Son of Ireland

Here are two new songs. They're both "Those Lyrics," see this.

The first isn't one of my favorites in most respects, but I love the idea of taking a Skrewdriver song (Skrewdriver was British) about the Soviets in Poland and making it about the Brits in Ireland, although it's something like the 7th Skrewdriver song I've republicanized.

The second is, I think in the top 5 songs I've "written." And the timing couldn't be better, since the anniversary of Bobby Sands' death is May 5th. In the late 1990s I heard that some people including "politically conscious" Chicanos in America, noted the fact that May 5th is also Cinco de Mayo. With that in mind, in either 1998 or 1999, I attended a fund-raiser for the Chiapas Coalition (supporters of the Zapatistas) in Denver, CO on May 5th and asked if I could make an announcement about the anniversary. They let me speak for a few minutes. My comments probably are what inspired a woman who spoke later to say that when she visited the Zapatistas, they had expressed concern about the North.

Anyway, here are the songs. The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

"Brits Out Of Ireland" based on "Poland" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The original is British and the original author was a big supporter of the unionist cause.
2. It's set in the early 1970s.
3. The Derry marchers refers to the march fired on on Bloody Sunday.
4. The British about 150 years ago, almost killed off the Irish language.
5. "Tiocfaidh ar la" is a republican slogan coined by Bobby Sands, that means "Our day will come."
6. Since the original is about the Soviets in Poland, I should say that I would have been more or less against their presence there. Giving weight to the bad things, my thoughts about the USSR are about 30% positive.
**7. 24% of this version is me, 76% is the original.
8. UPDATE 4/30/09 The last 8 songs have contained more significant mistakes than the previous 30. This is set in the early 70s, but I used a republican slogan coined about 5 years later. It's not worth changing the lyrics, but I wanted to make a note.
9. I give this song/poem two out of five stars.
10. Considering the original, I should explain what is probably obvious, that Irish pride is almost always very different from white pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
11. I guess it's about IRA supporters but much of it could come from Nationalists.

You over-ran my country, with your blood and steel
Never thought to ask us, how it made us feel
Cutting down our people, the Derry marchers never had no chance
We stood against your bullets, we'll make you change your stance

Chorus:
You can't understand and you won't understand our land
I said you can't understand and you won't understand our land

You tried to take our language, you tried to steal our pride
You made our people suffer, you took us for a ride
We got ourselves an army, we're going to force you out
Tiocfaidh ar la, oh, yeah, there ain't gonna be no doubt

(Repeat Chorus)

Don't understand our culture, don't understand our lives
Don't understand our suffering, don't understand our strife

(Repeat Chorus)

I said we don't want you here, with your tanks and your fear, get out
Why don't you leave, and let our country breathe, right now

Ireland, Brits out of Ireland x3

*****

"Son of Ireland" based on "Son of Britain" by Saga, original lyrics are here.

1. Bobby Sands was the first of 10 republican prisoners to die on hunger-strike in 1981, demanding to be treated as prisoners of war instead of as criminals. See this and this for more info. (and see most of the second half of this for a description of how much support they had).
2. Considering the original, I should explain what is probably obvious, that Irish pride is almost always very different from white pride- also, with Sands, he was working-class, so that could apply too. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
3. James Connolly was Ireland's greatest socialist/greatest republican.
4. There are 32-counties in Ireland.
**5. 46% of this version is me, 54% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem five out of five stars.
UPDATE 2/3/11 7. When I say he was an anti-fascist soldier, I don't mean that the enemy he was fighting was fascist, because overwhelmingly they weren't. But he was anti-fascist and he was a soldier.
8. UPDATED 2/8/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.
9. There's some anti-fascist stuff, and although the original is by a scandanavian not British Nazi, it's about a british nazi who was a major supporter of the British and Unionist causes.
10. UPDATE 3/17/20 I just changed "free" to "unite" in the last line of the last verse.

From the great city of Belfast, a warrior came to us.
He inspired courage and bravery in a struggle that's so just
Bobby Sands has fallen, but his memory still lives on.
So it will continue, when the British presence has gone.

Chorus:
Our ranks are filled with comrades, marching down the street.
We are preassuring the enemy, let's force them to retreat
Bobby Sands is still marching, walking by our side.
His words are still clear and loud, his spirit full of pride

Bobby Sands' weapon, was the life he was willing to give
His spirit fills my backbone, and there it will always live.
An anti-fascist soldier, a man who made Thatcher see
That she could not break those inspired by James Connolly

Chorus

When the 32-County republic rises, we wont forget this man,
who bravely fought and suffered and gave his life for Ireland
Fulfillment of his mission is now our destiny -
To unite our nation, and to set our people free.

Chorus

One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

The Reagan/Nixon Brigade

(the title is a reference to how units of foreigners fighting fascism during the Spanish Civil War would name their units after historical figures they admired)
There was an interesting article in the NY Times a few days ago. It's here (you may have to register).

It's about how some people in the GOP and the conservative parts of the media are going to start talking about how Obama's plans are "economic fascism." The main proponent of this approach is Saul Anuzis.

Anuzis talking about fascism got my attention. You should read the following link. It's from a site that monitors the MSU-Young Americans for freedom, the only college group to be declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law center.
Anuzis on MSU-YAF's Fuhrer (Anuzis defended the leader of the group (Kyle Bristow) from attacks) UPDATE 1/25/11 Since the YAFWatch blog is still down, you should look at this instead.

For more on Bristow's fascism, besides the entirety of the YAFWatch blog,
specifically see
British National Party
Runes and Leftists (actually the main thing here is actually a link to another part of YAFwatch about the Norse rune Bristow likes)
Democracy

UPDATE11/30/10 For some reason the YAFWATCH blog is now open only to invited guests. Hopefully this will change soon, at least one person is looking into it.

UPDATE 10/7/10 SOLID PROOF!! UPDATE 1/25/11 Since the YAFWatch blog is still unavailable, you should look at this instead.

Yeah, Anuzis is a real anti-fascist warrior alright.

Israel and anti-semitism

Here's another thing I posted on another blog. The article and discussion are here.

(For more on this topic, see this)

(As far as the anti-bigotry part of this blog, I decided at some point early on that I wanted to work around the edges of battling bigotry, offering ideas and information that most people are unaware of but which might help them here and there with anti-bigotry work. So that’s why there are a lot of posts that seem a little weird, including this one)

One thing that might need clarification- the thing about Havana. I thought that was a funny way to highlight these people are inconsistent in saying "that group seems to have (sort of does have) disproportionate influcence on our government, we must hate them." And it would make more sense with the Cuban-Americans since A) They're a smaller part of the population, B) our Cuba policy has been horrible and we almost went to war with the USSR in connection with it, C) cubans weren't almost exterminated (yes, Castro took property and there has been some degree of repression and no democracy, but he didn't send the rich or the right-wingers to camps for death) D) there's probably less to worry about as far as fueling bigotry, and E) from my perspective, Cuba isn't nearly as bad as Israel. The point is, and this is mostly aimed at the leftists, if it doesn't make sense to talk about Cuban-Americans the way some people talk about Jews, than we REALLY shouldn't talk about about Jews that way.

Also, when I said that the other relatively democratic countries were possibly less so than Israel, that's inaccurate, but as far as I can tell, even adjusting for how Palestinians (including Palestinian-Israelis) were treated, there were between few and zero countries nearby more democratic than Israel. That's looking at the entire period since 1948, it may have been slightly different for brief periods of time- it's not super clear and there's plenty of room for debate, but from what I've read over the years and some recent research, it seem like Israel was always towards the very top (often, the very top). At the very beginning what probably mattered most was the fresh memory of the Holocaust, although the alliance survived and became difficult to end as time went on. Also, brief periods of relative democracy here and there don't count for much, democracy takes a while to fully develop. And as far as I can tell, some small minority of the Jewish population at the founding of Israel were from fully democratic countries, and probably another small minority had had some exposure to democracy. Although at the beginning, and to a lesser degree since then, Israel had/has had some competition as the region's democracy, the Holocaust was and has been an issue, there was and probably are some people in America who saw them as a white nation. Anyway, for a combination of reasons, many non-Jewish people in America would have seen Israel as one of the most attractive potential allies in that region, and they would have seen that largely or totally independent of Jewish influence.

UPDATE 5/12/13 Although it's still a little unclear to me, I DID find something that says things very similar (or more so) to what I said about why the US supports Israel. The article I found is here.

UPDATE 4/27/09 When I say there's some evidence of Nazi hostility towards Arabs in Arab countries, there's probably lots, but as far as I can tell, probably 1/4 of the info, including their position on Palestine, indicates otherwise, so what I said is kind of accurate, but overall, most/all of them probably hate Arabs anywhere. (UPDATE 1/24/11 I can't remember much of it, but I must have come across some info indicating that some of them are okay with Arabs in Arab countries (i.e. Hitler spoke positively about Islam, the religion of most Arabs))

UPDATE 5/1/09 When I refer to WMD and Al-Qaeda as parts of why Iraq was invaded, although they were more or less idiots, congressional supporters of the Iraq invasion probably totally believed that stuff, and congressional support was a significant part of why the invasion happened.

UPDATE 11/01/09 Although I have some knowledge of the political history of Israel's neighbors, but I looked for more on Wikipedia. On the other hand, in all the articles by supporters of the Palestinians that I have read, I'm not sure if I have even ONCE read something which said that this and/or that Arab state was as democratic as Israel. So I feel pretty good in saying that many non-Jewish supporters of Israel did see Israel as the region's democracy.

UPDATE 2/19/20 I just realized that when I refer to AIPAC and Jedi mind tricks, I assumed that AIPAC is exclusively Jewish. I am not sure if that is true. if it's not I feel a bit stupid. But I have, in this post and a few others, made it clear that Jewish-Americans are not the problem.

Anyway, here's the comment (you'll want to check out the link to see what I'm responding to):

"I was wondering when I was going to encounter someone like this. Billyspudd- Your analysis of D.C. and Israel is fascinating. Do you have your own copy of Mein Kamph or do you just borrow it from the library?

1. America invading iraq was a very bad idea. I did a LOT trying to stop it at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

2. I support the Palestinians. My thoughts on that are about 1/2 the way down at http://devlin-mcaliskey.blogspot.com/2009/01/spirit-of-robert-briscoe.html. I've done some work on that, not much, but it's an okay % of the huge amount of activism I've done, and has also come up a few times on my blog.

3. Bush's reasons for invading Iraq were many, Israel was a small part of it. There was the opportunity to give lots of money to corporations in multiple ways, the strong desire for using the US military that most GOPers have, the desire to teach the world a lesson in terms of what the US will do to them if they piss off D.C., the desire for oil, the idea of democratizing the Middle-East. I also heard something about it being connected to countering the growing strength of the Euro. It's possible they half believed that stuff about WMDs and Al-Qaeda. Israel was a small part of it.

4. Billyspudd has an exaggerated sense of how much of a role Jewish-Amerericans play in developing U.S. foreign policy about Israel and the middle-east. They're a small part of the population and are probably only a little bit more powerful, adjusting for population, than other white people. How do they get America to be so pro-Israel? Do they have special powers? Does AIPAC use Jedi mind tricks and say to the President: "you will support israel" and the prez says "i will support iSRAEL."?

No. There's a ton of christians who for obscure biblical reasons involving the second coming of Jesus, support Israel, and there's TONS of Christians and Atheists who for foreign policy reasons support Israel. In the Cold War Israel became an ally, basically because they were relatively democratic and white compared to most/all the rest of the middle-east, the fresh memory of the Holocaust. (well, there were some other countries that were relatively democratic but possibly less so than Israel, and they weren't considered as white as Israelis overall since some large minority or small majority of Israelis were European and the Holocaust wasn't against Arabs or Turks). Since the Cold War, well, the relationship wasn't going to just go away after so many decades, and very shortly after the Cold War ended, what is called (and sometimes is) terrorism became more of an issue (the 1993 WTC bombing), although much less so in the 1990s than since 9/11 They see Israel as an ally in the war on terror (true, that alliance actually HARMS the war on terror, but I never said they were smart, they do lots of other things that hinder the war on terror that aren't connected to Jews). With the Dems, obviously those Christians and atheists I referred to don't have as much influence as they do with with the Republicans, but they have some, and yes, with the Dems, the Jews do have a lot of influence, but the point is that, as far as why Washington consistently has an okay-bad record on Israel, Jewish-Americans are a small part of it, they're only a large part of it with the Dems. So, no they don't have special powers, and they're probably only a tiny bit more powerful than other white ethnic groups, adjusting for population.

The point is that there were reasons besides the "power" of the Jews to explain why D.C. developed an alliance with Israel and continues to be pro-Israel. I mean, in the beginning Jewish-Americans were probably part of it, but would only have been a very small factor. And once it got going, it would have been dificult to change.

(I actually had to do some extra research on this as I was typing, but I have read a book by Naseer Aruri on US foreign policy on Israel, and I got the impression that Cold War politics, not the Jewish-American community, was a big part of it.

I'm also waiting for people like billyspudd to go off on those evil cuban-Americans for controlling our foriegn policy on cuba, but something tells me he won't, he probably hasn't gotten around to reading the "The Protocols Of The Elders of Havana."

5. On a related subject, it is frustrating for me as a leftist that, to one degree or another, somewhere around 1/3 of Jewish-Americans have one attitude for their people and another attitude for the rest of the world. They're roughly as bad as that 1/2 of those Irish-Americans who get all fired up about the North of Ireland (as they should) but are hostile or indifferent to injustice in the rest of the world.

6. These barely count as reasons to reject anti-Semitism- bigotry is simply wrong. But it can't hurt to mention this anyway. And they're also aimed at people who are progressive/left, not people who are anti-semitic from the right.

A: Some majority of Jewish-Americans are our allies. to one degree or another they're good on most/all the issues except Israel and the MId-East. Besides being wrong, anti-semitism makes it more difficult for supporters of the Palestinians on the left-progressive side to work with Jewish liberals-leftists, and that weakens our movements.

B: The far-right expreses support for the Palestinians. Not because they support the Palestinains (when Arabs immigrate to America, they're more likely to get assaulted than be helped by the far-right, and there's some evidence of Nazi hostility towards Arabs in Arab countries) but because they hate Jews and see it as an opportunity to recruit stupid people. Once people become anti-semitic on Israel, it probably doesn't take much more (something that makes them lean towards racist) and they're vulnerable to being recruited by the far-right, especially by the elements of the far-right who are also good (in a twisted way) on stuff like labor or the environment. I'm certain they're picking up some recruits as a result of anti-semitism among supporters of the Palestinians on the liberal-left side. Which is why activists on that issue on the left should show ZERO tolerance for anti-semitism, condemn attacks on Israeli civilians, and make it very clear that Jewish-Americans are a small part of shaping American foreign policy on Israel.

C: the anti-semitism of some supporters of the Palestinians makes it dificult to win people to the cause of supporting the Palestinians.

I think that's about it.

Tom"

Responding to the homophobes

(As far as the anti-bigotry part of this blog, I decided at some point early on that I wanted to work around the edges of battling bigotry, offering ideas and information that most people are unaware of but which might help them here and there with anti-bigotry work. So that’s why there are a lot of posts that seem a little weird, including this one)

I've done it, I've cracked the code of how we destroy the homophobic movement. Actually, probably not, but it might be helpful. As I've explained before, this blog might now be more about me posting comments I've made on other sites. I did one a couple days ago about homophobia on the blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center. That post is here.

1. When I say that there are some medical problem found disproportionately among women, different ethnic groups, I might be wrong about the ethnicity thing.

2. When I offer the link to a wikipedia article that looks at AIDS globally, I have confirmed the general picture with a source better than wikipedia (to find the numbers I looked at, you probably have to look at the full article for each region).

3. I generally believe in responding to everything my opponents say, partly because I'm concerned that if I DON'T, people listening or lurking will think that what my opponent says is true.

I think that's it. Below is my comment.

"This raises two of the arguments that homophobes make.

1. The drugs, suicide, depression, alcohol, abusive relationships. It’s the first I’ve heard of the drugs, abusive relationships and alcohol, but the suicide and depression I’ve heard of before, and the other three would be related to what I’m going to say. What the homophobes don’t say and might not understand is that that wouldn’t be any more common among gay people than it is with straight people if it wasn’t for the homophobia. I mean, it’s like breaking someone’s legs and then criticizing them because they don’t get around so fast on crutches.

2. STDs. I’m not too familiar with homosexuals and STDs in GENERAL, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is based largely/entirely on AIDS. The thing is, it seems like it was just bad luck that AIDs in America at first was vastly disproportionately among gay men. The fact that it’s still very dispoportionately gay men is not surprising since gay men like to have sex with gay men. And world-wide, at this point it seems like it’s not disproportionate at all (that’s based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_pandemic). And in general, it’s not the first time something like has happened- there are lots of diseases that are common to one or another group based on sex or ethnicity. No one says there’s something wrong with those groups.

The thing is, what these homophobes ignore, is that you’re a LOT less likely to get an STD if you’re a woman having sex with another woman than if you’re a woman having sex with a man. The CDC doesn’t say anything about woman-woman transmission of AIDS (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm) because it almost never happens. And in general, women almost never get STDs through lesbian sex. I mean, how often have you heard people lecturing straight men to use some kind of barrier during oral sex? Never, and they never use one. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you are less likely to get an STD through lesbian sex than if you’re a woman having sex with a man.

So, when are these homophobes going to tell women that they should be gay?"

The Final War Songs

(I have deleted a republican poem which has always annoyed me. It's a feminist-republican poem, hence the paragraph below about that sort of thing.

I've done six more songs. They're all "Those Lyrics" (explained here). They're all based on stuff by Final War and five of them are republican (who would have guessed that songs by a band called "Final War" could so easily be made into republican songs? (I tried taking Skrewdriver songs and turning them into songs about fixing stuff and it didn't work so well : ))). Since Final War is American, the republican ones all have something anti-right, left-wing, or anti-bigot. For why that's important, see this. I'm actually going to do a very brief post on something very similar shortly.

With the exception of "Mairead Farrell" I'm fairly-very happy with them, although I'm not sure I'm going to bother memorizing any of them (there's about 10 songs I've posted before this that I have not memorized and probably won't). I like the idea of "Mairead Farrell," but the quality just doesn't seem that good. On the other hand, I'm going to take this opportunity to do part of something I keep saying I'll do, which is address the issue(s) of women in Ireland. They're two videos on YouTube. One is here (unfortunately, they deleted the audio, the music is "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy). The other one is here. There seems to be about 20 other YouTube videos that also celebrate the contribution made by women to Irish republicanism.

1. World Without the Right. A vision of a world without the political Right.
2. United Ireland. A vision of a United Ireland.
3. James Connolly. About the great Irish republican-socialist who practically led the 1916 Easter Rising.
4. Joe McCann's Song. About the Official IRA.
5. Ireland. Republican vision and struggle.

I think that's it. Below are the lyrics. The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

"World Without The Right" based on "Land of The White" by Final War, original lyrics here.

1. As far as I can tell, this requries ZERO notes.
**2. 36% of this version is me, 64% is the original.
3. UPDATE 4/23/09 I CANNOT believe I missed this. In general, although I'm happiest when I DO chnage about 50% and it's a great song, I change as little as possible. Somehow I forgot what the original meant when it referred to "guilt." I'll come up with a substitute or maybe significantly change that line very soon, because I don't think it works well for this.
I just changed it, the first two lines of the last verse ("constructed"). It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than before.
4. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
5. The 4th line of the second verse/chorus was apparently me adding a new line where there wasn't one.
6. To be both realistic and idealistic, the fight referred to would probably be about 95% non- violent.
7. UPDATE 2/4/11 I'm not sure about the 2nd line of what I think is the 2nd verse (pride). I don't know much about this subject, especially since this is meant to be more or less global. Is there a deficit of working-class pride today? That line implies that there is (I barely changed that line from the original). I wouldn't mind some feed-back on this, and for the forseeable future I'll just leave it the way it is.

I see a world, a world so fair
With oceans so blue and so clean the air
I see people with no financial stress
I see our class having more, not accepting less

This is our world, this world I see
This is our world so democratic, socialist and free
This is our world when we've won the fight
This is our world, a world without the Right

No capitalists in power with money to bribe
I see our class once again having their pride
I see our youth no longer going off to war
I see the bigots' lies being taught no more

I see the unions filled with pride in the struggle we conducted
I see workers now running the world that we constructed
I see a world united standing hand in hand
I see that we've finally realized our demands

****

"United Ireland" based on "Land of the White" by Final War, original lyrics here.

1. There was a potato blight, and a famine, in Ireland, but the percentage of the population that died or emigrated to avoid starving to death was so high (20-30%) because of British imperialism. The Catholic population was largely disempowered and mired in poverty as a result of being totally disempowered just about a generation earlier (that lasetd for about 125 years and ended about a generation before the famine), and crucially, food was being shipped out of Ireland to Britain while people were starving to death. (it would be more accurate to say something like "something close to genocide" but that's too long, and genocide is pretty accurate).
2. I'm not sure how often this happens, but I can easily think of at least 16 deaths (probably about 75 more) since 1968 caused by the security forces where they said that the victims, who were innocent civilians (in some cases, rocks or petrol bombs might have been thrown, but that doesn't justify killing them and the British often accuse people of doing that when they weren't) were not innocent (I'm compromising and only estimating somewhere around half the times when their very first response was to smear and then they backed off a day later, with that in mind, the number is probably around 100).
3. The cessation of teaching Orange lies is about getting the Protestants to understand that sectarianism is wrong, that Catholics have been seriously mis-treated (a minority (possibly a small majority) of Protestants, to one degree or another, already understand that).
**4. 44% of this version is me, 56% is the original (this is AFTER the edit I did with the 2nd line, 2nd verse).
5. Considering the source of the original, I should explain what is probably obvious, that Irish pride in Northern Ireland is rarely comparable to white pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
6. Basically from a republican perspective, but much of it would also be said by nationalists.
7. UPDATE 4/23/09 I CANNOT believe I missed this. In general, although I'm happiest when I DO chnage about 50% and it's a great song, I change as little as possible. Somehow I forgot what the original meant when it referred to "guilt." I'll come up with a substitute or maybe significantly change that line very soon, because I don't think it works well for this.
I just changed it, the first two lines of the last verse ("constructed"). It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than before.
8. UPDATE 4/29/09 I should have spent more time on this song. the line about accepting less seems to suggest that nationalists deserve more than unionists, in terms of jobs, etc. It's iffy if it does mean that and whether this update is worth it, and whether or not I'll change it (I hate changing lyrics after I publish), I might make a small change.
UPDATE 12/18/09 I'm still concerned that that line will be taken the wrong way, so I changed it (last line of the 1st verse).
9. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
10. The 4th line of the second verse/chorus was apparently me adding a new line where there wasn't one.
11. UPDATE 2/4/11 There's a problem with the 2nd line of the what I think is the 2nd verse (pride). The problem is that as far as I can tell, there really isn't a problem with Irish pride being absent. I will change it soon.
UPDATE 3/3/11 I just changed that line. It now refers to the sectarian divide.
12. The original is American but this version involves a reference to multi-culturalism, which is important because of this.


I see a land, a land so fair
With oceans so blue and so clean the air
I see a land with socialist progress
I see the nationalists no longer being oppressed

This is our land, this land I see
This is our land so democratic, multi-cultural, and free
This is our land when we've won the fight
A land where genocide won't accompany the next blight

No Brits in power smearing those who have died
I see Irish people crossing the sectarian divide
I see our youth no longer volunteering for war
I see the Orange lies being taught no more

I see our people filled with pride in the struggle republicans conducted
I see workers now running the country that they constructed
I see Catholics and Protestants standing hand in hand
I see that we've finally taken back our land

*****

"James Connolly" based on "Tales of Honor" by Final War, original lyrics here.

1. James Connolly, Ireland's greatest Republican/Socialist, was the main leader of the 1916 Easter Rising.
2. He was Commandant of the Dublin forces, but it's been suggested that since some very large majority of the action took place in Dublin, he was by far the most senior military figure.
3. The ICA was the Irish Citizen Army, Connolly's trade-union based group, and the Volunteers were the moderate-conservative part.
4. If somehow the Rising had succeeded, Connolly's leadership might have resulted in Ireland becoming socialist.
5. "Tiocfaidh ar la" is a republican slogan coined by Bobby Sands, which means "our day will come."
6. Che refers to Che Guevara, Hani refers to Chris Hani, a leader of the African National Congress's military wing, Spear of the Nation.
7. Valhalla is part of Norse mythology, it's a place where warriors go after they die, although there seems to be some debate about exactly who gets in- only people who die in combat? Anyway, the fascists love it and have sort of taken over the concept, but a friend told me that he likes the idea of the left claiming it and specifically said that if such a place exists, Che and others like him are probably there. (Do I believe in Valhalla? You could say I’m sort of an agnostic on that question and am sort of solidly a Christian. The way I see it, this is pretty flexible, don't take it too seriously, and one way to think about it is that if you believe in Heaven and would rather these people went there instead of Valhalla, maybe they can do both, spend some time in Valhalla and some time in Heaven; but my friend and I do like the idea of reclaiming it from the fash)
8. UPDATE 5/11/12 I just replaced the word "Northern" with the word "orange," which makes  a lot more sense (it refers to the Orange Order, see this for what's wrong with them)
**9. 56% of this version is me, 44% is the original, and there were five lines that I had to delete since the subject of the original, Rudolf Hess, was imprisoned for decades, while Connolly was held for about 12 days.
10. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
11. UPDATE 12/7/10 i just changed lie to reside, in the third line of the chorus.

He took to the streets in 1916
appointed Commandant of the forces of red and green
This is the story of James Connolly a brave and loyal man
he Gave his life for his beliefs because he loved his land
On that day of April, 24th in 1916
He led the Volunteers and the ICA, a united republican machine
Destination- Freedom and socialism, Ireland Red and unchained
But what was to unfold from this revolutionary campaign?

Chorus:
Tiocfaidh ar la- James Connolly, your legacy lives on
Your courage and your honour keeps us marching strong
Tiocfaidh ar la- James Connolly, with Che and Hani you reside
You live on in Valhalla, 'cause true heroes never die

Imprisoned, for his attempt at freedom
An attack on the British imperialist scum
Held as a prisoner for 12 days
Until May 12th when the priest asked him to pray
Connolly was guilty of fighting against the upper-classes
Sentenced to death for fighting for the Irish masses
Wounded and tied to a chair, the Brits shot this Irishman
His memory continues to haunt the Orange Ku Klux Klan

(Repeat Chorus)

Change:
You're gone but not forgotten,
You live in our hearts and minds
What you have done to free your people
Sends chills down my spine
Every year on the 12th we fly our flags up high
And salute in remembrance
A true martyr of that time

*****

"Joe McCann's Song" based on "Pride and Tradition" by Final War, original lyrics here.

1. This song is a rarity, there will probably never be another one like this again on this blog. As I was writing it, I got the idea that it would have to be about the Official IRA. I'm actually not so sure that's true- the debate is over how much of the Provisonal IRA (now known simply as the IRA) in the period 1970 until Jan. 1972 were involved in or at least supportive of the Civil Rights Movement. I've gotten the impression that during that period it was probably somewhere around half, whereas with the Official IRA, it was probably 100%, although the other part of this is what percentage of the OIRA were at least unenthusiastic about the cease-fire their leadership called in 1972 and how many looked to Seamus Costello as a leader. I think that might have been some sort of large majority for the former and some large minority for the latter. More of my thoughts on the Officials are found about half-way through this post (the paragraph starting "at this " and the one right below it) and my thoughts about Costello are here. This song is dedicated to those members of the OIRA who followed Seamus Costello in 1974 when he left to form the Republican Socialist Movement.
2. Joe McCann was a local leader in the Belfast OIRA. He was killed in 1972, before the cease-fire. When a plaque was unveiled in his memory in 1997, almost everyone from the republican family was there- Workers Party (Official Sinn Fein), Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, a splinter from the Offfical RM. He was very popular.
3. Squaddies are British soldiers, peelers are police.
4. Members of the OIRA during that period were probably all involved in the first half of the Civil Rights era, and probably continued marching for civil rights, but starting sometime in 1970 the OIRA were attacking the security forces a lot. There was a period starting roughly in June 1970 and lasting until late Jan. 1972 when there was a lot of armed struggle at the same time that the mass struggle of the Civil Rights Movement continued.
5. "Oglaigh na hEireann" is the formal name of the IRA, and translates to "Irish Volunteers." There will be some debate about the OIRA calling themselves that, but with the period I'm looking at, I think it was only towards the end that membership in the Provisional IRA was equal to or greater than that of the OIRA, so it's fairly reasonable to say, adjusting for the fact that during that period I would have leaned a bit towards the PIRA, it seems like they had a fairly equal claim (you could argue the OIRA had a better claim during that period, but I don't really care much, what matters is that the PIRA was, during that period, closer to being right overall than the OIRA was, and with the cease-fire of 1972 and their attack on the Republican Socialist Movement in 1975, the OIRA totally discredited themselves and the PIRA at that point deserved the title "Oglaigh na hEireann" much more than the OIRA (with their actions against the RSM in 1975, they didn't deserve that title at all, especially since what remained after Costello's followers left could barely be called republican)
6. Considering the source of the original, I should explain what is probably obvious, that Irish pride rarely is comparable to white pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
7. The dictionary definition I found for "Tradition" wasn't quite what I thought and culture seems like it would be closer than tradition to including language. Also, some people will say that there's something wrong or even fash about restoring Gaelic culture. First, a large majority of republicans, and overwhelmingly Sinn Fein, make it clear that they believe in a multi-cultural Ireland and socially progressive politics (abortion is kind of an exception, but that's it). Especially when you consider that the British did try to end the Irish language, promoting it and Irish culture in general is a legitimate part of the anti-imperialist struggle.
8. I found something indicating that somewhere around 75% of republican paramilitaries are under 30 years of age.
9. The reference to saying good-bye means that the British should leave or they'll be attacked.
10. James Connolly was Ireland's greatest socialist/republican.
**11. 35% of this version is me, 65% is the original.
12. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.

We marched through the streets demanding our rights
Now we look for squaddies and peelers to fight
Respected members of the working class
We use armed struggle while the people march en masse
We're not doing this for profit or fame
We stand proud, Oglaigh na hEireann is our name
Fighting with honor is our number one task
Fighting for our future and restoring the past

Chorus:
Pride and Culture will see us through
Republican army the proud and the few
Pride and Culture will see us through
Rising above we're Ireland's youth

War is declared, no turning back
Like a pack of wolves we're on the attack
Our mission is clear, Our goals are set
Our enemies ain't seen nothin' yet
Dignity forever remained
Amongst the suffering and the pain
The new dawn is not far away
We follow Seamus Costello from Bray

Chorus

The fact is that we'll never die
A hand and hand culture and pride
A heritage so rich and proud
Brits out! We shout out loud
Stand against us or say good-bye
It's your choice, It's do or die
No holds barred, freedom is our goal
Connolly's vision we will uphold

****

"Ireland" based on "Race Land" by Final War, original lyrics are here.

1. White laces are worn by Nazi skinheads on their boots. It rhymed and although throughout Ireland there's probably no more than 35 Nazi skinheads, it's a good line.
2. The ten names are those of the men who died on hunger-strike in 1981.
3. This is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since the IRA cease-fire of 1997.
4. Considering the source of the original, I should explain what is probably obvious, that Irish pride in N. Ireland  rarely is comparable to white pride. (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
**5. 33% of this version is me, 67% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
7. Basically about the IRA although the first line and the entire chorus could come from unarmed republicans and from nationalists.
8. UPDATED 2/8/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.

I dream of a nation, socialist, proud and free
I dream of a revolution, destined to be
I'm hated by the Brits, but still my honour holds true
‘Cause my dream is of victory and I'll fight
...'Till the battle is through

I'll fight with honour, I'll fight with pride
I'll fight with victory on my side
I'll fight with courage, I have no fear
I'll fight for the people I hold so dear
I'll fight for our children, I'll fight for our land
Hold my ground and I'll make a stand
I'll fight 'till the last, I'll fight 'till the end
I'll make my pledge, for my people, I'll defend

Chorus:
I dream of a revolution and a land of all races
Free from oppression and free of white laces
A land in which our flag flies high
A world in which our revolution could never die...
...A world in which our revolution could never die

I'll fight with rifles, mortars and all my skill
A heart of steel and an iron will
For Sands, Hughes, McCreesh, O'Hara, Doherty
McDonnell, Hurson, Lynch, Devine, and McElwee
I declare warfare on the British
Ireland united, that is my wish
Never surrender, Never retreat
The British will soon...Be beat!


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

African-Americans, Labor, Israel/Palestine, and the North

There are two articles I thought I'd bring to people's attention. The first is an African-American perspective on N. Ireland, the second compares the situation facing organized labor in N. Ireland with that facing their brothers and sisters in Israel/Palestine.

The first is here.

The second is here.

For various reasons I'm not posting this in the comments section of that post (the second one), but I thought I'd post it here.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the second one:
1. I have supported the cease-fire from the beginning, and have been, on average, fairly hostile to organizations not on cease-fire. My thoughts on that are about 2/3 down this post. They really should be on cease-fire. (I also supported the other moves for peace by the IRA, but do not feel strongly that other republican paramilitaries need to follow them).

2. The recent republican violence was not sectarian, although I would concede that the % of republican paramilitaries who are not on cease-fire today that are sectarian is probably a little higher than it was looking at republican paramilitaries 1970-997. Also, I define "sectarian" by referring to bigotry, not the fact that republicans are overwhelmingly Catholic- if it can't be described as anti-Catholic or anti-Protestant, it isn't sectarian (sometimes I might refer to sectarian DIVISONS, but that doesn't mean that everyone involved is a bigot (earlier I was a little lazy and used the word "sectarianISM" three times which has now been changed to "sectarian divisons"- that's not quite what I'm complaining about with people saying sectarian when they don't mean bigoted, and has now been made more accurate). The thing is, although I don't have the greatest record of clarifying this, when people refer to republican violence IN GENERAL as sectarian, it intentionally or otherwise gives the mis-leading impression that it's anti-Protestant, and it almost never is. My thoughts on sectarianism among republicans are here (about 1/2 the way down that post). UPDATE 12/10/11 Some info on my ACTIONS that are against anti-Protetsant sectariansm, see this.

The current republican violence is not sectarian, possibly less sectarian than what we saw on average 1970-97. I mean, the only local member of the security forces killed was CATHOLIC, and it was more likely he'd be a Catholic than it was 1970-97, and it was ridicuously more likely he'd be a nationalist than it was 1970-97 (I'm not sure if the officer did identify as nationalist, but until about 8 years ago it would have been almost impossible a Catholic member of the police would be Nationalist).

It's stupidity, not sectarianism, that's motivating these people.

3. I'm glad to hear that comparing the IRA with Hamas is being dismissed as the nonsense that it is.

Ireland's Red Army

Here is one more song, it's "Those Lyrics."

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).


UPDATE 11/23/11 I just deleted a poem which was awkward for a couple of reasons- poetic and personal.

*****

"Ireland's Red Army" based on "Fourth Reich Fighting Men." Like "Pulling On The Boots" this is from the movie Romper Stomper and the author is unclear, probably the same as "Pulling On The Boots" (I have a feeling it's not by a racist band but was made just for that movie). The best I can do for a complete set of original lyrics is this.

1. This is about the Irish National Liberation Army from 1974 until 1982, my thoughts on that are here. The first 2-3 years or so the Chief of Staff of the INLA was Seamus Costello.
2. Although I did one song that was based on racist stuff specifically referred to the IRA, in general I avoid publishing stuff based on racist songs that are about actual organizations, since they might not like that- I have a similar attitude about ANY songs about actual organizations. Referring to the IRA seems okay, a lot more acceptable than one about Sinn Fein.
3. I went with the INLA because I felt like keeping the 2nd line of the 1st verse, and I also wanted to keep the reference to dressing in drag. The first line I wanted to keep pretty much required me to refer to the early years of the Provisional IRA, but back then they were probably ridicuously homophobic. The political ally of the INLA, the IRSP, was, along with People's Democracy, the first Irish political party to support gay rights, in 1975.
4. The first line of the 3rd verse refers to the fact that in the early years of the INLA, all/almost all of their members had been in the Official IRA, which from 1970 to 1972 was sort of on the offensive, and then from 1972 on they ceased operations aimed at getting the British out. The INLA was formed in 1974.
5. I'd be surprised if, the entire conflict starting with 1970, more than 5 five times did the security foces actually retreat because they were recieving too much fire or something like that, but it still kind of works for the song and it rhymes.
6. As I explain here there is very little anti-Protestant hate and that the anti-Catholic kind will decline a lot within a few generations of Ireland being united. I would also say that what little anti-Protestant hate there is will also decline as inequality for catholics evaporates. That post also explains why a socialist state is more likely with Ireland united than divided.
7. The RUC were the police until late 2001.
**8. 41% of this version is me, 59% is the original.
9. Since the original is Australian, I should point out that there's lots of left-wing and anti-homophobic content. See this for why that's important.
9. The line about drag isn't perfect, but it's slightly based on the original and I had to keep the word "drag." It's meant as a statement against homophobia, even though there's not more than a weak connection between being gay and cross-dressing.
10. I give this song/poem four out of five stars.
11. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)

Chorus
Costello's Fighters, that’s who we are
We’re living in the sewer, but we’re gonna go far
You see our numbers growing, the rising red star
Costello's Fighters, that’s who we are

We fight the system, we fight the war
You think you’ve seen enough of us, there’s gonna be more
We're gonna unite the country, the working-class will soar
Costello's Fighters, winning the war

Chorus

We march so proud, carrying the flag
Attacking the Brits, and the RUC slag
In solidarity with those who dress in drag
Costello's Fighters, carrying the flag

Chorus

At last on the attack, fighting as one
The fighting isn’t finished ’til the job is done
The battle isn’t over ’til the war is won
Costello's Fighters fighting as one

Chorus

Fighting in the alleys, Fighting in the streets
Attacking the Brits, making them retreat
When the war is over, it'll be the end of the hate
Everyone will live together in the socialist state


One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

Volunteer

I've decided to break my rule again, this one is just too good, so I'm doing a one song post. This is one of "Those Lyrics," see this for an explanation. The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

"Volunteer" based on "Pulling On The Boots" (the web usually says it's by Skrewdriver, but I don't think that's true, it might be by a group called "Master Race" or in any case, it's part of the movie Romper Stomper and I have a feeling it's not by a racist band but was made just for that movie) (original lyrics here)

1. This is the second song in which I make the probably false assumption that members of the IRA ("Volunteers") wore combat boots. UPDATE 3/11/10: A good source has told me that, yes, sometimes they did, but it was more common in rural areas, and the poem below is in an urban setting (I'll shortly be doing a large update to this post, with a RURAL version of "Volunteer")
2. Just to be clear, the mayhem being caused is attacking the security forces, destroying commercial or non-military government property (UPDATED 2/8/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death. )
3. The blitz is partly defined as a VERB as "attack suddenly and without warning;" the NOUN refers to aerial bombardment, but it still pretty much works.
4. In general, this refers to the early and mid 1970s when republicans were VERY active.
5. An estate is basically a neighborhood in urban and suburban areas.
6. Considering that the original is Australian, this time I remembered to put an element of anti-fascism in the lyrics (see this).
7. The UDA is the Ulster Defense Association (a loyalist, pro-British paramilitary). The events of Aug. 1969, when the Catholic Community went through intense levels of hell at the hands of loyalist mobs and the police, saw the IRA unable to offer much defense because it had been demilitarized. The Provisional IRA (now known as the IRA) emerged promising to defend the catholic/Nationalist community. the first 2-3 years after Aug. 1969 there were no-go areas in Belfast and Derry, primarily to keep the security forces out, but they probably also acted as safe havens for nationalists who might be targeted by loyalist paramilitaries- I'm not saying the loyalists didn't kill huge numbers of Catholics outside the no-go areas, but I imagine catholics felt safer inside them with IRA members staffing checkpoints and barricades.
8. "Tiocfaidh ar la" is a republican slogan coined by Bobby Sands which means "our day will come."
9. The second line is based on the phrase "lock and load."
10. The line about berets is a little odd, I only changed one word (in general I change as little as possible, with very few exceptions), adding Berets, I'm going to leave it, I hate changing this stuff after a certain point. UPDATE 4/10/09 I just came up with a better line- I think it was worth breaking my rule on changing lyrics after I post them. (it now refers to the flag)
**11. 64% of this version is me, 36% is the original.
12. I give this song/poem five out of five stars.
13. I just realized that using the Irish phrase for "Our day will come" doesn't make much sense considering this poem takes place in the early 1970s, but I'm going to keep it.
14. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride within Northern Ireland is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
15. This is exclusively about the IRA.

Pulling on the boots and tightening up the laces
locking and loading and covering their faces
There you have a Volunteer, looking for a fight
Volunteer, Volunteer attacking in the night

Chorus
Volunteer, Volunteer running through the night
Making lots of trouble, starting lots of fights
Volunteer, Volunteer ready to resist
Volunteer, Volunteer with the raised fist

Positioned in the lane way, waiting for the Brits
When they arrive, hit them with the Blitz
When they plee for mercy, we will show them none
Volunteer, Volunteer 'til the job is done

Volunteer, Volunteer putting on the mask
Looking for a gun-fight, or whatever is the task
Volunteer, Volunteer defending the estate
Volunteer, Volunteer the Nazi he does hate

When the UDA sees a Catholic, at first they pull the gun
But when they see Volunteers, then they start to run
When we see our flag it makes us feel proud
Tiocfaidh ar la, Tiocfaidh ar la, shout it out loud!

******

The rural version of "Volunteer" called "South Armagh."

“S. Armagh” Based on “Pulling On The Boots” (the web usually says it's by Skrewdriver, but I don't think that's true, it might be by a group called "Master Race" or in any case, it's part of the movie Romper Stomper and I have a feeling it's not by a racist band but was made just for that movie) (original lyrics are here)

1. S. Armagh is a rural area where the IRA made life very dificult for the security forces.
2. In rural areas, it was common for members of the IRA (“Volunteers”) to be wearing combat boots.
3. The AK is the AK-47 an assault rifle. RPGs are Rocket Propelled Grenades.
4. The Provisional IRA in recent decades has been referred to simply as the IRA.
5. Óglaigh na hÉireann is the official name for the IRA.
6. The first two lines of the last verse are a little odd, but helicopters were used to harrass republicans and nationalists in S. Armagh and there was at least one time when RPGs were used by the IRA to get the security forces to stop chasing them after an attack.
7. I give this poem/song four stars out of five.
8. Considering the original, I should say that Irish pride within N. Ireland is very different from white pride (most of the time). (I just heard something making me think that it's probably a small minority of northern nationalists that would talk about "Irish pride"; I still feel odd completely re-writing that line, so I'm going to keep it)
9. "Tiocfaidh ar la" is a republican slogan coined by Bobby Sands which means "our day will come."
10. This is exclusively about the IRA.

Pulling on the boots and tightening up the laces
locking and loading and covering their faces
There you have a Volunteer, looking for a fight
Volunteer, Volunteer attacking in the night

Chorus
Volunteer, Volunteer, with the AK
Óglaigh na hÉireann- the Provisional IRA
Volunteer, Volunteer ready to resist
Volunteer, Volunteer with the raised fist

Positioned on the hill, waiting for the Brits
When they arrive, hit them with the Blitz
When they plee for mercy, we will show them none
Volunteer, Volunteer 'til the job is done

Volunteer, Volunteer putting on the mask
Looking for a gun-fight, or whatever is the task
Volunteer, Volunteer fighting for the land
Volunteer, Volunteer fuck the Ku Klux Klan

When BA helicopters see the irish flag, at first they harass
But when they see RPGs, then they leave real fast
When we see our flag it makes us feel proud
Tiocfaidh ar la, Tiocfaidh ar la, shout it out loud!



One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

Five more songs- MLK, Rosemary Nelson, etc.

I have more songs.

The first three are based on stuff that I don't agree with, see this for an explanation of that.

I can't believe I didn't remember this until I just saw a post on the Sinn Fein Youth blog, but tomorrow the 4th is the anniversery of the day Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. I wish the song about him below was better, but about 1/2 of it is really good, the rest is okay. There are constraints on how I write the lyrics- I change as little as possible (I violated that rule once when I added two lines that were important) and with some reasonable exceptions, the lines have to rhyme. It's possible there are lines that meet those rules that I could have written to make every part of the song really good, but after spending about 20 min. on each of the lines that are not great, I gave up. It's still a pretty good song. I realize Dr. King was not much of a fan of the IRA (the original is about the IRA), but there are two reasons why it was appropriate to do the song this way:
1) He once said (I'm not sure when, probably towards the end of his life): "Whether they read Ghandi or Frantz Fanon, all radicals understand the need for action - direct, self-transforming and structure-transforming action." (Fanon was associated with advocating armed struggle)
2) The N. ireland civil rights movement was based largely on the American one. Probably some extremely tiny minority of the CRM were at some point republican paramilitaries, and looking at republican paramilitaries in the 1970s, probably some very large majority had been involved in the CRM.
3) The analysis of the Provisionals (now known simply as Sinn Fein and the IRA) (well, a minority of them had the wrong attitude towards the CRM, but in general this is true), shared by most/all of the Nationalist community, was that civil rights could only be secured through national liberation. This point is made very well in the documentary "OFF OUR KNEES."
4) You should also read this post.

I also did a post recently named after Dr. King about non-violence and mass struggle in the North.

1. Class Pride, Worldwide. The labor movement in America.
2. Brits Out. The IRA.
3. Rot in Hell Rudolf Hess. WWII.
4. Rosemary Nelson. A N. Ireland human rights lawyer who was killed.
5. Martin Luther King, Jr. Guess.

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least two pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

"Class Pride, Worldwide" based on "Aryan Pride" by Final War, original lyrics are here.

1. The title is a slogan adopted by anti-racist skinheads (and possibly-probably others) as a response to the racist "White Pride, World-Wide."
2. Bread and Roses is a labor slogan and the bread refers to economic justice, not sure what roses refers to.
3. The line about cops at least slightly exaggerates things, but it's fairly accurate and seemed like the best option.
**4. 45% of this version is me, 55% is the original.
5. I give this song/poem two out of five stars.
6. The word fight in this poem is meant at least 99% non-violently.
7. UPDATE 2/4/11 I have changed the 3rd line of the chorus and replaced THE WORD "you" with the word "Americans" and "your" with "their."

Brothers and sisters, join together as one
Fists uplifted, faces towards the sun
Pride in our movement, from fear we will not hide
Bread and Roses, Class-Pride, worldwide

Chorus:
The right and the bosses hate us for only being proud
Well I'd like to ask them, who's the class warrior now?
We're not corrupt gangsters like Americans see on their TV
We're a risen class, now that we are off our knees

Bosses cry unions, yeah unions full of socialists
Workers pay the price for the mistakes of the capitalists
The cops always try to intimidate or attack us when we protest
Its funny how the media can't see that the worker is oppressed

Our honour won't be broken, we'll hold our heads up high
We will keep on fighting so the labor union doesn't die
Our message will be spread. our voices loud and clear
Inform the youth of the truth, the bosses greatest fear

****

"Brits Out" based on "Jig Run" by Bully Boys, original lyrics are here.

1. Armalites are rifles. Semtex is plastic explosive.
2. Considering the Brits are more likely to have night-vison, I'm not sure they DID fear the setting sun.
3. Recently there was a debate in Sinn Fein about the slogan "Brits out." I'm not sure how it ended, it's one of those things I've missed the last four years and probably will have trouble getting an answer for. The idea was that it was being widely mis-interpreted as referring not just to the British Army and government but also the Unionist population (which overlaps heavily with the Protestant population). The thing is, SF does a fairly good job of making it clear they're not anti-Protestant and want the Unionists to stay (see this), so I'm not sure if they should abandon it as some have argued (the idea is that the popular slogan isn't worth the damage it is doing).
4. "Tiocfaidh ar la" is a republican slogan coined by Bobby Sands that means "Our Day Will Come."
5. The line about beer was already there, and I've heard about republican culture so I'm leaving it.
6. Originally I forgot to put anything anti-fascist/hate in it because it's an Irish Republican song based on an AMERICAN racist song (for an explanation of this issue, see this). So I just changed it from an Irish flag, to the Starry Plough, which is the flag of republican socialism and has always been in opposition to fascism. Also, the Bully Boys are officially connected to the Hammerskins (a Nazi skinhead group), who have chapters world-wide and at one point that included unionists in N. Ireland, so they’re probably not favorable to republicanism.
7. This is not an endorsement of continuing the armed struggle since 1997.
**8. 30% of this version is me, 70% is the original.
9. I give this song/poem one out of five stars.
10. This is exclusively about the IRA.
11.  UPDATED 2/8/16 Based on what might be called a fairly scientific look, only about .2% of the IRA's operations intentionally resulted in civilian death.

AK-47s and Armalites
Our committment is undying
Semtex and mortars
And Starry Ploughs flying

We're going on the town tonight
Hit and run
Let's have some fun
We've got the Brits on the run
And they fear the setting sun

Chorus:
We've told you once
We aint gonna tell you twice
We don't give a damn
If you think it's wrong or right
We've had enough of you
And everything you do
This is our land x3

Head'em up and move'em out
Let'em scream and let'em shout
We're gonna win there aint no doubt

Spreading revolt
We're Irish Volunteers
Kicking ass and drinking beer
Tiocfaidh ar la you're gonna hear

Chorus

*******

"Rot in Hell Rudolf Hess" based on "Prisoner of Peace" by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Rudolf Hess was Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany. He tried to make a seperate peace with the West and was arrested by the British. At Nurmeburg he was sentenced to life in jail and compared to others who were not hung, was in jail much longer, until he died in 1987. In the 1970s and 1980s the British, French and Americans wanted to release him, but the Soviets vetoed that. (I'm finding it hard to nail down exactly what happened with this, and read something that indicates in the 80s the Brits and Soviets switched places in terms of opposing his release; if it was more important, I would dig even more than I have, but it seems like it was overwhelmingly the West (and as far as I can tell, mostly center/center-right/right forces) who supported his release and overwhelmingly the USSR (it's complicated, but in general I would not put them on the right or the center) that opposed his release, and I'm not losing any sleep over how long he was in jail, so I don't really care)
2. Despite what I say in the song, I'm actually open-minded about this. Bearing in mind that he was more or less viewed as a martyr in jail, I'm not sure it was a good idea to keep him there- consider that his responsibility for the worst of the Nazi regime was less than you would think since he was Deputy Fuhrer- the thing is, he was gone almost the entire war, he left almost a year before the conference at which the Final Solution took shape, gone before the worst battle-field atrocities were committed by the Nazis. Since those who were around for that and weren't killed were imprisoned for fewer years and were often released early for poor health (unlike Hess), it seems like the Soviets went a little far. On the other hand, he was Nazi scum.
3. Huns was a term for the Germans.
4. I'm not sure if the chorus makes sense- if you go to hell (I don't actually believe in it), you burn forever, I think.
**5. 45% of this version is me, 55% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.

He liked aggression but he didn't like the cost
Hitler's war of aggression, and german lives were being lost
He wanted peace in the west so Hitler's armies would be released
To slaughter the Communists, Jews and Slavs in the East
He got up on one morning and he went out to his plane
He said good-bye to his wife, and hate was in his brain
To try and fool the Allies was his idea in 1941
But the Brits were determined to win and continued to fight the Huns

(chorus)
Rot in Hell Rudolf Hess
How long will be burn?
We can only guess
I said rot in Hell Rudolf Hess
How long will he burn?
We can only guess

He never realized that day that the Brits weren't fools
Britain was determined to smash the fascist tools
Forty-six years is a long long time in a prison cell to be
And I feel fine with the sentence passed on a Nazi

(chorus)

In the 70s they thought the situation had changed in many ways
The Center and Right wanted to let him go, they decided he had paid
That idea the Reds with their anti-fascist values did deride
And kept the Nazi scum locked away until the day he died

(chorus)

He was a prisoner we could not release
Kept there at the determination of the Marxists in the east
He was a prisoner we could not release
Kept there at the insistence of the Marxists in the east

****

"Rosemary Nelson" based on "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy, original lyrics are here.

1. I think I actually took the altered lyrics that I wrote called "You Are Woman" and altered those, but it's still basically based on Reddy's lyrics.
2. Rosemary Nelson was a human rights lawyer in N. Ireland who was killed by loyalist paramilitaries (quite likely with security force collusion) in 1999. I knew that she represented people accused of republican paramilitary activities and she also represented the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition who were dealing with the Drumcree parade in Portadown. I recently learned she also represented the family of a Catholic man who was beaten by loyalists while police watched, she did work on behalf of Travelers (basically Roma in Ireland), about discrimination in the workplace, and on women's rights, which is partly why I decided to go with this song to alter. There's more about her here.
3. Although this is nothing new with my songs, I take on the voice of someone I am not, in this case, a northern Catholic (writing it otherwise would have made most lines more bulky than in the original, and I try to avoid that, especially since some of these songs I like to sing with the original and I figure other people might do the same).
4. As I've explained elsewhere, it is posisble they'll be held down again, but the fact is the nationalist community is very strong and determined.
**5. Not counting changes like "I" to "You" and other minor changes, 7% of this version is me, 93% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
7. UPDATE 2/4/11 When it says "we will do anything," I just mean non-violently. Although this is a poem about the North written by a republican, I'm pretty certain that Nelson was more or less against violence.
8. UPDATE 2/4/11 Most of the Protestants, to one degree or another, don't understand that they're not better than Catholics, that Catholics are not their enemy, etc. (UPDATE 10/6/11 It's possible that what I just said is acurate, but it might not be "most," it could be a large minority, most of the stats I've found indicate that instead of a majority)

You were woman, London heard you roar
In a voice too intelligent to ignore
And you knew too much to go back and pretend
'Cause you'd heard it all before
And we'd been down there on the floor
No one's EVER going to keep us down again

Chorus:
Yes, we're now strong
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes we paid the price
But look how much we've gained
If we have to, we will do anything
Together we are strong, we are invincible
You were woman!

They could bend but never break you
'Cause it only served to make you
More determined to achieve your final goal
And you came back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
Cause they deepened the conviction in your soul

Chorus

You were woman, we watched you grow
We saw you standing toe to toe
As you spread your your loving arms across the land
But we're still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until we make the Protestants understand

Chorus

****

"Martin Luther King, Jr." based on "Billy Reid" (original author appears unknown, multiple recordings) For the lyrics of a version almost exactly the same as what I listen to, go here.

1. Billy Reid was an IRA member killed in 1971.
2. He was in Memphis to support labor union members (many/most/all were black).
3. Bread is a symbol of economic justice (that had become a major theme of King's work in his last years). king became very critical of the Vietnam War.
**4. 44% of this version is me, 56% is the original.
5. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
6.  The word fight in this poem is meant 100% non-violently.
7. UPDATE 12/18/09 I have made a small change to the 2nd line of the last verse. It now says "save our country" (basically saving it from bigotry, division, war, etc.)

I'll sing you a song, of a terrible wrong
When the flags they all flew at half mast
A man he lay dead, he'd been shot in the head
And he died because he stood fast

Chorus:
And the radio said, Dr. King's been shot dead
And he died with a dream in his head
Well they didn't say why, Dr. King had to die
Well, he died for equality, for peace and for bread

It happened one day, when the bold MLK
Went out to fight for the union
More determined than anyone, he put the racists on the run
And returned to the motel with Jesse Jackson

Chorus

When returning with dreams, Dr. King met the racist extremes
And when the shooting had begun
His committment was sound, even as he lay on the ground
And he died because of a bigot with a gun

Chrous

Although he lay dying, his spirit was undying
The racists thought they'd win without him around
But they still fear him yet, and they'll never forget
How brave Dr. King stood his ground

Chorus

If you think he was right, come join in the fight
And help to save our country
For although he is dead, we remember the dream in his head
And how he died for you and for me

Chorus

One last note: Even with the songs that are only about 10% me (and at the upper end, one is 75% me), I have a request, although I don't have strong feelings or expectations about this. First, I want credit for these songs. Second, I'd appreciate it if the notes follow the lyrics around the internet. If you modify the lyrics further, please either make some notes for the changes if you leave some of my changes, or just provide a link to this URL so people can see my version. Although I'm not sure how many people will like what I'm doing with the lyrics, to one degree or another (depending on how much I changed them) I'm proud of these songs- and at the risk of getting a little personal, if people like the songs, I could really use the extra boost of getting credit for them right now (or if you don't like them, they were all written by Sarah Palin- that fascist, what kind of sick person enjoys altering racist lyrics?).

No Human Being Is Illegal

I just posted something on Irish Indymedia. The article is here, my comments are below. One thing I forgot to mention is that immigrants without documents are going to come here no matter what, especially until the conditions that exist in many countries improve, and that is something which European/European-descended countries could contribute to (I'm not saying those countries are totally responsible, but to a large degree they are). Also, what I say about this is primarily about immigrants from majority non-white countries, but even though the Indymedia.ie article mentions Italian workers in the UK, my comments are still fairly universal, even when Italian workers in the UK are being talked about, there's still some problems there- even if it's not racist for British people to complain about Italians, that sort of thing still fuels racism in general.

Anyway, below are the comments I made.

SWP= Socialist Workers Party, Ireland and the UK (they're sister orgs, if not closer to being the same organization)
BNP= British National Party, basically fascists
The author of the original is with the Socialist Party of Ireland

"I'll be honest, I'm open-minded, through lack of information, about how quickly and to what degree the tone of the strike was changed, and therefore how wrong McCann and Boyd Barrett are. Also, although I'm fairly fond of McCann, even with what he says in recent years about SF and the GFA, in general I'm not an SWP supporter, and to whatever degree I am, that's largely because of McCann.

But in one of the comments the article's author DOES say it was a response to the use of immigrant labor, although he specifies how employers were using that labour to affect wages. I'll be honest, I'm not sure about Britain or Ireland, but in America, as far as I can tell, undocumented and probably to a very small degree documented, workers can have that effect, but that can be negated through union solidarity and anti-racism. As far as the undocumented, if the employer can threaten you with Immigration, you'll shut up about your wages, and if you help organize, Immigration will be called- I'm not sure how often that happens, but it does. More generally, for both documented and undocuemented, the employers would probably have less luck driving down wages if the immigrants had more support in public- if there were more people saying that immigrants should be welcomed and paid what native-born workers are paid for doing the same job, and then put preassure on bosses identified as not doing that. This talk of "British jobs for British workers" does not have the appropriate effect.

Also, even if the BNP were run off, that talk is what the BNP is saying and is more or less racist and some of workers then get the idea that there might be something to what the BNP says. If this anti-immigrant stuff fuels racism during tough times, some of the people affected by it who become racist will not abandon their racism when things improve, just one more reason to not say that stuff. It's not clear if the article author is admitting and defending that it was about immigrants or not. If it's about immigrants at all, that's bad. More generally, the racism it fuels weakens the labor movement. So, overall, it really is bad for labor to be anti-immigrant. And for those of us who are internationalists, we should welcome immigrants. My advice to people who still want fewer immigrants coming to their country- work to change the behavior of your government and the corproations based in your country in other parts of the world so there will be fewer things like intense poverty and/or persecution driving people out of their countries to yours. And doing things which weaken the labor movement make it less likely that that will happen. (and if your country is perfect on this, it's still a bad idea to bash immigrants, and you can probably do things to address the behavior of other governments and corporations) (some of this is not aimed at more than a small number of Indy readers, but I like to practice refuting racist shit)

As far as McCann and Boyd Barrett saying the same thing, I imagine that's a reference to the mention in the article about them calling for local workers to get jobs. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they mean Cork jobs for Cork people, Galways jobs for Galway people, which seems significantly off for socialists but not racist (assuming their statement is not being totally mis-represented). I'd be very surprised if they meant Irish jobs for Irish workers.

I think that's it.

Tom"

UPDATE 4/4/09 To some degree, in wierd ways, some anti-immigrant people are already sort of saying the right things- probably about 1/2 are anti-NAFTA, but they're not calling for globalization to be renegoatiated to weaken corporations and they're not calling for American corporations to behave better abroad and they rarely say the right things about American foreign policy.