We Need
a New Party!
They called him "Slick Willie"
The candidate on both sides
on all sides
on your side
on my side
Slick Willie
Slick Willie
They said.
Bill told us
"I don't really hafta"
You know "I don't want that NAFTA"
then he gave workers
and farmers the shafta
buying a House majority
with his crafta.
And NAFTA was a Bush-Bill
don't you remember!
that was a Bush-Bill
is Bush now a Bill
or is Bill now a Bush
or is it just Bush-Bill
always was
Bush-Bill?
Now history tells us
old Tricky Dick
one of our
slick leaders was
King Nixon of Watergate
breaking laws
mixing up a little reform
in a stew of oppression!
And now we have Tricky Bill
on both sides
on your side
on my side
on capital's side
on labor's side
on insurance giants' side
on health consumers' side
on Aristide's side
on General Cedras' side
on refugees' side
on deporting the refugees' side
on spotted owls' side
on timber corporations' side
on your side
on my side
on both sides
on all sides
but which is the real side?
Slippery as an eel, some say
providing just the words we want to hear
inviting Black men to the White House
lunch with labor leaders
appointing women to high office
and abandoning some
but it's actions that count Bill
acts not words
we don't need your concern
acts not words
we don't need your photo-ops
acts not words
we don't need your promises
acts not words.
One by one
group by group
we've been betrayed Bill
gays and lesbians
Haitian refugees
organized labor
African-Americans
Chicanos and Boricuas
migrant farm workers
refugees seeking asylum from persecution
supporters of Haitian democracy
Angolans
Bosnians
Western Shoshone people
so many feel betrayed!
Don't get me wrong!
I know there have been some good things!
But Bill
giant multinationals
are grabbing the world
and you are helping them
with NAFTA, Bush-Bill
with GATT, Bush-Bill
with gigantic subsidies
for the auto makers
with giant breaks
for the drug companies
and GATT is not just any old gun
it's a human-killing
rapid-firing weapon
aimed at small farmers
the world over
to drive them off the land
and into the cities
where cocaine kings
and heroin lords can
sell them drugs
and break their kids
and you big shots
can build more prisons
to hold the sons and daughters
of the earth
driven from their homes
GATT is a nuclear missile
designed to break the borders
of every small country
leaving no one protected
no chance for self-help
no chance for industrial development
no shields from
Europe and
and
GATT is a laser cannon
aimed at the working classes
throwing them into
desperate competition
as a world proletariat
for your free trade, Bill
does not mean that workers are free
it means labor at the
lowest common denominator
with food stamps and welfare
thrown at the people
reluctantly and with contempt
for those who must
be crushed with your
iron law of lowered wages.
GATT is the multi-nationals'
bid for world domination
an international government with
no General
Assembly
only bureaucrats and
corporate lawyers
crushing any and all
forms of socialism
and economic democracy
allowing no country to choose its own
direction.
Bush-Bill
I say Bush-Bill
yes now it's Bush-Bill
for Bush has metamorphosed as Bill
and it's all the same since the
Democrats have gone the
ways of Wilson and Cox
of Franklin Pierce
of James Buchanan
of all those other Democrats
who sold out labor
sold out Blacks
sold out Indians
sold out women
sold out reform
sold out workers
time and time again!
I'm for a new party
I've had it at last
I'm for a new party
let's break with the past
I'm for an Eagle party
let's fly high with our hopes
I'm for a labor party
let's work together
I'm for a women's party
no more patriarchy
I'm for a conservative party
no more destruction of our Constitution
I'm for a progressive party
building for tomorrow
I'm for a rainbow party
in diversity will be our strength.
Hey let's party
let's new party
let's party
let's new party
let's say to the donkey
No Bill, no Gore!
No lies, nevermore!
Jack D. Forbes
December 12, 1993
Revised April 1997