The Socialist’s ABC
I’ve got a little song to share with you that I remember from my childhood. Don’t get confused, I’m not “the little tiny boy” — he’s in the song, okay? Note also that I’m not trying to make any political statement with the inclusion of this song: although I have admitted to leftist leanings before, it’s actually included as a reminiscence of my childhood with politicially active parents at the YS summer camp in the Forest of Dean.
I’ve also added some more references so you can find out a bit more about the people and terms used, if you like. Anyway, here goes:
The Song
When that I was and a little tiny boy, me daddy said to me “The time has come, me bonny, bonny bairn, To learn your A B C.”. Now Daddy was a lodge chairman in the coalfields of the Tyne, and his ABC was different from the Enid Blyton kind. He sang:
- A is for Alienation, that made me the man that I am, and
- B is the Boss who’s a Bastard, the Bourgeois who don’t give a damn,
- C is for Capitalism, the bosses’ reactionary creed, and
- D is for Dictatorship, laddie — but the best Proletarian breed.
- E is for Exploitation, that the workers have suffered so long, and
- F is for Ludwig Feuerbach, the first one to say it was wrong
- G is for all Gerrymanders, like Lord Muck and Sir Whatsisname, and
- H is the Hell that they’ll go to, when the workers have kindled the flame.
- I is for Imperialism, and America’s kind is the worst, and
- J is for sweetJingoism, that the Tories all think of the first.
- K is for good old Kier Hardie, who fought out the working class fight, and
- L is for Vladimir Lenin, who showed him the Left was all right.
- M is of course for Karl Marx, the mammy and the daddy of them all, and
- N is for Nationalisation, whtout it we’d crumble and fall
- O is for Overproduction that capitalist economy brings and
- P is for all Private Property, the greatest of all of the sins.
- Q is for the Quid Pro Quo, that we’ll dish out so well and so soon, when
- R for Revolution is shouted, and The Red Flag becomes the top tune
- S is for sad Stalinism, which gave us all such a bad name, and
- T is for Trotsky the hero, who had to take all of the blame (poor soul)
- U is the Union of workers, the Union will stand to the end;
- V is for Vodka, yes Vodka, the one drink that won’t bring the bends.
- W is for all Willing Workers…
…and that’s where the memory fades, ‘cos X Y and Z, me dear Daddy said, would be written on the street barricades. But now that I’m not a little tiny boy, me Daddy says to me: “Please try to forget the things I said, especially the A B C”. For Daddy’s no longer a union man, and he’s had to change his plea. His alphabet is different now, since they made him a Labour MP.
Note to commenters
I really, really don’t want to get into a discussion of politics here. Any comments that veer away from the subject of the song, or Alex Glasgow the writer, or the play Close The Coalhouse Door (which incidentally I appeared in in The Little Theatre — but didn’t make the credits it seems!) are at risk of being deleted or redacted. You have been warned.
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