Lyrics for The Revolution Could Have Started Then!
Written by Steve Wallis, 19/3/2007
Based on “The Revolution Starts Now!”, the first version of which was written and recorded before the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. You can read the original lyrics by clicking here, or listen to the recording by clicking here. It may, at some point in the future, be a good idea to call for a worldwide general strike at the time of a G8 summit but it would probably be a mistake to call for one at the next summit, in Germany in June 2007. I have therefore made this song historical.
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
[Tune: John Lennon: A Working Class Hero]
A working class hero is something to be!
A working class hero is something to be!
[Tune]
But class traitors were Lenin and Leon Trotsky!
(Vladimir Lenin)
They abolished the Constituent Assembly.
The Bolsheviks had demanded democracy
That the capitalist government would not concede.
The revolution could have spread to Germany
But their Communist Party suffered from naivety.
The German ruling class killed heroes Karl and Rosa
(Karl Liebnicht and Rosa Luxembourg)
And then funded the rise of Adolf Hitler.
The Holocaust targeted not just Jews but socialists,
Gypsies, gays, disabled people and trade unionists.
[Tune: Christy Moore: Biko Drum]
Hero Biko died in a white man’s jail
(Steve Biko)
While the whites, blacks and coloureds played the Biko Drum.
[Tune]
Villain Nelson was allowed to live.
(Nelson Mandela)
Revolution beckoned, something had to give!
White bosses finally let him go
To stop revolution from below!
Heroes Martin, Malcolm and RFK
(Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Bobby Kennedy)
Threatened to transform the USA
That’s why they were blown away
By the FBI or the CIA!
[Voice]
OR BY MORE SECRETIVE CONSPIRATORIAL ORGANISATIONS ON THE SIDE OF BIG BUSINESS!
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
CHORUS:
[Voice]
BAND AID 1984:
[Tune: Band Aid: Do They Know it’s Christmas?]
Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?
In a world of plenty, so many shattered dreams!
[Tune]
Capitalism was a curse –
‘Third world’ problems got worse and worse!
[Tune: Latin Quarter: Something Isn’t Happening (Swimming Against the Stream)]
Something wasn’t happening there;
Something wasn’t happening,
’Cos they sent in the clowns and then they sent in the tanks.
[Tune]
Infiltration, assassinations and mind control
And not just the odd MI5 or CIA mole
Have so far stopped the revolution
But it is the only solution!
[Voice]
BAND AID 2004:
[Tune: Band Aid 20: Do They Know it’s Christmas?]
Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?
In a world of plenty, so many shattered dreams!
[Tune]
We forced changes with ‘Make Poverty History’
But many Africans still live in misery –
There are civil wars and a lot of poverty;
Only socialism will truly set them free.
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
[Tune: John Lennon: A Working Class Hero]
A working class hero is something to be!
A working class hero is something to be!
[Tune]
Militant Tendency heroes led the battle against the poll tax
And at last got Maggie Thatcher off our backs.
But there was a big business infiltrator called Steve Nally
Who said that the Fed would name names when interviewed on TV.
Hero Peter did the working class a favour
(Peter Taaffe)
When he took Militant out of New Labour
Hero Tommy who led the Scottish Federation
(Tommy Sheridan)
When elected to Glasgow council from jail, caused a sensation!
He was imprisoned for six months for poll tax defiance.
Scottish Militant Labour established the Scottish Socialist Alliance.
The Alliance carried out direct action
To try to stop a motorway extension.
In that campaign Rosie Kane became a new hero
And in the struggle for a republic she later struck a blow!
She was one of six Scottish Socialist Party members elected
To the Scottish parliament, but to the Queen’s rule she objected
So when she had to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen
She had “My oath is to the people” written on her hand and wore jeans!
Hero Peter became a villain
When he made Militant sectarian
Renaming it the Socialist Party
And losing good members like me
Hero Paula should launch a bid for that party’s leadership
(Paula Mitchell)
I helped recruit her and I’ve given her many tips
Did hero Tommy became villain Tommy
When Murdoch tried to destroy the “commie”?
(Rupert Murdoch)
Tommy sued Murdoch’s News of the World paper
When it revealed some of Tommy’s alleged capers.
Did Tommy try to force some SSP members to lie?
After failing to become leader again, he said “bye-bye!”
He set up a breakaway party, calling it Solidarity
And took with him big business infiltrators in the SWP!
Tommy won the trial against the paper’s defamation
But faces an appeal and perjury investigation.
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
CHORUS
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
[Tune: John Lennon: A Working Class Hero]
A working class hero is something to be!
A working class hero is something to be!
[Tune]
There was a hero called Salvador Allende.
He was elected socialist President of Chile
But he left the generals in positions of power
And Pinochet’s coup turned the revolution sour.
(Augusto Pinochet)
The coup was funded by the CIA,
Then Coke and Pepsi backed Pinochet.
[Original tune, lyrics based on: Latin Quarter: A Slow Waltz for Chile (Swimming Against the Stream)]
There was a slow waltz for Chile
All down through the years
Of Pinochet, murder and dread.
Could there have been a quick-step solution?
Not just the will to RESIST
Until the last decent Chilean was dead!
[Tune]
In Venezuela, hero Hugo
(Hugo Chávez)
Won’t let the US and G8 veto
Big reforms which help the poor
Who demonstrate for more and more!
The masses defeated a bosses’ strike
In a country Che went to on his bike!
(Ernesto Che Guevara)
[Voice]
It is dubbed the Bolivarian revolution.
As hero Victor Jara sang:
[Tune: Victor Jara: Simón Bolivar]
Simón Bolivar! Simón!
[Tune]
Hugo is now ruling by decree – an own goal!
Perhaps he was all along a big business mole!
You can’t have socialism without democracy
But US leaders are guilty of hypocrisy
In criticising Hugo; Bush didn’t really win
(George W Bush)
Against Gore or Kerry, the latter I saw pledging,
(Al Gore and John Kerry)
In a live debate on TV, to tax the rich
And even close all tax loopholes, a demand which
Trying to carry out could trigger a revolution from below!
World capitalism might even have received a terminal blow!
In Bolivia, where gas was privatised,
Working class people and peasants mobilised
With general strikes, occupations, demonstrations
And blockades across the capital of the nation.
They demanded that gas is not private property
In a country where two thirds lived in poverty.
There was a Bolivian protest leader called Evo.
(Evo Morales)
He is the new Latin American hero!
[Voice]
AND HE IS NOW PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA!
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
CHORUS
[Tune: The Stranglers: No More Heroes]
Whatever happened to the heroes?
There are many heroes nowadays!
Many heroes nowadays!
[Tune]
From the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre
To ‘The Battle of Seattle’ in the USA,
From Birmingham to Barcelona,
Evian, London and Genoa,
Working class heroes have started protesting
In a big way at the system we are detesting.
Some call us anti-globalisation activists
But that is not all – we are anti-capitalists.
We are told that the G8, IMF and World Bank
Are organisations that ‘third world’ countries should thank!
But they have tried to enforce privatisation
As a condition for helping such nations.
However, the Bolivian masses have shown the way;
Maybe the privatisation strategy has had its day.
They are now using genetically modified food
To control minds, including everyone’s thoughts and moods.
Genetic modification possibilities are infinite –
Big business is just limited by what computers can calculate.
They want to stop working class people fighting back;
GM mind control, to organisations like the CIA, is a new tack.
BOYCOTT SAINSBURY’S DAIRY PRODUCTS! Their cows eat partly GM feed.
Lord Sainsbury was a minister; GM labels aren’t there to read.
The 2005 G8 summit was in Scotland in July.
We could have seized our chance to set big business’s plans awry!
We demonstrated of course – socialist and anarchist banners were unfurled!
Even better, I urged workers and students to go on strike around the world!
The masses could have even launched a bid for power somewhere!
It would of course have needed enough working class heroes who would dare!
[Voice]
THE REVOLUTION COULD HAVE STARTED THEN!
I have recorded this version of the song as a musical poem, currently available only as a Windows Media Audio (WMA) file, but you will soon be able to fetch it in MP3 format. Hopefully, the new incarnation of the band will produce a more musical version in the near future. You can download the WMA file by clicking here.
You can download an earlier version of the track (then called “The Revolution Starts Now!”), as recorded at the Cutting Rooms, Abraham Moss Centre, City College, Manchester on the 30th of June 2005 in MP3 format. Click for a fairly high quality (8586KB) or very low quality (1789KB) version. The lyrics for that version can be read by clicking here.