The Danish Peace Academy
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Songbook
40 Silo Song
We'll face them with refusals We'll face them with song
We'll blockade their bases, sit silent and strong
We don't want their missiles and we don't want their wars
So we'll stay here at Greenham, we'll stay here at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham till peace is our own.
They say they need Trident and Cruise and the rest
They say for deterrence these bombs are the best
Who deterred them at Hiroshima, when they made nuclear tests?
We'll stay here at Greenham, we'll stay here at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham, disarmament's best.
We danced on the silos so they sent the police
Who arrested us women for breaking the peace.
What peace will be left us with Trident and Cruise?
We'll stay here at Greenham, we'll stay here at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham, for we've too much to loose.
They say they're protecting women and kids
But they're building their bunkers just for governments bigs
These bombs make us victims, it is us who will die
We'll stay here at Greenham, we'll stay here at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham, ain't trusting their lies.
We'll have you seen pictures of bodies all burnt
Imagine it's you and your family so hurt
We can stop their madness but we must do it now
So come down to Greenham[,] take the fence down at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham, for times running out.
When they talk about theatres it's nuclear war
And they say they can limit it and win as before
They'll destroy us to save us, but they won't count the cost
We'll stay here at Greenham, we'll stay here at Greenham
We won't move from Greenham, or Europe is lost
No we won't move from Greenham, or our future is lost.
Hear Silo Song. Written by Rebecca Johnson.
44 women went over the 12 foot fence at 7.30 a.m. new years day
1983.
Source: Nicholls, Jill: Invasion of the peace women. New Statesman.
Vol. 105. No. 2703, 7 January 1983 pp. 4-5.
[The GAMA site (GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area) on Greenham Common is the high security area that housed the Cruise Missiles, their transporters and other support vehicles. Six hardened shelters were constructed in the early 1980's to protect the GLCMs from possible nuclear and conventional attack. Each shelter was designed to withstand a thermonuclear airburst explosion above Greenham Common and Newbury or a direct hit from a 500lb conventional bomb.
It is believed that the shelters, that stand around 10 metres high, were built with a reinforced concrete ceiling about two metres thick, below a steel plate, around three metres of sand, a further reinforced concrete slab, all covered with tonnes of soil. Each shelter had six bombproof steel doors, three at each end.
GAMA remains a very visible reminder of Greenham Common's past
and the history of international conflict during the late twentieth
century. It is still separated from the rest of Greenham Common by
seven high-security fences.
THE HISTORY OF GREENHAM COMMON
http://www.greenham-common-trust.co.uk/history.htm
January 1, 1983.
DANCE ON THE SILOS
[Pleased to report this was sung (it has a tune too) at Greenham
Common, along with many other songs of course.]
http://www.davyking.com/Greenham.htm and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gLy4OM0wMY]