Song of the Council for Maintaining the Occupations
At the rue Gay-Lussac,[1] the rebels
Have only cars to burn.
What would you like, beautiful one,
What is it that you want?
Refrain:
Canons by the hundreds,
Rifles by the thousands,
Assholes, rifles,
By the hundreds and thousands.
Tell me what you call
This game that you are playing?
The rules appear new,
What a game, what a singular game!
(Refrain)
The revolution, beautiful one,
Is the game that you name.
It is played in the narrow streets,
It is played thanks to the paving stones.
(Refrain)
The old world and its gangs,
We want to sweep them away.
It is a matter of being cruel.
Death to the cops and the priests!
(Refrain)
They hurl against us like hail
Grenades and tear gas;
We only find shovels,
And knives to arm ourselves.
(Refrain)
My poor children say so,
My pretty barricaders,
My heart, my tottering heart
I have nothing to give you.
(Refrain)
If I have faith in my fight
I do not fear the police.
It is necessary that my fight becomes that
Of the worker comrades.
[1] The street on which the situationists (and others) erected barricades in May 1968. See Guy Debord's letter to Michel Prigent, dated 29 August 1981.
(Written by Alice Becker-Ho, May 1968. Included on Pour en Finir avec Travail, 1974. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! August 2007. Footnotes by the translator.)
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