Because our friend aigaiopelagitis expressed some disagreements to my (candiru) interpretations upon some oi polloi's songs, a creative discussion has begun in the comments, so I move up this oi polloi's post in order to be viewed by visitors who may want to take part to it
Terra-Ist
They've poisoned and clear-felled and strip-mined this earth
Made a cess pit of the paradise that was ours by birth
They've raped and they've burned and they've plundered our world
Our banner of resistance will now be unfurled
We're nailing our colours right up to the mast
The sands of time are running out fast
To stop the nutters destroying our home
Kidnapped from our children from whom it's on loan
Enough is enough is enough of their greed
Mass eco-defence is what the earth needs
Terra-ist action all over the land
To stop the lunacy the rich have got planned
E.L.F. strike in the dead of night
See the bulldozers are burning bright
Construction area totally trashed
Earth-rape machinery utterly smashed
Some might say that we're too "extreme"
But all we want is air and water that's clean
And a green earth not a desert is what we need
Don't let them sacrifice it on their altar of greed
Rise up and conquer your fear
They can be stopped like Jose-Maria
Our world a toxic slag-heap they will make
So take whatever action you feel it's right to take
It's up to you it's up to me to make a stand
Our generation holds it's future in it's hands
Time to fight back let them do their worst
Green anarchy in action - put the earth first!
A strong call to action and support of ecosabotage against any kind of equipment used by enterprises and businessmen to destroy environment. It plays with the words (terrorist/terra-ist) because US government considers such actions as terrorism, no matter that they don’t harm people but only equipments. But today when human rights are globally under attack, and a new McCarthyism, the "Green Scare" is grown up, such eco-activist organizations (ALF, ELF, Earth First, etc) are considered the number 2 public enemy in USA after Al-Qaeda!!!!! You can see in youtube an interesting video about ALF
Take Back the Land
Tore the people from the land
Torched their houses with bloodied hands
Thousands starved or died at sea
A sickening toll of human misery
Broke the old clan system where land was there for all
And once the people had their backs against the wall
The connivance of the church cleared them off the land
"Remember it's God's will so don't try to make a stand"
They made a desert where trees once stood
Squeezing from the land every penny that they could
Ethnic cleaning of the glens for farming sheep
'Cos that way there's more profit for the rich scum to reap (rape)
"Beautiful bleak moorland?"- I don't think so
This is a place where great forests used to grow
Laid waste by a rich man's greed
Reclaim the land and plant the seed
Yet still every year, seeking their roots
They come from overseas to kiss the boots
Of the clan chief and lick the hand
Of the very people who threw their families off the land
This is nothing more than a sick farce
paying homage to the ruling class
Who, without hesitation, do it all again
Those who forget history to repeat it are condemned
"Gee, Scotland-It's so quaint
All this scenery makes me feel quite faint
Clan chief looks so good in his kilt
We never think of the blood his family spilt"
"I'm the clan chief o.k. yah
I support Scotland when they play rugger
But an independent country? there I'd draw the line
I own this land it's mine all mine
FUCK YOU, You arrogant prick
You inbred rich bastard, YOU MAKE ME FUCKING SICK
You own fuck all-except in your head
One day the land will be ours-and you'll be dead
I won't beg permission to walk the land they claim to "own"
And I won't pay no fucker to gain access to THE STONES
The rich have stolen and buy and sell our earth
But it belongs to NO ONE-or to all by right of birth
TAKE BACK THE LAND, TAKE BACK THE LAND
TAKE BACK THE LAND, TAKE BACK THE LAND
TAKE IT
A song about the stolen lands and destruction of local cultures and natural landscapes. Land is sold and becomes a property of entrepreneurs for “development”. This land may be the territory of a tribe who is replaced and thrown out in cities where they continue to live in misery, may be once free shores of forests for free camping of trekking, may be villages that are evacuated or they suffer degradation of life because of “Pharaonic” works like huge dams, mines, nuclear plants, etc. The artist call for resistance, supporting people, tribes, peasants, activists, etc all over the world who rise against any kind of trial to take their land and degrade their life.
No More Roads
Swarming over the fence in droves
We're gonna stop this road
Handcuffed to the machinery
In defence of beautiful greenery
People come from far and near
To stop the road right here
Earthmovers trashed in the dead of night
It's time to stand up and fight
Reclaim the streets
Reclaim the land
No more roads
It's in your hands
Lying down in front of the bulldozer
A courageous young girl shows her
Determination to see It through
An inspiration to me and you
To stop this road to destruction
Put an end to motrway construction
From Kernow up to Caledonia
In the spirit of Wastonia
No more roads - cars kill
No more roads - make you ill
No more roads - cars kill
Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!
A song also that supports peoples activism against the construction of new motorways and freeways that promotes car transportation at the expense of sensitive natural ecosystems and landscapes, quality of life and public health. Our country suffers a lot from such kind of development (Egnatia freeway divides bear and wolf’s habitats, and impedes the communication between villages or settlements that are located along the huge road that connects East and West in Greece. Also, huge peripheral roads destroy forests around big cities like Athens and Thessaloniki worsening the bad atmospheric conditions and air pollution in them)
The Earth Is Our Mother
How can you buy or sell the sky? The warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is scared to my people - every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in our memory and experience. The sap which courses through the trees carries our memories - we are part of the earth and it is part of us. We know that the white man does not understand our ways - one portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy and when he has conquered it he moves on. He leaves his father's graves behind and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth birthright are forgotten. He treats his mother the earth and his father the sky as things to be bought, plundered or sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert. I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains my eyes. There is no quiet place in the white man's cities - no place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring or the rustle of an insects wings. The clatter only seems to insult the ears - and what is there to life in one cannot hear the lonely cry of the Lapwing or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? What is man without other animals? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens t othe beasts soon happens to man - all things are connected. Teach your children what we have taught our children: That the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.
The secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men.
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living - and the beginning of survival...
you can hear a song from this album in youtube "Don't burn the witch". In the beginning you can hear the singer making some statements in Greek: It's about two very famous Greek antiauthoritarian political slogans: "Να καεί να καεί το μπουρδέλο η βουλή!" & "Μπάτσοι, γουρούνια, δολοφόνοι!". The translation is "Burn, burn, the bordel Parliament" & "Cops, Pigs, Murderers!"
05 August, 2008
Album: "Fuaim Catha" by oi polloi (1999)
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2 comments:
I have a different perception of non-violence than all these extremist animal rights groups (like ALF) and I don't support them as much as my friend Candiru. Their non-organized structure permits many foolish or more extremist than the core members actions and even provocations. There have been terrible actions, like the "theft of Gladys Hammond's body". It is another thing a single symbolic action and another the systematic use of destructive and vandalizing actions. In my non-violent philosophy there is more emphasis to logical arguments and persuation and colourful demonstrations in order to protest. Violence leads to more violence, since it creates a vicious circle. Such conspiratorial and military-like or commando-like actions also give wrong impressions to the public and can be used by governments and large corporations in order to defamate the whole environmentalist and green movement. It's like giving weapons to your enemy to destroy you.
Being an anti-authoritarian (but not anarchist), I consider such actions as authoritarian. And of course I don't endorse silly violent anarchist slogans like "burn the parliament" or "burn the rich". I prefer positive and not negative or hatefull messages and actions. Like John Lennon said, I will participate in the revolution only if it is with flowers.
Personally I don't support violent actions that do harm to any kind of life, but I support or don’t condemn actions that only destroy property, equipment or machinery that is used to do harm to environment and produce pain and death. These teams have principals not to harm any kind of life. Any harm of life by individuals acting in the name of such teams can't be considered action of these teams. But that is a great problem of the extreme decentralising way these teams act: They can’t protect their reputation anywhere in the world either for the effectiveness of an action (e.g. not to produce extensive and disproportional destruction to their target) or its morality (e.g. not to harm life). Also they are vulnerable to provocative counteracts.
I believe that the action of such eco-activist teams is morally right and justified but wrong from a communicative perspective concerning manipulation by mass media, authorities and corporations in order to defame environmental activism as a whole, as my friend aigaiopelagitis notifies.
I also do admire their passion, morality and devotion to a great ideal, a thing that today has been diminished completely in socio-political life. They risk their life and freedom in favour of other forms of life of the environment. Unfortunately ecological movements who join political parties have been corrupted and support even wars and current heavily devastating and exploitative status (e.g. they talk about “green capitalism”), express or adopt authoritarian tactics or they waste their energy in political pettiness and low motives and personal ambitions.
As to the antiauthoritarian slogans and songs: in any kind of emotional expression we can't take seriously and literally their form, it's completely silly. Sure, oi polloi don't urge us to abduct rich people and burn them with gasoline (Don’t burn the witch, burn the rich). They mean that people use to consider enemy the wrong persons or political movements who fight for their rights, freedom, environment and social justice (communists, anarchists, ecological activists) by supporting or making consent to their persecution and on the other hand they respect and admire those who is the real cause of their misery and environmental destruction in favour of their profit and greed, those who wear suit and ties, who appear with friendly and familiar image in manipulated mass media. This situation must be reversed, we must reject the real enemies and not support them, that's what oi polloi call us to do.
So did the slogan for the burning of Parliament, it's metaphorical, because representative democracy was considered a cheat even by J. J. Rousseau. Nowadays, is a completely degenerated institution in the hands of those who want to promote and support their personal interests and enterprises. A deep realization of this by the majority of people would make such an institution to collapse. The slogan is a call to such a realization and consequent rejection not of course a call to burn the building of Parliament. We must "burn" (reject) the institution, the socio-political relations that produce exploitation, repression, totalitarianism. That "burn" is an incineration of these imposed to our mind relations that impede our taking part to the solution of social affairs and issues that are of our great concern. We must "burn" our "internal cop" and be transformed to real free, autonomous and responsible citizens.
Candiru
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