Am
You don't have to sit back and watch the psychopaths fight
    Em
The hand of friendship is usally right
     Bb                     E
Most peope want peace and a home somewhere
           A                              E
They don't care about the thugs and their murderous stare
    A
Now we knew this, and for fourty years
  E
A brand new way replaced traditional fears
     Bb                   E
Most people lived happily side by side
   A                    E
No place for terror, no need to hide
       A
But it wasn't to the liking of the World Bank suits
    E
Who cheered when the tribes rediscovered their roots
         Bb              E
They can handle torture, rape, and death
      A                        E
If it opens up markets for the IMF

[Chorus]
            A                    E
And they're free now, oh they're free now
   Bb             E             A     E
'A chance for individuals to compete'
A                    E
Free now, oh they're free now
Bb                E               A          E
Fascists gun down children in the street.

[Verse 2]
  A
I remember the message from Amnesty
              E
That said the whole damn lot of them should be free
          Bb                       E
No matter what they say, no matter what they do
                A                     E
'Cause "they're all entitled to their point of view"
    A
The liberals cheered when the money men won
         E
Now they cry in the face of the tank and the gun
        Bb                     E
And the arms manufacturers are having fun as well
        A                        E
Growing fat on the profits of sectarian hell
    A
Now we always saw it another way
      E
For a hundred years, educate each day
    Bb                           E
And suppress the thugs and their murderous lies
         A                       E
Keep the lid on the pot 'til the hate boiled dry

[Chorus]
            A                    E
But they're free now, oh they're free now
    Bb                   E                  A     E
The rape camp guards can have a Big Mac for tea
A                    E
Free now, oh they're free now
Bb                 E              A    E
Welcome to Western liberal democracy.

[Verse 3]
        Bb                  C     A
There's freedom in Bischofferode, in East Germany
  Bb                  C          A
A town closed due to "economic unviability"
    Bb                             C
The word has become meaningless, a travesty
    Bb              C               Em
For there can be no freedom without power for the free --
                                              A
And that means more than shopping, actually.

[Verse 4]
     A
In Afghanistan in 1979
E
Everybody swallowed the corporate line
   Bb                        E
Misogynists from the twelfth century
      A
Were "freedom fighters" on TV

The Western world took them to their hearts
    E
The Afghan nation was torn apart
        Bb                        E
And now everything's gone, no one seems to care
          A               E
About the awful nightmare happening there
      A
Civil war in Kabul, fundamentalists clash
     E
With arsenals bought with Western cash
        Bb                   E
But the 9 o'clock news isn't there anymore
        A                            E
They're not fighting commies so it's not a real war

[Chorus]
        A                    E
They're free now, oh they're free now
     Bb                E              A    E
They freeze in Moscow, burn in Chechnya
A                    E
Free now, oh they're free now
Bb            E            A
Fascism, war, poverty, mafia
A                    E
Free now, oh they're free now
      Bb                 E               A   E
Look "freedom" up in the latest dictionary
A                    E
Free now, oh they're free now
             Bb             E               A     E
It says: "an IMF loan and a monetarist economy."

[Verse 5]
   A
In East Berlin the satirists sing
A
"Auf die Dauer hilft nur Mauer"
A
We want our Wall back
A
We want our Wall back
A
Can we have our wall back, please?