When I was but a little tiny boy
My daddy said to me:
"The time has come me bonny, bonny bairn
To learn your A B C".
Now daddy was a Lodge Chairman
In the coalfield of the Tyne
And that A B C was different
From the Enid Blyton kind.
He sang:
"A is alienation that made me the
man that I am
And B's for the boss who
don't give a damn.
C is for capitalism, the boss's
reactionary creed,
and D's for dictatorship, laddie,
but the best proletarian breed.
E's for exploitation that the
workers have suffered so long,
and F is for old Ludwig Feurbach,
the first one to see it was wrong.
G is for all gerrymanders like Lord
Muck and Sir Whatsisname
and H is for the hell that they'll go to
when the workers have kindled the flame.
I's for imperialism and America's
kind is the worst
and J is for sweet jingoism that the
Tories all think of first.
K is for good old Kier Hardie who
fought out the worker's fight
and L is for Vladimir Lenin who
showed him the left was all right.
M of course is for Karl Marx
the daddy and mammy of 'em all
and N is for nationalisation -
without it we'd crumble and fall.
O is for over-production that
capitalist economy brings
and P is for all private property -
the greatest of all of the sins.
Q is for quid pro quo that we'll
dole out so well and so soon
when R for revolution is shouted
and the Red Flag becomes the top tune.
S is for Stalinism that gave us
all such a bad name
and T is for Trotsky the hero who
had to take all of the blame.
U's for the union of workers, the
Union will stand to the end
and V is for Vodka, yes vodka,
the von drink that don't bring the bends.
W is all willing workers, and that's
where the memory fades
for X Y and Z me dear daddy said,
will be written on the street barricades,"
But now that I'm not a little tiny boy
Me daddy says to me:
"Please try to forget the things I said
Especially the A B C."
For Daddy's no longer a union man
And he's had to change his plea
His alphabet is different now
Since they made him a Labour M P.
(From Close the Coalhouse Door, by Alan Plater,
and songs by Alex Glasgow. It is a play about
coal miners.)