Colour Line

Today the colour line Is the power line Is the poverty line Racism and imperialism work in tandem And poverty is their handmaiden Those who are poor and powerless to break out of their poverty Are also those who by and large are non-white, non-western, third world Poverty and powerlessness are intertwined in color, in race Discrimination and exploitation Feed into each other today, Under global capitalism We are back to primitive accumulation Plunder on a world scale Only this time, the pillage is accompanied by aid, sustained by expert advice and underpinned by programmes and polices that perpetuate dependency The IMF, the World Bank, Structural adjustment programmes General agreement on tariffs and trade-gatt Are just a few of the organizations, schemes, projects Which under the guise of developing the third world. Plunder it Trade agreements and commodity price fixing, patients and intellectual rights They lock them into paralytic dependency There is no such thing as illegal immigrants, Only illegal governments Today, the colour line Is the power line Is the poverty line