Friday, November 9, 2007

`Law School'



(chorus)
They rob you of your life
They beat you when you rebel
They chain you in a cage
George Jackson knew it so well.

(verses)
Law school taught the judge to sentence that man to death
Law school taught the D.A. to try to suppress the Left
Law school trained that youth to lie for the corporate board
Law school pumps out pigs, and justice is ignored.
(chorus)

Law school teaches men to twist truth if they can
Law school teaches women to imitate crooked men
Law school trained that youth who sent that Black man to jail
Law school pumps out pigs, and justice does not prevail.
(chorus)

Law school excludes the poor who might want to change the rules
Law school excludes the merciful who might seek to be moral
Law school trained that thief to steal for the businessmen
Law school pumps out pigs, and justice does not win.
(chorus)

Law school taught the rich to go seek an injunction
Law school taught the tricks so property can be secured
Law school trained that parasite who bullies the working-class
Law school pumps out pigs, but Justice will not submit.
(chorus)

The Law School protest folk song was written during the early 1980s, when I was doing political prisoner solidarity work; and when I noticed how uninterested most U.S. university law school professors and U.S. lawyers were in protecting the civil liberties of anti-imperialist political activists, eliminating institutional racism and institutional classism or resisting the growth of the U.S. prisoner-industrial complex during the last years of the 20th century.

Next: Racism and Sexism at the New York Times Historically