by Penelope Swales

This song is about the paradox of relying on big business to tackle climate change because governments aren’t doing anything about it.

Composed in 2022.

Lyrics

Verse 1

Captains of Industry

I’m tending my silverbeet 

Aware of a shift in the world

Not just down here with the roots and the hyphae

But up in your capital halls

I’m not good at reading the financial pages

But I know the true news of the world is there laid

And even my layperson’s ears hear 

What some of you are saying

Verse 2

Captains of Industry

Some of begin to see

That without our beautiful world

There’s be no more profits

That’s the bottom line

No future for the empires you lovingly build

A dirt farmer, I watch 

The clash of the gods

Between those who would change it

And those who would change us

Between the lords of extraction

And the long-sighted faction

Not so different here on the ground

Verse 3

Captains of Industry

How clear it does seem to me

That you have been running our world

All our pathetic attempts at democracy

Can only be said to have failed

While Broadbent and Barnaby ignore our plight  

The head of the IMF can’t sleep at night

And Scomo goes to Glasgow

With the same tired lies

That we hear at home

In the bushfire zone

Verse 4

Captains of Industry

An anomaly it seems to me, 

That we should be relying on you

If our leaders won’t lead us 

Or follow our lead

Can your business plans chart a way though?

While Adani and Palmer  want business as usual

Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes make a bid for AGL

Gina Rinehart feeds her pets

While Larry Fink tells the rest

To save the world, for Capital

Bridge

While the Dons of Disinformation

In league with the Proud Boys of Persuasion

While the Sovereigns of Sophistry

Pay the Doyennes of Data 

For the key biases of the Nation

While the cliches are hitting the hustings

The big end of town does the costings

Some place a bet each way

While others try to save the day

And we don’t know who we can trust in

And still our leaders prevaricate

Stuck in the pockets of their mining mates

Telling us we can’t put food on our plates

If we save the world we’re enmeshed in

Refrain

Oh, Captains of Industry

Who’ll be the ones to protect me?

Oh, Captains of Industry

Who’ll be the ones to protect me?