Omar comes over the fence at the border,
To the relative safety of Spain
He’s come from Algeria, westbound to Ceuta,
To test his fate on the sea
The crowded boats rock in the heavy waves,
The land fades behind finally
Growing up poor, the scars from the civil war,
Omar’s seen hardship and pain
In songs and in pages, in prices and wages,
The colonial memory remains
And up north they ask what they are running from,
And somehow they still fail to see
The big money flows through the global casino
And sends people far from their homes
For shanties in Calle and stadiums in Qatar,
To warehouses, factories, and farms
To be mistreated, and cheated,
While the facts of their lives are ignored
The fascists they gather, beneath football banners,
And boast of the pride in their veins
Their perspectives distorted, their history perverted,
They cling to machismo and hate
And it looks like the past, came right back,
And started all over again
In Sweden and Italy, in Greece and in Germany,
In France and in England you’ll find
The slogans and rallies that tell the sad story
Of a right-wing again on the rise
And it looks like the past, came right back,
And started all over again
Many before us have gone to the mountains,
To gather, prepare, and to train
While others have stayed in the towns and the cities,
To organize and educate
And what about you? What will you do?
You can’t be neutral on a moving train.
credits
from Thin Blue Border - Vol. 1,
released October 24, 2017
Produced by Carl Restivo and Chris Hamilton, with recording help from Beau Echkardt (RPM Amsterdam).
After more than a dozen self-released albums, folk-punk trailblazer Ryan Harvey has teamed up with Kareem Samara (London) &
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