New Fight Song Lyrics for 2019 CTU/SEIU Strike!

Which Side Are You On?

Well come all you good people, good news to you I'll tell
We could get a piece of heaven if we'd only raise some hell
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

You've heard about Chicago: there are no neutrals there
You'll either be with CTU or with the millionaires
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

A message for the mayor: be careful what you choose
We've sacrificed so much already we ain't got much to lose
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

They say the teachers are greedy -- How dare they ask for more?
We say school equity should be the common core
Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? (We're on the students' side!)

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? 

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? (We're on the nurses' side!)

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? 

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? (We're on the counselors' side!)

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? 

Which side are you on, my people, which side are you on? (The librarians' side!)

       (the teachers side, the people's side, the freedom side, etc.)

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

***

Eyes on the Prize 

Chicago is a Union Town -- We ain't never backin down
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on
Chicago streets are chilly and wide, but we got the people on our side
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on
Hold on, hold on,
keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on!
Lori Lightfoot, this ain't cool -- We need nurses in every school
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on

New boss acts just like the old, but our kids are worth more than gold
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on

Hold on, hold on,
keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on!
They will try to spin the truth / but we just want justice for our youth
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on
We didn't come this far to now / to give up and turn around
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on
Well, the only chains we can stand / are the chains between hand and hand
Keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on

Hold on, hold on,
keep your eyes, on the prize, hold on!

***

We Shall Not be Moved

We shall not, we shall not be moved,

We shall not, we shall not be moved,

Just like a tree that's planted by the water,

We shall not be moved.

We're striking for our students,

We shall not be moved...

We want nurses and counselors,

We shall not be moved...

The people are behind us,

We shall not be moved...

We won't be tricked or bullied,

We shall not be moved...

Estamos en la lucha,

No nos moverán...

La huelga es justa,

No nos moverán

No, no, no nos moverán,

No, no, no nos moverán

Como un árbol firme junto al rio,

No nos moverán

This is the Year (5780)

“O sing unto the Lord a new song;

Sing unto the Lord, all the earth!

Let the skies be glad, let earth rejoice,

Let the sea and all within it thunder praise!”

- Psalm 96

This is the Year

after Martín Espada, and all visionaries

This is in fact the year that squatters evict landlords,

as we occupy all streets / all city halls /

This is the year that torture sites

are painted into Freedom Squares

Boards of Trade

are made Room & Board

Tent cities vanish into sanctuaries

& homeless humans

move to human homes

Let the prisoners be freed

Let the refugees return

Let the workers get some rest

Let the organizers sleep

Let the students learn

Let the teachers teach

Let the truth-speakers read novels

Let the poets write about rivers

Let the rivers fill with fish!!

Let the land and everything it holds exult!

& Praise you People / praise your Rage

come ye drummers / come ye sousaphones

come you hordes of righteous screamers

Bless this Music of your thirst

for Justice, your hunger for Love

This is the year we impeach the whole damn system

This is the Year that Water Protectors on horseback

storm the White House & light the 8^th Council Fire on the lawn,

& the youth of D.C. swarm to join

& cover that building's bloody whiteness over

with prophetic technicolor graffiti!

This is the year we throw barbecues in every park

to celebrate the fact that all the legal papers have been lost

& every blessed family seeking posada has found it

This is the year the profiteers of torture sleep in their own cages

while the rest of us remake the world in our image

This is the year no one gets arrested

for being a decent human being

This is the year the only fears that students feel

walking into school are about whether

they'll make friends / do well on oral reports

or pass their classes

This is the year the Kochs & Goldman-Sachses pay their taxes

Washing dishes / filling prisons with their fat cat class of fascists

This is the year a law is passed prohibiting cops from gathering

in groups larger than two / unless they trade their guns for hackey sacks

This is the year that Dred Scott resurrects from the Calvary Cemetery

to lead a seige of martyed ghosts upon the hosts of Capital

This is the year that Moses & the Old Testament prophets

go toe to toe with Israeli soldiers / turning bullets into olives

This is the year the war engineers

load their drones with seeds of fruit-bearing trees

& M16s are melted down to garden shovels

This is the year that churches have a shrine for every person

Buddha meditates beside a crucifix where Krishna plays

This is the year that makes a century

The year that trumps the sleep of history

The year the spoiled tyrant brats that rule our world

are deported to formerly colonized island territories

where they are sentenced to liftetimes

of land & water reclamation service

This is the year we use their money to pay off each other's debts

The year We the People forget to forget

The year we turn off the reality television show that governs us

& start to govern our own reality

This is the year Mount Rushmore erupts with native flora & fauna -

sweetgrass growing out of Teddy Roosevelt's nose

magpies flocking across George Washington's wig

& the mountain becomes wild & sacred again

This is the year that banners unravel

& barbed-wire fences crumble,

the year wage-slaves take over

as the stock market topples

so the last will be first

and the first will be last

and we'll give what we can

and take what we need...

This is the year food & clean water are free

& gas is too expensive for everyone

In fact This is the year we remember why

we cannot buy

or sell the Earth -

(we are Her)

If Occupy began as a vision

of people having the debts that crippled them cleared,

then This is the year...

If #BlackLivesMatter began as a vision

of people walking the streets without fear,

then This is the year...

If every Movement begins as a Vision

of People empowered in body & spirit

Then this is the year it is so.

So,

Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy

before the Eternal...

Let the rivers clap their hands,

Let the mountains sing in chorus!

and if eyes are eyes,

... so may every silent mouth,

dry as thirsty dirt,

Open

with the music

of Justice.

Ode to Cicadas

the first sighting -

       a shell

       on the sidewalk

       outside my door

the next day it begins
   waves upon waves

       the chorus of other-worldly screams
          nature's    hardcore
              metal    glitch  rock    radio 

                        blasting     all day long

the annual apocalypse
       raucous & cacophonous
summer rite of the cicadas
       emerging from their depths
              fragile as our future

              with each passing year

       they crawl
to the safety of trees
& brick walls
       shedding exoskeletons
              & taking flight

crying for their soulmates
& drowning out our whole world
       for moments
       that go on  &  on   &
                                          o n

meanwhile    possums
       raccoons    squirrels    skunks
              cats        & robins        feast

       & the soil gratefully
              absorbs what's left

       & cicada season ends
       with a harvest festival
       for all creation

an untold
       abundance
              of food & song

                             a summer

                                   worth living

                            & dying for

That Drop of Blood

That drop of blood Columbus did not shed,

that did not spill upon the island's mud –

ten thousand ancestors have held that thread

across the centuries as we have spread,

survivors of that most infernal flood.

That drop of blood Columbus did not shed,

which mixed into the raza slavery bred

(before the pipelines, tourism, and HUD),

ten thousand ancestors have held that thread

And in my veins, it mixes with the red

of those who plundered in the name of God.

That drop of blood Columbus did not shed,

when millions of Tainos died and bled –

if I have one drop of that indio blood

ten thousand ancestors have held that thread.

How now to honor these most precious dead?

(What prayer to say deep in an ancient wood?)

That drop of blood Columbus did not shed –

ten thousand ancestors have held that thread.

Americanaan

A story is a complicated thing

A book is nothing more than ink and page

But songs of freedom, we must help to sing

There are no words for this ancestral sting

this godless cruelty that stains our age

A story is a complicated thing:

a burning bush, a promised land, a king,

the truth of them is difficult to gauge

But songs of freedom, we must help to sing,

and help rewrite the lyrics, or else bring

a freedom made of genocide and plagues

A story is a complicated thing

to make the roar of guns sound like cha-ching

and endless war look like a higher stage

but songs of freedom we must help to sing

to make his story ours, to spread our wings,

and cover this whole land with truth and sage

A story is a complicated thing,

but songs of freedom, we must help to sing.

This is the Year (5779)

“O sing unto the Lord a new song;

Sing unto the Lord, all the earth!

Let the skies be glad, let earth rejoice,

Let the sea and all within it thunder praise!”

- Psalm 96

This is the Year

after Martín Espada, and all visionaries

This is in fact the year that squatters evict landlords,

as we occupy all streets / all city halls /

This is the year that torture sites

are painted into Freedom Squares

Boards of Trade

are made Room & Board

Tent cities vanish into sanctuaries

& homeless humans

move to human homes

Let the prisoners be freed

Let the refugees return

Let the workers get some rest

Let the organizers sleep

Let the truth-speakers read novels

Let the poets write about rivers

Let the rivers fill with fish!!

Let the land and everything it holds exult!

& Praise you People / praise your Rage

come ye drummers / come ye sousaphones

come you hordes of righteous screamers

Bless this Music of your thirst

for Justice, your hunger for Love

This is the Year that Water Protectors on horseback

storm the White House & throw a powwow on the lawn,

& the youth of D.C. swarm around

to cover the building’s bloody whiteness over

with technicolor prophetic graffiti!

This is the year we throw barbecues in every park

to celebrate the fact that all the legal papers have been lost

& every blessed family seeking posada has found it

This is the year the only fears that students feel

walking into school are about whether

they’ll make friends / do well on oral reports

and pass their classes

This is the year the Kochs & Goldman-Sachses pay their taxes

Washing dishes / filling prisons with their fat cat class of fascists

This is the year a law is passed prohibiting cops from gathering

in groups larger than two / unless they trade their guns for hackey sacks

This is the year that Dred Scott resurrects from the Calvary Cemetery

to lead a seige of martyed ghosts upon the hosts of Capital

This is the year that Moses & the Old Testament prophets

go toe to toe with Israeli soldiers / turning bullets into olives

This is the year the war engineers

load their drones with seeds of fruit-bearing trees

& M16s are melted down to garden shovels

This is the year that churches have a shrine for every person

Buddha meditates beside a crucifix while Krishna plays

This is the year that makes a century

The year that trumps the sleepiness of history

The year that man & the likes of him are deported

to formerly colonized islands

where they are sentenced to liftetimes

of land & water reclamation service

This is the year we use their money to pay off each other’s debts

The year We the People forget to forget

The year we turn off the reality television show that governs us

& start to govern our own reality

This is the year Mount Rushmore erupts with native flora & fauna –

sweetgrass growing out of Teddy Roosevelt’s nose

magpies flocking across George Washington’s wig

& the moutain becomes wild & sacred again

This is the year that banners unravel

& barbed-wire fences crumble,

the year wage-slaves take over

as the stock   market        topples

                        so the last will be first

                                    and the first will be last

and we’ll give what we can

and take what we need…  

This is the year food & clean water are free

& gas is too expensive for everyone

In fact This is the year we remember
why

we cannot buy

or sell the Earth -- 

                                    (we are Her)

  

If Occupy began
as a Vision

of people having the debts that crippled them cleared,

then This is the year…

If #BlackLivesMatter began as a Vision

of people walking the streets without fear,

then This is the year…

If every Movement begins as a Vision

of People empowered in body & spirit

Then this is the year it is so.

So,

Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy

                        before the Eternal…

Let the rivers clap their hands,

Let the mountains sing in chorus!

and if eyes are eyes,

… so may every silent mouth,

dry as thirsty dirt,


  

Open

       with the music  

  

         of Justice.