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If They Come in the Morning

from Misfits Migrants and Murders by Jack Warshaw

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If They Come in the Morning (No Time for Love) (Warshaw)
Written in 1976, now updated the themes of political persecution, surveillance, and injustice are more intense now than they were. Sad to think it is time to point to ever lengthening list of names and places that should be remembered now.

lyrics

They call it the law - apartheid, internment, repression, injustice and silence
The law that they made to keep you and me where they think we belong
They who hide behind steel and bullet-proof glass, machine guns and spies
And tell us who suffer their tear gas and torture that we're in the wrong

Chorus
No time for love if they come in the morning
No time to show fear or for tears in the morning
No time for goodbyes no time to ask why
And the wail of the siren is the cry of the morning

The trade union leaders, the rebels, the writers, the fighters and all The strikers who fought with the cops at their factory gates The sons and the daughters of unnumbered heroes who paid with their lives The poor folk whose color or class or belief was their only mistake

Chorus

They suffered the torture they rotted in cells, wrote letters, went crazy and died The limits of pain they endured but the lonliness got them instead The courts gave ‘em justice as justice is given by well mannered thugs Sometimes they fought for the will to survive and sometimes they wished they were dead

Chorus

They took away Sacco, Vanzetti, Connolly and Pearse in their time They came for Mandela, Bobby Sands, the Panthers and many more friends Now they come after those who expose their crimes like Snowdon has done
In places that never made headlines, the list never ends

Chorus

The boys in blue are only a few of the everyday cops on their beat The CID, NSA, Google and Apple and spies and eyes in the skies do their job well And behind them the brains that build systems that collect every word that we breathe And the ones who decide when it’s time to drag you to a cell

Chorus

Now you tell us that here we are free to say and to think what we please To march and to speak, to write and to sing as long as we do it alone But say it out loud with millions of comrades and it won’t be too long. Till they give you a long rest with walls and barbed wire for a home

Chorus

You call us illegal, unwanted, mass rapists, drug dealers and more
We who pick all your crops; clean your homes, wash your kids, fight and die in your wars
You order your police and border enforcers to shove us back where we once fled in fear
Away from the land you call “free” that you took from the poor folk you murdered before

Chorus

So come all you people to give to your brothers and sisters the will to fight on They say you get used to a war but that doesn't mean the war isn't on The fish need the sea to survive just as your comrades do And the death squads can only get to them if first they can get through to you

Chorus

credits

from Misfits Migrants and Murders, released August 7, 2018
Jack, vocal, guitar; Zoe, vocal; Neil, mouth harp

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Jack Warshaw UK

Veteran of the 1960s folk revival, he passionately believes, writes and sings with authenticity and respect for traditional American styles and song carriers. He has met, learned from or worked with such legends as Pete, Mike and Peggy Seeger, Tom Paley, Ewan MacColl, Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Dave Van Ronk, Stuart Burns and many others. Watch Youtube. Bio on Wikipedia ... more

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