Trafalgar Square

The president came to London
And was greeted by the queen
And for the people of the city
It was a festive scene
Hundreds of thousands of women and men
Were all in the street
Shouting and dancing and talking
And marching on their feet
But the highest peak of the evening
To be only fair

Was when the statue of George Bush was toppled
In Trafalgar Square

Those days in London
It was the place to be
Young and old, black and white
It was the face of society
Even the mayor came out
And called him a criminal of war
Said world domination
Ain’t worth fighting for
They said we don’t like Dubya
Or his poodle, Tony Blair

Chorus

The night sky was lit up
And the message it was clear
We do not want fascism
Over there or over here
It was heard first-hand by many
Right there on British soil
We will not fight for Exxon
We won’t kill or die for oil
But for billions around the planet
We were all right there

Chorus

“Trafalgar Square” first appeared on the 2004 CD, Songs for Mahmud, and later on Troubadour:  People’s History in Song (CD, 2010).

On February 15th, 2003, I was singing at the protest in New York City, for an estimated half million people, on a very, very cold day, made much colder by the fact that the city authorities were preventing us from marching.  (On this particular occasion we were allowed to have a rally, but not to march.  The following year, during the Republican National Convention, we would be allowed to march, but not to have a rally.  Totally arbitrary bullshit.)  Around the world, millions more were protesting against the same impending invasion of the same country — Iraq.  Which had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, but was now about to be punished for it, forever.  In London, a statue of George W Bush was symbolically toppled by protesters, which caught my imagination.