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about

Before the fall of the Berlin wall the Soviet block countries were fairly well off materially, not nearly as well off as their western counterparts of course - but then they'd been almost completely agrarian just 60 years previously where the west had been industrialized for far longer. What the Soviet countries didn't have was freedom, and that's what they set out to fix when the mass grassroots protest movements that first rocked Poland and then the other Warsaw Pact countries began. The protestors were explicit in that they wanted to keep Socialism and abolish the Dictatorship but were (big surprise) sold out by their leaders who used the instability created by the protests to loot the entire economy.

With overt cooperation from the IMF and Western European and American Banks, the Soviet 'coordinating class' embezzled huge amounts of money earmarked for "restructuring" and used it to "buy" the infrastructure of the entire region, sold everything they could, and then stashed the earnings in western banks. In a few short years this Kleptocracy had privatized (read: stole) the accumulated wealth of half a continent, resulting in crushing poverty for the vast majority and extreme luxury and wealth for the thieves. Worst of all, the oppressive governments that the people had set out to abolish remained largely unchanged. Capitalist "Democracy" in Russia is an even sadder joke then it is in America. And they did it all by manipulating the public with Fear of "instability".

In America today we're also seeing our infrastructure stripped away and exported as millions of people lose jobs to downsizing, off-shoring, and corporatist "globalization". And, as in Russia, the people responsible are being rewarded with obscene wealth. The gap between the tiny minority that owns the vast majority of America's wealth and the rest of us is larger then any other income gap in any nation in human history.

And what keeps the rest of us in line? Fear. Fear that we'll lose our jobs and our homes or be viciously beaten by their police if we take off work to go and protest. Fear of the demonized misrepresentations of ourselves that we see in the corporate media on the rare occasions they acknowledge working class resistance. Fear of instability and change. Fear that no matter how bad things get they might get worse if we dare to step too far out of line.

lyrics

Fear

My name is L to the y n x and i'm bustin
they doin' us like the IMF did to the russians
artilary fire? that's just background percussion
 cuz if i mobilize i'm not winnin - i'm crushin
all opposition the mission is critical
 a world in the balance, this moment is pivotal
studio digital, lungs analog
believe i'ma give it all - e'rything i got
hot like crematoriams, spit fire and smoke
ashes to ashes, but I can't choke
i waited too long to shine , this mic is mine
till I say what i came to say and speak my mind
put my life on the line for integrity and passion
keep it hype all the time when the bass is blastin
the meek just inherit what's left - hear what I'm sayin?
victory goes to the bold when dragons need slayin

Fear is the currency, the soul of the Market!
Fear the emergency, fear you're a target!
we fear standin up, fear getting heard
'till the fearmongers fear the power of our words!

you can't intimidate a lion, my face stays fearless
you know i ain't lying cuz my flow's straight peerless
we're taught to be timid and follow the news
believe what the tell us and swallow they views
that's why we never learn our history in they schools
just presidents and generals - the people they choose
we lose the class war cuz we've lost ourselves
and if you don't know self you can't know anyone else
they tell us that we're powerless alone and weak
so I re-educate, preachin on the street
I can't stand to stand by, it's really not an option
they job market is demeaning - it's more like like an auction
block where we sell ourselves day by day
and never get ahead on the wages they pay
spend our days in a daze like rats in a maze
while they export our jobs and fill'em with slaves

the bass is alive like a heartbeats' sound 'n
at all costs I'll survive, though I might take a poundin
300 million versus 543*
that's us against them in the land of the free
and still you're telling me that we can't win?
you watchin' too much TV and believe they spin!
Conservative and Liberal are lies that divide us
we all want the same things and that fact unites us
politicians don't care, CEO's don't care
and the boys in blue sure as hell don't care
all of 'em proppin up system we all know ain't fair
while people starve in our streets - that's class warfare
but like phoenix we rise - burn babylon down
crush  these fake clowns with they babylon sound
if knowledge is a weapon then I'm armed to the teeth
and spreadin' that status with the words that i speak

*541 members of congress + the President and VP.

credits

from Anarchitecture, released August 31, 2011

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Emcee Lynx & Beltaine's Fire Oakland, California

Beltaine's Fire is a 5-piece folk-rap juggernaut of revolutionary love & rage taking aim at the dark heart of Empire.

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