Solidarity forever!

It's a little known fact that "Solidarity Forever," the international anthem of the labor movement,  was inspired by events in West Virginia. Ralph Chaplin, writer and long time rebel worker, lived for a time in the Mountain State and edited a labor paper in Huntington, one of several then published in the state.

While here, he was inspired by the solidarity of coal miners during long and bitter strikes that raged in Kanawha County in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas around 1912-1913. It took him a while to finish the song, which is sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Today most people familiar with the song only know the chorus. In honor of West Virginia's teachers, service workers and public employees, here's the whole thing:

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.

CHORUS:
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

(Note: this song has shown up in this blog before, but it seem especially relevant today.)

Solidarity forever--and today

I have fond memories of the 1990 West Virginia teachers' strike. I was still new to working on social justice issues for the American Friends Service Committee. My first big adventure was supporting coal miners and their families in the Pittston Coal Strike, which lasted from April 5 1989 until Feb. 20, 1990.

I was kind of going through picket line withdrawal at the time and thought it was awfully nice of state teachers to help me out. Seriously though, teacher pay and morale at the time were rock bottom. The strike wasn't called by any unions; rather it grew like wildfire starting in the southern West Virginia coalfields. And it worked, with major gains for teachers.

(My fondest memory is of my late mother, who had just retired from teaching. She was boiling mad that our county hadn't walked out and asked me to bring up some union coal miners to picket and shut things down. I thought it was a great idea and got on the case but the teachers  wound up settling the strike before that could be arranged. I guess you can't have everything.)

 There could be some deja vu going on here, asWV Gazette-Mail reporter Phil Kabler wrote in today's paper.

Even while Republican legislators claim "we" can't afford a decent raise for teachers or a fix to ever increasing PEIA insurance costs, they are pushing a $140 million tax cut for some (mostly out of state) businesses. That would be more than enough to do the right thing. The business  tax cuts would come on top of cuts of over $200 million per year enacted 10 years ago, not to mention the Trump #taxscam tax cuts recently passed by congress.

I guess you could say it's "which side are you on?" time.While we're on the subject of Appalachian labor songs, you can give a listen to Solidarity Forever, the international anthem of the labor movement, which was inspired by events right here just over 100 years ago.

Anyhow, then as now, I stand in solidarity with our teachers. Obviously.

 And I'm grateful that they are showing some of that fighting spirit that once animated West Virginia.

Solidarity forever. And now

Lots of people in and out of West Virginia may not realize that the song "Solidarity Forever," the international anthem of the labor movement, was inspired by labor struggles right here. Specifically, Ralph Chaplin, journalist and songwriter for the Industrial Workers of the World was inspired to write it after witnessing union miners in Kanawha County during the 1912-1923 Paint Creek strike.

In that spirit, I'd like to share a blog post by my friend and co-worker Arnie Alpert, aka New Hampshire Slim, who works on social justice issues for the American Friends Service Committee in that state. The post is from his blog InZaneTimes and is adapted from a talk he gave in observation of Worker's Memorial Day:

An Injury to One is Still an Injury to All

Four years ago, this past Monday a building in Bangladesh called “Rana Plaza” collapsed and came crashing down.

The building housed five garment factories which employed 5000 people.

Brands that were sourcing from the factories in Rana Plaza building include Benetton, Bon Marche, Cato Fashions, The Children’s Place, Walmart, and JC Penney.

The owners ignored warnings about the building’s structural flaws.

The workers did not have a union.

The laws were weak and unenforced.

When the building collapsed, one thousand one hundred and thirty-four workers lost their lives. Thousands more were injured.

The scale of the disaster was so large, and the capacity of NGOs like the International Labor Rights Forum and the Clean Clothes Campaign was strong enough, that even though the workers were unorganized it became possible to pressure the companies and the government to reach agreements for inspections, compensation for affected workers and families, and renovating factories to make them safer.

But workers in Bangladesh still face repression when they try to organize.

That makes reforms hard to defend, especially when workers are inter-changeable pieces in a global supply chain, thousands of miles away from the consumers of the products they make, and several corporate intermediaries away from the firms whose logos they sew onto the apparel they make.

That’s one reason why we need to stand together, as workers, as consumers, as citizens.

One hundred and thirty-one years ago next Monday, hundreds of thousands of American workers went on strike calling for an eight-hour day. (The eight-hour movement followed the earlier ten-hour movement, which was led largely by young women like New Hampshire’s Sara Bagley and conducted in places like Dover, Manchester, Exeter, and Lowell.)

In Chicago, at the same time, a strike was going on at the McCormick Reaper plant, whose owner was trying to replace workers with machines. Several days of protest followed the May Day strike. Police killed 2 strikers on May 3. During a rally the next day protesting killings by police, a bomb went off. No one ever knew who was responsible. Several police officers and strikers lost their lives in the violence.

To be brief, Albert Parsons and August Spies, leaders of the eight-hour movement, were blamed, tried, convicted, and executed, despite the lack of any evidence tying them to the violence. (Hanging, not injection of toxic chemicals, was the method used back then.)

The following year, May Day was observed in their honor throughout the world and became known as International Workers Day.

In this country, over the past decade or so, International Workers Day has become associated with protests, rallies, strikes, and marches led by immigrant workers. That includes this coming Monday in Manchester, 5 to 7 pm, in Veterans Park.

Why does this matter?

When immigrants are afraid to complain about the toxic chemicals they use to clean our schools or the excessive heat in bakeries, factories, and laundries, the rights of all workers to a safe workplace is threatened.

When immigrants can be scapegoated and threatened with loss of jobs, the rights of all workers are weakened.

When capital can cross borders with barely any restriction, but workers face walls and troops, we have to stand together.

When workers are so desperately poor that they will take jobs that put their lives at risk, we have to stand together.

When the number of people forced to flee their homes dues to violence, climate disruption, and economic desperation is at an all-time high, we have to stand together.

When xenophobic and nativist movements are on the rise the world over, we have to stand together.

When workers anywhere are afraid to organize, we have to stand together.

And when workers do organize, despite the fear, despite the risks, despite the threats, despite the scapegoating, we have to stand with them.

During Workers Memorial Week, we say, injustice anywhere is still a threat to justice everywhere.

We still say, an injury to one is an injury to all.

We still say, Solidarity forever.

(I wish I'd said that. Thanks, Arnie!)

This is what happens...

...when 20 odd turkeys sleep in a redbud tree.

(In case the picture is unclear, the horizontal tree used to be a good bit more vertical, no thanks to this guy and his buddies.)

CHILDREN IN AMERICA fare worse than those in most Western nations.

ON THIS DATE 101 YEARS AGO, members of the United Mine Workers began their historic Paint Creek/Cabin Creek strike that marked the beginning of the Mine Wars--and eventually inspired the writing of the song Solidarity Forever, which has become the international anthem of the labor movement. Too bad people don't know the verses better than the chorus...

CALLING OUT THE SENATE. This op-ed by Gabrielle Giffords is getting a lot of attention.

AND AGAIN, this time by WV native Michael Tomasky.

AYN RAND WOULD NOT BE AMUSED. According to a new poll, most Americans think the distribution of wealth is unfair and that the federal government should do something about it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Solidarity forever (and today)

It's a little known fact that Ralph Chaplin's song "Solidarity Forever," an internationally famous labor anthem, was inspired by events in West Virginia. Chaplin, writer and long time labor activist with the Industrial Workers of the World, lived for a time in the Mountain State and edited the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star, one of several labor newspapers then published in the state.

During that time, he was inspired by the solidarity of coal miners during long and bitter strikes that raged in Kanawha County in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas around 1912-1913. It took him a while to finish the song, which is sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Today most people familiar with the song only know the chorus. In celebration of Labor Day, here's the whole thing:

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.

CHORUS:
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