The Danish Peace Academy
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Songbook
3 There's a hole in your fence
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Photo: Peter Kennard
1982.
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Former USAF Commander of
Greenham Common Air Base, Jarrett McGehee, with wire cutters used
by Greenham women, 1996. Source: Imperial War Museum.
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The fence comes down. In
September 1997, the first piece of Greenham Common perimeter fence,
symbol of USAF presence, was ceremonially removed.
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There's a hole in your fence
dear Major, dear Major
There's a hole in your fence
dear Major, a hole.
Then fix it dear Private, dear Private, dear Private.
Then fix it dear Private, that hole in the fence.
But the women are cutting it dear Major, dear Major.
But the women are cutting it, they are cutting the fence.
Then arrest them dear Private, dear Private, dear Private.
Then arrest them dear Private, for breaking defence.
But that doesn't stop them dear Major, dear Major.
The women keep cutting, keep cutting that fence.
Then shoot them dear Private, dear Private, dear Private.
Then shoot them dear Private, for breaking the peace.
But the women are singing, dear
Major, dear Major.
But the women are singing, dear Major, these women for peace.
[No information about author.
Also published in the Chant Down Greenham songbook.
Music: There's a Hole in the Bucket. Unidentified Pennsylvania
Singer. Korson, George (ed.) / Pennsylvania Songs and Legends,
Univ. of Penna., Bk (1949), p252 (Dear Henry [Liewer
Heindrich])
See also: Who are the Witches?
Peggy Seeger wrote the song Woman on Wheeels about fence cutting Jennifer Jones, suffering from MS. Woman on Wheeels is not inluded in this songbook and is recorded on Seeger's CD Period Pieces.
Picture sources:
Jones, Lynne: Breaking barriers. New Statesman, Vol. 106. 1983. No.
2746 p. 14.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/22/greenham/airbase.htm
http://www.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/22/greenham/peacecamp.htm
http://www.peterkennard.com/main/my_art/photomontage/CND.htm
http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Heddwch/CND/HECN05a.htm
http://www.westberks.gov.uk/WestBerkshire%5Cservices.nsf/Public/AllServices/E88F53B18FD3623180256A54003A797A?OpenDocument
]
{Fence puts Molesworth on the map.
WRI Newsletter, No. 204, March/April 1985 p. 3.]
Nuke For Free
This week, [Friday 5th September 1997] four Greenham women were
found not guilty of criminal damage by Reading Crown Court. Jean
Hutchinson, Mary Wilson, Yolanda Kreik and Katrina Howse were
accused of fence cutting - causing an estimated [sterling]37,000 of
damage, at AWE Aldermaston. The Crown Prosecution Service retreated
from the case in disarray after realising that the evidence of
nuclear crime perpetrated by AWE Aldermaston was overwhelming. A
Greenham peace campaigner told SchNEWS, "This trial would have
revealed that the Trident weapons do not serve the present
deterrent policy of this country, and that both the policy and the
weapons are illegal under national and international law. This case
is part of an on-going challenge of non-violent direct action
against nuclear weapons in Britain by the Greenham Common Women's
Peace Camp- which celebrates it's sixteenth birthday on 5th
September." Happy Birthday to YOU!
On 5th Jan, three more women will find themselves in court on a
charge of fence cutting, this time at AWE Burghfield. These court
cases form part of the Greenham Women's Millennium initiative to
outlaw all nuclear weapons by the year 2000.
SchNEWS 133, Friday 5th September 1997. Justice? - Brighton's
Direct Action collective.
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news133.htm