Northern Lines

Northern Lines

(Embankment)

This is where we always used to start from
In those days, a slow tide up the Thames.
Horrific, innocent days not so long ago.
I think of memory's healing properties.
I think of failure.

(Charing Cross)

No-one gets hit by love like a returning memory,
A sudden realisation of a long-held secret truth.
These changes of heart
Are too much to hope for.
I think of forcing the issue.
I think of direct action.

(Leicester Square)

London was always a mystery, a parcel
And all the joy in the unwrapping because inside it always disappointed.

(Tottenham Court Road)

When I grow up I want to be the person who says the stations on the tube,
Sounds like an easy job.
When I grow up I want to pin eras to paper
With the same truths that frighten childish bravery,
And draw out conflict in the familiar
Pulse of dead-end vibrant city life.
Want to see necessary changes displayed neatly,
Like on a tube map with nothing but time
Standing in the way,
And the world a collection of inevitable destinations.
When I grow up I want to be a writer,
Sounds like an easy job.

(Goodge Street)

Many nights I've been on coaches, distance passing imperceptibly
While I've tried half-heartedly to sleep.
On the tube there's no distance no direction
Just a consuming impatient journey
Forcing me, just for a second, to close my eyes
And wonder why I'm taking it at all.
But just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there
So wake up, look at the map again.
Wake up. We're moving forwards.
I think of five years.
I think of planning.

(Warren Street)

There's some angry sermon here,
Some message I could tease out if my mind
Wasn't stuck between a lost past and a stolen future.

(Euston)

Thanking circumstance for my
Freedom to sigh over small problems
And kicking some sort of discipline into myself,
I turn to face the next one.
Thinking of absence.
Thinking of failure.
Thinking of stops on the journey.

Which Side Are You On?

I've been meaning to set up a blog for a while, so here goes. With any luck, it'll be a mixture of political analysis and some creative writing (no less political).

In that spirit, I'll kick off with a rewrite of the song 'Which Side Are You On?' that I've just written for 2009. The song originally dates from a miners' strike in the USA in 1931, and was written by Florence Reece. There's a couple of other versions that I'm aware of, the most famous being Billy Bragg's song protesting the anti-union laws brought in by the Thatcher government. I particularly like the line of his, "It'll take much more than a union law to knock the fight out of a working man." Something the Lindsey Oil Refinery workers have certainly taken to heart this year.

Which Side Are You On?

To the tune of Billy Bragg's version. The original version was written by Florence Reece in the 1930s.

They say “make sacrifices” now times are getting hard
And we must work for nothing, or else sign on and starve

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

When the bosses came with their thieving plan, the Visteon workers showed
That with solid determination you'll get what you are owed

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

The cold picket line at Lindsey was warmed by the spreading fire
Of workers' solidarity which serves to teach us and inspire

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

The Vestas struggle has united the Red flag and the Green
We're out to build a movement, the like of which you've never seen

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

From Newport to Kilmarnock, in towns of every size
The ground is shaking to the sound of the workers on the rise

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

From Gaza to Sri Lanka, deaths mounting every hour
The system we fight is a global one, but our class is global in its power

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

So when they try to close your school or cut back on your pay
The question burned on your conscience should be clear as the light of day

Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?