream,
Just the loving human dream
Of peace, the everflowing stream,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
Woman tiger, woman dove,
Help to save the world we love,
Velvet fist in iron glove,
Bring the message home. (chorus)
[The tune is based on the Scots melody Mari's Wedding.]
[Words and music Peggy Seeger: PERIOD PIECES, Tradition (Ryko)
TCD 1078.
http://www.pegseeger.com
http://www.pegseeger.com/html/songlist.html
Included in:
Seeger, Peggy: The Peggy Seeger Songbook: Forty years of
songmaking.
- New York ; London ; Sydney : Oak Publications, 1998. - 364 pp. -
ISBN 0-8256-0344-7]
Hear Carry Greenham Home sung by Peggy Seeger.
Se also: Reclaim the Night, Tomorrow and hear Woman on Wheeels sung by Peggy
Seeger.
[Also recorded in theCarry Greenham Home video 1983.]
Sung at the December 12, 1982 demonstration - the biggest women demonstration ever.
Selected articles from the press:
Editorial: Peril of the peace demo. In: Daily
Express, 12/13/1982.
Editorial: The Sun says : War and peace.
In: The Sun, 12/13/1982.
'War and peace
THE YEAR-LONG campaign against nuclear weapons reached its
climax yesterday when thousands of women linked arms around
Greenham Common base.
It was an impressive spectacle. The power of conscience and
morality is always impressive in a free society.
Yet, as they huddled in the rain and wind to assert their
democratic rights, did any of these women think of a country which
also marked an anniversary yesterday?
It is exactly a year since the Communist dictators of Poland
smashed Solidarity and imposed martial law.
Do the ladies from Cheltenham and Liverpool and Glasgow know
just what that means?
IT MEANS that people can be arrested and detained
ndefinitely without reason or trial.
IT MEANS they are forbidden to join anything from a trade
union to a sewing circle.
Perilous
There are no marches in Poland. No demonstrations outside Russian
military bases.
The women of Greenham Common are not alone in detesting the waste
and menace of nuclear weapons.
But in a perilous world these engines of destruction happen to be
the sole guarantor of our freedom.
They mark the difference between peaceful protest on an
ordinary Sunday in Britain and life without hope in the prison
house that is Poland'.
Edwards, John: Maby this marked the start of women taking over
the world. In: Daily Mail, 12/13/1982.
Mum's army. In: Daily Star, 12/13/1982.
Palmer, Jill: Peace.
In: Daily Mirror, 12/13/1982.
The peace war. In: Daily Express, 12/13/1982.
Saunders, Kieron: 30.000 women join in nuke base blokade.
In: The Sun, 12/13/1982.
Whittow, Hugh: Give Peace a chance. In: Daily Star,
12/13/1982.
The women of protest. In: Daily Mail, 12/13/1982.
17 Swift as the wind my sisters are
Swift as the wind
My sisters are
Sure as the rain.
Strong as the sun that shines
We'll sing this song again.
[No information about author and composer.
Handwritten and published in Fredssangbogen.]