The Socialist ABC

When I was a little, tiny boy,

Me daddy said to me

The time has come my bonny, bonny bairn,

To learn your ABC.

Now Daddy was a lodge chairman

In the coalfields on the Tyne,

And his ABC was different from the Enid Blyton kind.

He sang:

A is for Alienation

That made me the man that I am, and

B’s for the boss who’s a bastard,

And bourgeois who don’t give a damn.

C is for Capitalism,

The bosses’ reactionary creed and

D’s for Dictatorship laddie,

But the best proletarian breed.

E is for Exploitation

That workers have suffered so long, and

F is for old Ludwig Feuerbach

The first one to say it was wrong.

G is for all Gerrymanderers

Like Lord Muck and Sir Whatsisname,

His for hell that they’ll go to

When the workers have kindled the flame.

I’s for Imperialism,

And America’s kind is the worst, and

J is for sweet Jingoism

That the Tories all think of the first.

K is for good old Kier Hardy

Who fought out the working-class fight and,

L is for Vladimir Lenin

Who showed him the left was all right.

M is of course for Karl Marx

The Daddy and the mummy of them all and

N is for Nationalisation

Without it we would tumble and fall.

O is for overproduction

That the capitalist economy brings and

P is for all private property

The greatest of all of the sins.

Q’s for the quid pro quo

That we’ll deal out so well and so soon, when

R is for revolution is sounded, and

The Red Flag is the top tune.

S is for sad Stalinism

That gave us all such a bad name, and

T is for Trotsky, the hero

Who had to take all of the blame.

U is for the Union of Workers

The Union will stand to the end, and

V is for Vodka, yes Vodka

The vun drink that vont bring the bends.

W’s for all willing workers,

And that’s where the memory fades,

For X Y and Z my dear daddy said,

Will be written on the barricades.

Now that I’m not a little tiny boy

My daddy says to me,

Please try to forget those things that I said

Especially the ABC,

For daddy is no longer a union man

And he’s had to change his plea

His Alphabet is different now,

Since they made him a Labour MP.

(With thanks to Bob Blenkinsop for the transcription from Alex Glasgow in performance)