When words fail music speaks
I doubt, very much, that Bob Dylan envisaged that his 1964 single For The Times They Are a-Changin’ would transcend the political landscape at that time, never mind be the subject of a novice bloggers post-election musings some 57 years later.
And yet here we are. As the British music connoisseur Michael Gray had said in his review of Dylan’s work:
“Dylan's aim was to ride upon the unvoiced sentiment of a mass public—to give that inchoate sentiment an anthem and give its clamour an outlet. He succeeded, but the language of the song is nevertheless imprecisely and very generally directed."
Owing to such vague allusion it is little wonder that the song has been adapted by so many civic movements agitating for change. Jennifer Hudson’s 2018 rendition at the Washington D.C gun-control demonstration ‘March for Our Lives’ for example or Billy Bragg’s cover, albeit slightly altered concerning climate change. Even to this music buff, who doesn’t particularly rate folk music, the lyrics of this seemingly timeless anthem are irresistibly relatable.
"Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone"
A poetic but rather poignant prophecy, I thought, when considering Northern Ireland’s political landscape.
They say once is chance, twice a coincidence but three times a pattern. And of course December 12th 2019 marked the fourth election in which political unionism failed to retain a majority. There is no escaping the fact that the pro-Union electorate are, albeit slowly, rejecting the politics of fear and division in favour of hope and ambition. The figures support that proposition- evidencing that political unionism is losing votes and subsequently seats - not to each other, as has so often had been the case, but to parties with no constitutional aspirations only civic ones such as Alliance, People Before Profit and the Greens. Of course, this is not a new or recent phenomenon. There are an increasing number of ‘would be’ pro-union voters that measure the strength of the Union not by the electoral success of the unionist parties but rather by the socioeconomic wealth of its citizens.
I’m aware it’s risky but I am brave enough to listen and bold enough to voice it: be it authentically or - as is possible - strategically, these voters are seeking issue based and public policy centred politics. Seeking a better future, rather than the polluted politics of the past.
Homelessness and poverty whether fuel, food or financial, are consequences of an economy which does not provide for its people, of increasing welfare sanctions, of an education system that has a golden lift for a minority and steep steps for the majority with many of the former reliant upon a depleted social housing market. A Northern Ireland in a union with Great Britain has both the infrastructure and the resources to draw down upon to reverse some of the harm done by austerity and to address unmet need. At present we are not offered a politics of renewal and ideas that would alleviate multiple deprivation. Legacy and division put before the people without proper respect for them and their ever critical needs. The alternative offer, that we join the Republic of Ireland, is one, for many of the socially deprived of Northern Ireland that reads ‘in which of these two constitutional setups do you wish to be abandoned?’
People are seeking renewal. They are seeking support but also opportunities to engage with. They seek this for all of the citizens of Northern Ireland. People talk about what they face as the airwaves push backward ides and equally backward passions. Foodbanks for all is not the politics of representation and renewal. It is Dickensian and ultimately barbaric.
I am pro-union but I want that politics that reaches into the place that I live. Not a narrative of yesteryear. I am a young woman who wants equality for all genders, sexualities and beliefs. I want a unionism that speaks of an inclusive tomorrow. That renews itself and which wants to hear and grow and even build the Union in the most inclusive way. A place in which our politicians, of whatever hue, co-join in something that is much more imaginative and that seeks parity of esteem and mutual respect as its basis. I have no problem with those who seek a united Ireland but I want to work with them to locate radical and robust solution-based politics not same old, same old.
The pro-union community, especially the young are proud and confident about who they are and what they believe. They are pro-union but not blindly following the unionist elite. They may eventually but on their own terms. They do not wish to bow to those above but want those they elect to respond in a more positive form of mutual exchange. They do not want to hear ‘never’ or ‘no’ but those more positive words - yes, forward, inclusive, complete, achieving, delivering, attaining, accomplishing, achieving, advancing, supporting, nurturing, uplifting and inspiring.
Now, I am acutely aware that what I am about to do as I look to the lyrics below for explanatory connotations. It is akin to a GCSE Literacy assignment but as the title so aptly articulates when words fail music speaks.
"Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are-a-changin'"