CAPITALISM – A POEM

Michael Dickinson


Systematic oppression built with millions of serfs, slaves and coolies
Capitalism’s really got you by the goolies

Capitalism, like a ravenous vulture
Feeds on the helpless, destroying their culture

It turns the world into a shit-heap and drives people insane.
Lying, stealing, cheating and killing - the sole object is gain.

Our civilization is founded on greed, illusion and fear
“The more money you have, how much more you’ll be freer!”

The monster banks must have profit all the time
Raking in billions from legalized crime

Vampire-like corporations suck up their wealth
From the blood of the workers, destroying their health.

The rich with legal right fix the wages of the needy
It’s exploitation of the many by the privileged greedy

Structurally violent hierarchical domination,
Private ownership of production in every goddamned nation.


To ensure the enslavement of the masses
The people are divided into grades and classes

And “The working-class can kiss my ass!”
- That’s the motto of the ruling class.

They exploit people and environment for profit
The world is their oyster, and oh how they scoff it!

Financiers without decency, their sole object is gain
Regardless of the workers’ lot of drudgery and pain

Money-based power with legal slaves and fascist cops
They exploit the worker until he drops

Financial corruption and corporate theft
Plunders the world till nothing is left

Big profits are guaranteed for the military whores
- Manufacturers of weapons and lovers of wars
.
Governments are in the hands of the lending institution,
Moneyed incorporations create global destitution

For them beauty is no more than the beauty of gold,
Which is to say false, and useless and cold

Political corruption is rife along with social greed
They work for financial profit, not for human need

Established religions support the capitalist lie
If you suffer in this life – a reward in the sky when you die!

Meanwhile money is sacred as everyone knows
The canny profiteer reaps more than he sows

Now, instead of the holy votive
What’s laid on the altar is the profit motive

To get rich quick must be one’s single fixed aim
If others are trampled, they’ve themselves to blame

From the summit the victor looks down with pride all aglow
At the demoralized mortals toiling desperately below

Controlled with drugs, TV, and armed force, many never wonder why
They’re programmed like a robot – Produce, consume, then die.

Nothing is free anymore to give itself away
What’s needed is an agent with commission to pay.

You sell your body or you sell your mind
You’re on the market or you’re left behind

Economy uber alles. Money rules the waves
The elite must not be restrained in their tyranny over the slaves.

Consumerism. Commercialism. Mass media mind-numbing.
Don't question the system, boys, and keep those monthly payments coming

It’s financial slavery masquerading as freedom
You work for pennies because you need ‘em

A man in debt is a man of woes
You can work him to death to retrieve what he owes

We have a nationalized money system cruel and iniquitous
Oppression is global, wage-slavery ubiquitous

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell
Turning nature into commodities and waste, Heaven into Hell

The Garden of Eden is being deforested, the planet’s a marketplace
Capitalism is truly Mammon, and Mankind’s Fall from Grace

Free Trade - personal interests, private fortunes – let’s give it another name
Direct brutal exploitation, blatant naked shame.


International corporations outsource manufacturing to places far away
Where they overwork the natives for the minimum of pay

They are loyal to none but holders of company stocks and shares
Responsible to only one benefit – the global elite’s and theirs

The majority is ground down paying rents and bills and fees
In order that a minority may live in comfortable ease

The world is governed for the moguls, the bankers, the owners of lands
The workers rights are set at naught – ignored go their demands

Civil government protects the owners of property - that is, the idle rich
And if you haven’t got none, “Well,’aint life a bitch?”

The capitalist empires serve economic power and international trusts
They cater to fiscal expansionism and pecuniary lusts

Is capitalism not slavery? Or has the definition been forgotten?
Why do we tolerate a system so rotten?

Why do the masses allow themselves to be exploited by the few?
If they turned and toppled them, just think what they could do

To stand up for human rights and against the destruction of natural beauty
Should be every human being’s almost sacred duty

Now things are so bad that they barely seem endurable
Let’s not forget that they’re far from incurable

Against the tyranny of this corrupt injustice there’s only one solution –
Let the people unite and have a revolution

To end this wretched existence, insurrection is a must
If we want to create a better world that is equal and just

Or do you dismiss the idea as a utopian dream
And prefer to go on with this nightmare regime?

The post-capitalist world will be one of plenty and good cheer
With everyone working as a volunteer

Work will no longer mean exploitation and subjection to others,
But a fun recreation shared equally with sisters and brothers

No more working for the boss man, but a freely-given labour
For the well-being of the community and as a friendly neighbour

A planet of ecological harmony, finally cured of the capitalist disease
The world healthy, free and beautiful, the people off their knees!