[Alumni-chat] More Antioch Union Songs From The 1950's and 60's!

Thu Nov 8 08:47:08 EST 2007

Nov. 8, 07

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

  Union songs often sung on the Antioch campus by 1950's and 1960's undergrads should be sung at Antioch alumni meetings to help raise morale and get blood pumping as Antiochians pull together to fight the bad guys, whoever they may be!

  You don't have to be on strike to enjoy and benefit from a good union song!

  Thanks to Bev Porter for her great 1954 recollections of Pete Seegar at Antioch singing Union Songs in the Curl Gym under the watchful eye of the two giant WPA artists' murals which protected (still do) all Antiochians taking phys. ed. at Antioch!

  The effort to stamp out unions and claim all social/ economic reform for common working people  was part of the Russian conspiracy to destroy Amerika by Sen. McCarthy of Wisconsin (see him in action in the classical documentary still available titled POINT OF ORDER) was in high gear then, and never really stopped.

  But unions still live, and so does the dream part of what they did and still do.

  The current Writers Guild Of Amerca strike (supported actively by the Screen Actors Guild and other performing arts labor unions many Antiochians belong to, including me!) is proof that unions are still alive.

Here are lyrics to three more GREAT union songs often sung on the Antioch campus in the 60's at front campus and Red Square public folk sings I led and was part of....these songs never die, and are always useful for protest and morale building when the bad guys need to be faced off:  (Lyrics to JOE HILL,  WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, and TALKIN' UNION):

  (Note: My previous "Antioch Union Songs" message which Ms. Porter commented on included words to SOLIDARITY FOREVER,  UNION MAID,  UNION MINERS STICK TOGETHER, and BANKS OF MARBLE.....what follows are three more worth remembering and singing often...these are STILL sung on picket lines in front of the RCA building in NYC and Paramount Studios in Hollywood as I write this!):

  Joe Hill
   ------

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to organize,
went on to organize"

>From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
Where workers fight and organize,
it's there you find Joe Hill,
it's there you find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

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

    Which Side Are You On?  by Florence Reese  Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell
    (Chorus)
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

  My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

  (Chorus)

  They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

  (Chorus)

  Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

  (Chorus)

  Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

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

    Talking Union  by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, 1941
The Almanac Singers, Woodie Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell and Pete SeegerNow, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you.
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
But if you all stick together, boys, it won't be long.
You get shorter hours, better working conditions,
Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore.

It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain
Just why you got to ride on the union train.
'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay,
We'll all be a-waitin' 'til Judgment Day.
We'll all be buried, gone to heaven,
St. Peter'll be the straw boss then.

Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't;
He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint.
You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten,
You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'.
Talk it over, speak your mind,
Decide to do somethin' about it.

Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
To go to your meetin' and act like a stool.
But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact,
He's got a yaller streak a-runnin' down his back.
He doesn't have to stool, he'll always get along
On what he takes out of blind men's cups.

You got a union now, and you're sittin' pretty,
Put some of the boys on the steering committee.
The boss won't listen when one guy squawks,
But he's got to listen when the union talks.
He'd better, be mighty lonely
Everybody decides to walk out on him.

Suppose they're working you so hard it's just outrageous
And they're paying you all starvation wages.
You go to the boss and the boss would yell,
"Before I raise your pay I'd see you all in hell."

Well, he's puffing a big seegar, feeling mighty slick
'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked.
Well, he looks out the window and what does he see
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree:
He's a bastard, unfair, slavedriver,
Bet he beats his wife!

Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time.
The boss will try to bust your picket line.
He'll call out the police, the National Guard,
They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card.

They'll raid your meetin', they'll hit you on the head,
They'll call every one of you a goddam red,
Unpatriotic, Japanese spies, sabotaging national defense!

But out at Ford, here's what they found,
And out at Vultee, here's what they found,
And out at Allis-Chalmers, here's what they found,
And down at Bethlehem, here's what they found:

That if you don't let red-baiting break you up,
And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up,
And if you don't let vigilantes break you up,
And if you don't let race hatred break you up,
You'll win. 

What I mean, take it easy, but take it!

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

   Best,
  Yazz (David) Allen '66
  (YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)

  ----
    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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