(Words: Jim Connell, Tune: Tannenbaum)
The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred
dead.
And ere their limbs lie stiff and cold,
Their hearts' blood dyed to
every fold.
Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds
we'll live and die.
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep
the red flag flying here.
Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze;
The sturdy German chants its
praise;
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung;
Chicago swells the surging
throng.
Chorus:
It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It
witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour
now.
Chorus:
It well recalls the triumphs past;
It gives the hope of peace at
last:
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human
gain.
Chorus:
It suits today the meek and base,
Whose minds are fixed in self and
place.
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown,
And haul that sacred emblem
down.
Chorus:
With heads uncovered swear we all
To bare onward till we fall.
Come
dungeons dark of gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting
hymn
Chorus:
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day;
Oh,
deep in my heart,
I do believe,
We shall overcome some day.
We shall live in peace . . .
Black and white together . . .
We shall not be moved . . .
We shall ban the bomb . . .
We shall walk hand in hand . . .
We are not afraid . . .
God is on our side . . .
Peace is what we want . . .
Paddy in Number Ten . . .
Simon Hughes on time . . .
We will sack the Queen . . .
We will free the weed . . .
Press ignore Lord Holme . . .
Meadowcroft will vanish . . .
Gay and straight together . . .
Continue until Viv Bingham gets bored
(Tune: Tannenbaum)
The people's flag is slightly pink,
It's not as red as most folks
think.
We must not let the people know
What socialists thought long
ago.
Chorus:
Don't let the scarlet banner float.
We want the middle
classes vote.
Let our old-fashioned comrades sneer,
We'll stay in power
for many a year.
Some years ago the flag was red;
No-one knew then what was ahead.
It
witnessed many a deed and vow -
We cannot use that colour
now.
Chorus
It well recalled the triumphs past,
It gave the hope of peace at
last
But once in government it's plain
The red flag none shall see
again.
Chorus
With heads uncovered once we swore
Always to bear it on before.
With
power now our first concern
We have to let the red flag
burn.
Chorus
(Tune: Clementine)
In the Kremlin, in the Kremlin,
In the Spring of '39,
Sat a Russian and
a Prussian,
Working on the Party line.
Chorus:
Oh my Stalin, Oh my Stalin,
Oh my Stalin Party
line.
First he changed it, then rearranged it
Oh my Stalin Party line.
Leon Trotsky was a Nazi,
And I knew it for a fact.
First I read it,
then I said it,
'Till the Hitler-Soviet Pact.
Chorus
In Siberia, in Siberia,
Excavating a salt mine,
Dwelt an old
Bolshevik,
Who forgot the Party line.
Chorus
Change tune to Auld Lang Syne
Should auld Bolshies be forgot
And never brought to mind,
Should auld
Bolshies be forgot
For the sake of the Party line.
The Party line, the
Party line,
The line, comrades, the line.
Joe Stalin shot the bloody
lot
For the sake of the Party line.
(Tune: Tannebaum)
Standard Version
The cloth cap and the working class
As images are dated.
Now that
Labour's gone avant-garde
Is highly educated
By tax adjustments, they have
planned
To institute the promised land.
And just show that they're still
sincere,
We sing the Red Flag once a year.
Firm principles and policies
Are open to objections,
And a streamlined
party image is
The way to win elections.
So raise the neat umbrellas
high,
The mobile phone and college tie.
We stand united, raise a
cheer
And sing the Red Flag once a year.
It's one step forward, one step back,
Our dance is devilish daring
A
leftward shuffle, a rightward tack,
The pause to take a bearing.
We'll
change the country bit by bit
So nobody will notice it.
Then ever after
never fear
We'll sing the Red Flag once a year.
We will not cease from mental fight
Till every wrong is righted,
And
all men are equal, quite,
And all our leaders knighted.
For we are sure if
we persist
To make the New Year's honours list
Then every loyal Labour
peer
Will sing the Red Flag once a year.
So vote for us and not for then,
We're just as true to NATO.
We'll be
calm and British when
We steer the ship of state - o.
We'll stand as firm
as them
To show we're patriotic gentlemen,
Though man to man shall
brothers be -
Deterrence is our policy.
So raise the mushroom clouds on high,
Within their shade we'll live and
die.
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll sing the Red Flag
once a year.
1995 Version
The cloth cap and the working class
As images are dated.
In Mandleson
and Blair's regime
All lefties are frustrated.
By snappy soundbites, they
have planned
To institute the promised land.
And just show that they're
still sincere,
They sing the Red Flag once a year.
Firm principles and policies
Are open to objections,
And a streamlined
party image is
The way to win elections.
So raise the avocados
high,
The mobile phone and Fettes tie.
They stand united, raise a
cheer
And sing the Red Flag once a year.
It's one step forward, two steps back,
Their dance is not so daring
A
rightwards shuffle, the poor attacked,
A pause to take a bearing.
They'll
change the country bit by bit
So nobody will notice it.
Then ever after
never fear
They'll sing the Red Flag once a year.
No matter how far Tories go
New Labour's there before they know.
Jack
Straw may be a piece of s**te
But he's right-wing, so he's all right;
And
when he makes a hash of it,
Claire Short provides some real 'good
shit'.
Illiberal they may appear -
The Red Flag floats high once a
year.
They will not cease from mental fight
Till every wrong is righted,
And
all men are equal, quite,
And all their leaders knighted.
For they are
sure, if they persist
To make the New Year's honours list
Then every loyal
Labour peer
Will sing the Red Flag once a year.
The colour red has had to go
In place of pale pistachio -
They dance to
every tabloid's tune
And red flags just fly over tombs.
Avanti popolo, alla recossa;
Bandierra rossa, bandierra rossa.
Avanti
popolo, alla recossa;
Bandierra Rossa trionfera.
Bandierra rossa la
trionfera.
Bandierra rossa la trionfera.
Bandierra rossa la
trionfera.
Eviva la republica e la liberta
(Viva Marx, viva Lenin, viva
Mao Tse-Tung!)
E se le Russie ci de il cannone
Revoluzione, revoluzione
E se le Russie
ce de il cannone
Revoluzione, vogliamofar.
Revoluzione moi
vogliamofar
Revoluzione moi vogliamofar
Revoluzione moi
vogliamofar
Eviva il socialismo e la liberta.
E se le Cine ce de il fucile
Guerra civile, guerra civile.
E se le
Cine, ci de il fucile
Guerra civile, vogliamofar
Guerra civile moi
vogliamofar.
Guerra civile moi vogliamofar.
Guerra civile moi
vogliamofar.
Eviva il communistico e la liberta
(Gramsci, Togliatti,
Lorgo, Berlinguer!)
(Tune: Green Grow the Rushes-O)
I'll sing you one-o,
Red fly the banners-o.
What is your one-o?
One
is workers unity
and ever more shall be so.
Two, two the workers'
hands
Working for his living-o.
Three, three, the rights of
man.
(First time:Four for the International)
Four for the years it
took them.
Five for the years of the Socialist plan.
Six for the Tolpuddle
Martyrs.
Seven for the hours of the working day.
Eight for the 8th Red
Army.
Nine for the days of the General Strike.
Ten for the days that shook
the world.
Eleven for the Moscow Dynamos.
Twelve for the chimes of the
Kremlin clock.
Harry was a Bolshie,
One of Stalin's lads,
Till he was foully
murdered
By reactionary cads.
Said Harry, "Very well,
I'm not afraid to die.
I'll carry on the
Party's work
In the land beyond the sky."
So he came up to Heaven
Saw St. Peter with the keys -
"Oh can I speak
to Comrade God,
I'm Harry Pollitt, please?"
Said St. Peter to our Harry,
"Are you humble and contrite?"
"I'm a
friend of Lady Docker."
"Oh well, that will be alright."
So they took him into Heaven,
Put a harp into his hand;
But he played
the Internationale
In Hallelujah Band.
The conditions up in Heaven
Our Harry didn't like.
So he organised the
angels
And he brought them out on strike.
God walking in his garden
One evening rather like -
Who should he see
but Harry
Chalking slogans on the gate?
So they brought him up for trial
Before the Holy Ghost,
For spreading
disaffection
Among the Heavenly host.
The verdict it was 'guilty'.
Said Harry, "Very well."
He tucked his
nightie round his knees
And he floated down to Hell.
Well 7 long years have passed,
And Harry's doing well;
He's been made
People's Commissar
Of the Soviet Socialist Hell.
Now 7 more years have passed;
John Gollan's there as well,
And all the
devils
Have joined the YCL.
The moral of the story,
It isn't hard to tell:
If you want to be a CP
hack -
You've got to go to Hell.
Arise! Ye starvelings from your slumbers;
Arise! Ye prisoners of
want.
For Reason in revolt new thunders,
And at last ends the age of
cant.
Now away with all your superstitions,
Servile masses arise!
Arise!
We'll change forthwith the old conditions,
And spurn the dust to
win the prize.
Chorus:
Then comrades come rally,
And the last fight let us
face.
The Internationale
Unites the human race
Then comrades come
rally,
And the last fight let us face.
The Internationale
Unites the
human race
We peasants, artisans and others;
Enrolled among the sons of
toil.
Let's claim the earth henceforth for brothers;
Drive the indolent
from the soil.
On our flesh too long has fed the raven;
We've too long
been the vulture's prey.
But now, farewell the spirit craven,
The dawn
brings in a brighter day.
Chorus:
No saviour from high delivers;
No trust have we in prince or peer.
Our
own right hand the chains must shiver,
Chains of hatred, of greed and
fear.
'Ere the thieves will out with their booty
And to all give a happier
lot.
Each at his forge must do his duty
And strike the iron while it's
hot.
Chorus:
(Tune: John Brown's Body)
When the Union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There
can be no power greater anywhere beneath the Sun.
Yet what force on earth is
weaker that the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong.
Chorus:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity
forever,
For the Union makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash
us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to
us but to organise and fight
For the Union makes us
strong.
Chorus:
It is we who ploughed the prairies, built the cities where they trade;
Dug
the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid.
Now we
stand outcast and starving, 'midst the wonders we have made;
But the Union
makes us strong.
Chorus:
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have
laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not
to slave in, but to master and to own,
While the Union makes us
strong
Chorus:
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But
without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their
haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us
strong
Chorus:
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater
than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can break their
haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us
strong.
Chorus:
