1847: Three New Poems

Three more poems. These are all based on offensive material, I explain that and my poems in general here.

The rest of the poems are available by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom. There are about 10 pages worth, so click on "older posts."

1. Black 47. About the Irish "Famine."
2. Still Right-Wing. About American politics.
3. 1945. About WWII.

“Black 47” based on “Six Million Lies” by No Remorse. Original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the so-called “Famine” that Ireland experienced.
2. From elsewhere on my blog, here’s a fairly good summary:

During the Famine, 10-15% of the population died and 10-15% of the population would have died if they hadn’t emigrated. This was concentrated in the South and West of Ireland where there very few settlers- if you ignore the settlers and their descendents, it was probably closer to 15-20% and 15-20% of the population. Why did a potato blight result in something close to genocide? First, the indigenous Catholic population was still recovering from about 1.5 centuries of political and legal disempowerment that occurred because of the Penal Laws which denied them most of the rights enjoyed by most or all Protestants (it varied from right to right). “Catholic Emancipation” was only made about 90% complete about 15 years earlier. Because of this and general poverty, the indigenous population was largely dependent on land owned by land lords and the potato crop. For about 45 years before the Famine and during the Famine, Ireland didn’t have a devolved parliament, they were completely ruled from London. Crucially, during the Famine, MASSIVE amounts of food were being shipped from Ireland to Britain, something that involved seventy-five British Army regiments. …  the deaths only stopped when the blight stopped. … The British were more or less racist towards the Irish at that point in Anglo-Irish history and were more concerned about practicing Laissez-faire economics and feeding the British population than they were concerned about mass starvation among the Irish

3. It was close to genocide.
4. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that a British Prime Minister apologized for British policy during the Famine. I guarantee you they weren’t being honest about it and not apologizing.
5. I’m not sure to what extent the British pushed the idea that the Irish are all alcoholics, but I’m sure they at least sort of did.
6. If you focus on the number of INDIGENOUS Irish who died or emigrated, it was a little less than three million.
7. As far as the American establishment pushing lies about the Famine, see this. As far as I can tell, a lot of Irish-Americans believe that the Irish chose to just eat potatoes.
8. I’m not saying that everyone who supports Northern Ireland being part of the UK also peddle lies about the Famine, but I think that most of them do.
9. During the Famine, people were offered money if they didn’t teach their children Irish (that’s according to a Sinead O’Connor song).
10. The 12 of July is a major holiday for N. Ireland Unionists, and is political and sectarian (it’s the anniversary of a battle in Ireland where a Protestant contender for the British throne beat his Catholic rival).
11. Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Anglo-Irish context.
12. Partition is the division of Ireland.
12. As I prove here only .3% of operations of the Provisional IRA resulted in civilian death. And I like referring to The Troubles as the Second Anglo-Irish War (the first being the War of Independence).
13. This isn’t ABOUT SF. It’s just saying that the cause of Irish freedom is strengthened by SF’s electoral success. It’s not saying SF believes this or did that, except that they will lead Ireland to unity (no member of SF is going to complain about that statement).
14. There is a theory I largely subscribe to, that the Unionists in N. Ireland are actually Irish, but I’m also comfortable with the idea that they can and (in a united Ireland) will develop a British-Irish identity which I’m sure the Irish will be willing to accommodate.
11. **78% of this version is me, 22% is the original. I took the first two lines of the original, combined them, altered them, and then created a completely new 2nd line.
12. No Remorse were British and supported the unionist and/or British cause(s) in N. Ireland.

Did the Irish really prefer potatoes or is it just a British lie?
20% left and 20% died
Genocide by the Brits, we have the proof
Why did they try to cover up the truth?
Scared that they would look like scum that they are
So they pushed the idea that the Irish can’t stay out of bars

Three million of the human race
Because the British Army had an iron grip on the place
They play down the fact that food was shipped across the Irish sea
They may have fooled you, but not me

The worst case of Laissez-faire economics in history
It was also racism and religious bigotry
American media and schools cooperate
With the lies of those who support the North being part of the British state
Well the beautiful Irish language didn't die
Fuck Margaret Thatcher and the 12th of July!

So let's make Ireland British Army free
We’ll make sure there's no return to an Orange society
The partition of Ireland is rotten to the core
Provos fought with courage and honor in the Anglo-Irish War
With Sinn Fein and global solidarity we'll surely win
And the Protestant Unionists will see us as their kin

**************

“Still Right-Wing” based on “Still Occupied” by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.

1. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is the address of the White House.
2. Fash is short for fascists.
3. I doubt it’s just a tiny minority of white people who worry about that. I think it might be around 20-30%.
4. “Right-to-work” is, in general, a reference to anti-union government policies. Specifically, “Right-to Work” laws say that someone can’t be required to join a union in order to get a job. This means that people who benefit from a union contract at their job don’t have to pay membership dues, which weakens the union.
6. As far as the racist, homicidal cops, see this.
7. A lot of GOP local and state elections officials pull fucked up shit. Not enough voting machines in certain precincts and few or no opportunities to vote early means long lines and people going home without voting so they can get up and go to work the next morning. There’s what happened in FL in 2000 where they were. WAY to quick to take people off the rolls because they MIGHT have been convicted of something. More recent fight-back against letting ex-cons vote, and creating a poll tax by saying that such people have to pay all the money they owe in connection with their conviction before they can vote again.
8.  In terms of racial equality, the FUTURE looked so bright when Obama was President. Trump took that and turned it on its head. Also, Obama (as a candidate and as President) was not a progressive, but nor was he a Clintonite. He was a liberal, as I non-philosophically define them here.
9. I’m not interested in an alliance with the obnoxious, extreme, sectarian anarchists. I think the moderate anarchists were SLIGHTLY happy with Obama being elected, because he was the first Black President, and as I explain above, he was not a Clintonite. And I think that most Marxists and almost all social-dems were at least sort of happy with him, for the same reasons.
10. **76% of this version is me, 24% is the original. The second-to-last line of both verses is brand new- it wasn't there before.
11. UPDATE 4/1/20 Just in case there's confusion, I'm not saying that everyone to the left of center and  opposed to the GOP is a leftist or more generally a progressive. It might sound like I'm saying that, but I'm not. I JUST CHANGED "WE'LL" IN THE COUNTY CLERK LINE TO "DEMS AND PROGRESSIVES WILL".

With Obama, the future looked so bright,
Finally, a President who wasn’t white.
But then, at 1600 Pennsylvania, Trump moved in,
Even though, the popular vote, he didn’t win.
Our society is being torn apart,
think this is bad but it's just the start.
Instead of health care fash worry that the white race will die
How can so many white people swallow so many lies?

Chorus
It’s still a “right-to-work” nation, workers aren’t free -
The working-class labor movement is on it’s knees
And it's hard, hard to defeat -
the murderous police departments patrolling the Black street!

With GOP County Clerks Dems and progressives will never have a chance to win
Their idea of democracy and fascism are almost akin
Hopefully the white working-class will awake, before it's too late,
And Labor will keep educating them, however much money it takes.
We’re trying to save the labor movement from homicide,
we're for comprehensive diversity and for class pride.
Whether we’re social-dems, Marxists or moderate anarchists
We're never ever giving in to the fucking capitalists!

*************

“1945” based on “Final Attack” by Final War. Original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the last several months of WWII in Europe.
2. A bridgehead is either a position held to maintain the possession of a bridge at the front, or a position just behind enemy lines.
3. Many of them didn’t do any time because they were executed.
4. The Waffen-SS was the military (as opposed to paramilitary) component of the SS (the very ideological, official, domestic security part of the Nazi state).
5. Combined arms attacks involve more than one type of military unit (i.e. infantry, armor, ground attack aircraft, artillery)
6. The main weapon of a tank is its main gun. Bazookas were an early version of a Rocket-Propelled-Grenade type weapon.
7. Panzers were German tanks.
8. **71% of this poem is me, 29% is the original.
9. UPDATE 4/6/20 I need to say that as far as American servicemen opposed to anti-semitism, realistically it was probably just some moderate-sized minority of them.
10. UPDATE 4/6/20 The chorus is kind of out of whack chronologically (to one ridiculously large degree or another, knowledge of the camps was incredibly limited until the end of the war).

The day is approaching the day of victory
for the Poles, the Jews, and all those, opposed to the Nazis
gonna keep fighting gonna knock em dead
gonna reinforce the front and our bridgeheads

gonna take many prisoners when their lines we overrun
won’t stop till our mission is done
they took over Europe and made Jews wear an arm-band
now we’re gonna smash them with an iron hand

(Chorus)
Oh no, what are the Nazis gonna do?
when we find the concentration camps for the Jews
We’ll put them on trial for war crimes
After they’re convicted, they won’t do any time

we’ve got our sights set on the Waffen-SS
Arms factories, all those Nazis who oppress
we’re on a rampage we’re letting loose
And we’ll only accept unconditional surrender, without a truce

We carry out ambushes and combined arms attacks
they tried to take the world, now they cower at our artillery impacts
Main guns and bazookas are how we destroy Panzer tanks
And when we capture Krauts we love to interrogate their upper ranks

Liberals, Progressives, and Clintionites

In recent years I have struggled with how progressives define liberal. In very early 2003, I organized an anti-war panel discussion sponsored by the Young Democratic Socialists at CU-Boulder and by an embryonic group I started called “Liberals Against War.” I’ll keep this brief for now, although I might do a post about it later (UPDATE 10/29/20 That post is here), but I felt like the main anti-war group at CU-Boulder was trying to convert people to progressives as a way of making them oppose what Bush wanted to do, instead of convincing them that an invasion of Iraq was wrong, and I felt the focus should be on a massive part of the population that would listen to the anti-war movement- liberals, as I define them. But one of the panelists thought I was talking about listening to what pro-war liberal and moderate Democrats had to say. I clarified what I meant. I just found an article about moderate Democrats here.           

The very beginning is:

Twenty-four years ago, I published an essay titled “Liberals, I Do Despise” in the Village Voice, which Common Dreams reprinted as an enduring oldie in 2009. The title was a play on an old doggerel, in this case rendering it:

Liberals and flies, I do despise

The more I see liberals, the more I like flies.

I wrote the essay in disgust after Bill Clinton concluded his and other New Democrats’ deal with the devil by signing the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act—welfare reform—that ended the federal government’s sixty-year commitment to direct income provision for the indigent.

I am frustrated by this progressive obsession with referring to Clinton as a liberal. He was not a liberal as President. Besides being economically moderate or even right-wing (on the internal DP spectrum) and generally being the candidate of the moderate part of the DP in 1992, he was also a militarist and was only sort of socially liberal. Although I’m far from familiar with his environmental record, I get the impression it was pretty bad. Although he was fiercely pro-choice, he took a moderate position on affirmative action (my thoughts about AA are here) and opposed gay marriage. He was “tough on crime.”

His Vice President was married to a woman half responsible for the “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” stickers on many music albums. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with not wanting your kids to hear a bunch of swear words and references to sex and drugs, but there were some serious problems with those stickers. First, those behind them wouldn’t have been successful without massive support from the religious right. Second, many music stores refused to sell albums with the label. Third, I’m willing to bet that the majority of albums affected were by artists who were people of color. And fourth, many of the songs on many of those albums were incredibly political with messages of the sort embraced (to one degree or another) by liberals and progressives.

Welfare reform, although largely a question of economic injustice, was also an example of social injustice if you consider A) the popular, racist image in America of a welfare recipient, and B) the fact that all mothers are working mothers.

Clinton was not a liberal. They are at least socially liberal, often passionately so, slightly skeptical of the military (and favor efforts to avoid war), and I would argue they are a bit to the left of Clinton on economic stuff although not much. They believe strongly in what you might call (STATE) CHARITY, but only sort of in CHANGE (like Single-Payer, laws that would strengthen unions, etc.). (based on what he did with welfare reform, it can be argued that Clinton doesn't consistently believe in (STATE) CHARITY very much)

Progressives seem to think that to the left of center there are only progressives and Clintonites and there is no space in between to be filled by those I would call liberal. Did everyone who opposed welfare reform (strongly) support unions and/or support single-payer health care? Did all straight supporters of gay marriage support economic justice, i.e. oppose the North American Free Trade Agreement? Same thing with affirmative action. To one extent or another there are some other things like that.

(UPDATE 10/5/25 I have a feeling that a lot of readers still don't see a couple things I'm trying to illuminate with this- the difference between a progressive and a liberal and the difference between a liberal and a Clintonite. One argument I make when I think about what my readers may say is that as important as it was that (most) progressives tried to stop Clintonite welfare "reform," welfare is not revolutionary- it did not EMPOWER people and/or TRANSFORM any structure. It was and is reformist- I can easily see MANY liberals opposing "reform" in the Clinton years without supporting single-payer or opposing NAFTA. It was a kind of CHARITY, it was not CHANGE)

Although Obama isn’t a progressive, is he a Clintonite? I could just point to the 2008 primaries, but some would say that it was two Clintonites and the anti-racist/Black vote helped Obama win against the wife of a Democratic President very popular with Democrats. But Obama was a liberal candidate. About 10 years before he ran for President he HAD been a progressive. His Justice Department went after racist police departments and let large numbers of people out of jail. Obamacare is MUCH better than what Hillary Clinton pushed in the 1990s. Unlike Hillary he had opposed the Iraq war. At the end of his presidency he commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army whistleblower previously known as Bradley Manning. Some would point to Hillary’s role in the Obama administration, but consider this- it’s not uncommon for Heads of Government to give some positions to people in other factions of their party, and she was only there the first half.

The Clintons are not liberals, but liberals exist. And as a progressive, I believe that here and there many of them are my allies.

Newt Gingrich, anti-colonialism, and Obama

I am a little late on this one, but it seems as if very few people have said what I'll say. This post is about an aspect of Newt Gingrich's comment that Obama has a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" world view. MANY people have pointed out that this is partly about suggesting that Obama might have been born in Kenya. What gets more of my attention is the "anti-colonial" part. Is Gingrich saying that opposing colonialism is bad? it sounds like that to me. Specifically, is he saying that the Kenyan anti-colonial struggle was wrong? I'd like to see someone grill him on that.

Also, of course, as far as I can tell, Obama is very far from being some kind of anti-colonial crusader. He isn't putting tons of pressure on Israel about the Palestinians; he is not doing that with the British about N. Ireland; and there are other similar situations.

Debunking the Birthers

Occassionally I'll do something like this (it's the second time) where I'll do a brief post offering a piece of information that doesn't seem to be in wide circulation but is crucial to understanding something in the news.

You've heard of the people who believe that President Obama wasn't born in America. I recently heard that a small majority of GOP members believe this nonsense. Besides the obvious, one reason I don't believe it is that World Net Daily did a story on it during the campaign that 99% dismissed this nonsense and 110% discredited the Birthers.

WND is a right-wing source and thus this cannot be dismissed as liberal propaganda.

The article is here.

Obama, Wall Street, Auto-Workers, and the far-right

(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 might start participating in some on-line forums now, probably the comments sections of newspapers and blogs. In some cases I might tie this blog into that, as I'm going to now.

I read an interesting column by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. He's pretty solidly liberal and even did one column expressing a lot of support for Single-Payer (canadian style) health-care. His column is here, you'll probably have to register.

Below is the comment I just posted. I wonder if I am exaggerating some things (how much the far-right associates Jews with bankers, how much damage will be done), but I have decided to offer any suggestions I can for stopping the spread of hatred. UPDATE4/3/09: The Southern Poverty Law Center has frequently talked about how Obama's presidency combined with the economy could fuel racism, their is a stereotype about bankers and Jews, there is a glaring gap in Obama's approach, and a mostly white workforce will probably be hurt. Anyway, here's my comment:

"I haven't followed American current events much lately, so almost all of my info about this comes from Robinson's column (can't imagine a much better source, roughly as good as Krugman, Meyerson, etc.); and I'm not much on economics or finance, but there are a few things about this I understand. First, the double standard is amazing, the banks should be getting it as least as much as the auto-makers, since they ARE responsible for starting it. Also, in general, this won't be good for auto-workers, although I'm open-minded about how avoidable that is considering that the economy IS a mess and Obama is not going to take some kind of socialist approach.

But recently I've become very interested in the spread of hatred, primarily the sort we associate with the right. It seems to me that a black President connected to destroying the lives of auto-workers (probably mostly/overwhlemingly white) and going easy on the bankers (I have no freaking idea how many of them are Jews, they could all be Hindus for all I care, but there's a semi-popular image of the banker) will fuel the racist right, especially considering Obama's support from Jews (once again, I don't care, my blog is chock full of stuff against anti-semitism). It just seems like, besides being unbalanced and bad for working people and the tax-payer, it will also fuel the far-right.

I say this mostly because unless I've got an exaggerated sense of the damage that can be done, it's one more reason for Obama to change his mind and get tough on the banks."

Nuclear Assault Your Daughters and Your Sons

UPDATE 11/6/10: This first 1/3 of this post used to be fairly pro-Obama. Analyses of the election (in some cases stuff written shortly before the election) by Marc Cooper, Harold Meyerson, and Paul Krugman (and possibly also David Corn, Bob Herbert, and Eugene Robinson) have convinced me that Obama and more generally most of the Dem leaders screwed up big time. So I am eliminating the references to Obama from this part of the post.

I'd like to talk about some of the songs I listen to whose politics I like. From the songs I've altered (about 1/2 of what I've altered is based on stuff I agree with, I've indicated which are which) and my profile, you should have some idea of what I listen to, although there's a lot of miscellaneous stuff (i.e. "Free Your Mind" by En Vogue (I like the song, but the video with the moshing is awesome)). I just added one to my favorites, and it might actually be number one, although I need to spend some time listening to more of their stuff, especially stuff besides the one album I listened to a bunch in High School, but I'll get to that soon.

First, the song that in some ways is significantly different from the others I'm going to talk about. It's possibly my favorite song. I first heard it in that documentary I keep referring to "Off Our Knees." It's played at the end during five minutes of what is probably some of the most inspiring material a progressive could ever see in video.

The song is "Your Daughters and Your Sons." I think it's by Tommy Sands, but like most republican songs, there are multiple versions and the one I sing is a little bit unique. It's a republican song, although for all you know looking at the lyrics, it's a Vietnamese song. One explanation I've heard is that the song is about how, between the formation of N. Ireland and the late 60s when the Nationalist community rose up en masse, there were some very unsuccessfull attempts (militarily or otherwise) at reforming or ending the state, and people basically passed on the dream of freedom from one generation to the next.

Going back to the song, my version is below, and here are some notes:
1. I have a policy with songs I like that I eliminate, unless impossible, any trace of sexism. I've considered adding "woman" to the 2nd line of the 2nd verse, but it sounds a little odd, and overwhelmingly the song is already inclusive regarding sex.
2. The reference to Belfast is not necessarily about the IRA- plenty of people were tortured who weren't in the IRA.
3. The reference to Spain could be about the Basques (even as an IRA supporter I don't support ETA, but I do support the Basque people) or it could be a reference to the Spanish Civil War (it's a safe bet the fash used torture).
4. Chile refers to the Pinochet years.
5. In that documentary, the line "writing's on the wall" seems to refer to Free Derry Corner.
6. I took the chorus and switched sons and daughters and used it in one of my songs, "The Spirit of Che Guevara." (I also used that line in another song "comrades")

"Your Daughters and Your Sons"

They wouldn't play your music and your paintings they pulled down
They wouldn't read your writings and they banned you from the town
But they couldn't stop you dreaming, and a victory you've won
For you sowed the seed of freedom in your daughters and your sons

Chorus:
In your daughters and your sons, in your daughters and your sons
You sowed the seed of freedom in your daughters and your sons

Your smile proudly hides the chain marks on your hands
As you bravely strive to realize the rights of every man
Though your body's bent and low, a victory you've won
For you sowed the seed of justice in your daughters and your sons

Chorus

I don't know your religion, but one day I heard your pray
For a world where everyone could work and the children they could play
Although you never realized, a victory you've won
For you sowed the seed of equality in your daughters and your sons

Chorus

They tortured you in Belfast, and they tortured you in Spain
And in that Warsaw Ghetto, they tied you up in chains
In Vietnam, in Chile, where they came with tanks and guns
You sowed the seed of peace in your daughters and your sons

Chorus

Now your music's playing and the writing's on the wall
And all the dreams you painted can be seen by one and all
Now you've got them thinking, and a victory you've won
For you sowed the seed of freedom in your daughters and your sons

Chorus

******

Now going back to what might be my new favorite band. Besides some mostly weak rap music (Fresh Prince, who I still kind of like, Run DMC who I still pretty much like, and Beastie Boys, who I still really like) the first real music I got into was Megadeth in 10th grade. I got into other metal, mostly thrash/speed (Metallica, Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., Body Count), and within a year was also into some punk (mostly Dead Kennedys, Dead Milkmen) harder rap (mostly Ice-T, Public Enemy) and what was vaguely and lazily referred to as "Alternative" (mostly Nirvana, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Primus, Rage Against The Machine, and L7). One day I might do an entire post about my transition during High School to being a socialist, for now I'll just say that since about 65% of the music I was listening to was basically liberal, and 5% was progressive (the rest was either non-political, it's possible 5% was conservative), that music was a big part of the transition. There were two bands I listened to that I want to focus on- they probably weren't/aren't as progressive as the Dead Kennedys were, but as far as I can tell, they're close. Also, both of them, I'm only familiar with roughly 1/10 of their stuff, but I'm pretty certain they were and are progressive.

First, their music, they're both basically thrash-metal. In High School, and I think even today, thrash might be my favorite kind of music overall. And as far as I can tell, it's pretty non-political some large minority of the time and maybe conservative or even worse some small minority of the time, liberal some large minority of the time, and the rest would be progressive, including these two bands (admittedly, this is largely based on my knowledge from listening to 1980s and 1990s stuff, but I have some small knowledge of the current situation).

The first band, Sacred Reich, amazingly seems to have had almost no role in my transition towards being a socialist. I think I only listened to one song on their tape (Surf Nicaragua (lyrics are here), which only had three originals- 2 political, and a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs"), the title track, which is pretty progressive. The thing is, five months ago I discovered another song that I do not remember paying attention to at all, and it is now one of my top 10 favorite songs. It's called "One Nation," the lyrics are here (the last line, although it's not clear what it actually is, according to other sites is "why don't you understand?"; the line "Your ideas are decided By where you have been born" must be a quote and not the band's opinion). Although I'm not certain, I get the impression that the rest of their lyrics are also very progressive.

The band which might now be my favorite is Nuclear Assault, which I had two tapes of in High School, although I barely listened to "Survive," I listened a lot to "Handle With Care," which is overwhelmingly progressive. It's got two environmentalist songs, 1-2 anti-racist songs, a song about police harassing people, a couple other political ones. The lyrics for one song I'm going to post below. I had kind of forgotten about it, but it's a very good anti-racist song.

I almost forgot, that as far as them being progressive, NA has done two songs, although it doesn't seem like the second is an original, called "Butt Fuck (You Figure It Out)" and "Lesbians." The first one is reportedly about Vince Neil of Motley Crue. I've looked for the lyrics and I'll probably have to dig to find out what they are and what they mean, but more generally, we are talking about 80s heavy-metal, the odds are these two bands are homophobic, or at least were until recently (it wouldn't surprise me if at some point they figured it out).

I think that's it for now, like I said, this post might have some updates, or after I gather enough info, I might do a second post to follow-up. Below are the lyrics from the anti-racist NA song, and below that are some new lyrics that I did.

"New Song" (really captures the message of the lyrics)

Closed books is what some people's minds are like
Shut tight, new ideas, they just always get passed by
Prejudice, living in their thoughts and deeds
Ignoring all the other people's needs

Chorus
You say a double standard's OK
I'm telling you that this is insane
What is it that you've got in your fist
Could it be another one of your lists

No one else can do the job just right
Unless they're Anglo-Saxon Protestant white
Foolish, the minds that have this attitude
You can't judge everybody by that rule

No place in this country for this shit
Everyone has to have an equal place
Nazis, they lost it 40 years ago
Rednecks just realize this a little slow

*****

So, I've done two more songs. The first is based on the music whose fans do not like "New Song," for more of an explanation, see this. 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). (the second song is based on one I agree with)

UPDATE 6/11/09 I am renaming songs that had retained the original name.

"Anti-Sectarian", based on "Unity is Power" by Kill Baby Kill, original lyrics are here

1. In general, it's about left unity, although I can imagine some groups I would have trouble uniting with even informally with, or in single-issue coalitions. There was some left-wing group about 20-25 years went around attacking other leftists with baseball bats, I think it was the Spartacist league (U.S.), but I can't figure out for sure. Besides them and possibly a few others that are almost as bad, I'm pretty comfortable with the idea of single-issue coalitions with the more hard-left Marxists and the moderate anarchists, and I have always expressed support for some kind of federation of the Democratic Left, the groups usually mentioned are the Democratic Socialists of America, the Committees of Correspondence, Solidarity, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (the one associated with Bill Fletcher Jr.), and the Socialist Party USA.
I have similar feelings about working with people who are more accurately called progressive and probably the vast majority of people called liberals (as I define and describe them here), although this song is more about unity on the ideological left.
Also, I have not always behaved as a perfect non-sectarian leftist, but in my heart I'm one and in practice, to one large degree or another, about 80% of the time I am.
2. I'm only about 1/2 anti-cop and I wouldn't be surprised if some large minority of them are inclined to use excessive force, but cop seemed the best substitute.
3. The last line, "movements'" refers to all/almost all the movements on the left, and when I talk of enemies, unless I specify otherwise, I'm talking about people with whom I have major disagreements with on a lot more than one issue- that is, leftists who don't support the IRA, in general, are not my enemy, the GOP is.
4. In the 3rd verse/Chorus, "peoples" is used to refer to struggles against racism, homophobia, etc. I needed a substitute and it seemed pretty good.
**5. 8% of this version is me, 92% is the original.
6. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.
7. The references to fighting our real enemies are meant to be about 99% non-violent, and fortunately about 99.99% of the fighting among the Left has been non-violent.
8. update (1/18/10) I just made a small but important change- I changed "leftie" to "comrade" (not sure why I didn't use "Comrade" when originall typing this poem). Also the reference to "comrades in arms," is referring to a different kind of weapon than most would think about- kind of like when Ice-T rapped "the lethal weapon is the mind."

So much wrong in the world today, the worker's being oppressed.
What’s the point of fighting each other, when our world’s in a mess?
Violent cops on every corner, Nazis in every town.
People of color and gays are victimized, the GOP tries to bring our country down.

This is the voice of the underground, a voice still prepared to fight,
calling out with a message now to stick together and unite.
So listen comrade, listen well, unity’s a must.
If we can’t achieve to unite as one our war’s already lost.

Unity is power, unity is strength. Unity’s the weapon to defend our class.
Unity’s the answer to the worker's call.
Unity will set our class and peoples free. Unity will bring us final victory.
If we stand united, we will never fall.

All this senseless infighting only gives the right a laugh.
Comrade we must stand as one, alone is not enough.
Shoulder to shoulder, comrades in arms, make sure we’ll never fail.
So stick together and act as one, united we’ll prevail.

To all of those who share our beliefs: United we will win,
unity brings victory. It's the power from within,
so join our ranks on the battlefield. Together side by side,
to fight our movement's enemies and crush 'em with our might.

*****

"You Are Woman" based on "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy, original lyrics are here

1. I started singing the original after I found a YouTube video that celebrated the contribution made by women to the Republican Movement and this song was the soundtrack. I was and still am prepared to sing the original for people, especially if they find that amusing, but I decided that it would be more appropriate to alter it for male feminists.
2. Considering the rules of altering lyrics (I alter as little as possible and the lines have to rhyme) which I almost never break, I'm not sure the quality is as good as the original, but it's close.
3. "Yes, we're now wise" I realize a lot of male feminists didn't have much room for improvement, and it would be fairly inacurrate to say I was ever a sexist, but most of us have, to one degree or another, learned over time, and considering that probably not a single one of us is 100% perfect, you could say we're still learning. And when it comes to making mistakes of a personal nature with women, I'm probably no better than average among male feminists.
4. The second to last line of the chorus, I thought it would be good that way, especially because part of it is aimed at left-wing-liberal activists, even though that line makes the next line a little awkward compared to the original. Also, the 5th line of the chorus refers to male feminists fighting sexism.
5. In general I switch back and forth betwenen women and male feminists, and sometimes "we" refers to both (4th line of the second verse and I suppose the very last line) but I think it makes sense.
6. The line "a long, long way to go" was written in the early 1970s, maybe cut that in half at this point.
7. Besides her being more or less feminist, I almost named the song after Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey because the lines in the second verse and the the lines about "standing toe to toe" remind me of her activism and involvement in, for example, the Battle of the Bogside. But it's still iffy whether or not I should have my blog named after her.
8. I'm not sure of the line "born of pain" in the chorus, but it could refer to how the oppression of women, once men figured it out, educated them, or something like that.
9. The line about doing anything is meant to be about efforts that are overall at least 99% non-violent.
10. I barely changed anything but stuff like female-to-male and singular-to-plural. If I added that stuff up it would be about 25% me, 75% the original, if we ignore that stuff it's about 1% me.
**11. I give this song/poem three out of five stars.

You are woman, we heard you roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And we know too much to go back and pretend
'Cause we've heard it all before
And you've been down there on the floor
No one's EVER going to keep you down again

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

They can bend but never break you
'Cause it only serves to make you
More determined to achieve your final goal
And we come back even stronger
Not novices any longer
Cause they deepened the conviction in our souls

Chorus

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

Chorus


For the rest of the lyrics posts, click on the "lyrics" label.

****

This is of course only covers the two songs right above, not "New Song" or "Your Daughters and Your Sons"
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?).