Que il nostro Vietnam / Was ist unser Vietnam [What Is Our Vietnam]

Annotation

Recordings of events during the II. Festival of Political Song 7th to 13th February 1971 in Berlin German Democratic Republic (GDR) Que il nostro Vietnam / Was ist unser Vietnam (Gruppe Il Contemporaneo) Vietnams Geschütze (Oktoberklub)

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: The fact that my boss / Accumulates money / Is nothing new; / But it’s the system he employs / That makes me protest, / And it’s the methods he uses / That make me hate him. // Naturally, / His primary means / Is to exploit me. / He claims that without him, / We wouldn’t be able to work, / And that where socialism exists, / There isn’t even enough to eat. // When I sit down / At my workstation, / My personality shifts; / I forget reality entirely / And transform into a cog— / I set my brain aside, / For what use is it to me now, anyway? // It’s worth noting / That the average Italian / Lets himself be easily fooled. / If you ask for a raise— / Fifty lire an hour— / The boss says, 'Sure, I’ll give it to you, / Just keep on working.' // On television, / They’re always showing us / How productivity is growing, / Yet wages remain the same / And the gains go to the bosses; / After all, the Italian people / Live on love and songs. // The other morning, / We went on strike— / All activity came to a halt. / From his balcony, / The boss watched us and counted us, / Pen and paper in hand; / Everyone was there, and we were singing: // 'We must create,' / Wrote Che Guevara, / 'Two, three, many Vietnams.' / This is our Vietnam, / This is our struggle. / You who are listening— / Join the fight yourselves. // Create / Two, three, many Vietnams— / Against NATO, / Two, three, many Vietnams— / Against a class-based school system, / Two, three, many Vietnams— / For better labor…

Notes

Also known as Il Contemporaneo ETERNA 8 15 060 (VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin), stereo LP; live recordings from the 2. Festival des politischen Liedes, Berlin, 7–13 February 1971 (Ag 511/01/74); sleeve essay Margot Schröder (1971); design Peter Porsch; Musikregie Karl Heinz Ocasek. Recordings from events at the II. Festival des politischen Liedes, 7-13 February 1971, Berlin. Tracks A2, A4, A7, B1 feature Oktoberklub members; B3, B7 feature Venceremos Club members. Title page credits Armin Münch's painting 'Sieger der Geschichte'. Reissues 1973 and 1974 titled 'Wer, Wenn Nicht Wir (2. Festival Des Politischen Liedes)'. Track A5 of the compilation. Live recording from the 2nd Festival of Political Song, Berlin, February 1971, issued on the GDR compilation 'Wer, wenn nicht wir', which also includes the Oktoberklub's 'Vietnams Geschütze'. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

Canzoniere Il Contemporaneo was an Italian political song collective from Modena, active from 1967 to 1979 and credited on German releases as Gruppe Il Contemporaneo. Its documented members were Alberto Meschiari, Carla Artioli, Corrado Bignardi, Enea Longhi, Lara Malagoli, Marisa Mazzelli, Mirko Medici, Paolo Rocca and Willer Varini. The group appeared at the Festival des politischen Liedes in East Berlin in 1970-73 and 1976, which explains the German-language credit and the bilingual title of this recording. [Source: Discogs; Festival des politischen Liedes participant archive; Alberto…

Themes

Anti-War · Anti-American · Anti-Capitalism · Anti-Imperialism · Che Guevara · Festival of Political Song · Protest · Vietnam Analogy

In collections

European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Vietnam as Comparison