about
UNION THUGS SAY:
"We owe War on the Workers lyrics and music to Anne Feeney, activist, author, composer, performer as well as an american folk reference. Born at the dawn of the 50s, the civil rights movement and the opposition against the war in Vietnam had, as for a lot of the youth in the United States then, a great impact on her political education and militancy.
First recorded in 1994 for Heartland, the live album from her Mother Jones Annual Banquet in Springfield. War on the Workers has since been re-recorded in the studio with a few lyrical and musical modifications at the turn of the century for the album Have You Been In Jail For Justice.
At Mother Jones Annual Banquet, Feeney introduced her song with these few words :
“This next song means so much to me, ‘cause I have seen courage and idealism and everything and, you know, when they give you this talk in school about what this country is supposed to be; About caring for each others, and standing out for each others, and one out of many, working for each others, liberty and justice for all. We know that our history haven’t serve that history very well.”
War on the Workers is an homage to Jim Beals, a mechanic, and Karen Silkwood, a chemist who both died after blowing the whistle on the safety issues for the workers in their workplace. As the official numbers on workplace accidents show that 5000 american workers die each year and around a 1000 Canadian workers, lots of research tend to speculate these numbers as 10 times worse than what previously thought.
The rest of the song is about privatization, the rising cost of insurance, the casualization of work schedule for so called flexibility, the pollution of air and water, the ever increasing pressure imposed on the third world by international financial institutions and the free trade."
lyrics
LYRICS
Listen up. We got a warzone here today
Right in our heartland and across the USA
These multinational bastards don't use tanks and guns its true
but they've declared a war on us fight back its up to you
CHORUS :
Oh its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers and its time we started calling the shots
Going to work could be the death of you and me
But we're not unarmed. Our weapon's solidarity
Jim Beals and Karen Silkwood. The list goes on and on
With every year that passes 60, 000 more are gone
[CHORUS]
When they boost your co-pay (war on the workers)
Don't you know what to say? (war on the workers)
When they talk privatization (war on the workers)
And co-operation (war on the workers)
When they call you "a team" (war on the workers)
You'd better learn how to scream (war on the workers)
[CHORUS]
They can lock us out, they can lock us up. We cannot give in
No more lies, no compromise! We'll battle til we win!
[CHORUS]
When they talk "flexibility" (war on the workers)
every working stiff can see (war on the workers)
When they poison your water (war on the workers)
Don't go like lambs to the slaughter (war on the workers)
When they foul up the air (war on the workers)
You've gotta show that you care (war on the workers)
When they talk WTO (war on the workers!)
We should be screaming HELL NO! (war on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers
Its a war on public education
its a war on child labor protection
its a war on the eight hour day
its a war on occupational health and saftey
its a war on social security
Now thanks to WTO, GATT, NAFTA, MAI, the IMF and the World Bank
it's a world wide war
Oh its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
yeah its a war on the workers (War on the workers)
Oh its a war on the workers
and its time sisters and brothers
you know its time right now,
I said its time we started calling the shots
credits
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