“You Said You Wanted a Fight” is built around a simple idea: one of the most effective tools of power is making people forget how often collective struggle and solidarity have already worked.
Across history, movements for abolition, labor rights, civil rights, environmental protection, disability access, and LGBTQ+ liberation were all declared impossible – until they weren’t. Those victories didn’t arrive overnight, and they weren’t granted willingly. They were organized, sustained, and fought for.
The lyrics return to this pattern, insisting that today’s struggles are not happening in a vacuum. As the song puts it, “you’ve been here a thousand times,” and “nothing was ever set right in a night.” The point isn’t nostalgia. It’s memory- memory of what people have accomplished together through solidarity and organizing. When that memory is erased, resistance can be framed as futile or hopeless, when history shows it is anything but.
CRITICAL ACTION: Music & Storytelling
Rooted in liberation, solidarity, and resistance.
“in the streets you’ve ended war
unionized, demanded more
everything you’ve got you’ve fought for”
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