Forum Post: Hawaiian Musician Makana Performs Protest Song to World Leaders at APEC Summit
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 14, 2011, 3:27 p.m. EST by sblripper
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from Santa Barbara, CA
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As President Obama met with world leaders this weekend at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hawaii to discuss how to bolster global trade, activists with the group Occupy Honolulu protested economic inequity that they say would result from new trade agreements. Meanwhile, within the heavily guarded compound where the summit took place, renowned Hawaiian musician and guitarist Makana carried out his own act of protest. Makana had been invited to play instrumental music at the gala dinner Saturday night. At the dinner, Makana opened his jacket to reveal a t-shirt which read, "Occupy with Aloha." Then, instead of performing the background instrumental he was scheduled to play, he started to sing a protest song he had released earlier that day. As world leaders including Obama and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao sat in the audience, Makana sang his new song inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, "We are the Many." http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/14/occupy_honolulu_hawaiian_musician_makana_performs
Now that's what I call GUTS!!!!!
Here is the full version of Makana’s song, "We are the Many" :
Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw
We’ll occupy the streets We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
’Til you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you ’Til you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose,
we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts We occupy the offices of you ’Til you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can’t divide us into sides And from our gaze, you cannot hide Denial serves to amplify And our allegiance you can’t buy Our government is not for sale The banks do not deserve a bail We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
’Til you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Yet another dumb protest song. fading into musical oblivion....like the others