Song of the Old Communist lyrics

He was one of those dogged old men

Who lived in the past telling stories you don't want to know

About how it was then: the hunger, the hardship

The hopes and the struggles of so long ago

And we must have looked bored

For like sparks from the cinders

How eyes glowed with anger, his words seemed to burn

He said "I will be heard for my life is not yet over,

I've something to say yet, you've something to learn"

He said, "You who have nothing at all to believe in

To you whose motto is 'money comes first'

Who are you to tell us that our lives have been wasted

That all we've fought for has turned into dust?"

"I was only a lad when we read that in Russia

The workers, the Soviets, had taken all power

And the man they called Lenin who led them

Was our inspiration, his triumph was our finest hour"

"And I'll always remember how fear shook the wealthy

Like thieves who have just been caught out in their crime

But we who had known only war and the workhouse

Rejoiced that a new world was born in that time"

"You can't know what it meant or the pride that we felt

To know working people, people like us

Could shake off the shackles could topple the palaces

Remake the world without ruler or boss"

"It was this kept us going this dream of a new world

Through all those dark years of defeat and despair

When we who were proud to proclaim ourselves Communists

Fought for that world free from hunger and fear"

"It was 'down with the means test, no cuts in our wages'

'We want three pounds a week and a seven hour day'

And there wasn't a thing that we got but we fought for it

Don't you know bosses give nothing away?"

"And the strikes and the marches the battles to beat off

The bailiffs and coppers when hope was still young

Hot heads and hot hearts as we tested our power

'The Workers Triumphant, ' that was our song"

For a time he was silent and lost in his memories

Then but more softly his words came again

"Perhaps we fought for too much perhaps the cost was too much

There are things I know now that I couldn't know then"

"We believed revolution was just 'round the corner

And we were the vanguard to bring it about

And the other Left parties we classed as class traitors

Bourgeois social fascists of that we'd no doubt"

"And then the times changed we campaigned for the Popular Front

The old line might never have been

But we led the workers in combatting fascism

Mosley in London and Franco in Spain"

"We believed we were history's chosen

And Soviet Russia our future our heart and our soul

And the Five Year Plan was a vision of plenty

To us who'd spent half our lives on the dole"

"We knew of the trials and purges of course

And were shocked when we heard those old comrades confess

But yes we defend the first Workers State

In the face of the slander and lies of the press"

And you who have nothing at all to believe in

To you whose motto is money comes first

Who are you to tell us that our lives have been wasted

That all that we've fought for has turned into dust

You may think we were duped well we paid for our dreams

Broken lives, broken marriages, jobs lost and jail

Some lost heart in the Left, some betrayed us for medals

There are always some turncoats whose souls are for sale

But the best of us never surrendered our vision

And we kept the faith through the bleakest defeat

Do you think that was easy surrounded by hatred

The sneer of indifference the hurt of deceit

And our lives were made rich by the cause that we fought for

The friendship the fellowship sharing one pain

To transform society end exploitation

And that day will come yet but not in my time

Again he was silent and what could we tell him

That the world now was different that he'd had his day

That an old man's dreams were not our concern

But still, there was something he wanted to say

Now when I look back I see what we fought against

Homelessness hunger injustice and war

But what did fight for? What dream did we strive for?

I used to know once now I'm no longer sure

But you who have nothing at all to believe in

To you whose motto is 'money comes first'

Who are you to tell us that our lives have been wasted

That all that we've fought for has turned into dust

He was one of those lonely old men

Who live in the past telling stories you don't want to know

About how it was then the hunger, the hardship

The hopes and the struggles of so long ago