[Alumni-chat] Union Songs I Learned At Antioch In 1963! Still Wonderful!

Tue Nov 6 14:54:36 EST 2007

Nov. 6, 07

  Hi from Yazz (David) Allen '66 (YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)!

  I first learned union songs at Antioch and am now sing them while engaging in picket line dury supported the Writers Guild Of America strike which began yesterday, mostly in Hollywood and NYC, but also elsewhere.  

  The Screen Actors Guild (I'm a member) supports the Writers Guild.  The big beef of the negotiations impasse is the fact that the Internet and performing arts media provided on the Internet will soon replace movie houses,  broadcast and cable TV, and video rental stores.....and the ownership class people are trying to stop workers from being part of Internet media profits, both now and upcoming.

  But....back to Antioch in 1963!...............

  A May Day celebration (honoring organized labor every May 1) was called at Antioch on Red Square in 1963 by Antioch students, and Steve Gould '63, then one month from getting his Antioch BS in Earth Sciences and heading off to grad school at Columbia U.,  gave a rousing, pro-organized labor speech!  

  We sang union songs at the Red Square Rally accompanied by guitar and fiddle music provided by Antioch undergrad musicians, including Roger Rudenstein (fiddle) and Ellis Bauman (guitar).

  Here are the songs I learned that day in 1963,  still sung wherever union workers gather.

  (All the current talk about Antioch "no longer being different than other schools" is nonsense.  Other schools NEVER had May Day rallies, never exposed students to these great songs.....and other schools STILL don't!)

  Best,
  Yazz Allen
  YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com

  The songs I learned May Day 1963 and sung with other Antiochians included:

  FOUR TRADITIONAL UNION SONGS TO LEARN FOR PICKET DUTY SUPPORTING UNION WRITERS!  LYRICS!  (Details)

  ----------------------------

  Below are lyrics to SOLIDARITY FOREVER, BANKS OF MARBLE, UNION MAID, and UNION ACTORS STAND TOGETHER (aka "Union Miners Stand Together!")

  Solidarity Forever  (Tune: John Brown's Body) (by Ralph Chaplin, January 1915 ) (9th edition, 1916)  When the Union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong.

    Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
For the Union makes us strong.

  Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the Union makes us strong.
  [chorus]
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid.
Now we stand outcast and starving, 'midst the wonders we have made;
But the Union makes us strong.
  [chorus]
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own,
While the Union makes us strong.
  [chorus]
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power; gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.
  [chorus]
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.
For the Union makes us strong.
  [chorus]
 -----------------------------------------------    
  Lyrics to BANKS OF MARBLE Union Song For Picket Lines!  

    I've traveled 'round this country
from shore to shining shore
It really made me wonder
the things I heard and saw
  I saw the weary farmer
plowing sod and loam
l heard the auction hammer
just a-knocking down his home
  But the banks are made of marble
with a guard at every door
and the vaults are stuffed with silver
that the farmer sweated for
  I've seen the weary miner
scrubbing coal dust from his back
I heard his children cryin'
"Got no coal to heat the shack"
  But the banks are made of marble
with a guard at every door
and the vaults are stuffed with silver
that the miner sweated for
  I've seen my brothers working
throughout this mighty land
l prayed we'd get together
and together make a stand
  Then we might own those banks of marble
with a guard at every door
and we might share those vaults of silver
that we have sweated for
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Lyrics to UNION ACTORS STAND TOGETHER! song for picketing duty! (Originally titled "Union Miners Stand Together!")

Union life is like a sailor's.
'Board a ship to cross the waves.
Ev'ry day our life's in danger,
Still we venture being brave.

Watch the rocks, they're falling daily.
Careless miners always fail.
Keep your hand upon the dollar
And your eye upon the scale.

     (Chorus) 
     Union actors stand together,
     Heed no operator's tale,
     Keep your hand upon the dollar,
     And your eye upon the scale.

Soon this trouble will be ended,
Union men will have their rights.
After many years of bondage
Digging days and digging nights;

     (Chorus) 
     Union actors stand together,
     Heed no operator's tale,
     Keep your hand upon the dollar,
     And your eye upon the scale.

You've been docked and docked, my boys,
You've been loading two to one;
What have you to show for working
Since this mining has begun?

     (Chorus) 
     Union actors stand together,
     Heed no operator's tale,
     Keep your hand upon the dollar,
     And your eye upon the scale.

In conclusion, bear in memory,
Keep the password in your mind:
Vic'try comes to every nation
When in union they combine.

     (Chorus) 
     Union actors stand together,
     Heed no operator's tale,
     Keep your hand upon the dollar,
     And your eye upon the scale.
  ----------------------------------------

  Lyrics to UNION MAID by Woody Guthrie for Picket Line Singing!

Union Maid

There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground. 

(Chorus)
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say

(Chorus): 
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.

(Chorus):
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

  ----
    Contact "Yazz" (David) Allen directly via email at YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com, mail to 644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., #239, Shrewsbury PA USA 17361...phone (717) 235 - 1982!

  See my movie actor photos and recent credits at WWW.IMDb.Com (world's largest movie info database, owned by Amazon.Com)  IMDb RESUME.  Also WWW.SAG.Org "IActor, "WWW.CastingNetworks.Com.

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