Wisconsin Solidarity Singers rewrote this 1907 hymn, then I altered it some for the South Carolina activists. The beat goes on…
I was standing at the Capitol
With my friends all gathered ‘round
Though they steal our health and welfare
We won’t let them get us down
CHORUS:
Will society be unbroken
By and by, oh, by and by
There’s a better time a-waiting
When these gangsters we defyThere’s a law says that our money
Must return to fill our needs
There’s a waiver
says never mind that
Priority is rich folks’ greed
ChorusWell I bought me an old Chevy
Paid a tax, 300 bucks
Same exact tax on a Lear Jet
Guess the poor are sitting ducks
ChorusThen the Fed says, take this billion
And expand your Medicaid
But the guv’nor that vaudevillian
Says our state you may not invade
Chorus
Music: Charles H. Gabriel (1907) Lyrics: Ada Ruth Habershon(1907)/Wisconsin Solidarity Singers/Dave Lippman
Tune: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Chorus:
Student debt is rising high & making us ferocious
You must admit the sound of it is really quite atrocious
If we don’t do something we’ll all end up on Skid Row-cious
Student debt is rising high & making us ferociousBecause we were afraid to speak about our rising debt
The bankers gave our loans a tweak that we won’t soon forget
But then one day they went too high and that’s when we awoke
They’re mortgaging our future, we’re not laughing it’s no joke
ChorusThey travel all around the world and everywhere they go
They make their super-profit out of reg’lar folks you know
When Dukes and Maharajas pass the time of day with them
We answer, This is over, your grand theft we do condemn
ChorusSo when the cat has got your tongue there’s no need for dismay
Just summon up a movement, then you’ve got a lot to say
This escalating ripoff we are going to prevent
They better listen to us, we’re the 99 percent!
Chorus
Rewritten for South Carolina’s social justice movement, from rewrite by Wisconsin’s Solidarity Singers. Who’s next?
Politicians tell lies on the TV
While they cut all the programs for the needy
Slashing services for our poor families
While providing tax cuts for their cronies
Chorus:
Grill some shrimp, tap a keg
Grow Palmetto
We will fight till the state is all betto
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar
Straight or gay-o
Send the Tea Party back
This very day-oConstitution promotes the general welfare
But the government defies what is writ there
They could make our economy prosper
With a job and health care for every worker
ChorusWe need someone like Robert LaFollette
To oppose corporate crooks on the ballot
To restore government to work for us
We will fight but first repeat one more chorus
Chorus
An 80-year update for those of us still Greatly Recessed.
(thanks to Jim Garland for the original from the ’30s)
I don’t want your millions, Mister
Though it’s your fault that I am broke
All I want is a home and pension
Lost it all to the brothers Koch
Now I propose we jail the banksters
Don’t think Jay Z or me or you
Ever rhymed them up with wanksters
Well now it’s done, can’t hit undo
I believe that the aggrieved
Should be relieved of their indebtitude
And why not? Those lousy lenders
Against America did collude
No, I don’t want your Lamborghini
I don’t want your private jet
All I want’s a Prius maybe
Oh yes and please my old job back
I don’t want your millions, Mister
Though that would help to pay my rent
All I want is health, jobs, and schooling
And long jail terms for the one percent
After Occupy, Tahrir, and Wisconsin comes North Carolina’s Moral Mondays campaign.
Six o’clock already
Tillis and Berger got a scheme
They’ve been cutting voting rights
Anything to kill the dream
We better not be late
They’ll get away with their health care raid
These are the days
When you give up bein’ afraid
It’s just another Moral Monday
We get ready on Sunday
Preparin’ for our get it done day
It’s our one for all and all for one day
That’s why we call it Moral Monday
Guv’nor McCrory, teachers at your feet
Abortions in the alley, guns in every street
Slash unemployment, how do we pay the rent?
Tax cuts for the rich but we ain’t got a cent
Gerrymandering without a true case
State religion creeps in like a nun
But Monday’s wild, your party is a disgrace
We are not done
Moral Monday, so good for me
Moral Monday it was all I hoped it would be
Though Moral Monday, Moral Monday couldn’t guarantee
That Monday evenin’ North Carolina would be free
Every other day, every other day
Legislature gets away with crime, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
You can find me handcuffed if not doin’ time
Moral Monday how I love Moral Monday
Get to take back our state all day
Here come Tuesday, it’s a blues day
That’s when Art Pope comes out to play
On Wednesday, they tax the poor
Ban abortion & Sharia Law
Then on Thursday they raise what students pay
And Friday ALEC gets its way
Saturday mornin’, oh Saturday mornin’
All my health care has gone away
They got my money and my union, honey
And they’re buying’ elections every day
Sunday mornin’ I’m feelin’ bad
Took our souls from the polls, we’ve been had
But I’ve got to get my rest, cause
Moral Monday’s the best
Bilingual ode to those working against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Inspired by folks in Mexico, already victimized by NAFTA – and now this.
You may remember NAFTA
Enemigo del maiz
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
Won’t make us mas feliz
Attacking labor standards
Food safety and health care rights
You may say I’m no redeemer
But I’ve seen this all before
If we all work together
Dictadura corporativa will be no more
The TPP will trick you
Esta no olvides
This global bankers’ wet dream
Es NAFTA en esteroides
Local laws suspended
Environment, who cares?
You may say I’m a screamer
But before these guys are done
They’ll give our world to Wall Street
Agroindustria will have won
Trust the transnacionales
They have your back for sure
For healthy food and families
Monsanto is the cure
Imagine all the countries
Obeying Uncle Sam
You may say they’re all schemers
Hope they’re not the only ones
I hope today we’ll all join up
For the good of daughters and of sons
Imagine trade agreements
Good for earth, water, and air
Instead of corporate bullying
An economy that’s fair
Imagine all the people
With good food y buena salud
You may say es imposible
Corporations own the earth
But if we work together
Un mundo justo will be in birth
A simple singalong sums up the state of the “sale of our state” situation.
They stole 11 trillion and no one went to jail
We’re not gonna sit around and wait for them to go to hail
If we work together there’s a chance we will prevail
So everybody stand and shout, “My country’s not for sale.”
My country’s not for sale, not for sale
My country’s not for sale, not for sale
My country’s not for sale, not for sale
You crooks are going to jail! (or hail!)
They run amok all in Iraq
Around the world they still attack
We cannot make them take it back
But we can give them all the sack
If we work together we can overturn this claque
They’re worse than meth and crack
Get your Gucci bags and pack
Get your Gucci bags and pack, you hack
Get your Gucci bags and pack, like Freddie Mac
Get your Gucci bags and pack, don’t slack
You crooks are going to jail (or hail)
They make us buy with our tax checks
Their military industrial plex
We’ll all become their drone objects
It feels like really awful sex
If we work together we can all be King and Malcolm X
So everybody stand and shout
No, you don’t own the world!
NO, you don’t own the world! Don’t be obtuse!
NO, you don’t own the world! Turn it loose!
NO, you don’t own the world! Owning a world is world abuse!
NO, you don’t own the world!
Wild Bill croons his impatience with your impatience with imperial meltdown.
They’re selling stories of the meltdown
The Titanic sails at dawn
The halls of Congress are filled with lobbyists
The curtains are all drawn
Here comes the finance commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the wall street broker
The other is in your pants
& Obama, disguised as Robin Hood
With his friends too big to fail
Signed a bill an hour ago
To keep them out of jail
You would not think to look at him
That he was liberal long ago
Now he’s playing with the 1%
On foreclosed nation row
The empire we’ve never had
Is steeply in decline
We have to rearrange the districts
In case the Democrats get a spine
Our demographics are collapsing
soon there’ll be more Salma Hayaks
than Matt Damons
we’re gonna have to merge with china
or maybe just the Caymans
And the only job that’s left
After the corporations go
Is Bain and company sweeping up
On outsourced nation row
Yes, I received your email yesterday
About the day the system broke
When you asked me if I would fix it
Was that some kind of joke?
All these bankers that you mention
Yes, I know them, they’ve got game
They had to rearrange their portfolios
To avoid your lawsuit claim
Right now the country don’t look too good
Don’t send me no more petitions no
Not unless you mail them from
Destroyed Nation Row …dot com
