zlacker

It is revolting and amazing to me to see the lengths to which police in the self-styled freest country in the world go to brutally repress these protests; and even more so, the fact that there still exists some defense of their behavior in the media.

In my own country, a former communist country in Eastern Europe, there were last year some anti-government protests that ended one night with the police gratuitously shooting tear gas at the crowd. This caused widespread outrage and was universally covered in the press. They didn't dare do it on subsequent protest nights again, and it remained a subject of discussion for months, with almost no defense even from the more government-friendly news outlets.

>>tsimio+(OP)
They haven't even reached "brutally" yet.

Dr. King advocated non-violent, economic, protest on 3.4.1968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23414101 On 4.4.1968 they showed him the violence inherent in the system.

Do you have any good anti-authority songs in your country? I've been trying to think of what might be good ones in the US tradition.

    In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, 
    By the relief office I seen my people; 
    As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking 
    Is this land made for you and me?

But that's an ancient one... probably the kids are way ahead of me on this front?

>>082349+66
We do have one [0], from 1990, a series of protests right after the 1989 revolution (the protests were violently squashed by miners with pickaxes summoned by the president of that time).

It goes something like this (in a somewhat word for word translation, and keeping in mind that the big bad at the time were leaders of the former communist party):

    Better a vagrant,
    Than a traitor,
    Better a hooligan,
    Than a dictator,
    Better a hoodlum,
    Than a party activist,
    Better dead,
    Then a communist

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSlUW5Imylc

>>tsimio+tq
mersi — this is about the protestors, was it ever sung by them?

(coincidentally, YT just suggested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJTOD5jjac4 )

>>082349+a22
I was too young back then, but my impression is that this was sort of sung in concert among the protesters.

I may be wrong and it may have been after the fact though, I'm not entirely sure.

The lyrical voice is meant to represent the voice of the protesters, for what that's worth - it's not singing about 'them', but about 'us'.

That related video is pretty sad to see - one of the greatest freedom fighter and labor rights[0] protest songs, perverted as a commercial for some Netflix TV series...

[0] in case you haven't heard it before, there's an even older version then the anti fascist one, which was a protest song from the women working the rice paddies in 19th century Italy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6CW6l-A1rnk

>>tsimio+VH3
grazie! I hadn't heard that one.

The wobblies anticipated Portal's "The Cake is a Lie" with "Pie in the Sky":

    Work and pray, live on hay
    You'll get pie in the sky when you die, that's a lie

but later got googlebombed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6n71-zctE

(it's also bleakly amusing to have learned from Youtube that Paul Robeson —up until they cancelled his passport— sang different words to "Old Man River" in the US and in the USSR)

On a lighter note, it seems US kids do still sing "This Land" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRnHx3yVuf4