Three More Poems

Below are three more poems. For an explanation of how and why I "write" the poems, see this.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

1. Nightmare on Bombay Street. About the anti-Catholic pogroms in 1969 that triggered The Troubles.
2. Take on the Klan. Guess what it's about.
3. Revolution with Honor. Republican struggle in N. Ireland.

“Nightmare on Bombay Street” based on “Stop Immigration” by No Remorse. Original lyrics are here.

1. Bombay St. was one of the main sites of the Aug. 1969 anti-Catholic pogroms (and one attempted pogrom) which are usually seen as the beginning of the conflict. In July, Aug, and September, and mostly during a period of 2-3 days, in Belfast, 1,505 Catholic families fled their homes (probably something like 18% of Belfast’s Catholic population, probably something like 1.8% of the North’s Catholic population). In one night alone 650 families were burnt or at least forced, out f their homes. For more, see this.
2. The security forces largely worked with the loyalist mobs to invade Catholic areas.
3. Fenian is bigoted term for Catholic and also for republican, although republicans have adopted it as their own term.
4. Even moderate sources have compared aspects of the North with aspects of Nazi Germany. For example, about 6 years ago the President of Ireland compared the transmission of hatred of Catholics from one generation to another with the same regarding anti-semitism in Europe. She retracted it under pressure, but is basically right.
5. The first two lines of the 2nd verse were difficult for me to alter. I came up with two versions of that. The one that is in the body of the poem probably makes the most sense. Immediately below is the 2nd version. I can’t nail down to what extent this happened, but I'm pretty sure that before, during, or shortly after the pogrom some Protestants who had been supporting the civil rights movement sort of abandoned the nationalist community. Those two lines are:

“Do you remember When many Protestants were our allies?
If only Ian Paisley hadn’t come around, spreading his hateful lies”

Let me know if you think the couplet above is better than the one below.
6. The Unionist government was very upper-class and completely Protestant. As far as the civil rights movement, some good material is here.
7. A no-go was an area where the security forces could not easily enter.
8. **78% of this version is me, 22 is the original.
9. I give this poem four stars out of five.
10. because I focused on West Belfast, it makes sense to kind of conflate that community with IRA supporters, since somewhere around 60% of that community supported the IRA and probably around 40% sort of supported the IRA. 
11. UPDATE 6/19/11 The state compared to Nazi Germany is basically the unionists/Protestants state; the nationalists/Catholics were the ones being denied their rights.
12. UPDATE 6/27/11 This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
13. UPDATE 4/2/12 I made a tiny change to the 1st line of the 3rd verse.
14. No Remorse were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.


They flooded into our streets in Aug. ‘69
The state and the loyalists actively combined
Swarmed into west Belfast because they hate fenians
Their state reminded many of Adolf Hitler’s in Berlin

Chorus
Stop the hate
We want truth and reconciliation
Stop the hate
We want a united working-class and nation

Do you remember When they won in the South and we thought we were free?
If only it could be that way How happy we would be
We had a Government of bigots, Puppets of the Protestant upper-class
They rejected our civil and human rights, so in ‘68 we arose en masse

chorus

So we built barricades, and created a no-go
Like a phoenix, from the ashes the Provisionals arose
British imperialism and Orange society created this mess
But we’ll win in the end, because the Provisionals are the best

Chorus

*******

“Take on the Klan” based on “Join the Klan” by “The Klansmen” original lyrics are here.

1. I’m not sure if “one nation” is the best way to put it, but I got it from a very progressive and anti-racist song by Sacred Reich (don’t read anything into their name) called “One Nation.” And the flame I refer to is supposed to be the flame of anti-racism, of unity.
2. The last two lines of the 2nd verse (I deleted the chorus) are about the “Battle of Hayes Pond.” I did one whole poem about that, with a lot of the background- you can find it here (it’s the third poem from the top).
3. Manning Marable was one of America’s very top scholars in African-American Studies. He passed away recently. There’s more of my thoughts on him, and links to some background here.
4. MLK is Martin Luther King.
5. I think I need to make this clear- this poem is about anti-racism in general, and you might say it leans away from violence (in a lot of cases I support anti-racist violence and have written poems about that, but this poem is different (as are a lot of others that use, for example, the word “fight”)).
6. I give this poem five stars out of five.
7. **44% of this version is me, 66% is the original.
8. UPDATE 6/19/11 Obviously there isn't a real Fourth Reich, but I know that a lot of fascists use that term when referring to their organization- and they have a VISION of the Fourth Reich, and that's being attacked, through education, dialogue, and public demonstrations. (12/11/11- Earlier I thought there was a problem with me conflating the KKK and the Nazis, but I'm pretty sure that's fine in this case)
9. UPDATE 6/19/11 As far as violence and non-violence, I almost forgot that the stuff about the Lumbee IS referring to a use of violence. But it was probably more acceptable to most anti-racists who stress non-violence then is the case with my SHARP poems. Anyway, the rest of the poem is about non-violence.
10. Skrewdriver were British and supported the British and Unionist causes.

Be an anti-racist, fight for what is right
taking down the Nazis and their “Fourth Reich”
Looking for a day, when there will be no KKK
Battles fought all across the U.S of A.

One Nation, the people's flame
Saving the country is the final aim
The racist terror tried to make a stand
The Lumbee men took down the klan

Anti-Racist banners held up high
Manning Marable’s spirit will never die
The sun is rising in the blue sky
Join the MLK Jr. march as it passes by

*****

“Revolution with Honor” based on “Blood and Honour” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. For some reason I took a huge amount of time to try and make this one perfect. I think it’s pretty good.
2. This is about resistaance in general by the nationalist community, including a few lines about those who resisted with force.
3. As a community, the nationalists kind of were alone in the sense that they didn’t have a fraction of the global support they should have had, but they had some, especially from America.
4. This takes place in the very early 1970s. At that time it was fairly accurate to talk about second-class citizenship. Some of the civil rights demands hadn’t yet been fully realized, the Stormont government was still unwilling to share power with Catholics, Sinn Fein was still an illegal party, internment was used exclusively against Catholics and left-wing and/or republican Protestants, etc.
5. To a very large degree, the nationalists were honorable in their different forms of struggle. There was very little that could be called anti-Protestant and to a very large degree civilians were not targeted by the republican paramilitaries (only about .2% of the IRA’s operations intentionally resulted in civilian death (most or all of the civilians they intentionally killed were less than completely innocent (see this for more))).
6. It probably goes without saying, but Irish pride within N. Ireland is different from white pride, although I have mixed info on how many nationalists in the North would say they have Irish pride.
7. During the conflict, the African National Congress had a good relationship with republicans and I readily assume, other nationalists. As far as the Sinn Fein and IRA part of that, see this.
8. I believe that the North, as it usually had low wages and a weak and divided labor movement, was (at least until mass violence broke out around 1970) an attractive place for investments.
9. The political centre of the nationalist community is, and probably sort of was back then, centre-left, and most believe/d in a secular state.
10. **76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
11. I give this poem four stars out of five.

Achieveing freedom in the North of Ireland
Means marching and fighting for our demands
Even though we stand alone we will resist the Brits
For we won’t accept no second-class citizenship

(chorus)
For the revolution with honour
For our people and our pride
For the revolution with honour
British rule we will always defy

We look for inspiration to the ANC
When it comes to national liberation, we can all agree
Thousands have been killed at London’s hands
We will struggle and die to unite our Irish land

British imperialist hands around our community’s throat
Capitalists exploiting the North and sitting back to gloat
A democratic socialist Ireland, we will create
It won’t be no fucking Catholic state