Class Struggle

[Cahill]

I am doing a project for my Government and Ideologies class. We have to find a song about class struggle and then bring it in, make the class listen to it, and then I have to explain the song and whatnot. I am trying to find a good song, I was thinking about using Down Rodeo by Rage Against The Machine, but I am looking for other suggestions. The song can not have excessive profanity. I would be very grateful if you guys could help me.

[Black Dagger]

These songs have class struggle themes:

Burnin' and Lootin' - The Wailers

Assasination - Dead Prez
Hell Yeah - Dead Prez
I have a dream too - Dead Prez
Walk like a warrior - Dead Prez

All Wi Doin Is Defendin' - Linton Kwesi Johnson
Di Great Insohreckshan - Linton Kwesi Johnson

Live from the plantation - Mr. Lif

Break the chain - Sun Rise Above
In the nightmare- Sun Rise Above
Shame - Sun Rise Above
Sleepers - Sun Rise Above
This means war - Sun Rise Above

Downpressor man - Peter Tosh


There's probably a lot more by these and other artists, this is all i can think of at the moment.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

I like Let's Lynch The Landlord by Dead Kennedys

[The Grey Blur]

This Ain't No Picnic - The Minutemen

The Minutemen's lead singer/guitarist D.Boon was working in a garage for a pittance and when he put some jazz on the radio his boss came over and told him to turn off "that nigger shit"

He wrote the song about his frustrations

Also, a counter-foil to the sort of unorganised, organic class struggle-based music would be the Redskin's 'Unionize' - it preaches organisation and unity as opposed to vague revolutionary rhetoric

You can guess that they're Trotskyists

We can talk about petrol bombs and revolutions all day long
But if we fail to organise we'll waste our lives on protest songs

[Palmares]

"Guilty" by Oi Polloi.

It has a cool soundclip about the Class War newspaper etc.

Not sure of any other's at the moment.

[heavymanners]

How about "Worker's Song" (see lyrics below)? The Dropkick Murphys cover it on their "Blackout" CD. It was written by Ed Pickford, but originally made famous by the Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan.


Worker's Song

( Words & Music: Ed Pickford )

Come all of you workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead

In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed

But when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
When we've never owned one handful of earth?

We're the first ones to starve the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about

All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can

© Ed Pickford

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

There's always the best song ever written: The Internationale