Listen&Watch

Hey politicians
Check your positions
Do you work for all of us
Or for the big bad banks
This plutocracy is no democracy
Rule by the rich,
Good gosh, no thanks!

Don’t trust your hedge funds
Don’t trust dark money
You leave us homeless and bankrupt,
I wonder when
You will be moving to your new mansion
In the nearest federal pen

You bleed the nation
Take a vacation
From killing jobs, hoarding gobs
Of ill-gotten gains
Shift your ambition
To abolition
This system’s clinically insane

You hold us hostage
With stocks and bondage
Basic rights don’t mean shite
To the shareholding class
If you don’t wise up
We might just rise up
And plant our feet right in your…
Pants

You kill community
With such impunity
But we won’t let you get away
With this truth decay
We’re gonna build a better future
And we’re gonna start right now

So politicians
Check your positions
Do you work for all of us
Or for the big bad banks
This plutocracy is no democracy
Rule by the rich,
Good gosh, no thanks!

Tune: When the Saints Go Marching In
Oh when I lost my job last week
For health care I was up a creek
Oh, I don’t want to be in that number,
That’s why I will not be meek

When workin’ folks must get food stamps
Or live like 1930s tramps
I don’t want to be in that number,
When workin’ folks must get food stamps

Yes we are here like Paul Revere
To warn you of what’s goin’ down
Oh, I don’t want to be in that number,
When our country’s goin’ down

When we stand up for our fair share
When we stand up for our fair share
Well, I want to be in that number,
When we stand up for our fair share

When we stand up, and when we shout
Respect is what it’s all about
Well, I want to be in that number,
Respect is what it’s all about

Arise ye pris’ners of hierarchy
Arise ye workers with your tools
Cooperatives are in formation
Transforming social rules

Tis a new phase of hist’ry
Searching for democracy
Incorporating everywhere
The shift from I to we

Tis humanity’s project
Working for the social good
Community empowerment
All power to the hood

Community empowerment
All power to the hood

HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT

Michael Brown went down
Laid there, stayed there
Four hours to show the powers
Of the powers that be
This is F.U.Q.D. up up up, alla way up
This system is deranged

Tanks in the cities
Tear gas in our eyes
Your average police spokesbot
Almost always lies
Military occupying brown communities
Has anything really changed?

chorus:
Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and Michael Brown
If the list gets any longer this whole system will go down
Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and Michael Brown
If the list gets any longer this whole system will go down

Clergy wearing gas masks
Why you killin’ us, a mother asks
Nothin’ left to live for, feels like Palestine
A mere child, state gone wild, no charges filed
Death by assembly line

They coulda tried anything besides six shots to kill
No job, bad schools, worse cops – call it what you will
When the whites gonna get it, this goes on because we let it
Hands up don’t shoot

Two days later, seven more shots
Another child falls, democracy rots
American trees bear strange fruit
Hands up don’t shoot

Looks like Katrina, looks like Gaza, looks like South Africa
Warehouse the poor and colored, police lied, justice died
Black youth caught in the jaws, cops are the cause
chorus

tune: Bella Ciao
We’ve got to wake up
Walmart let’s shake up
Discrimination keeps women from management
We’ve got to build a better future
To fight for freedom this we vowThey’re cutting corners
Making us mourners
While banking billions in profits
But not for us
We’ve got to build a better future
And we’re gonna start right nowTheir reach is global
But it’s not noble
They pay the least they can pay
Workers everywhere
We’ve got to build a better future
And we’re gonna start right nowSo let’s all wake up
Walmart let’s shake up
No more stealing of wages and health care rights
We’re gonna build a better future
And we’re gonna start right now

When Walmart cuts our working week
For health care we are up a creek
Oh, I don’t want to be in that number,
When Walmart cuts our working weekWhen Walmart pays minimum wage
And on our hours slaps a cap
No one wants to be in that number,
Hard-working folks reduced to SNAPWhen government picks up the slack
Cause Walmart policies are wack
Then it’s time to pay proper wages
To put the workers in the blackYes we are here to tell Walmart
Our workers’ rights we’re fighting for
Oh, I want to be in that number,
When workers’ rights we’re fighting forWhen we stand up for our fair share
When we stand up for our fair share
Well, I want to be in that number,
When we stand up for our fair shareWhen we stand up, and when we shout
Respect is what it’s all about
Well, I want to be in that number,
Respect is what it’s all about

We have worked part-time
And had our hours cut and changed at whim
We’ve been forced to go on food stamps
Cause our wages are so slim
We’ve signed up for Medicaid
Cause in this job it’s sink or swim
But we’ll go marching onChorus:
Glory glory to a living wage
Glory glory place it on the page
With the wages you propose
We’ll be homeless when it snows
So we’ll go marching onNobody should go bankrupt
With gigantic doctor bills
Nor should people have to choose
Between their dinner and their pills
The studies are already done,
And lack of healthcare kills
So we’ll go marching on
ChorusWe are your friends and neighbors
And you see us every day
We work our asses to the bone
So hear us when we say
That when we aren’t respected
We don’t meekly go away
No, we go marching on
Chorus

Oh, when the state steals Medicaid
Oh, when the state steals Medicaid
Oh, I don’t want to be in that number,
When the state steals Medicaid

When money’s out of politics
We’ll dump the rich folks’ bag of tricks
Oh, I want to be in that number,
When money’s out of politics

Yes we are here to tell the state
Our human rights you may not negate
Oh, I want to be in that number,
You know our health care will not wait

When we stand up for our fair share
When we stand up for our fair share
Well, I want to be in that number,
When we stand up for our fair share

When we stand up, and when we shout
Respect is what it’s all about
Well, I want to be in that number,
Respect is what it’s all about