Women’s Pentagon Action Song
Words and music by Sarah Pirtle © 2017, Discovery Center Music, BMI
Lyrics
G C G C G
1. We brought an eight foot Goddess, right there to the Pentagon.
C G D
There was mighty Demeter speaking truth to war.
G C G. (notes e d)
A cold November in 1980.
C G D Em. C D. G
We were doing something never done before. Never done before.
C G
With arms outstretched, we stood for millions.
C D
What this place does must be undone.
C. G. C. G
This is a factory of world poverty.
C G D Em
The Earth called us here and we had to come.
C G D G. ee dd a b aag
Two thousand women, hearts beating like a drum.
G D
Chorus: We are the earth. We say no more war.
C G C. D
We keep faith with the people who lived before.
C G C G
2. We wove a web of yarn lacing up the front gate.
C G D
In that moment, war was defied.
G C. D. notes c b a
And every time, bolt-cutters broke the yarn,
C. G. D. G
women grabbed the ends and they were retied.
C G
They cut the web, but we kept reweaving.
C D
The door was blocked and none could cross.
C. G C G
Women for life on earth. We are shouting
C G D Em
We are ancient spiders restoring what’s been lost.
C D G
restoring what’s been lost.
G D
Chorus: We are the earth. We say no more war.
C G C D
We keep faith with the people who lived before.
C. G C. G
3. The Pentagon spans a mile around
C G D
and on that freezing day in the clear sun.
G C G
Runners shouted -- we have surrounded it.
C G D G
That was the victory we have won.
G D
Chorus: We are the earth. Friend to friend.
C G C D
This circle lives every time you see it again.
G Em. C
There’s a sacred power rising from the earth.
G. Em. C. D
There’s a sacred power in making your own vow.
G. Em C.
There’s an ancient power that speaks in us today.
G. D. C. D. G
How do we circle right now? How do we circle right now?
Production: Engineered by Loren Feinstein, Colrain, MA.
Story of the Song
I was there November 17, 1980 at this historic action and remember what it was like to be holding on around the building at the moment the runners told us we had made it all the way around. This song was part of a commemoration in 2016 put together by Traprock Center for Peace and Justice and Anna Gyorgy.
Resource: Women for Life on Earth continues, directed by Anna Gyorgy. You can read about the action there: http://www.wloe.org/The-Women-s-Pentagon-Acti.692.0.html
"We are gathering at the Pentagon on November 17 because we fear for our lives. We fear for the life of this planet, our Earth, and the life of our children who are our human future..." from the Unity Statement of the Women's Pentagon Action, 1980. After a day of workshops and discussion, 2,000 women surrounded the Pentagon, demanding peace, justice and conversion from weapons of war to meeting human needs.”
Workshop ideas: Read from the Unity Statement available on the website. Ask participants -- did you know that this action occurred? Can we now visualize it and bring it back to mind.