# "First Up Against The Wall When The Revolution Comes"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 1, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934 "2006-05-01T11:50:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934/21 "2006-05-02T16:30:26Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Seems to me there are at least three different antecedents for “up against the wall” based on the above references.
> 
> 1. Execution by firing squad (after the revolution).
> 
> 2. Being held up by a mugger (Bobby Seale’s usage).
> 
> 3. Being frisked by the police.
> 
> As an exclamation, these days it seems to refer mostly to #3, as in the song _Redneck Mother._

Perhaps, but the OP is indubitably about #1.

–Cliffy

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934/22 "2006-05-02T17:01:19Z")

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> [@Cliffy](#):
>
> Perhaps, but the OP is indubitably about #1.
> 
> –Cliffy

Agreed. However, the discussion has branched out into the use of the phrase “Up against the wall” by itself, which crops up in various contexts, and may have different meanings.

I had always casually assumed the Jefferson Airplane lyric was in reference to police rounding up demonstrators (#3); but on reading the rest of the lyrics it seems that it must refer either to meaning #1 or #2.

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934/23 "2006-05-02T17:48:51Z")

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> [@Pjen](#):
>
> Doing some more thinking, I remember this phrase in its entirity being used whilst I was at University in the UK- 1971-74, thus predating Citizen Smith.
> 
> It was often used sardonically of International Socialists or members of the International Marxist Group (splitters) by liberals or conservatives.
> 
> A Marxist would be spouting their repetitive catch phrases, and a non Marxist would say “He’ll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes…”

Ah, memories. At Oberlin College in the mid-1980s, there was a tiny cadre of the Spartacus Youth League. They passed out literature that almost always included the phrase “Smash Reagan’s anti-Soviet war drive,” or the like.

One of my buddies invariably declined their pamphlets, saying, “No, thanks. I smashed at the office.”

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**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-up-against-the-wall-when-the-revolution-comes/354934/24 "2006-05-02T19:00:34Z")

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Could it be derivative of Shakespeare’s “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” from Henry VI, [Part II](The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers)?

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