The outstandingly good Smokey Dymny, Canadian political songwriter, country folk musician and union activist, has alerted me to his 2002 song I Wanna be a Right-Winger Now; it was highly relevant then, and, sadly it is still as relevant now, as an excerpt from the lyrics make clear:

Well, I walked to Harry Rosen’s to buy me that new suit.

They looked me up & down & they gave me the boot

I yelled “I have a hundred, from the Stock Exchange.”

They handed me a necktie and fifty cents change.

I said, I wanna be a Right-winger now,
I’m gonna make my mark somehow,

They said, “Here’s a broom you can sweep the men’s room,

But don’t talk to the gentlemen, your speech is much too rude.

But Smokey has a message for those financiers and bankers:

Now I want to bring those right wingers down!

They know nothing more than scorn & put-downs!

They got no brains, got no sense, just a big, fat inheritance,

Their daddy stole from your daddy & his pals.

(Highway robbery Capitalism!)

The full lyrics can be found on the excellent Union Songs website.

Another fine Smokey song, Solidarity is Easy, written for a wildcat picket in Toronto in 2006, will also I guess always be with us.