October 1917

Submitted by martin on 10 November, 2008 - 7:59 Author: SM

OCTOBER 1917
Who fears to praise Red Seventeen?
Who quails at Lenin’s name?
When liars jeer at Trotsky's fate
Who adds his, “Theirs the blame”?
Cain-Stalin’s slave, or bourgeois brave
Will scorn the Old Cause thus,
But honest men and women
Will raise a voice with us.

We praise the memory of the dead,
Of Lenin's friends long gone
Who led the workers in revolt:
An army, not a throng.
All, all are gone, but still lives on
The cause of those who died
And honest men and women
Remember them with pride.

They rose in war-burn'd, blood drenched days
To help set workers free
Their own lives fed the living blaze
That challenged tyranny:
But bourgeois might half-vanquished right
Some fell in disarray,
And others spun ’neath Stalin s gun
—And we strive still today!

We work to free all those who live
In bourgeois slavery
And glory in the names of those
Who fought for Liberty.
’Trenched bourgeois might won’t vanquish right
But break and go astray.
And honest men and women
Will speed them on their way!

Yes, we dare praise Red Seventeen,
We honour Lenin’s name.
Though cowards mock the old Red fight,
We’re still in Trotsky’s game!
Though Stalin’s knaves and bourgeois slaves
Must scorn the Old Cause thus,
Still honest men and women
Will voice this faith with us.

We hail the memory of the free,
Of Trotsky’s ’durate few
Who fought in France, Spain, Germany,
In Stalin's Russia too.
Though all are gone, they still live on,
Their cause won’t go away
And honest men and women
Can sing their song today.

Then here’s their memory, may it be
For us a guiding light
That points to workers’ liberty,
Can teach us how to fight.
Through good and ill continue still
The Cause that thrives unseen,
That brought the bourgeois tyrants down
In Nineteen Seventeen!
This goes to the tune of John Kells Ingram’s "Ninety Eight."

Comments

Submitted by Matthew on Mon, 03/11/2008 - 11:16

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