They closed up the sooty gates of Ayres and Company We stood on the picket line, my Jennifer and me We blocked the street, now the lorries come and turn about There's nothing getting in there and there's nothing getting out
Oh, she's just a tender thing, she's risking life and limb My sweetheart's on the barricade My heart it skips a beat, there'll be fighting in the street But hungry folk forget to be afraid My sweetheart's on the barricade
And here come the managers to hit us on the sly And tin pot generals with glory in their eyes Owners, moaners, Judases and Janes But righteousness is in our eyes, we've got no time for games
In her manner she is mild and fairly just a child My sweetheart's on the barricade For a fair wage in her hand, the equal of a man She'll stand front rank in the parade My sweetheart's on the barricade
She's running leaflets through the alley She's passing hymn books at the rally Hallelujah
Friends and neighbors, won't you join the cause? Drill it in the tiny minds of them that make the laws That workers are human, we're really just the same We've got to have the nourishment to fill a human frame
Oh, we're people not a mob and we only wants a job My sweetheart's on the barricade We've had it up to here, too numb to feel the fear My sweetheart's on the barricade My heart it skips a beat, there'll be fighting in the street My sweetheart's on the barricade