10 years of resistance to the US-led Halifax war conference: ‘We built this city’, 2015

By EL JONES

Former Halifax poet laureate, El Junes spoke at the annual rally against the 7th Halifax International Security Forum, November 2015, Cornwallis Park, also known as the Halifax Peace and Freedom Park. Part of a series published in co-operation with the Nova Scotia Advocate.

We built this city
We built this city on land we stole
Built this city
Built this city on land we stole

We built this city on Cornwallis and Britain
We built this city on colonialism
Built on Mi’kmaq land without permission
We built this city with ammunition
And now that it’s risen we build it on prisons
We’re building off mental disease and addictions
No industry left so we build on tourism
We’re building a city of militarism
And off record panels inside of the Westin
By Western officials with global ambitions
Build with tax payer dollars but deny us admission
New defense minister building with Mckay’s traditions
We’re building on rhetoric of change and transition
While behind closed doors it’s the same old position
We build interventions and armed expeditions
We claim bombing campaigns are human rights propositions
We build up Trudeau, build with liberalism
Same military, same wars, just new government edition
We build while Indigenous women go missing
They build over bagpipes and lobster dinners
And then they go home and build nuclear winter
We built this city on capitalism
We build TPP and free trade propositions
We build Walmarts to push out local competition
Build cheap Chinese goods in sweatshop conditions
We build the economy global acquisition
Send jobs offshore, unemployment decisions
Used up all the coal, cut the trees, overfishing
Build up the North End Africville demolition
We’re building off poverty, armed forces enlistment
Can’t get a job so you get a commission
Build up the shipyards to Irving’s conditions
Ships start here we’re building off wishing
Still building off Harper although we dismissed him
We’re gentrifying the projects on that 300 million
We’re building this city on military missions
Building weapons and warships to use on brown children
We build off the blood of Afghanis and Libyans
We’re building with drone strikes on Yemen and Syrians
Collateral damage we take out civilians
We build global war over pipeline positions
We’re building this city on carbon emissions
We’re building a cycle of radicalism
We tortured Arar, extraordinary rendition
We built occupations just changed definitions
We helped to build ISIS, historical revision
We built Boko Haram to get oil from Nigerians
We build instability, build opposition
We destabilized the Mideast, societal demolition
We build arms trade with the Saudis, geopolitical divisions
We fight proxy wars by our allies’ decision
We’re one of the willing we build coalitions
With the U.S. and NATO and Israel politicians
We help to build settlements, walls and partitions
Build an open air prison in Gaza for Palestinians
We’re building in Africa, new colonial mission
Built a security state from the war on terrorism
Cyber surveillance built by government technicians
We built a spy network the new inquisition
We’re building a world where we all are suspicious
We’re building two classes of Canadian citizens
We build Islamophobia and hate crimes commission
We build off a racist immigration points system

We build off the Tattoo, military tradition
Lockheed Martin on campus helps bill our tuition
We say we’re building new weapons to strike with precision
Building new drones with facial recognition
We’re building an economy on death and attrition
We’re building new treaties on nuclear fission
We build NGO’s then we send in tactitions
We use foreign aid to build imperialism
We build occupations and call it assistance
We build cholera, refugee camps, malnutrition
We build piles of dead bodies and decomposition
We built a new world from 9/11 fruition
We’re building this world off of war repetition
The theatre of war is an endless audition
We built Al-Quaeda, we’re building militias
We build retaliation a cycle so vicious
New York, Beirut, Paris, Mali and Garissa
Military strikes just further ignition
We build global war and there’s no intermission
We’re building ourselves out of human existence
And we’re not bystanders we’re not an ommission
Because Don’t you hear that radio transmission

We built this city
We built this city off land we stole
Built this city
And warships cannot make us whole
Don’t you remember
We built this city off land we stole