[Alumni-chat] Union Songs I Learned At Antioch In 1963!
StillWonderful!
Beverly Porter
bporter at comcast.net
Wed Nov 7 19:40:08 EST 2007
Yazz,
Thank you for sending the lyrics to some great songs! I remember when Pete
Seeger came to the campus in the early fifties (1954?) and we sat around on
the gym floor and sang with him. My father was a union man and I found these
songs thrilling at the time. They do hold up well. Many students were
afraid to go to the concert; McCarthy panic had everyone fearing the worst.
But it was grand.
Beverly
----- Original Message -----
From: "YAZZ ALLEN" <davidallenusa at yahoo.com>
To: "Digest of Antioch Alumni AntiochCollegeChatline"
<alumni-chat at w3.antioch.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 2:54 PM
Subject: [Alumni-chat] Union Songs I Learned At Antioch In 1963!
StillWonderful!
> 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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