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The Red Flag Lyrics
The people’s flag is deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their hearts’ blood dyed to every fold
Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath it’s folds we’ll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We’ll keep the red flag flying here
It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We must not change it’s colour now
Chorus
It well recalls the triumphs past
It gives the hope of peace at last
The banner bright the symbol plain
Of human right and human gain
Chorus
It suits today the meek and base
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe beneath the rich man’s frown
And haul that sacred emblem down
Chorus
With heads uncovered swear we all
To bare it onward till we fall
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim
This song shall be our parting hymn
Chorus
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their hearts’ blood dyed to every fold
Then raise the scarlet standard high
Beneath it’s folds we’ll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We’ll keep the red flag flying here
When all ahead seemed dark as night
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We must not change it’s colour now
It gives the hope of peace at last
The banner bright the symbol plain
Of human right and human gain
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe beneath the rich man’s frown
And haul that sacred emblem down
To bare it onward till we fall
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim
This song shall be our parting hymn
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this song has great history for me. for generations my family have been members of a left wing pollitical organisation. i remember rallys and meetings where this was chanted. and also partys largely consisted of privately schooled teenagers where fights have broken out because of the playing and performing of this song.
once again, meaning is blunt
A powerful leftist song, it makes me very emotional whenever I hear it. Needless to say, the song is about the struggle for improvements in the conditions and position of workers and challenging the rule of the bourgeoisie. The song is timeless - it applies to all historical periods in which Socialists have given their lives in the revolutionary struggle.
I watched a You Tube video today title The Issue Is Thatcher. It was part of a speech given in The House of commons. He could have been speaking about today and it was late 1980s. He spoke about the only thing that mattered today (then, even more now) being tiny points on financial markets, about the loss of real skills, the loss of real jobs, the loss of real hope. About how in a war time crisis you do what needs to be done and how we should do whatever needs to be done now. About sell offs of assets, tax cuts, benefit cuts, job cuts and the only thing that matters being money markets. you can't eat decimal pints on a balance sheet. I love my country, I love the people in it, the ones who came before us, brought us up proud and willing in the hope our country would give us jobs and a living. Even if you get a job now it's hardly a living and always we're potentially human wastage. We don't even have a real labour party any more. Love, peace and justice to you all. please watch that video. One of the last of the great old politicians
bobkindles, I'm not struggling against the rule of the bourgeoisie. I just think they should share the proceeds a little more fairly. profit incentive is not a bad thing but an absolute incentive in the absence of social justice is a bad thing. A profit cut to maintain employment, a profit cut to maintain social standards when times are hard. As it stands the market don't reallocate resources to benefit society it reallocates finance to benefit finance. Long live the profit motive but tie it to democracy and social justice.
Alistair Hulett made a superb version of this song.