I Denounce the System sticker

Description

Statement

I denounce the system that murders my children
I denounce the system that denies my existence
I curse the system that makes machines of my children
I reject the system that makes men of machines
I reject the system that turns bodies of my own sweet flesh
Into monsters of iron and steel and war
And turns the hands of my children into robot claws

I reject the system that turns the hearts of my children
Against this earth
I curse the system that turns the genitals of my children
Into factories of fire and destruction
And rapes our flesh
And tears our womb
This earth our home.

There are no words 
For us no words
There are no words

When the fireball rapes the flesh of the earth
When the fireball tears the womb of the world
When the bullet rips apart the son and the lover
Lays to waste the wombwork and the labour
Where are they that will cherish my flesh
Where are they that will cherish my children
The men that will stand against the deathdealers
The children who can say no to the lifestealers
Where are they that will curse the deathdealers
I denounce the system

There are no words
For us no words
There are no words

Rooted in pain they sell their own flesh
Rooted in pain they do anything for money
They deal in death with minds that feed on hate
In fear of life they kill without pity
In fear of love they wound and they rape
In fear of love they rape without pity
Where are they that will cherish my flesh
Where are they that will cherish my children
The men that will stand against the deathdealers
I denounce the system

There are no words
For us no word
There are no words

Only a curse leaps from my throat
Only a curse leaps like blood from my throat
To curse the warlords that lay to waste our labour
That lay to waste the wombwork and the labour
That lay to waste the wombwork and the labour
That lays to waste
That lays to waste
waste… waste…
waste… waste…
waste

Poison Girls were right at the spittle-thick heart of Britain’s ‘anarcho-punk’ convulsions between 1979 and 1985. They never bothered the radio waves very much, even John Peel refusing to give them a session. But, looking back, Poison Girls were a band so far ahead of the game that the rest of rock ‘n’ roll have been playing catch-up ever since.

They were scarcely punk either. It’s just that punk’s temporary levelling of the landscape gave them space to break through. Their singer, Vi Subversa, was already a woman in her forties, a mother of two. She successfully broke every rock’n’roll mould that came to hand. A middle-aged, militant feminist, peacenik, anti fascist, anti capitalist punk!

With guitarist Richard Famous and drummer Lance d’Boyle, they expressed ideas and emotions utterly unknown to the spikey-tops and bootboys. Their sound developed in all directions and, if anything, their centre of artistic gravity was a London update of the Berlin cabaret, Vi Subversa’s voice a nicotine rasp that cackled or crooned her words of love, outrage or hurt.

Their indifference to left/right politics gave them no easy platforms. They found themselves ostracised by rock’s bland, new consensus after 1985’s Live Aid. Yet their extraordinary integrity and intellectual energy sounds more current today than any from that period. 

Vi’s impassioned exploration of female aging is unmatched in mainstream rock and the connection between personal and political, that Poison Girls dissect with razor sharp incision, has never been bettered.

The political impact of the band resonates as strongly as ever. Their ideas are still challenging. Their lyrics are as relevant and confrontational as the day they were written. The music bristles with warmth, emotion and a raw electrical power.

The band were truly unique and a genuine puzzle for puzzle.