The bonny coins of money
Tune: The Bonny Bunch of Roses (Irish traditional)
By the margins of the ocean
In the month of November, nineteen seventeen,
The rich men of the world agreed
Such a danger to their wealth had never been seen.
They said we cannot tolerate
That working folk in any land
Should rise up and put in danger
The power of our bonny coins of money, oh.
For it was in the land of Petersburg
That the people demanded bread and peace
And they called to all the armies
That war and hatred all should cease.
And they said: We'll build on people's rule
And no power on earth shall say us nay
Though they come in arms the whole world round
We'll defeat all the bonny coins of money, oh.
When the rich men of the world heard this
With thirteen armies they attacked the land
But in other lands the people said
To the folk of Russia we'll lend a hand.
The invading armies were expelled
And local traitors put to the sword
And the rich men of the world were scared
And feared for their bonny coins of money, oh.
They said: We'll raise a terrible army
And find a leader who will not shirk.
And in the gutters of the city streets
They found the man to do their work.
It was in the land of Germany
The people they were led astray
And he said I'll conquer Moscow
Then save all your bonny coins of money, oh.
And so he led the world to war
But those who paid him were made to rue
For his army conquered all Europe
Paris, Oslo, Warsaw, and Brussels too.
And he said I'll cross the channel sea
And perfidious Albion must give way
And the power of wealth it shall be mine
And I'll seize all your bonny coins of money, oh.
Then he led his armies to the east
For he believed he had the strength of ten
He laid the Russian steppes to waste
And millions of Jews he sent to die.
But when he came near Moscow
He was overcome by drifting snow
And the partisans drove him from their land
Despite all the bonny coins of money, oh.
Now money is the direst plague
That was ever inflicted on to humankind
It can turn the worker from his hands
And make a desert of the land.
Though rich men triumph for a while
They cannot for ever maintain their reign
And fellowship and love shall win the day
And defeat all the bonny coins of money, oh.
