"With my hammer I break the chain, I will not remain in silence I will stand and I will defend my right to fight against violence No prison can contain the freedom that we gain when we move through fear..."
This is the song that took Seize the Day to the main stage at Glastonbury Festival, 1998 - and took songwriter Shannon to prison!
It tells the true story of four women who decided to take nonviolent direct action against the British arms trade by disarming a Hawk jet. After damaging the Hawk, the women handed themselves in for arrest so that the issue could be tried in Court. In an historic decision, a British jury found them NOT GUILTY of "criminal damage" on the basis that the protesters were acting to prevent a greater crime!
The fighter-plane had been produced by British Aerospace for export to Indonesia.
In the same year she wrote this song, Shannon was fined £600 for having taken direct action at the site of the Newbury By-Pass back in 1996. She decided that, like the women she sang about, she must face her own fears about going to prison and refuse to pay.
Their latest album All Hands that are Ready is out now.

http://www.seizetheday.org