First, a bit of background:
On Sunday evenings leading up to last year’s election, in our sleepy hamlet of San Leandro, CA, Ms zcollins and I hosted postcard writing potlucks for friends and neighbors, with 10 to 20 people coming over to participate.
After the election, we continued gathering on Sunday evenings. At first it was to offer emotional support to one another (misery loves company), but we found that we’d gotten used to being activists and had to get back into it. Our group is now “Team Relentless”—an Indivisible chapter that organizes “call your Congress critter” campaigns, displays political banners over local freeway overpasses every week, and most recently worked to organize today’s No Kings March in San Leandro.
One of the things we wanted to do was lead the crowd in a sing-a-long at the end of the march. “I was thinking we should do ‘We Shall Overcome,” the member who had volunteered to make this happen told us, “but it doesn’t feel like the right song for this moment.” We agreed, but could we come up with anything better?
“This Land Is Your Land” was written by Woody Guthrie in 1940. It was written to be a counterpoint to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”; Guthrie thought the lyrics were unrealistic and complacent, certainly not in keeping with his strong beliefs in anti-fascism and American socialism (what we now call Democratic socialism).
“This Land” has several attributes that make it an excellent protest song:
- at its core it’s about America as an idea and a community
- pretty much everybody knows the chorus by heart
- it’s easy (and fun!) to write additional lyrics for it
- it sounds great when a crowd of people sings it at the top of their lungs
Unfortunately, yesterday me and Ms zcollins tested positive for Covid (don’t worry, we’re getting better), so we won’t be able to participate in the event we worked so hard to organize. But the lyrics I wrote for “This Land” are still being passed out to today’s attendees.
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CHORUS:
This land is your land,
This land is my land,
From California
To the New York island,
From the redwood forest,
to the gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.
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They put our people
In ICE detention.
There’s no due process;
We’ve paid attention.
We’re rising up to
Teach them a lesson!
This land was made for you and me.
CHORUS
They’re playing games with
Your health and safety.
The courts keep ruling
Against them daily.
We stand together
And face them bravely!
This land was made for you and me.
CHORUS
They steal your data,
Their crimes are endless.
They seem to think we’re
Weak and defenseless.
We’ll make them know that
We are relentless!
This land was made for you and me.
CHORUS
We need a leader
Who stands for justice,
But Donald Trump is
Weak and corrupted.
We will not rest ‘til
His gang is busted!
This land was made for you and me.
CHORUS x 2
