Editorial note
Restored from external source. An OCR-corpus incipit search plus direct review of splits 077-080 found Legal - Illegal, Commonwealth of Toil, Union Maid, and The Union Buster instead. Printed page 18 is known from the TOC, but exact split-page placement remains unresolved pending a stronger source.
Verse 1
In nineteen-hundred-sev'nty-three, in the town of Besancon,
The LIP workers made history in a way we can condone.
They were tired of threats and layoffs; they were tired of cuts in pay.
So they took their factory over, and they ran it their own way.
Chorus
Oh me! Oh my! Who told them they could do it?
Oh dear! Mon Dieu! What are we goin' to do?
The bosses, taken by surprise, tore their hair and damned their eyes
To see the working class arise and know just what to do.
Verse 2
Now this factory made watches, and I'll have you all to know
LIP craftsmanship is well renowned wherever you may go.
But the firm was taken over by a larger company,
Whose bosses had made lots of plans for their LIP factory.
Chorus
Oh me! Oh my! Who told them they could do that?
Oh dear! Mon Dieu! What are we goin' to do?
The workers, tired of these fools, took possession of their tools.
They organized, made their own rules, and started up anew.
Verse 3
The bosses asked the police, 'Is there nothing you can do?
These scoundrels stole our factory, sixty-five thousand watches, too!
And they're making and selling watches! Arrest them all and fast!'
The police shrugged, 'One can't arrest the entire working class.'
Final Verse
Now I'll conclude my story, and I hope you listened well
To the tale of the LIP takeover. That is all I'm goin' to tell.
But some day, fellow workers, we too shall seize the time,
And parasites around the world in harmony will chime.
Final Chorus
Oh me! Oh my! Who told them they could do it?
Oh dear! Mon Dieu! What are we goin' to do?
The working class has risen en masse to take control of their lives at last!
A revolution's come! With that, I bid you all adieu.
♪ Sheet music notation is on this page. Music data not yet extracted — OMR run pending on gg-worker.