The flag at the start is a bit anachronistic as Howard Zinn would not write this quote until 21 years after this song was written. However, I like the quote a lot, and I consider it fitting for an anti-war song.

“British War” refers to the War of 1812. In other recordings, he sings “British wars.”

“Injun” is an old slur for Native Americans; “Little Bighorn” refers to the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Battle of the Greasy Grass), where Native forces successfully repelled a colonizer army led by George Armstrong Custer.

“United Fruit” refers to the United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation that participated, at the behest of the United States, in economic imperialism against much of Latin America, devastating these lands and turning them into effective puppet states of the US, with heavy economic inequality, poverty, and other such miseries. In 1960, they were accused by Fidel Castro of aiding Cuban exiles in an eventual plan to invade Cuba, which happened at the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

“I ain’t marching anymore” is a 1965 anti-war protest song by the American singer-songwriter Phil Ochs. He initially released it on his second album, the song’s namesake, as a protest to the ongoing Vietnam War (of which he was a very passionate critic). Like many of his other songs, it was treated with suspicion by the US government, and seldom played on the radio (a factor that vindicated its purpose for him), though it was popular among the anti-war movement in the 60s, with Ochs even performing it outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, provoking hundreds to burn their draft cards. After Phil Ochs died, it was revealed that the FBI had nearly 500 pages on him.

This recording is an electronic remix released in 1966 as a single accompanied by The Blues Project, but was rather unpopular compared to the original acoustic version. I decided to use it because, though I do prefer the acoustic version, this one felt more conducive to uploading.