On The Flag Of The Southern Cross
On the flagpost in the freshening winds the flag of the Southern Cross
That brave workers once fought under does flap and wave and toss
In Ballarat in Australia where history was made
For their rights brave men died fighting at the Eureka Stockade
The Southern Cross above where they fought in the southern winds did blow
There history was created one hundred and fifty four years ago
The happening at Ballarat became known of Worldwide
Some of the miners who fought the Government troops were badly injured and some even died
For workers rights in Ballarat the price in human blood was paid
For the rights of a fair go it did not seem a fair trade
Each time I see the flag of the Southern Cross Ballarat comes to mind
The miners there who fought for workers rights were of the bravest kind
That great flag has a history for historians to recall
It surely stands for workers rights and a fair go for all.
poem by Francis Duggan
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In Ballarat Where History Don't Fade
In Ballarat where history don't fade
They still honour the Eureka Stockade,
The miners who fought some of them even died
For their rights to them that for years they had been denied
The Town of Ballarat known far and wide
And the people there in their history take pride
Their ancestors fought against their oppressors laws
And even took up arms for their worthy cause.
The name of Peter Lalor they revere
He led the miners fight and conquered fear
But for his fame a huge price he did pay
He lost an arm on that historic day.
The miners were defeated in the bloody fight
They succumbed to the Government forces greater might
But they won their rights for which they went to war
And the story of their bravery travelled far.
In Ballarat where history was made
They still revere the men of the stockade
Who fought against the forces of the crown
Long years ago in their historic town.
poem by Francis Duggan
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The Eureka Stockade
The Bard stopped at Footscray
on the road to Ballarat
researching The Eureka Stockade
imagined the boys
manning the barricades
police bullets flying
hoisting the Southern Cross
and dying.
poem by Vince Gullaci
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Workers organized and fought for worker rights and food safety, Social Security and Medicare - they fought to change government. And they won.
quote by Sherrod Brown
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ned Kelly Is Proud
It's a sad sad day...
Our land, being taken from us
No care for the future..
They; take and taking,
Government balls deep'n
the miners; shut up money
A beaut dummy!
What would old Ned think?
What would old Ned do?
Eureka; those Legends!
Young Ned grew up to, truly awed..
Those Old fellas swore an Oath
under our Southern Cross..
' stand truly by each other and
fight to defend our rights and liberties '
Ned and the Eureka mob; laughing at
you young fella's! Struttin around, pill poppin
Loose pizzles, Straight off the production floor,
Medicured with your tough stickers...
Wearing my Mask; our Southern Cross displayed for all...
Have you earned IT? ? ? ?
It's a sad sad day...
Our LAND, being TAKEN from US! !
Young Fella's....
Where are' YOU 'at the Marches, why are
you NOT at your neighbors side...
Bash'n each other?
It's not your fault! ! ! ! ! !
Im A Good Old Rebel
(traditional, arranged by ry cooder)
Oh, Im a good old rebel
Now thats just what I am
For this fair land of freedom
I do not care a damn.
Im glad I fought against it
I only wish wed won.
And I dont want no pardon
For anything Ive done.
I hates the yankee nation
And everything they do,
I hates the declaration
Of independence, too;
I hates the glorious union-
tis dripping with our blood-
And I hates their striped banner,
I fought it all I could.
Three hundred thousand yankees
Stiffen in southern dust
We got three hundred thousand
Before they conquered us
They died of southern fever
And southern steel and shot
And I wish it was three million
Instead of what we got.
I want to reconstruct it
Im better now than then
And for that carpet beggar
I dont give a damn
So Im a forward the frontier
Soon as I can go
I could bear a weapon
And start for mexico
song performed by by Ry Cooder
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Our Own Flag
They mustered us up with a royal din,
In wearisome weeks of drought.
Ere ever half of the crops were in,
Or the half of the sheds cut out.
'Twas down with the saddle and spurs and whip
The swagman dropped his swag.
And we hurried us off to the outbound ship
To fight for the English flag.
The English flag, it is ours in sooth
We stand by it wrong or right.
But deep in our hearts is the honest truth
We fought for the sake of a fight.
And the English flag may flutter and wave
Where the World-wide Oceans toss,
But the flag the Australian dies to save
Is the flag of the Southern Cross.
If ever they want us to stand the brunt
Of a hard-faught, grim campaign,
We will carry our own flag up to the front
When we go to the wars again.
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson
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American Flag
i've had mixed feelings
about the American flag
ever since they lowered it
for President Kennedy...
it took a beating during
the civil rights movement.
and then there was Vietnam,
all the atrocities, the lies,
the wasted deaths...
the marches, the protests,
the Kent State killings...
and the flag was burned
in anger, and i understood
the anger
and now the corporate takeover,
the loss of human rights,
the loss of dignity, and hope
how many deaths does it take?
JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King
forty thousand plus in Vietnam
how many in the lying oil wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan?
how many homeless and jobless
does it take?
how many migrant workers treated
like animals?
how many old people have to lose
the benefits they've worked for?
and i think back to my old hero,
Thomas Jefferson what would he say?
maybe something like this:
'the real American flag isnt made of cloth,
it's drawn on the backs of the American workers.
male and female of all races and religions,
the people that built this country
the heart blood of this country.
when you put these people down
with your greed, your lies, your apathy
then you lower the flag.
and it can never be raised again
till all Americans walk heads up together
with hope till all have an equal opportunity
to live and be in freedom
until such day you have no flag! '
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Dont You Think It's Time?
children have rights,
women have rights.
lovers have rights.
people of all religions,
and even atheists have rights.
people of all colors,
speaking every language have rights.
trees and rivers have rights.
cats and dogs have rights.
cattle have rights,
homeless people have rights.
prisoners have rights.
democrats and republicans have rights,
even socialists have rights.
the jobless have rights,
old people have rights...
and the hungry have
the right to be fed!
damnit! dont you think it's time?
poem by Eric Cockrell
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Broken Soldier
Here stands a broken soldier
One that has fought for his life
One who has fought for your rights
One who has fought with no end
And has asked for nothing in return
Here stands a broken soldier
Much like any other
Just trying to make it through the day
Helping to keep a nation together
There is no wish for fame
No wish for glory
You may not even know his name
Still you know he is a hero
This broken soldier
Has seen his share
He has learned much more
Than what you will learn from books
He has face you each and every worst fear
He has met pain
And death was always a close friend
Knocking on his door
Waiting to be let in
But this soldier
Wasn't ready to give in
He may wonder a street
And pass you by
Yet he is still fighting by your side
And for your rights
He may seem unimportant
For he played such a small part in this huge parade
But in a war
When he is fighting
That small part becomes the parade
And helps a thousand times more than you'd think
This broken soldier knows the risks
He knows the possibility
And yet he fights
For your rights
For your Justice
And at your Liberty
poem by Alandra Nicole Moreira
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We'll Drink A Toast
We'll drink a toast to the bra burners and the noble suffragette
The Emily Pankhurst's of this World we ought not to forget
She died under horses hooves a martyr for Womens Rights
In the history of Womankind one of the leading lights.
We'll drink a toast to the women libbers a revolt amongst suppressed women they inspired
They fought for years for equal rights for women they ought to be admired
In street protests they burned their bras in their fight for equality to men
On their eforts for their gender rights give them ten out of ten.
We'll drink a toast to Womankind the mothers of today
Though men 'twould seem still rule the World of women one can say
That one day they will rule Planet Earth and peace will be Worldwide
If mothers only had their way their sons in wars would not have died.
We'll drink a toast to the fairer sex to women everywhere
Their anger levels very low when to men them you compare
In some Countries around the World today women to men do not have equal rights
Though women in many Countries have become great leaders and have scaled the success heights.
poem by Francis Duggan
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I Am... (I Am Not...)
i am the unions.
miners, teachers, steel workers,
nurses, factory workers,
standing strong and united,
demanding human decency,
fair wages and benefits.
i am not communism.
i am the common man and woman,
saying prayers with their hands
as they work;
driven by the faith in family,
teaching respect, gentleness,
and firm convictions
to their children.
i am not the elite.
i am the bruised, scarred human being.
i have fallen time and again.
i have built great dreams
that time has destroyed.
but i know what i believe,
and who i am.
i am not religious.
i am the multi-colored neighborhood.
different faiths, different languages,
the same needs and desires.
i am open conversation and acceptance.
i am not prejudice.
i am the day of revolution.
i am oppression cast off,
ignorance exposed;
i am equality, dignity,
and basic human rights.
i am not 'i, me, mine'.
i am the human condition...
evolving, changing, molded by fire,
i am the river that finds
it's way home...
i am not the end of time!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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The Southern Pulpit
The Southern pulpit, in our eyes,
Descends to make a compromise
With evil things in heaven's name;
The kind that brings a blush of shame.
The evils to the Negro shown,
His rights that Southern men disown,
We view with sorrow and distress,
Its lack of effort to suppress.
Prevailing thought it cannot cross,
If so, it feels financial loss;
The gold to it is dearer far,
Than all the rights of Negroes are.
It preached that slavery was right,
Upon the Scripture based its fight,
Why should we now expect a change
So radical? Such would be strange.
This pulpit fails to higher climb
Than sentiment at any time.
Such grades of preaching cannot live,
The truth alone can freedom give.
poem by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer
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American Wild West: Cattle Rustlers
there was a time
in American history
when cattle rustlers
were shot or hung
stealing beef on the hoof
hot irons changing brands
fast rustled up retribution
justice from a rope hung
there was a time
in American history
when cruel range wars
were fought with guns
settlers driven off farmland
starved their crops ruined
their homes stolen burned
cattle grazed homesteaders
land cattle barons prospered
water rights grazing rights
unfenced unowned range land
farmers ranchers fought wars
frontier justice lynchings
local residents fought
gunmen hired bought
no weak law range wars
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Ballade Of The Southern Cross
Fair islands of the silver fleece,
Hoards of unsunned, uncounted gold,
Whose havens are the haunts of Peace,
Whose boys are in our quarrel bold;
OUR bolt is shot, our tale is told,
Our ship of state in storms may toss,
But ye are young if we are old,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
Ay, WE must dwindle and decrease,
Such fates the ruthless years unfold;
And yet we shall not wholly cease,
We shall not perish unconsoled;
Nay, still shall Freedom keep her hold
Within the sea's inviolate fosse,
And boast her sons of English mould,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
All empires tumble--Rome and Greece -
Their swords are rust, their altars cold!
For us, the Children of the Seas,
Who ruled where'er the waves have rolled,
For us, in Fortune's books enscrolled,
I read no runes of hopeless loss;
Nor--while YE last--our knell is tolled,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
ENVOY.
Britannia, when thy hearth's a-cold,
When o'er thy grave has grown the moss,
Still Rule Australia shall be trolled
In Islands of the Southern Cross!
poem by Andrew Lang
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But today, government is taking those rights from us, pretending that it gives us our rights. Indeed, those rights come from God, and it was recognized throughout our history as such.
So Much For Human Rights And Liberty
In China they jail everyone who dare to speak their mind
And even in the so called Democratic Countries you will find
That many innocents have been jailed and even executed wrongfully
So much for human rights and liberty.
Even the United States the so called Land of the free
In human rights has a poor history
And people have been wrongfully jailed and executed there
But then it's true of course that life is not always fair.
In Britain due to acts of terror by the I.R.A.
Many for the crimes of others had to pay
And spend years in jails far from home and family
Though wrongfully condemned they suffered years of ignominy
In Australia they incarcerate refugees
In detention centres in the outback in landscapes barren of trees
Though not guilty of any crimes they spend months and years locked up because
Of bureaucratic red tape and oppressive laws.
Though for freedom and justice many young men have fought and died
Not alone in China but in Countries World-wide
People are still wrongfully incarcerated at the pleasure of the State
And due to a miscarriage of justice left to an uncertain fate.
poem by Francis Duggan
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It was the best route to get folks to understand segregation fast. Civil rights and women's rights had a clear history. Making the transition to rights for people with disabilities became easier because we had the history of the other two.
quote by Major Owens
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too.
quote by Paul Robeson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Is Freedom Free? ? ?
America, Land of the Free',
We know the phrase like the back of our hands
We say it pridefully with our flag flying high,
As we sing to the tune with the marching bands
Yet is freedom really free?
Our ancestors had to fight the English,
They had to earn what we take for granted today
Blood was shed and tears were cried,
But there was no alternate way
So tell me is freedom really free?
The Confederates and the Union went head to head,
The Civil War tore America in two
The African Americans had to fight for their rights,
They had to pay the price to do what they wanted to do
Yet we still think Freedom is really free?
Women fought for their right to be equals,
They fought for their rights to work and vote
They stumbled upon a lot of road blocks,
But they never gave up their hope
And you think Freedom is really free?
Even today we are still fighting for our freedom,
Soldiers abroad are defending our rights
Protecting our people and our homeland,
And losing thier lives in the fights
And still you say Freedom is really free?
It's something we don't always think about,
It's something we all take with a grain of salt
But what if one day, you would wake up and it was all gone,
Who do you think would be at fault?
You see little by little they're drawing the strings,
Your privacy can be invaded
Telephones tapped and cameras in your home,
If ever you are suspected
They say in order to keep us safe and our freedom intact,
They have to take such drastic measures
But stop and think for one minute,
What is the purpose of all these pleasures?
If Freedom isn't really free?
poem by Elizabeth U. Adams
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On Reading Of Racism In Ireland
I always feel disappointed when of racism I read
And when I read of it in Ireland I feel very sad indeed
For racism in society should never have a place
And people should never be judged on their colour or their race.
As the Land of saints and scholars Ireland was known Worldwide
And the Irish people suffered and their rights to them denied
But the Irish in their sense of fair play could take a certain pride
And for their human rights and liberty the sons of Ireland died.
Poor migrants from Romania their possessions weigh light
To live and work in Ireland do they not have the right?
They may come un-invited but their numbers only small
And the Irish too are migrants as history will recall.
I read it's the Irish media that fans racism's flame
If this be so of their bad work they must feel a great shame
They cannot say in years to come the fault was never ours
When they first used the noxious spray that poisoned all the flowers.
I am an Irish migrant far from my native shore
And others treat me with respect than that one could not ask for more
A fair go for all people and for everyone fair play
Those words from centuries ago are relevant today.
poem by Francis Duggan
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