We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years

A                         D        E
We have fed you all for a thousand years,
                Bm       A
And you hail us still unfed,
                                 D        E
Though there's never a dollar of all your wealth.
              Bm       A
But marks the workers' dead.
        D                   A
We have yielded our best to give you rest
        Bm             E
And you lie on crimson wool.
       A                     D        E
And if blood be the price of all your wealth,
                  Bm      A
Good God! We have paid in full!

[Verse 2]
A                           D       E
There is never a mine blown skyward now.
                   Bm      A
But we're buried alive for you.
                             D         E
There's never a wreck drifts shoreward now,
               Bm      A
But we are its ghastly crew.
   D                      A
Go reckon our dead by the forges red
        Bm                 E
And the factories where we spin.
   A                          D      E
If blood be the price of your cursed wealth,
                  Bm      A
Good God! We have paid it in!

[Verse 3]
A                         D        E
We have fed you all for a thousand years -
                 Bm        A
For that was our doom, you know;
                                  D       E
From the days when you chained us in your fields
                Bm     A
To the strike a week ago.
         D                    A
You have taken our lives, our husbands and wives,
          Bm                   E
And we're told it's your legal share.
       A                          D      E
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth,
                  Bm        A
Good God! We have bought it fair!