Holding the Line (Revolutionary Edition)
Channel: Emmett Doyle
Date: 2023-03-24

"Holding the Line, (Revolutionary)" is a rewrite, requested and commissioned by an organizer at the Red Pine collective in Northfield, of the song that Eugene Lerner and I co-wrote at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022. While that song celebrated the resistance of ordinary people to the invasion, this song is a celebration of different revolutionary struggles around the world throughout the last century and the struggles of workers on the picket lines. The first verse celebrates the Makhnovshchina of revolutionary Ukraine and the CNT militias of revolutionary Spain, particularly the women of Mujeres Libre. The second verse is for the Zapatistas and the revolutionaries of Rojava and the rest of Kurdistan. The final verse is for all of us, reminding of us of the deadly daily consequences of allowing capitalism to continue, and of the world we hope to win and to build.

D G D
Where the cavalry’s riding there’s partisans hiding
D A
the waiting in sends ice down their spine
Bm G
but they’ve finally held land of their own in their hands
D A D
And that’s why they’re holding the line
Before she seized her gun, she got up ‘fore the Sun
To sweat on the factory line
Now She faces each dawn and vows no pasaran
And that’s why she’s holding the line

Chorus
G D
We’ve seen it before, know they’d do it once more,
G A
As they did to the people last time
Bm G
With guns, jails, and borders they impose their order
D A D
And that’s why we’re holding the line

Ever since the conquista the latifundista
Ruled over these lands and our kind
But we’ve broken their greed and weve won land and freedom
And that’s why we’re holding the line
The village is bright in the dead of the night
Where the flares and the rocket trails shine
But her sisters and she in the mountains are free
And that’s why they’re holding the line

Chorus

Their wealth and their thrones are built over our bones
Eating pheasant and drinking their wine
While hunger takes toll of the kids on the dole
And that’s why we’re holding the line
When the struggle is won and the futures begun
And we’ll leave not a worker behind
We’ll share our new land and we’ll work hand in hand
But first we must help hold the line

Chorus
Chorus