We refuse to surrender the goodness of Earth,

This world of abundance and life,

To monsters who seek to devour without end,

Crushing lifetimes of progress through strife.

 

They feast on the marrow of billions enslaved,

Leaving crumbs as they steal all the bread.

Their lies and deception obscure dark intentions,

Pro-life as they wish many dead.

 

Our lives all-consumed by endless consumption,

Greed overriding our virtue.

The almighty dollar beats the life-giving mother.

They hide behind screens as they hurt you.

 

Distracted, our energy’s wasted in fear,

Gripping tight on the little we own.

Looking down at those living with less than we’ve got,

And not those whose stock prices have grown.

 

“They must deserve poverty, racism, hate.”

Excuses that mask their oppression.

“Being born in that family, country, or skin

Must be rough. Glad I’m me and not him.”

 

The privilege word is a trigger to some

Who feel they have earned all their worth.

But on whose broken backs has the labour been borne?

What cost to the people and Earth?

 

Terra Madre, Pachamama, the life-giving mother,

We are born of her water and soil.

Did you give back as much as you took from the world?

Did you pay all the slaves for their toil?

 

Do you think we could ever live far from our home,

This miracle planet of plenty?

Why would we want to abandon her beauty?

To live up in space domes so empty?

 

As they seek to abandon the goodness of Earth,

Spoil her beauty for all of the rest,

We cannot surrender the fight for our mother,

Our children, our hope, and our best.

 

We cannot stand helpless and hopeless and sad,

Believing that nothing can change.

When everyone’s mind, heart, and soul here has power

To remake the rules of the game.

 

Defending our lives and our families and friends,

And the animals, trees and the bees,

Means shifting our habits, aligning with others

To bring fascist men to their knees.

 

Let a reckoning take them as tyrants before,

Traitors to freedom and peace.

Let the circus of lies collapse all around them,

As mothers rise up to their seats.

 

The women they always have sought to repress,

Shrouded and burned at the stake.

The wisdom of ages erased in their cries,

Returns now with vengeance to take.

 

But not in the violent games that men play

To prove they have value and worth,

But by lifting each other to see worth’s inherent

In every child right from their birth.

 

We must be the ones who rise up to decry

Violent crimes against humanity.

Say we will not be mere cogs in their system

Or lend it legitimacy.

 

Stop believing that power resides at the top,

When we know that it lives in the roots.

The one percent cowers when we all remember

Strength’s in aprons and work boots, not suits.

 

Don’t believe in the lies of their system,

That invisible network of greed.

Ever-expanding, as though limitless growth

Bears no consequence for evil deeds.

 

Don’t be fooled, it is evil that drives some

To demolish, devour, and stain.

But it also is evil for those who seem good

To ignore all the horror and pain.

 

As modern society’s brought to the brink,

Our fate rests on the edge of a knife.

Will we unite around values and truth?

Will we stand for what’s right in this life?

 

No avengers are coming to save us.

The heroes who must stand and fight

Are you and your brother and sister and me,

And millions that must now unite.