Sunday, November 13, 2011
Chosen to perform at a dinner hosted by President Barack Obama, and attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and other world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Hawaiian singer Makana entertained the diners with a protest song in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The refrain of the song is “We’ll occupy the streets; we’ll occupy the courts; we’ll occupy the offices of you; till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”
Makana (born Matthew Swalinkavich) performed the song for about 40 minutes. However, observers said that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, appeared too involved with their guests to notice the song’s lyrics.
Here is the song:
And here are the lyrics:
We Are The Many
Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
APEC World Leaders Dinner Gets Occupied (by Andy Bichlbaum, YesLab)
Singer Crashes Obama Summit with “Occupy” Song (Agence France-Presse)
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