E. Candelario – Power Concedes [Video]

By Button Poetry

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E. Candelario, performing at the Striver’s Row.

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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:04
power
0:05
concedes nothing without demand
0:09
that means you’re gonna get your freedom
0:11
from cold dead hands
0:13
because the man at the top is death to
0:15
your plight he’s got nightmares of when
0:17
the people unite
0:19
labor it’s not just a name to me
0:22
it’s why americans invested in slavery
0:25
these capers led to hundreds of years of
0:28
free labor
0:29
that we paid for while americans were
0:31
stacking that free paper
0:33
freedom through blood bone sweat and
0:36
soup
0:36
cause when you sow all season you want a
0:39
piece of that fruit
0:41
truth this is my way to honor it
0:44
freedom happens because of liberation
0:46
movements
0:47
not a serendipitous change of
0:49
consciousness
0:51
and what is freedom if not the right to
0:53
work i write to work the angles and
0:55
write what hurts
0:58
power concedes nothing without force of
1:02
will
1:03
don’t believe me ask the workers who
1:05
were coerced and killed
1:07
at haymarket square workers were hurt at
1:09
will all for a few more freedoms
1:12
to work a drill such a novel idea
1:16
to work than chill the bourgeoisie are
1:20
afraid of what time reveals
1:22
the truth is they don’t own anything
1:25
they steal
1:32
they don’t own anything they steal
1:34
because when a worker spends his life
1:36
constructing
1:37
who owns the steel traded in his life
1:40
for a few measly meals
1:42
while they intimidate unions for a few
1:44
measly deals we must see the forces
1:47
that’s why they keep blinders on horses
1:50
power concedes nothing if you want a
1:54
favor
1:55
don’t believe me it took a movement to
1:58
regulate child
1:59
labor we’re still becoming the country
2:02
that we’re yearning to be
2:04
just in 93 got unpaid maternity leave
2:08
everything has a history 40
2:12
40 hour work week vacation sick days
2:16
taking off work that’s why they whip
2:18
slaves
2:20
and i still see the current schism
2:22
because slavery still exists
2:24
it exists in prison if freedom isn’t
2:28
tied to the way that we make a living
2:30
we construct our own hell in which we
2:33
live in
2:34
power concedes nothing if you want its
2:37
pity
2:38
when was the last time we ate out in the
2:40
city who do they keep caged back in the
2:42
kitchen
2:43
those who they pay below minimum wage
2:45
for a living
2:47
america’s dirty secret we hate
2:49
immigrants
2:50
but love their cheap labor our economic
2:53
policies force them
2:54
out their countries but we ask them for
2:57
green papers
2:58
[Music]
3:00
our fear is that our next stop is
3:03
turning the world
3:04
into a global sweatshop power
3:08
concedes nothing without demand
3:12
and if you don’t keep your rights by
3:14
your fist
3:16
they just might fall out your hands
3:19
[Music]
3:25
keep it going keep it going burn mind
3:27
you out

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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