When the Tear Gas Fills the Sky
Channel: fourstaranarchist
Date: 2013-02-28

When the Tear Gas Fills the Sky
(aka the Washing Machine Song or the Solidarity Song)

This song was originally written by Desert Rat after the Seattle WTO actions in 1999 and subsequently added to by Brad of Black Bridge International, women in DNC jail solidarity in 2000, Warpiper, a medic in Miami for the FTAA summit in November, 2003 and evil from the Industrial Workers of the World, between February 2002 and March 2003. Learn it, sing it, pass it on. This is everyone's.

It is sung to the general tune of an Irish folk ballad.
I've seen the lands beyond these borders,
where the corporations rule
And they spin their lies and they globalize,
and the working man's their tool
And the streams are so polluted,
that the banks are bleak and bare
And the babies all are born deformed,
and the smog is everywhere
And the workers' wages dropped
thirty percent in just one year,
Now those greedy bastards want to bring
the same conditions here.

[chorus]
So I called upon you brother,
and you asked what I would do
And I told the truth dear sister
when I spoke these words to you.
I will stand beside your shoulder
when the tear gas fills the sky,
If a National Guardsman shoots me down
I'll be looking him in the eye.
I will wash their pepper from your face
and go with you to jail,
And if you don't make it through this fight
I swear I'll tell your tale.
I will stay with you in the prison cell
in solidarity
And I will not leave that cursed room
'til you walk out with me.
For we the people fight for FREEDOM
while the cops just fight for pay,
And as long as the truth is in our hearts
we're sure to win someday.
I will not falter when that iron fist
comes out of the velvet glove,
I will stand beside you comrade
to defend this land we love.

I've heard tales of conquered islands,
where the sweatshop barons rule
Recruiting girls from the Asian slums
to be the rich man's tool,
And they're promised lives of luxury
in the golden USA,
Then they're stranded on these islands
with their passports stripped away.
And their aging fingers toil and bleed,
year after grueling year
Now those greedy bastards want to bring
the same conditions here.