From the bottom of my urban project
Deep into your countryside
The reality has changed
And the revolt is brewing everywhere
In this world there was no place for us
We didn’t look the part
We were not to the manor born
Not on daddy’s plastic
The homeless, the unemployed, workers
Farmers, immigrants, the undocumented
They wanted to divide us
And to say they succeeded
As long as it was every man for himself
Their system could prosper
But one day we had to wake up
The heads had to roll
We’ll never give an inch
They told us about equality
And like fools we believed them
“Democracy” makes me laugh
If we had had it we would have known it
What’s the worth of our votes
Up against the law of the market?
They say “my dear fellow countrymen”
But we’re fucked all the same
And what’s the worth of human rights
Up against the airbus sale?
The bottom line, there’s only one law, in sum:
“Sell yourself more to sell more.”
The republic is a whore
Walking the street of dictators
We no longer believe
Their beautiful words
Our leaders are liars
We’ll never give an inch
So stupid, so trite,
To speak of peace and brotherhood
When the homeless are dying in the streets
And the undocumented are being driven out
Crumbs are thrown to proles
Just something to calm them down
So they won’t attack millionaire bosses
“Too important for our society”
It’s crazy the way they are protected
All our rich and powerful
Not to mention the help they get
For being the friends of the president
Dear comrades, dear “voters”
Dear “citizen-consumers”
The alarm is ringing
It’s time
To reset to zero
As long as there’s struggle and hope
As long as there’s life and battle
As long as we’re fighting, we’re standing
Here’s the key
We’re standing, we won’t give an inch
The passion for victory runs in our blood
Now you know why we are fighting
Our ideal, more than a dream
Another world, we have no choice
We’ll never give an inch
“On lâche rien,” a song by HK & les Saltimbanks (Kadour Haddadi and his band), has been adopted by French workers on strike against the Sarkozy-Woerth plan to raise the retirement age. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).
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