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No Quiet Retirement for Raging Grannies
By Glenn Reed
Raging Grannies turning in another rousing performance. |
But if you listen to the lyrics, you'll soon realize that these grannies aren't telling their audience to just "row gently down the stream."
"WTO controls the world
That's the corporate scheme
Profits and profits and profits and profits
Democracy's a dream!"
--From Democracy's A Dream
This certainly isn't some senior outing group whose bus got lost, but one boisterous bunch of activists called the Raging Grannies.
The very first Raging Grannies group was actually formed north of the border in Victoria, British Columbia during the winter of 1986-87, by several peace activists who were also involved in street theatre. These older women began dressing up in silly hats and singing satirical songs that protested such issues as nuclear subs, uranium mining, nuclear power,
militarism, racism, clear-cut logging and corporate greed.
Similar Raging Granny groups soon sprouted throughout Canada and then appeared in the U.S. in Vermont in 1994. The Seattle Raging Grannies debuted on February 12, 1996 in Olympia at a President's Day rally sponsored by the Washington State Labor Council. They are presently the only Grannies group in the state and are modeled after the Canadian Grannies.
"We aren't intent so much on entertaining as we are in sending a message," says Lake Forest Park's Monica Zucker of the group she joined over a year ago.'"We want people to listen to the words and we really cover a broad range of issues."
"We sing about such things as military spending, the environment, corporate welfare, social injustice and peace," notes Rita Selin, a Raging Granny since a few months after the Seattle group was formed in November of 1995. She was introduced to the Grannies by someone at her church who knew of her involvement in social justice issues and peace movements. "We need other ways to solve problems and not just the 'you're either with us or against us' approach."
"Violence just creates more violence," agrees Raging Granny Kay Thode, who has been with the group since its creation and an activist all of her life. "I'm appalled by the notion of a war with Iraq. It's really frightening what's going on and if you disagree with anything you're called 'unpatriotic.'"
"Iraq Sanctions" (sung to "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?")
"What good have the sanctions done?
Children are starving
Saddam reigns upon his throne
Children are dead
Infrastructure all is gone
Clean water there is none
When will this ever end?
When will this ever end?"
The Seattle Raging Grannies, who follow in the tradition of wise women elders, presently boast about 20 members, ranging in age from the 50s to early 80s. They don't seek payment for booked performances, but do accept donations in order to fund their activities. They rehearse at least three times each month and perform up to four or five times a month.
According to Selin, the Grannies typically sing for groups that have similar missions, such as furthering peace and justice and living in harmony with the planet. However, they'll sometimes go where they may not be wanted. This has included city council hearings, the Hanford hearings on reactivating a nuclear reactor, and at Seattle School Board meetings concerned with advertising in public schools.
"We sang at a senior center once," notes Selin, "and several people walked out once they heard the lyrics!"
The Seattle Grannies have performed at such events as the Fremont Fair, the Economic Justice conference at the University Unitarian Church, the Million Mom March at the Seattle Center, the anti-FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) protest at the Border Peace Park in April 2001, and during the anti-WTO protests back in 1999, among many others. An upcoming appearance will be at Jim Hightower's Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour in Renton on August 24th.
The Grannies now possess a wide repertoire of songs that are published in a songbook and their clever lyrics are available on their website (www.raginggrannies.com). Many are also composed by Zucker, who used to write parody songs for ACLU meetings and who served as editor for newsletters produced by the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and the Washington chapter of the League of Women Voters. She's quick to follow up on current issues such as recent corporate scandals:
"Securities, Securitas!" (sung to the tune, Finiculi, Finicula)
Some think the world was made for corporations,
Just like WorldCom,
And like Enron,
For frauds and scams and shady exploitations,
When with aplomb
They drop a bomb.
And we, we lose our jobs and stocks and pensions,
Each three-piece suit
Takes out the loot.
For us the evil hits in great dimensions.
Execs aren't miffed--
They take the Fifth.
Though they address serious issues, the Grannies also tend to bring a degree of levity to events at which they appear.
"We've helped defuse a few situations, particularly between young people and police" points out Selin. "Sometimes cooler heads need to prevail."
"We're greeted almost everywhere with enthusiasm," says Thode, who has been in Seattle since 1947 and focused her past activism on welfare rights, civil rights and the anti-war movement in the 60s and 70s. "Young people chant 'Grannies, grannies, grannies!' and seem encouraged that older people are still active."
"We were always told that the older you get, the more conservative you get and that's not true in our case!" concludes Thoade.
Reader Comments
Discuss this article in the forums!
| Angela | Aug 28, 2002 | Seattle | concerned American |
| Bless the Grannies! I saw them at the Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour. I am so glad they can poke fun at serious issues while perhaps making some folks more aware of the increasingly mad country we are living in. Keep on singing, ladies! | |||
| Dora-Faye Hendricks | Jul 18, 2004 | Spokane, WA | Retired Social Worker |
| I just learned of your very fun-sounding, important "Grannies" group, of the "Ten Thousand Villages Stores", and have ordered a copy of your book "Off Our Rockers". What can you tell me about the possibilities of organizing a group of grannies in Spokane and/or how would one go about beginning to organize one? It's an important time now, with the elections coming up and the candidates continuing to spend money on themselves. Today's paper told us how many MILLIONS George Neathercutt and Patty Murray have raised for their campaigns -- if they'd give it to those who need it, we wouldn't have to cut so much out of our state budget!!! Help me help you! Thanks. | |||
