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poetreeHistorical Context
Music, as a strong vehicle of cultural transmission and social experience, has long held a place in activism. As members of the labor movement raised their fists and picket signs in protest, they often raised their voices in song. Music had the effect of rallying workers and creating a sense of camaraderie in the face of tremendous adversity; in a day and age where workers were expendable, standing against the bosses was a bold and terrifying step to take.
Music and Labor
Song is not new to laborers. Long before music was adapted to promote change, song was used to raise spirits and promote cooperation among workers, especially those engaged in the most arduous of tasks. A popular format was the "call and response" song, often used to set the pace for group labor activities while keeping spirits high. Consider US slave laborers in the 1800's: Oppressed and abused and held captive, music allowed slaves to maintain a semblance of culture and community after being stripped of identity down to their very names. In the back-breaking days of the harvest, slaves encouraged one another along by singing; one popular example of a harvest slave song is "Shuck That Corn Before You Eat," a song about the rewards promised by masters to encourage fast completion of harvest activities.
"Shuck That Corn Before You Eat"
Caller: All dem purty gals will be dar,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: They will fix it for us rare,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I know dat supper will be big,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I think I smell a fine roast pig,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I hope dey'll have some whisky* dar,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I think I'll fill my pockets full,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Source
Another example of a well-know "call and response" rallying song for workers is "Day-O," also know as the Banana Boat Song, sung in various formats by Jamaican dock workers loading bananas onto cargo ships during night shifts. So imbedded in popular culture that it is easily recognized by modern American children who know nothing of its history, this song is a testament to the enduring nature of worker's songs. Listen to Harry Belafonte's rendition on Youtube
Music and the Labor Movement
With song already integral to laborer culture, it is unsurprising that music was used to rally support for organization and unionization during the labor movement. The International Workers of the World (IWW), also known as "Wobblies," found music a useful tool to attract members, and adapted popular melodies with lyrics themed around pro-union messages. To this day, most union members will recognize the song "Solidarity Forever," sung to the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
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.
This musical trend remains popular in the modern labor movement; for a current example, check out Mimi Yahn's 2004 "Walmart Waltz," sung to the tune of "Clemetine."
Music and "Downtown Women" - A Chorus of Factory Girls.
Julia Stein's powerful poem "Downtown Women" speaks of the experience of a female factory worker in the time of the labor movement. The majority of laborers were women and immigrants (and often both: I come from Bessie Abramowitz/the Russian Jewish factory girl/...from the shtetl in Russia), and due to their lower standing in society were subject to some of the most egregious abuses of workers. Their movement to protest and unionize for fair working conditions was made doubly challenging by the tendency for white and male workers to "scab" by crossing union picket lines to work during strikes, as Stein alludes to here: I come from the men workers laughed at my band/they walked through my picket line.
"Scabbing" was strongly condemned by union members, who often used song in an attempt to convey solidarity among all workers and discourage scabbing. The song "Which Side Are You On?" by Union Organizer Florence Reece has become a popular anthem against scabbing; below are several renditions:
Pete Seeger, 1967, American folk artist
Spirituál kvintet, 1983, Czech language translation
Dropkick Murphys, 2001, American punk rock band
As the women's labor movement gained momentum, marches and parades became both an important form of protest and a manner of celebrating the strength of the labor movement. Stein alludes to this in the lines I come from the May Day parades/leading the 1916 parade in Chicago down Harrison Street/arm-in-arm with my fiance Sidney Hillman/leading thousands of garment workers. The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike in Massachusetts, including a march largely lead by female and immigrant members of the IWW, is also known as the "Bread and Roses" strike in tribute to the popular female laborer song by the same name:
As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.
Source
As you read, note that it could also be read a protest of arranged marriages mentioned in Stein's poem. The line "give us bread, but give us roses," can be interpreted as a desire not only for favorable working conditions for female laborers, but the fundamental right to pursue romantic relationships of their choosing. More broadly, freedom in knowing "art, love, and beauty" was a demand expressed in the poem that inspired the song.
I chose to embed this song in closing because hey - a union song by women, about women, and finally SUNG by women!
Thanks for reading and listening!
Additional Reading:
In addition to my various Wikipedia spelunking for dates and details, I credit the Union Songs website hugely for the research that went into this post. If you want to see a fantastic collection of labor movement song and poetry, and read more in-depth about the history of music as a vehicle of protest for the labor movement, check out this site. It has lyrics, recordings, and awesome historical context.
Also, for a nice little modern song about song and female laborers, you may enjoy listening to Factory Girls by Flogging Molly. The line "chorus of factory girls" in this post is a tip of the hat to the lyrics of this song.
Music, as a strong vehicle of cultural transmission and social experience, has long held a place in activism. As members of the labor movement raised their fists and picket signs in protest, they often raised their voices in song. Music had the effect of rallying workers and creating a sense of camaraderie in the face of tremendous adversity; in a day and age where workers were expendable, standing against the bosses was a bold and terrifying step to take.
Music and Labor
Song is not new to laborers. Long before music was adapted to promote change, song was used to raise spirits and promote cooperation among workers, especially those engaged in the most arduous of tasks. A popular format was the "call and response" song, often used to set the pace for group labor activities while keeping spirits high. Consider US slave laborers in the 1800's: Oppressed and abused and held captive, music allowed slaves to maintain a semblance of culture and community after being stripped of identity down to their very names. In the back-breaking days of the harvest, slaves encouraged one another along by singing; one popular example of a harvest slave song is "Shuck That Corn Before You Eat," a song about the rewards promised by masters to encourage fast completion of harvest activities.
"Shuck That Corn Before You Eat"
Caller: All dem purty gals will be dar,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: They will fix it for us rare,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I know dat supper will be big,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I think I smell a fine roast pig,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I hope dey'll have some whisky* dar,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Caller: I think I'll fill my pockets full,
Chorus: Shuck dat corn before you eat.
Source
Another example of a well-know "call and response" rallying song for workers is "Day-O," also know as the Banana Boat Song, sung in various formats by Jamaican dock workers loading bananas onto cargo ships during night shifts. So imbedded in popular culture that it is easily recognized by modern American children who know nothing of its history, this song is a testament to the enduring nature of worker's songs. Listen to Harry Belafonte's rendition on Youtube
Music and the Labor Movement
With song already integral to laborer culture, it is unsurprising that music was used to rally support for organization and unionization during the labor movement. The International Workers of the World (IWW), also known as "Wobblies," found music a useful tool to attract members, and adapted popular melodies with lyrics themed around pro-union messages. To this day, most union members will recognize the song "Solidarity Forever," sung to the Battle Hymn of the Republic:
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.
This musical trend remains popular in the modern labor movement; for a current example, check out Mimi Yahn's 2004 "Walmart Waltz," sung to the tune of "Clemetine."
Music and "Downtown Women" - A Chorus of Factory Girls.
Julia Stein's powerful poem "Downtown Women" speaks of the experience of a female factory worker in the time of the labor movement. The majority of laborers were women and immigrants (and often both: I come from Bessie Abramowitz/the Russian Jewish factory girl/...from the shtetl in Russia), and due to their lower standing in society were subject to some of the most egregious abuses of workers. Their movement to protest and unionize for fair working conditions was made doubly challenging by the tendency for white and male workers to "scab" by crossing union picket lines to work during strikes, as Stein alludes to here: I come from the men workers laughed at my band/they walked through my picket line.
"Scabbing" was strongly condemned by union members, who often used song in an attempt to convey solidarity among all workers and discourage scabbing. The song "Which Side Are You On?" by Union Organizer Florence Reece has become a popular anthem against scabbing; below are several renditions:
Pete Seeger, 1967, American folk artist
Spirituál kvintet, 1983, Czech language translation
Dropkick Murphys, 2001, American punk rock band
As the women's labor movement gained momentum, marches and parades became both an important form of protest and a manner of celebrating the strength of the labor movement. Stein alludes to this in the lines I come from the May Day parades/leading the 1916 parade in Chicago down Harrison Street/arm-in-arm with my fiance Sidney Hillman/leading thousands of garment workers. The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike in Massachusetts, including a march largely lead by female and immigrant members of the IWW, is also known as the "Bread and Roses" strike in tribute to the popular female laborer song by the same name:
As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.
Source
As you read, note that it could also be read a protest of arranged marriages mentioned in Stein's poem. The line "give us bread, but give us roses," can be interpreted as a desire not only for favorable working conditions for female laborers, but the fundamental right to pursue romantic relationships of their choosing. More broadly, freedom in knowing "art, love, and beauty" was a demand expressed in the poem that inspired the song.
I chose to embed this song in closing because hey - a union song by women, about women, and finally SUNG by women!
Thanks for reading and listening!
Additional Reading:
In addition to my various Wikipedia spelunking for dates and details, I credit the Union Songs website hugely for the research that went into this post. If you want to see a fantastic collection of labor movement song and poetry, and read more in-depth about the history of music as a vehicle of protest for the labor movement, check out this site. It has lyrics, recordings, and awesome historical context.
Also, for a nice little modern song about song and female laborers, you may enjoy listening to Factory Girls by Flogging Molly. The line "chorus of factory girls" in this post is a tip of the hat to the lyrics of this song.
