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s o n g s o f w o r k i n g p e o p l e Seattle Labor Chorus In May 1997, a nervous, exhilarated bunch of amateur singers mounted an out- door stage at Seattle’s popular Northwest Folklife Festival. Facing a huge late afternoon audience, backing up folk legend Pete Seeger, the Seattle Labor Chorus began more than a decade of spirited, thought-provoking performances. A lot has changed in that time, except for the continuing guidance of music director Janet Stecher (of the respected folk duo Rebel Voices). Folks have joined, left and sometimes returned. A skilled crew now provides music sheets with polished, computer-aided arrangements. We improve our collective sound through formal training, practice and choral exchanges. But what’s kept us singing is the satisfaction of what’s been called “having buckets of fun using music to wake the sleeping giant of the American conscience.” At countless union meetings, rallies, marches and picketline demonstra- tions, the chorus has inspired workers with songs of beauty, rage and humor. Striving to reflect current issues, we’ve built a large and varied repertoire enriched by the work of gifted contemporary artists. Some milestones in our history: our tenth Folklife Festival performance this year; singing down the barriers of the “no protest zone” as we rallied against the World Trade Orga- nization; performing in concert with Utah Phillips, Charlie King and Linda Allen; our Vancouver Folk Music Festival debut; wowing crowds at the Washington, D.C. Great Labor Arts Exchange; a musical memorial to the immortal Paul Robeson at the Canadian border; our now-annual public singalong; and even our Best Chorus trophy from Seattle’s annual street-corner caroling contest. We’re ever busier because people are increasingly eager for our message promoting social and economic justice, and the right to organize to secure a living wage. We’re now professional rabble-rousers, working even harder to support hope in these hard times, because you, our audience, deserve the best. We hope you enjoy what we share with you here, and carry along our message. THERE IS POWER IN A UNION Music from “Rally Round the Flag,” a U.S. Civil War tune Words by Billy Bragg, modified by SLC Arranged by Jane Edwardson The title says it all! There is power in the factory, there’s power in the land Oh, power in the hands of the worker But it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand There is power in a union. Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers’ blood The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for WELCOME UNION MEMBERS From the cities and the farmland to the trenches full of mud * Traditional African-American gospel song learned from War has been the bosses’ way sir. Elise Bryant of the DC Labor Chorus The union forever, defending our rights Adapted by Suzy Mayberry Down with the blackleg, all workers unite Modified and arranged by SLC and Earle Peach With our sisters and our brothers in many far off lands Every time we perform for a union, we open with There is power in a union. this greeting, honoring those whose lives and work inspire Now I long for the morning when they realize us to sing. Oh unjust laws cannot defeat us Welcome union members, we are in your presence But who’ll defend the workers who cannot organize Hand in hand together, the union makes us strong When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us. We are filled with power, mobilized to organize When we stand together, we shall not be moved Welcome union members, we are in your presence Hand in hand together, we make the union strong * Author’s lyrics, sung differently by SLC Photos from SLC archives, taken by Ivan King, Martha Cohen and others NO SWEAT Words and Music by Bev Grant and Pat Humphries We are workers spreading the word- no sweat! Arranged by Earle Peach • © 1997 Bev Grant/Pat Humphries There’s lint in the air. Our lungs are on fire. Why care where our clothes are made? We should all be working We work behind tall cement walls, topped with barbed wire. toward the day when sweatshops are only museum exhibits. To We don’t have a voice, so we can’t complain. move us toward that end, songwriters Bev Grant and Pat Humphries They just kick us out whenever we shout or cry out in pain. rhythmically educate us about how people in third world nations are They call us sweatshop workers. economically exploited, forced to work under miserable conditions, and We live from hand to mouth. generally sacrificed for profit. We took the jobs you lost up north When the company moved south. We don’t have a union. We barely get by. We sew the clothes, the clothes that you buy. We need your support. We need you to join in We can’t afford them for ourselves. The price is too high. When you hear our cry, No Sweat! Our families need food. We don’t need name brands. We’d just like a fair share of the money Our wages are low. Our hours are long.* That’s made off of our working hands. They dock our pay, if we do anything they say is wrong. They hire us girls, They think we’ll obey. We need the right to organize- no sweat! But we feel the power when we work together No forced overtime- no sweat! And when we say… Clean drinking water- no sweat! Clean air to breathe. NO SWEAT! No bosses screaming, no forced pregnancy tests, The right to speak and be heard. FREEDOM IS COMING MAYN RUE PLATZ Traditional South African song Words and Music by Morris Rosenfeld Arranged by NYC Labor Chorus Arranged by SLC A classic from the South African freedom This bittersweet Depression-era Yiddish love song is also an ode movement, with our union verse added. of solidarity to the workers’ struggle, forsaking the beauty beyond the sweatshop window to lie finally where the need is greatest: Freedom is coming, freedom is coming “Don’t look for me where myrtles grow, where birds sing or Freedom is coming, oh yes I know fountains splash; you will not find me there, my love. Where lives Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom wither at machines, where tears flow and spirits fail: there is my Freedom is coming, oh yes I know resting place, mayn rue platz.” Oh yes I know, Oh yes I know, Oh yes I know Freedom is coming, oh yes I know Nit zukh mikh vu di mirtn grinen We’ll organize, we’ll organize, we’ll orga- Gefinst mikh dortn nit mayn shatz. nize We’ll build a union, we’ll organize Vu lebens velkn bay mashinen, Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom, Oh Freedom Dortn iz mayn rue platz; Freedom is coming, oh yes I know Dortn iz mayn rue platz. Nit zukh mikh vu di feigl zingen Gefinst mikh dortn nit mayn shatz. A schklaf bin ich vu kaytn klingen, Dortn iz mayn rue platz; Dortn iz mayn rue platz. Nit zukh mikh vu fontanen shpritzn Gefinst mikh dortn nit mayn shatz. Vu trern rinen tzeiner kritzen, Dortn iz mayn rue platz; Dortn iz mayn rue platz. Un libst du mikh mit varer libe, Zo kum tzu mir mayn guter shatz. Un hayter oyf mayn hartz dos tribe, Und makh mir zees mayn rue platz; Makh mir zees mayn rue platz. BREAD AND ROSES Music by James Oppenheim • Words by Caroline Kohlsaat As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men Arranged by Neil Komedal For they are women’s children and we mother them again In Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, more than a third of its Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes 86,000 residents worked for the mills. On January 11, due to a Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses. pay cut caused by a shortened work week (54 hours for women and children), weavers shut down the Everett Cotton Mill. Within As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead 10 days, 22,000 mill workers had left their jobs. Ten weeks Are crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread later, a united workforce representing 27 ethnic groups had won Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew important concessions for themselves and the 250,000 textile Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too! workers throughout New England. On one of the many marches held during the strike, a group As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days carried a banner reading, “We want bread and we want roses The rising of the women means the rising of the race too,” Rose Schneiderman’s slogan from the 1909 shirtwaist No more the drudge and idler; ten that toil while one reposes workers’ strike. Her poignant cry inspired James Oppenheim’s But a sharing of life’s glories; bread and roses, bread and roses. timeless song. As we come 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. NURSING Words and music by Joan Hill • © 1993 Joan Hill Because we’re nursing as fast as we can. Speed-up has long been a favored strategy used by corporate manage- We’re running with bandages and bedpans.

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