I Will Not Obey

I WILL NOT OBEY - transcribed from the performance at the 

Haymarket Monument Forest Lawn Cemetery Forest Park, IL 

by Utah Philips.

November 1986

... the habit of reasoned disobedience.

***********

The new ruling party is holding the Aces

The rest of the cards are all missing faces

I'm sorry, I can't know you today

What can one say?

I will not obey.

Give us your sons, give us your daughters

No one is safe or immune from the slaughter

How indifference makes them rage

What can one say?

I will not obey.

National Guard or freedom fighters

All houses belong to cigarette lighters

But who hides in the smoke?

What can one say?

I will not obey.

Better, perhaps, to perish outside of the bunkers

Where our Generals hide

I turn away and spit

What can one say

I will not obey.

Give us the minds of your children to learn

The substance of books of which

We have not burned

But can they see the sky for rain?

What can one say?

I will not obey.

Soon all tyrants will feel our impatience

We choose to make our own combinations

I was always willing to agree

What can one say?

I will not obey.

The essence of contract is agreement

Not coercion or obedience

And agreement is sacred.

What can one say?

I will not obey.

There are so few wars of peoples' liberation

The people have so seldom risen

Only the armed faction

Listen, the armed faction lies

They recreate the State through their action

When the People rise

It is not they 

But the State which dies

I sing this song for the prisoners release

Most of all now for the new State police

You see the guns have changed hands. Again.

What can one say?

I will not obey.

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1000 YEARS

WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

 - by an Unknown Proletariat  (1905)

WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

AND YOU HAIL US STILL UNFED

NEVER A DOLLAR OF ALL YOUR WEALTH

MARKS THE WORKERS DEAD

WE HAVE YIELDED OUR BEST

TO GIVE YOU REST

AND YOU LIE ON CRIMSON WOOL

IF THAT BE THE PRICE OF YOUR CURSED WEALTH

GOOD GOD, WE HAVE PAID IN FULL

THERE IS NEVER A MINE BLOWN SKYWARD NOW

THAT WE AREN'T BURIED ALIVE FOR YOU

NEVER A WRECK DRIFT SHOREWARD NOW

WE AREN'T IT'S GHASTLY CREW

GO SUFFER OUR DEAD BY THE FORGES RED

AND THE FACTORIES WHERE WE SPIN

IF THAT BE THE PRICE OF YOUR CURSED WEALTH

GOOD GOD, WE HAVE PAID IT IN

WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

FOR THAT WAS OUR DOOM YOU KNOW

FROM THE DAY YOU CHAINED US IN YOUR FIELD

TO A STRIKE OF A WEEK AGO

YOU'VE TAKEN LIVES, OUR CHILDREN AND WIVES

AND CALLED IT YOUR LEGAL SHARE

IF THAT BE THE PRICE OF YOUR CURSED WEALTH

GOOD GOD, WE HAVE BOUGHT IT FAIR