School days, school days,
Murderous and cruel days.
We’re paying taxes to train those guys,
Who torture and murder in the guise
Of protecting democracy.
Oh, what a cruel irony!
So join the campaign to shut it down,
And free those who were put in jail.
Now the cold war is over,
We should have peace at last.
Why are we spending billions
On weapons as in the past?
Have we channeled our military budget
To give us jobs and health?
Are we still squandering money
On missiles which take so much wealth?
It’s up to the folks of our country,
People like you and me,
To express our concern and outrage
Against such a wrong policy.
We surely can stop this nonsense.
We must say what se stand for:
A world that is peaceful and friendly
And free from the horrors of war.
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We want a new choice,
No SOA.
Though it’s helping freedom they’re claiming
Their purpose really is maiming,
Our taxes must not
Be used for this plot
NO SOA.
To change this situation,
We’ve got to close this school,
End all the brutal violence,
And the military rule.
Soooo, join this gaggle of Grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how, NO SOA.
We really mean it, NO SOA
We mean precisely NO SOA
Read our lips: (mouth: NO SOA)
Stop wasting money on FFTF
And clean, clean, clean
Clean up the messes you’ve already made
And don’t make any more.
FFTF’s not needed
To make those isotopes,
So, shut down FFTF
And clean, clean, clean.
You’ve polluted the air and the water
Irradiated sheep and cows,
Seeped toxics toward the Columbia,
Oh what, oh what, will you do now!
You didn’t cause harm to our thyroids
The government says you did not,
But of course it took years to discover
Your nuclear gas release plot.
Use all of your budget for cleanup,
And to compensate folks you have harmed
It’s time you made up for the damage
You’ve caused with your nuclear farm.
We’ve written, we’ve sung and we’ve spoken,
All of it to no avail,
No matter how reasoned our stance is,
You just keep ignoring our tale.
We want to be told of decisions
To reduce cleanup efforts before
It’s too late to take any action
To impact the process once more.
We want what we say to be heeded,
Not filed in another report,
And alternative viewpoints considered,
Not just as a last resort.
We’re tired of coming to hearings
And giving our views every year,
What’s the use of this public involvement
If all we get is a deaf ear.
No taxes for FFTF, FFTF, FFTF,
No taxes for FFTF,
We simply will not pay.
Spend the dough for cleanup,
Cleanup, cleanup,
Spend the dough for cleanup,
Not FFTF.
Now that fast flux is ended
Now we have won at last
We celebrate our victory
Cause that dire threat has passed.
We thank all the people in this room
For all the work they’ve done
Now we must all work to see that
Cleanup is job number one.
We still have a federal budget
That shortchanges people’s health
And they are still squandering money
On missiles that take so much wealth.
We’ll keep opposing this outrage
We will keep on with the fight
To create a world that is peaceful
Where nuclear war won’t ignite
How many times must we come before you
To tell you to shut that thing down?
How many times must we testify
Before you will hear our call?
How many times must we stand up here
Before you will listen to our plea?
The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.
(August 2000)
How many dollars have gone down the drain
To keep FFTF on line?
How much cleanup could you have done
With all that money and time?
How many years will you keep searching for
A reason for it to survive?
The answer, my friend, is all politics,
The answer is all politics.
How many dollars have been wasted
To keep FFTF on line?
How much cleanup could you have done
With all that money and time?
How many years will you keep searching
For a reason for it to survive?
The answer, my friend, is all politics,
The answer is all politics.
Get rid of that Fast Flux reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it
So get it shut down by this fall.
Chorus:
Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me,
Fast Flux, Fast Flux,
Get rid of Fast Flux for me.
The budget to clean the environment
Will be cut thirty-five percent
Don’t waste thirty million on Fast Flux,
For cleanup it’s much better spent.
Chorus
Empty those high level waste tanks,
Vitrify seventy-five percent,
Don’t leave leaking active waste here
Despoiling our environment
Uphold the Tri-Party agreement,
Protect the Columbia’s fish,
We don’t want radioactive salmon
To be served up to us on our dish.
Line all the low-level waste ground,
Ensure they are safe for all time,
Clean up the soil and ground water,
Meet all of the legal deadlines.
Clean up, cleanup,
Cleanup is job number one,
Cleanup, cleanup,
That is what must be done.
There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
There’s a crust upon the bubble in the tank.
But if the bubble it should burst
You will see the worst
Disastrous mess that you have ever seen.
If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
If you don’t know what to do with the tank,
Then why on earth would you create
Ad deadly new mistake
By putting FFTF back on line?
Concentrate your bucks on cleanup, do you hear!
Concentrate your bucks on cleanup , do you hear!
We don’t need a new disaster
Plaguing us forever after,
So shut down FFTF for all time.
Uphold the November decision,
Do not restart FFTF
It’s long past the time that it ended
Before it makes a new mess.
Put milestones in the cleanup agreement,
To shut Fast Flux once and for all,
We’re sick of you delaying deadlines,
Just shut it right down by the fall.
Retrieve leaking waste from the waste tanks,
Vitrify at least 20 percent,
Import no more low-level wastes here
Stop delaying much needed treatment..
Get rid of that Fast Flux Reactor,
Shut it down for once and for all,
We really don’t want and don’t need it,
So get it shut down by the fall.
Forty-four million would buy us more cleanup
Not danger of future misuse
To produce isotopes or plutonium
For which there isn’t any good use.
We’re sick of you delaying deadlines
And wasting our dollars to keep
That blasted reactor on standby
It’s past time to put it to sleep.
You pay the contractors for failing
To do what they should have done
Then reduce the dollars needed for cleanup
This really is not what we call fun.
How long will you waste our tax dollars
To keep that damn thing on the line
We’ve told you for years don’t want it
Must we do it yet another time.
Come all of you good workers,
Good news to you I’ll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell
Come all of you stockholders,
Vote for a raise in pay.
It’s all those old retirees
Made Boeing great today.
It really is the workers
Who make you all your dough,
Let them share the profits,
The only way to go.
So listen to our song now,
Do the right thing today,
Give retirees and increase.
Help us to make their day.
We shall not be, we shall not be moved!
We shall not be, we shall not be moved!
Just like a tree that’s standing by the water,
We shall not be moved.
More lines:
We need good pay for teachers…
Young and old together…
We fight for equal status…
We support our teachers…
Let’s all work together…
We must all be strong…
We shall live in peace…
Nike shoes and Starbucks beans
Make millions a day
But workers who produce them
Get starvation pay.
One dollar fifty a day
Is the workers take
For the hundred eighty buck shoes
That Nike makes.
Bean pickers for Starbucks
Also get the shaft
One dollar twenty a day
Forces them to fast.
Nike town, oh, Nike town,
Why don’t you behave,
Share your mammoth profits
With those who sweat and slave.
Starbucks, Starbucks, coffee czars,
You can also share,
With those who pick your beans
Wages that are fair.
Let’s boycott these products
Till there’s decent pay
Corporations can afford
Sixty bucks a day.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Helms and Gingrich promise folly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Poor will lose all their apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
Far more children will face peril,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Right wing crazies they are jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Think they’ll have their way by golly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Now it’s time to start the war,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
To fight poverty once more,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Take the gross out of groc’ries,
Keep altered food off our plates.
Some of these products sound quite bizarre!
Keep mom’s home cooked fav’rites just as they are…
This is just what we’ve feared and
You know who is to blame.
Put a freeze on facsimiles—
End Monsanto’s game!
Take the gross out of gro’ries.
We are playing roulette.
Who can tell what will come of this change,
Or what happens when food’s rearranged?
Cause it’s gross, gross, gross what they’re doing.
Gene splicing’s really a shame.
We’ll get down on our knees and say PLEASE!
End Monsanto’s game
They’ve poisoned the food on our dishes
Even breast milk contains PTPs
We eat, drink and breathe those pollutants,
When will you ban their release?
We’ve waited for you to do something,
Protecting the public’s your job,
But we haven’t seen any action,
To end this chemical fog.
It’s past time for you to take steps to,
Ban all those persistent PTPs,
Don’t allow any more releases,
Start to cleanup, now, if you please.
They gave us E-coli and deserts,
They raised our cholesterol, too.
They’re chopping down all the rain forests,
To bring those big Ma-acs to you.
They could use all the grain they feed cattle
To end all starvation on earth.
Resolve to stop e-eating beef now,
It also reduces your girth.
Chorus
Quit eating red meat for your health, dear,
For love of cows, piggies and sheep,
You’ll cut both your weight and your food bill,
And they won’t all be put to sleep.
Chorus
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re telling those chumps,
We’re sick of the stumps,
Save the trees!
We know that you mean well Plum Creek,
It’s protecting nature that you seek,
So leave some more trees
For the birds and the bees,
Save the trees.
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
We’ve gotten off of our fannies,
We’re raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
Save the trees.
We really mean it,
Save the trees,
We mean precisely,
Save the trees…
We’ll say it nicely,
Save the trees.
READ OUR LIPS: (Mouth) Save the trees!)
In my sweet little Alice Blue gown,
I tripped blithely down into the town.
There were cops everywhere,
A WTO affair,
And on every street corner,
Protesters were there.
They were calling for a living wage,
And to rewrite each WTO page.
They don’t want modified food,
Or forests that are nude
Here or anywhere else on earth.
The World Trade Organization
Supersedes the laws of all the nations.
Trade is the answer, profit is the king.
To heck with human right, they don’t mean a thing.
Unelected corporate bosses make all the rules.
Guess they take us all for a bunch of fools.
No more labor standard, down with environment.
Child labor is much cheaper, sweatshops charge less rent.
Patent all the seeds, make the farmers pay,
Bioengineering is the order of the day.
Now the time has come to stop this corporate plan.
We want trade that’s fair, not this free trade scam.
Put a stop to this train of devastation
Before it wrecks the planet and our entire nation.
Replace the corporate rulers with people we elect.
Make rules that serve all people, not just the select.
Chant: WTO SIMPLY HAS TO GO! (three times)
BEGONE!
No taxes for the stadium, the stadium, the stadium,
No taxes for the stadium,
We simply will not pay.
Housing for the homeless, the homeless, the homeless,
Housing for the homeless,
Not welfare for the rich.
We have told them No, before, No, before, No, before,
We have told them No, before,
Don’t they understand.
One more time our message is, message is, message is,
One more time our message is,
NO MORE STADIUMS.
Away in DC, no crib for a bed,
All the poor and the homeless lay down their cold heads.
The stars in the Congress look down where they lay
And say: Get a job and get out of our way.
The cattle are lowing, the farmers are glad,
Because price supports are sure to be had.
I love thee, Jesse Helms, look down from on high.
Subsidize our tobacco ‘til doomsday is night.
Jingle bells, ring a ding,
We are catching on,
How this corporate welfare works
It’s not a pleasant song.
Chorus: Oh, jingle bells, ring a ding,
We are catching on,
How this corporate welfare works,
It’s not a pleasant song.
Repeat
Dashing through the world
On a corporate welfare sleigh,
Profit, profit, is their song,
They’re laughing all the way.
We’ve got a thought or two,
About your dirty schemes,
About the garbage, land and sea
What free trade really means.
Chorus
They export jobs afar,
To pay a cheaper wage,
The union guy is unemployed
And we are in a rage.
We subsidize the firm
We give them tax breaks too,
The third world countries protest,
But can’t afford to sue.
Chorus.
Oh, we’re a gaggle of Grannies,
Urging you off of your fannies,
We’re raising our voice,
We want a new choice,
No FTAA.
With their world wide domination,
They’ll do the planet in,
We have got to stop them,
We must not let them win.
So join this gaggle of grannies,
Get up off of your fannies,
We’re telling you now,
We’re angry and how,
No FTAA.
We really mean it, No FTAA,
We mean precisely, No FTAA,
We’ll say it very nicely, No FTAA
READ OUR LIPS: (mouth No FTAA)
Affluenza, affluenza,
What a drug, what a drug!
Buying makes us feel great
But depletes the planet,
Enough is enough! Enough is enough!
Today buy nothing, today buy nothing.
You will see, you will see,
You will have more options,
The earth will be more healthy,
Do it now, do it now.
The chosen site of Hanford is for radioactive waste.
It mixes in our water and we all can have a taste.
The river called Columbia is about to get some too.
Nuclear soup for me and you!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!
We have so little money for clean up the mess,
We’re spending it on armaments that bring us happiness.
So what’s a little poison when you mix it in your tea—
It builds the economy!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Leaking tanks forever!
Plutonium makes us strong!
(Kay Thode)
They handed over sovereignty
For governing Iraq.
The plan for our self-government
Really is on track,
But we’re NOT allowed to MAKE laws
That the U.S. doesn’t back,
And we’re still occupied!
We HAVE a new prime minister
Who worked FOR the CIA.
Those U.S.milit’ry bases
Are surely here to stay.
Our resources have been privatized,
Free markets rule the day,
And we’re still occupied!
Yankee Doodle wants to know
Everything you’re doing:
The books you check out, what you buy,
The web sites you are using.
Yankee Doodle calls it terror
Depending on conditions,
Like the color of your skin
And political positions.
Yankee Doodle hates dissent,
Says that’s not patriotic.
We say if you crush dissent
Your reign is quite despotic.
Yankee Doodle’s henchman Ashcroft
Hates us for our freedoms.
As for First Amendment rights,
He doesn’t think we need ’em.
additional verses
Yankee Doodle’s Patriot Act
Got no votes from the braver.
The others went along with it
For fear of losing favor.
Yankee Doodle terrified
The so-called liberal voices.
Congress folks need more backbone
And to make better choices.
Slavin’ at Work First, we start at daybreak,
Gettin’ the kids up and off to day care,
And then get the bus and work nine hours till dusk.
When work is over, we get the kiddies,
And do the shoppin’ and then the cookin’,
But laundry’s waitin’ and kids have homework to do.
Welfare moms all sweat and slave
At dead end jobs for minimum wage,
Work all day, then at night,
Keep getting poorer, no end in si-ight.
We are tired and sick of tryin’.
Can’t pay the rent and the kids are tryin’.
But the welfare clo-ock, it just keeps tickin’,
It just keeps tickin’ along.
If you’re rich and ask for welfare, they will come.
If you’re rich and ask for welfare, they will come.
They will grant a new exemption
From state and local taxes,
They will grant a new exemption when they come.
If you’re poor and ask for welfare, they will come.
If you’re poor and ask for welfare, they will come.
They will tell you there’s a limit,
And YOU have reached that limit,
They will tell you there’s no welfare, when they come.
If you’re poor and cold and homeless, they will come.
If you’re poor and cold and homeless, they will come.
They will kick you off the sidewalk
And say (speak)“You’re bad for business”
They will kick you off the sidewalk when they come.
So it’s time to build a movement, yes it is.
Oh, it’s time to build a movement, yes it is.
That will help the poor and needy—
(speak) NOT the corporate greedy!
Oh, it’s time to build a movement that helps all.
The clock is tickin’ day by day,
Thanks to “reform” welfare’s going away.
Who cares if you’re hungry
Or can’t pay the rent?
Jobs are the answer
Said the President…Clinton, that is.
Now five years are up
On the welfare clock.
There’ll be more homeless
Sleeping on the block.
It’s time to pay moms
Who take care of their kids.
Raise the grants!
Lift the lid!
Oh, I went to the poll booth
And what did I see
But a ballot so peculiar
That it puzzled me.
I punched out the holes
As best as I could,
Cause I didn’t want Bush,
I knew where I stood…Democratic.
When the votes were all counted,
Al Gore he had won,
But the new president
Is George Bush’s son…How can that be?
So this is what we gotta do,
To stop that man from carrying through
His plan to wreck the environment,
And end the right to choose,
And give us all the blues…Real Blues.
We’ve gotta get together and unite,
Black, brown and yellow, red and white;
Work like H to prevent
George from carrying out his intent…Together, united!
When he can’t get it up,
There’s a pill now at the bedside.
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
It will thrill him, it will fill him,
With passion unrelenting,
If he has enough cash
To withstand the rash
Of blue tinted skin
And blood rushing in
While the drug companies
Rake in the dough.
When the mood is upon us
He’ll act like Adonis.
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
There’s money in it!
Viagra is a boy’s best friend.
If you’re poor and use cocaine,
You’ll go to jail.
If you’re black and use cocaine,
You’ll go to jail.
They will slap you in the cooler
And tell you you’re a loser,
They will slap you in the cooler
When they come.
If you’re rich and use cocaine,
They’ll slap your wrist,
If you’re rich and use cocaine,
They’ll slap your wrist,
They will tell you to get treatment,
And let you out tout de suitement,
They will let you out quite quickly,
When they come.
So it’s time for equal treatment–yes it is!
Oh, it’s time for equal treatment–yes it is!
Let’s decriminalize drug use
And treat all users equal,
Oh, it’s time for equal treatment–yes it is!
Oh, two million in our country are in jail,
Two million in our country are in jail.
A main reason is the drug war,
And we are here to say, NO MORE,
We want taxes spent for treatment, not for jails.
If you’re jailed for three drug crimes,
You’re there for life!
If you’re jailed for three drug crimes
You’re there for life!
They have jailed five hundred thousand
All of them for drug crimes,
We must end this senseless drug war right away.
Chorus:
We must all take a stand
It’s wrong to grab more land,
Such actions must be banned,
We must take down the wall.
Chorus
Return confiscated lands,
Extend a helping hand,
This is our demand,
We must take down the wall.
Chorus
Keeping folks from care,
Leads to more despair,
And rage builds everywhere,
We must take down the wall.
Chorus
Don’t let our tax bucks go,
To make more hate and woe,
Stop building the wall with our dough,
We must take down the wall.
Final rousing chorus
I went to the insurance company.
They turned my claim down there,
Said it wasn’t covered,
And they really didn’t care.
O, I went to see my doctor,
And he said he couldn’t spend
Fifteen minutes with me!
Such things have got to end.
Oh, my pills they cost me plenty,
And I know I’m going broke.
This new fangled health care,
Truly is no joke.
So, send Congress a message:
Pass single payer now!
We all really need it—
It’s good for us, AND HOW.
WTO has met again, this time Qatar.
The Persian Gulf’s an unlikely place—it’s quite bizarre.
They don’t want protesters to have their say.
They chose a site that is far, far away,
But they got our message: We demand fair trade!
Third World countries are put on the spot—what else is new?
They want more markets and balance of power, wouldn’t you?
Agriculture and textiles were pulled from the talks;
Those critical matters would be deadlocked.
So much for free trade: Do it our way or not!
The message from Brussels and Washington is liberalize,
While we in the West protect our own and subsidize.
Dirty water, poverty, pricey drugs
Should no longer be sanctioned and swept under rugs.
Give us fair trade, union made! Share in the common lot.
Prisons, prisons, more jails,
The answer to our system’s travails,
Where seldom is heard,
An encouraging word,
And the skies are not seen all day.
We lock up our poor,
And then they’re no more,
And we’ll feel so much better this way,
We’re building more cells,
Stuffing folks in these hells,
And big bucks get made that way.
Oh, give me a home,
Where drug agents don’t roam,
And no one is jailed for drug use,
Where the billions are spent,
For good drug treatment,
And addicts are free from abuse.
Look around you, see the people
Who are working everyday
For the kind of world we all want,
Where healthy children laugh and play
A world with no more nuclear arms,
Guns are banned and want is rare,
Where all races live together,
Everyone has good health care.
Wanna liberate a country?
Well I’ll tell you what to do:
Bomb the lights and the water
And spread DU.
(Depleted Uranium, that is.)
Loot all the treasure and
When that’s done.
Set up military bases
For the long run.
Wanna liberrate another
When one’s under our control?
Say it has WMD–
We’re on a roll.
Maybe we’ll pick Syria,
Maybe Iran.
Or is it North Korea
That fits our plan?
Wherever there’s a region
That we want to control,
We’ll send our troops and bombers
To achieve our goal.
No one else has our power
And the U.N. is done,
So we’ll soon control the whole world
Everywhere beneath the sun.
I want to hear the whole world sing
In perfect harmony,
To hear the song of birds, not guns,
Let music set us free.
Free to love and give up hate,
Embrace all humankind.
Let’s start today with songs of peace,
Let them fill our minds.
Let’s start a revolution,
Of song and love and light,
Let every person on the earth
Lift voices clear and bright.
Let’s end the killing and the wars,
And let our songs take flight.
We’ll make a peaceful world where all
Live without war and fright.
I want to hear the whole world sing
In perfect harmony,
To hear the song of birds, not guns,
Let music set us free.
Free to love and give up hate,
Embrace all humankind.
Let’s start today with songs of peace,
Let them fill our minds.
There are millions who’re sle-eping out in the street.
Clutching their bundles they all have no heat,
No place to call home or bed for their head—
They’re lucky if some of them even get fed.
In this rich prosperous country wouldn’t you think
We could house all the homeless as quick as a wink,
If we weren’t spending billions on weapons of war.
Let’s use diplomacy! Make war no more.
When wages are too low to pay the high rent,
And cities refuse to even put up a tent,
It’s time for a change—on that we agree.
More bucks for housing is what we need!
spoken:
More bucks for housing is what we need!
Now that Fast Flux is ended,
Now we have won at last,
We celebrate our victory
Cause that dire threat has passed.
We thank all the people in this room
For all the work they’ve done,
Now we must all work to see that
Cleanup gets completely done.
We still have a federal budget
That shortchanges people’s health
And they are still squandering money
On missiles that take so much wealth.
We’ll keep demanding more dollars,
We will go on with the fight,
‘Til they’ve finished the cleanup
And the job has been done right.
Market shares have risen, honey—ain’t it great!
Ten thousand workers were laid off, but— that’s their fate.
Oh, free markets are so nice,
But the workers pay the price.
Jobs have been exported to a—cross the seas.
Wages there are so much lower—if you please.
Who cares if wages are down,
In your old home town.
Oh, when the workers lose, the markets— rise and rise.
Profits are the only thing to—maximize.
Oh, oh, don’t you agree
That this shouldn’t be.
Wake up, workers, now it’s time to—rise and fight
NAFTA and FTAA with all your might.
Oh, free markets are so nice.
But the workers pay the price.
So if you want the workers to have— their fair share,
Join exploited workers here and—everywhere.
Fight for what is your due—
It is up to you!
Deck the halls with boughs of holly.
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Do away with nuclear folly.
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Grannies in their bright apparel,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la l
Sing about the nuclear peril!
Fa la la la la, la la la la
For your attention, we are dressed
Fa la la la la, la la la la
For peace on Earth, you might have guessed.
Fa la la la la, la la la la
We will sing out all our protest,
Fa la la la la, la la la la
’Til we end the nuclear menace!
Fa la la la la, la la la la
Junk food in the halls,
And Pepsi machines too.
Does the school board think
These are good for you?
Rotting our kids’ teeth,
Making kids obese!
It isn’t nice to push caffeine
‘Cause of a corporate lease!
Chorus:
Oh, no logos, no more ads!
Get them out of schools.
That isn’t education
And we’re not corporate tools!
(Repeat)
Have a tax revolt
For a progressive tax,
Raise the bucks for schools,
Give corporate lease the axe!
No more corporate ads,
Or junk food in our schools.
What fun to have organic foods—
That will be really cool!
Chorus
We’re gonna dance a little, prance a little,
Say goodbye to that reactor.
Heart of America,
You made it happen,
THANKS!
We’re gonna sing a little, chant a little,
Raise our glasses up a little.
We’re here to celebrate,
The end of Fast Flux,
For all time!