Punk Site Poetry With Cherry B: There Is Power In A Union!

Cherry B is our punked up pumped up performance poet, who has been described as the The Punk Pam Ayers and The Cockney Cooper Clarke, she has returned with There Is Power In A Union!, her latest exclusive poem for The Punk Site. Cherry B had this to say about the poem: “I wrote this poem for Unity Fest, that I was a compère at in Corby last month. A fantastic collection of bands raising money for local charities and Unity Union. I have always been part of a union, often very actively, I was branch secretary of the TGW union and as a teenager I stood for and won the post of secretary of the student union in Harlow. I am still a member of my own trade union and as you can see from this poem, I am very passionate about their value. Unions still continue to be attacked by the right wing press for being ‘greedy’, but it is never just about the money when people strike. It’s about working conditions and civil liberties in the workplace.”

There Is Power In A Union!

These words are often said.

Coming together as one force, 

To fight power that’s inbred.

Workers need protection, 

And compassion shown from bosses.

Not focus on their profits,

And blame staff for their losses.

Thank you for our bank holidays! 

And days off we spend as leisure.

Thank you for the pay we earn! 

And equality in measure.

Thank you for health and safety!

Protecting us from risks.

Where we’re only doing our job,

And trying to exist.

Let’s raise a glass to the Mertha Rising

And Tolpuddle Martyrs too.

Then learnt skills of demonstration,

Which sparked the general strike of 1842.

Power to the match-girls

And the women who worked at Fords.

Fierce labour leaders held their own,

Militant Support was in hoards.

True strength came in the 70s.

Equal pay was met.

But the anger of pit closures

Reared their worse adversary yet.

Yes Thatcher fucked us over!

Defeating and demeaning.

Destroying and dismantling,

Weakened unions and its meaning.

They never fully recovered,

the Tories tore them to a shred.

Even our current Labour leader,

Is Thatcher led.

Sometimes it feels there’s no change,

exploitation still exists.

But imagine if we didn’t have them?

We have to fight with empty fists.

“If we all spit at once we’ll drown the bastards”

The words of our late Bob Crow.

Cos the passion to fight until the end

Was all that he did know.

There is more that unites us,

Than tears us apart.

So let’s rejoice the unions

Safety in numbers from the start

Author, writer, poet, psychotherapist, professional swearer, dyspraxic and opinionated, words that define and illuminate qualities that feature within the personality of Cherry B. Straddling the Shakespearean themes of comedy and tragedy, teasing with laughter, then taunting those undesirables in society. One half of the unique Cherry & Peesh, who have embellished the punk ‘n folk scene with melodical tales and catchy tunes for the past five years. The duo have released their new album, Bigot’s Banquet, that followed on from2022’s Dont Make It Easy On Yourself and Cherry B is also collating her new book for publishing later this year.

“It’s a quiet month for me, regarding gigs. But I am working on a novel, as well as a new poetry book. More details to follow. We are also still working on our new Dub EP. There are some Cherry & Peesh gigs in October, including supporting the wonderful Rites of Hadda in Camden.”

Cherry B‘s collection of poetry and lyrics, Job Lot Of Rhymes, is available via Flapjack Press. Job Lot Of Rhymes spans three decades of Cherry B’s performance work. Political, societal and inclusive, it is uncompromising and passionate punk ’n roll poetics firing from the belly of social conscience. Cherry B also appears on her monthly radio show on Louder Than War Radio, Poetry Is The New Rock ’N Roll, that offers an hour of lyric led, spoken versed, genre smashing, musical adventure into the exploration of hidden poetry, that is often camouflaged behind powerful rhythms and riffs.