Some tax resistance campaigns have had their own anthems or fight songs.
- Mahadev Desai, in The Story of Bardoli, mentions
such songs on a few occasions:
I paid a visit along with Sjt. Vallabhbhai to one of these [Raniparaj] villages. … The young women, who had taken the Khadi pledge three years ago in the presence of Gandhiji and shed their trinkets and heavy brass ornaments, were all there in spotlessly white Khadi, brimming over with joy and lustily singing Satyagraha songs.
The mention of the Satyagraha songs reminds me of one or two things that happened during the month. … Phulchandbhai had already some songs ready, and the atmosphere in the taluka gave him the inspiration for many more. These friends were posted at Valod, and thanks to their bhajans they were in great demand everywhere. The plain and homely songs spread the message of Satyagraha in a most effective manner, and men, women, and children had them on their lips. One cannot speak too highly of the part played in the movement by Phulchandbhai and his songs.
I shall describe one of the scenes. We visited Nani Phalod, a small village, at about 9 p.m. There was a huge procession of men and women, the former singing Satyagraha songs, and the latter singing a song from an old saint of which the refrain was: “All our sorrows have ended, now that the Master has come.”
There were huge meetings everywhere, attended by hundreds of women, laying heaps of [homespun] yarn before Sjt. Vallabhbhai, as in , and lustily singing bhajans. The invincible spirit of the people evidenced everywhere was bound to exasperate the officials even more.
The women of Varad… had their own songs, some of them being old songs of the saints and some composed by themselves to suit the fight in which they were engaged, and tacked on to the originals. One of these songs sung soulfully by them ran:
With full knowledge take up your arms even like a Gnani (seer). Let Purity and Contentment be your armour and Courage your shield. The valiant shall rush to the forefront, the laggards will be beaten and will take to their heels. With full knowledge, therefore, take up the fight like the Gnani.
The path of fight is not strewn with roses. It is sharp as the edge of the sword, for it is the fight for Truth. Let us therefore be wide awake like the Gnani. With full knowledge etc.
The tyrant has run amok and crushed the ryot under his heels. We slumbered so long, we have now found our Guru and are blessed with knowledge. With full knowledge etc.
He has taught us to pit righteousness and truth against oppression and injustice. God is sure to run to the rescue of right and vanquish the wrong. With full knowledge etc.
Vallabhbhai our leader assures us that ultimately victory is ours. Let us therefore keep our pledge. With full knowledge etc.
- The boycotts and tax strikes of the American Revolution also had their
songs. When patriots gathered to spin home-spun yarn, the work would be
accompanied by “many stirring tunes, anthems, and liberty songs,” such as
the following:
Young ladies in town, and those that live round,
Let a friend at this season advise you;
Since money’s so scarce, and times growing worse,
Strange things may soon hap and surprise you.First, then, throw aside your topknots of pride;
Wear none but your own country linen;
Of economy boast, let your pride be the most
To show clothes of your own make and spinning.What if homespun they say is not quite so gay
As brocades, yet be not in a passion,
For when once it is known this is much worn in town,
One and all will cry out— ’Tis the fashion!And, as one, all agree, that you’ll not married be
To such as will wear London factory,
But at first sight refuse, tell ’em such you will choose
As encourage our own manufactory.No more ribbons wear, nor in rich silks appear;
Love your country much better than fine things;
Begin without passion, ’twill soon be the fashion
To grace your smooth locks with a twine string.Throw aside your Bohea, and your Green Hyson tea,
And all things with a new-fashion duty;
Procure a good store of the choice Labrador,
For there’ll soon be enough here to suit you.These do without fear, and to all you’ll appear,
Fair, charming, true, lovely and clever;
Though the times remain darkish, young men may be sparkish,
And love you much stronger than ever.Then make yourselves easy, for no one will teaze ye,
Nor tax you, if chancing to sneer
At the sense-ridden tools, who think us all fools;
But they’ll find the reverse far and near. - The modern American war tax resistance movement has in recent years
managed to collect its own funk anthem (“What If We All Stopped Paying
Taxes?” by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings):
folk song (“Don’t Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons” by Norman Blake):I was talking to a friend of mine
Said he don’t want no wars no more
They’re building bombs while our schools are falling
Tell me what in the hell we’re paying taxes forWhat if we all stopped paying taxes?
Now, what if we all stopped paying taxes?
Stop paying taxes y’allNow tell me who’s gonna buy their bombs
Their tanks, their planes and all their guns
Well, tell me who’s gonna pay for their wars
If we all get together and cut their fundsHey, listen people, listen to what I’ve got to say
What if we all stopped paying taxes?
and rap (“Uncle Sam Goddamn” by Brother Ali):Don’t send your money to Washington
To fight a war that’s never done
Don’t play their games don’t be their pawns
And don’t be afraid of the neo-consYou don’t give money to the bums
On the corner with a sign, bleeding from their gums.
Talking about you don’t support a crackhead —
What you think happens to the money from yo taxes?Shit, the government’s an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill-brown-people habit
And even if you ain’t on the front line
When the master yell crunch time you right back at itYou ain’t look at how you hustling backwards
And the end of the year add up what they subtracted:
3 outta twelve months your salary
Paid for that madness… man that’s sadness - War tax resister Joan Baez was fond of including the Whiskey Rebellion
celebration tune “Copper Kettle” in her concerts.
Get you a copper kettle
Get you a copper coil
Cover with new made corn mash
And never more you’ll toilYou just lay there by the juniper
While the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-fillin’
In the pale moonlightBuild your fires of hickory
Hickory or ash or oak
Don’t use no green or rotten wood
They’ll catch you by the smokeMy daddy he made whiskey
My granddaddy did to
We ain’t paid no whiskey tax
Since ! - When a youth activist group joined war tax resisters at a recent Tax Day
demonstration at the Oakland federal building, they brought their lyrical
skills along:
On-line, you can see some of the rehearsal video showing how they combined the lyrics with pantomime to drive the point home.People, People, People, can’t you see?
They kill around the world with tax money.
Stealing from workers how there money’s made,
I guess that’s why we’re broke and they’re so paid!People, People, People, can’t you see?
They tax the poor more, the rich stay greedy.
No money for health or to educate,
I guess that’s why we’re broke and they’re so paid! - At another American “Tax Day” protest, this one in
St. Louis in
, war tax resisters at the federal
building sang a protest song with lyrics like these:
For the cost of cluster bombs
that maim and leave to bleed
our kids could have more teachers
helping them to read - Tax resisters against the British colonial government in Ghana had a
fight song for the occasion:
Cannon they have loaded, but couldn’t fire,
Cannon they have loaded, but couldn’t fire.
Whitemen dishonestly imposed poll-tax on the blacks.
The poll-tax we will never pay, the grandees never deliver up,
Go tell the white man to come out! - Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is home to an unusually corrupt government
culture (or maybe it’s just that they got caught). Federal authorities
charged 23 county residents with various corruption charges, including
three judges and a county commissioner. But then the county government
decided to hike taxes by 10%. Fred Heller said no. Why fund a nest of
crooks? He recorded a protest song titled “Take This Tax and Shove It” and
started a campaign to get county residents to refuse to pay their taxes,
at least until the government stables have had all their manure shoveled
out. Excerpts:
Take this tax and shove it
We ain’t paying you crooks no more
The good ol’ boys stole all our cash
And ran out the courthouse door - Residents in Castine, Maine, upset at their local taxes being siphoned off
by state politicians, started a tax resistance campaign and accompanied it
by protest songs:
“In I Just Found Out (Who the ‘They’ Is), [songwriter] Linscott derides the notion of some anonymous outside government force, commonly called ‘They.’ ‘I’ve heard so many people talk about what “they” are doing. This is my attempt to show that the “they” are those who let government operate by default.’ ”Write me a song of the Revolution,
’cause that’s what it’s gonna be.
Write me a song of the Revolution,
’cause that’s what’s in store for me!
I can’t sit by and watch this country
go right down the drain.
I gotta stand firm on the Constitution
and stay aboard the freedom train. - When Meo farmers killed a tax collector during a tax strike aimed at the
British-backed Maharaja in ,
they commemorated the occasion with a song:
Rebels in the open the Meos did then rejoice
They conferred among themselves and spoke in a single voice
Your názim’s dead and ever since
we aren’t ruled by any prince
To London by now you should’ve fled,
and do take along your dead.
