Union Songs

Labor and union songs were written throughout the 19th century, many published in labor publications. By the early 20th century there was a strong legacy of using songs for organizing purposes. For example, black and white Alabama coal miners introduced “We Will Overcome Some Day” in 1908, which was published in the United Mine Workers Journal the next [Page 1412]year. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) first published Songs of the Workers: On the Road in the Jungles and in the Shops in 1909 (and still in print). Better known as The Little Red Song Book, it spread the songs of Joe Hill (“Casey Jones—The Union Scab”), T-Bone Slim (“I'm Too Old to Be a Scab”), as well as “The Internationale” (1871). Some of the IWW songs were sung during the massive Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile strike in 1912, including “Workers, Shall the Masters Rule Us?”

By the 1930s, union songs were widespread. They were sung in organizing drives by the National Miners Union, the National Textile Workers, and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Maurice Sugar, a Detroit attorney and activist, wrote “Sit Down” (1937) during the General Motors sit-down strikes in 1937. The Almanac Singers recorded the album Talking Union in 1941, which included Woody Guthrie's “Union Maid” and Florence Reece's “Which Side?” and “Talking Union.” Guthrie also recorded labor songs during the war, such as “Boomtown Bill,” while a group that included Burl Ives and Pete Seeger recorded “UAWCIO” and “Hold the Fort.”

Labor songs could be learned from records, or more likely from songbooks and on the picket line. Labor unions and schools began issuing songbooks in the 1920s. For example, the Brookwood Chautauqua Songs booklet, from the later 1930s, with the slogan “A Singing Army Is a Winning Army,” began with “Solidarity Forever” and included “Victory Song of the Dressmakers” and “March Song of the Workers.” Commonwealth Labor Songs, appearing in 1938, included a similar lineup, beginning with “The Internationale” and ending with “Old John Lewis.” Folk-style songs had become the norm by the middle of the Depression, catchy lyrics with familiar tunes that would be easily remembered and sung. CIO Songs, issued by the Birmingham Industrial Union Council, began with “The C.I.O's in Dixie” and continued with “The Workers' Marseillaise,” “The Steel Workers' Battle Hymn,” and “We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years.” In 1939, Zilphia Horton compiled Labor Songs for the Textile Workers Union. Various unions continued to issue small songbooks into the next decade. For example, the Educational Department of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union published Everybody Sings (1942), and about the same time the New York State Federation of Teachers Union published Sing with the Union and the UAW-CIO Education Department printed UAW-CIO Sings. The AFL-CIO would issue songbooks to the end of the 20th century. Joe Glazer, known as Labor's Troubadour, began singing labor songs for the Textile Workers Union of America during World War II and then for the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and finally for the AFL-CIO after its formation in 1955. He recorded numerous records and also edited Songs for AFSCME, last published in 1988, by which time most unions had ceased to publish songbooks.

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