Union Songs
Understanding Marx
A Song by Red Shadow©Red Shadow 1975
- [play]
Understanding Marx will straighten out your head (oh yes it will),
More than anything that you have read,
Freud's a fraud and Skinner's of no use,
Read Marx and Lenin, it will really turn you loose,When I was in highschool, I sat in the back row and I thought to myself:
This is really for shit.
I just couldn't wait to get out and do something on my own.
So I quit school and went out to look for a job.
First I waited tables,
Then I worked at Woolworths,
Then I emptied bedpans at the hospital.
But no matter where I worked - it was all the same,
And I got so I just couldn't take it anymore.
One day I went home and I found my Ma sitting there.
She'd been fired by the phone company cos they said she was too old.
And I saw a book in her lap, and I asked her what it was.
She said, "Baby, that's Capital Volume I, you know, by Karl Marx."
And I said, "Huh?"
And she said, "That's right - here, take a look."
And I read that book, and now I've come to realise:
That as long as I have to sell my labour power to the Boss, I work for his profit - and not for myself and my fellow humankind!Understanding Marx will straighten out your head (oh yes it will),
More than anything that you have read,
Freud's a fraud and Skinner's of no use,
Read Marx and Lenin, it will really turn you loose,You know, I had me a nice lookin' job,
And it paid pretty good, you know.
And I got myself a swimming pool, a Wide-Track Pontiac,
Even a SnowMobile - one of the Jap makes.
But the more I spent, the more I'd end up owing,
And I had to work overtime at the goddamn job!
Well, I'm in the locker room one night, after the shift,
And the janitor comes in, and he says:
"Fellow worker, you look mighty unhappy."
And I said, "Huh?"
He said, "Read this," and he gives me a book.
So I said, "What's this?"
And he said, "It's State and Revolution. It's by Lenin."
Well, I'm not a man who reads many books,
But I read that book, and now I know:
That as long as you sell yourself, you cannot be yourself!
And you cannot SnowMobile your way down the forest trail to Inner Peace!Understanding Marx will straighten out your head (oh yes it will),
More than anything that you have read,
Freud's a fraud and Skinner's of no use,
Read Marx and Lenin, it will really turn you loose,I graduated Magna Cum Laude/Phi Betta Kappa
And I thought I had a responsibility to help out people who didn't know how to help themselves.
So I went into the Peace Corps, and I taught Nigerians how to fix cars and run hotels,
Then I came back home and went to D.C.
I doled out money for minority businesses,
You know: Black Capitalism.
Well, one day, some Congressman came to see one of my best projects.
I couldn't believe my eyes!
The workers were on strike!
So I said, "What's going on here?"
And they said, "Prices are high! Wages are low! And working conditions are terrible!"
And I said, "But... you're working for one of your own kind!"
And they answered, "He's not one of us! Here, read this!"
It was a little book called: On The Correct Handling Of Contradictions Among The People by Mao Tze-Tung.
I've read a lot of books, but when I read that book, well, now I understand:
That the only way to bring about social change is to organise a united mass movement based on the class interest of the Proletariat!Understanding Marx will straighten out your head (oh yes it will),
More than anything that you have read,
Freud's a fraud and Skinner's of no use,
Read Marx and Lenin, it will really turn you loose.
Notes
Red Shadow ( the economic rock & roll band) consisted of 3 PHD economics. From the LP, "Live At The Panacea Hilton" (Physical Records 21-005, 1975)
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory