UNION TOWN   

Good memories are forever

Said the dog on the tombstone

If you’re livin’ underneath a bridge, man

All roads lead to home

I gotta hidden flask and I’m paid in cash

Gotta cross above my bed

I hitchhiked from Chicago

And a man walked up and said

 

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

And if you come to strip our rights away

We’ll give you hell every time

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

 

Today the policeman’s a union man

Brother firefighter’s my friend

And the kids locked in the Capitol

Are fighting ‘til the end

And we’re not gonna break tonight

And we’re not gonna bend

Some say the union’s down

But I asked around

And everybody said

 

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

And if they come to strip our rights away

We’ll give ‘em hell every time

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

 

For every action, a reaction

Equal and opposite

That’s why, my friend, the blood tastes good

Every time I’m hit

I gotta will to win and a Cheshire grin

The Nightwatchman is near

And you can’t get it where you’re at

But you can sure get it here

 

So, come rain or sleet or dark of night

Come wind or frigid snow

There’s 100,000 in the street

And that number’s gonna grow

And when we put the governor on trial

I’ll be in the front row

Just take a look around

We’re a union town

One, two, three, four – let’s go!

 

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line

And if they come to strip our rights away

We’ll give ‘em hell every time

This is a union town, a union town

All down the line
SOLIDARITY FOREVER

 

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

For the union makes us strong

 

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

 

It is we who ploughed 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

 

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

For the union makes us strong

 

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

 

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

For the union makes us strong

 

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

 

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

For the union makes us strong

 

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

 

Come all you good workers

Good news to you I’ll tell

Of how the good old union

Has come in here to dwell

 

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

 

My daddy was a miner

Now he’s in the air and sun

He’ll be with you, fellow workers

Until the battle’s won

 

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

 

Across this great old nation

Tell me what you gonna do

When there’s one law for the rulers

And one law for the ruled?

 

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

 

Oh workers, can you stand it?

Oh, tell me how you can

Will you be a lousy scab

Or will you be a man?

 

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

 

Don’t scab for the bosses

Don’t listen to their lies

Poor folks ain’t got a chance

Unless they organize

 

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?

Which side are you on, boys?

Which side are you on?
A WALL AGAINST THE WIND           

 

On May Day there’s a flag unfurled

In city streets across the world

And every bell in the city’s rung

Every freedom song that’s yet unsung

Will find a voice, will find a way

To fill the air

On the First of May

 

And in the storm we’ll bend

And like the willow give

But together we will stand

A wall against the wind

 

A candle lit for every soul

Who’s perished along the freedom’s road

At the barricade or in the jail cell

To struggle hard is to struggle well

Your struggle is alive today

We’re marching out

On the First of May

 

And in the storm we’ll bend

And like the willow give

But together we will stand

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind

 

In the sweatshop there are whispers

In the migrant field, clenched fists

And in the prison yard there’s a rumor

That there’s something they might have missed

In every mill and mine and shop

Every baton swing of every crooked cop

Every dirty threat, every boss’s curse

Keep your mouth shut and keep your eyes on your work

Well, I’ll take my chances, today’s the day

The clock ticks down

To the First of May

 

And in the storm we’ll bend

And like the willow give

But together we will stand

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind

A wall against the wind
16 TONS

 

Some people say a man is made outta mud

A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood

Muscle and blood and skin and bones

A mind that’s weak and a back that’s strong

 

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go

I owe my soul to the company store

 

I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal

And the straw boss said, “Well, a-bless my soul”

 

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go

I owe my soul to the company store

 

I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain

Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion

Ain’t no boss man alive make me walk the line

 

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go

I owe my soul to the company store

 

If you see me comin’, better step aside

A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died

One fist of iron, the other of steel

If the right one don’t get you

Then the left one will

 

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go

I owe my soul to the company store
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

 

As I was walking that ribbon of highway

I saw above me an endless skyway

I saw below me a golden valley

This land was made for you and me

 

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

 

As I was walking I saw a sign there

And that sign said no trespassing

But on the other side it didn’t say nothin’

That side was made for you and me

 

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

 

Nobody living can ever stop me

As I go walking that freedom highway

Nobody living can make me turn back now

This land was made for you and me

 

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

 

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple

Near the relief office I see my people

And some are grumblin’ and all are wonderin’

If this land’s still made for you and me

 

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California to the New York Island

From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me
I DREAMED I SAW JOE HILL LAST NIGHT

 

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night

Alive as you or me

Says I, “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”

“I never died,” says he

“I never died,” says he

 

“In Salt Lake, Joe,” I says to him

Standing by my bed

“They framed you on a murder charge”

Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead”

Says Joe, “But I ain’t dead”

 

“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 forgot to kill

Went on to organize

Went on to organize”

 

“Joe Hill ain’t dead,” he says to me

“Joe Hill ain’t never died

Where working men are out on strike

Joe Hill is at their side”

 

“From San Diego up to Maine

In every mine and mill

Where workers strike and organize”

Says he, “You’ll find Joe Hill”

Says he, “You’ll find Joe Hill”

 

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night

Alive as you or me

Says I “But Joe, you’re ten years dead”

“I never died,” says he
UNION SONG (Live – Capitol Square – Madison, Wisconsin – February 21st, 2011)

 

For the fired auto workers

Who were twisted, tricked and robbed

To the peasant in Guatemala

In a sweatshop got your job

And she can’t feed her family

On the pennies that she makes

Meanwhile, the crime rate’s rising

Up and down the Great Lake states

 

Like vegetables left in the field

The signatures smell rotten

On the contracts and the deeds

That push the race down to the bottom

As they load the rubber bullets

As they fire another round

I’m headin’ into the tear gas

Dig in man, hold your ground

 

For Joe Hill and Cesar Chavez

Who fought in their own time

For our brothers and our sisters

Up and down that picket line

For the unnamed and unnumbered

Who struggle brave and long

For the union men and women

Standing up and standing strong

 

Si nos quedemos

Juntos vamos a ganar?  Si !

Hit ‘em where it hurts

And bite the hand that feeds

You might get one to three

Or probation and a fine

But I know where I’m gonna be

I’m gonna be right on that front line

 

For Joe Hill and Cesar Chavez

Who fought in their own time

For our brothers and our sisters

Up and down that picket line

For the unnamed and unnumbered

Who struggle brave and long

For the union men and women

Standing up and standing strong

 

Now dirty scabs will cross the line

While others stand aside and look

But ain’t nobody never got nothin’

That didn’t raise their voice and push

Like the steel worker in Ohio

The miner in West Virginia

The teacher in Wisconsin

Janitor in Mississippi

From the sweatshops of L.A.

To the fields of Mission Flats

There’s a thunder cloud exploding

And I’m free at last

 

Like Joe Hill and Cesar Chavez

Who fought in their own time

Like our brothers and our sisters

Up and down that picket line

Like the unnamed and unnumbered

Who struggle brave and long

Like the union men and women

Standing up and standing strong