I-69 Lyrics

Ryan Harvey

The Inter-American Development Bank
And the companies said it first
We've got an idea that'll bring us more cash
And we're determined to make it work
The unions in the states won't fight too hard
We'll have em sign on the dotted line
We've got plans to build a Free-trade-way
By extending I-69

I-69 is just one piece
Of a bigger, more ambitious goal
They call it Plan Puebla Panama
Gonna turn the hills to coal
The PPP is like a tunnel
For trucks full of plastic toys
It's a pleasure cruise for the companies
It's a cell for the children that they're gonna employ

They say they gotta downsize to keep afloat
If you sell then you gotta compete
But you can't disrupt the profit margin
And you gotta keep product cheap
So they're laying workers by the thousands
People starving but they don't care
Cuz these high-paying Midwest union jobs
Could be sweatshops over there

They call it development
But when they're done there's nothing left!
They call it trade
But we know that it's theft!

Well another plant closed I heard them say
But the plant didn't close it moved
It went down south below the concrete wall
I hear their market shares improved
They pick jobs up and move em around
Over borders and over seas
It's like a giant game of chess
All they got are knights and queens

Yeah they moved the plants down into Mexico
Because the labor laws are slack
Now the products are cheaper and they're loading up the trucks
And they're building a highway to sell it all back
And you know that this is corporate interest,
They're dropping all sorts of clues
Asking you all which route you prefer
But either way you lose

[Chorus]

But Mexico ain't good enough now
So the companies have changed their plans
China's got competitive wage restrictions
And a billion pairs of hands
But there's exploitable labor closer
And forests that are full of trees
And organic farms just waiting
To be turned into factories

So they're pushing Free Trade agreements
From Flint to the Rio Grande
To the Central American highlands
Gonna generate demand
Flooding foreign markets with subsidized corn
Driving farmers to the city sprawl
They call it "urbanization"
It's a death wish for them all

[Chorus]

You see but when their wages fall
Our wages do the same
And the toxins in their rivers
Will fall back on us as rain
And once our mountains are empty
With no trees left to sell
They'll move the mills to a forest down there
And clearcut that as well

It's a globalized economy
It's the corporation's call
And you can't take down just one of em'
You gotta take em all
They stand strong together
That's why we gotta do the same
And the resistance that we wage
Has gotta be as global as the trade

[Chorus]

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