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)
Comments