Participant Name(s): Patricia Miletich

The Last Great Canal Curriculum Project
Unit/Lesson Title Songs of Protest/Songs of Unity: 1865 to the Present
Intended Grade Level 11-12^th Grades	Approximate length 1-2 class periods and may be extended
Applicable Standards Tennessee Standards for Social Studies Era 6 Industrial Development of the US (1870-1900) Standard Number 2.0 Economics 2.2 Understand the economic disparity between farmers and wage earners as compared to industrial capitalists. Standard Number 6.0 Individual Groups and Interaction 6.2 Investigate the effect of big business upon the lives of farmers and wage earners.
Goals/Objectives  1. Students will apply their understanding of the problems workers in the late 19^th c. faced to the rise of unions in this period. 2. Students will critically assess workers’ articulations through song-poems of the problems they faced, reasons for turning to collective action, and workers’ analysis of the place of labor in the new industrial economy. 3. Students will compare and contrast the song-poems of the late 19^th c. with the more radical incarnation of the song-poem tradition in the works of IWW troubadours, particularly Joe Hill. 4. Students may extend with analysis of the song-poem tradition to the 1930s/1940s and the resurgence of the union movement in the works of Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers (including Pete Seeger). 5. Students will connect the past to the present by exploring contemporary music of their own selection that reflects the earlier traditions studied.
Procedures Part 1: Analysis of the song-poems of the Gilded Age 1. Assign students the sections of the textbook on late 19^th c. industrialization, problems workers faced, and the rise of unions. 2. Play several of the song-poems to the class (either through computer downloads or by purchasing CDs). Encourage students to place themselves in the place of Gilded Age workers and solicit reactions to the songs. 3. Divide students into groups. Each group will receive one or more copies of song-poems and an analysis sheet to be completed by the group. 4. Each group will report to the class a short report of their findings. 5. Play again several of the song-poems. Ask students for their insights/reactions after analyzing the song-poems. Discuss the role of music in organizing workers and communicating messages that will be remembered. 6. Connect with the textbook story—why did the Knights of Labor decline? Why did the song-poem tradition not continue in a vibrant form with the AFL? Part 2: Songs of the IWW 1. Assign students the sections of the textbook on the challenges labor unions faced in the early 20^th c. and the Wobblies. 2. Play several recordings of IWW song-poems by downloading them from the internet or by purchasing CDs. 3. Again reconvene the groups and have them analyze one or more song-poems using the analysis sheet. 4. Each group will report to the class, listen again to several songs, and individually write a short in-class essay comparing the two traditions. You may ask students to assess the IWW and why they inspired such a violent and repressive reaction from government and industrial leaders. Extensions—This may be a lesson on workers and unions to the present or the lesson may be broken up and presented when chronologically appropriate. 1. During the 1930s/1940s era with resurgence of unions, students can analyze the new generation of labor troubadours such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger/Almanac Singers. Use the same procedures as above. 2. Encourage students to examine contemporary music for economic protest content. Ask students to bring in one song (no racist, sexist, obscenities, etc.) and share with the class. After listening and discussing the contemporary examples, have students write about how the music reflects current challenges workers face. If students fail to bring in examples, you may do so. One suggestion is Billy Bragg. This may be a short, in-class reflective essay or a more substantial paper using research into current economic conditions.
Materials (handouts, worksheets, equipment, etc.)  1. Music—see below under resources where CDs may be purchased and internet addresses where the songs may be downloaded without charge. 2. Lyrics—see attached examples and a list of web sites and books that reprint lyrics below under resources. 3. Analysis sheets for groups.
Resources (traditional & electronic)  Music CDs: Bucky Halker and the Complete Unknowns (contemporary recordings of labor songs), Welcome to Labor Land (includes “The Company Store”, “In Union Lies Our Strength,” “8 Hour Song,” and “Solidarity Forever,” and many more); Don’t Want Your Millions (includes “I Don’t Want Your Millions, Mister,” “Rebel Girl,” “Which Side Are You On,” and many more). Available through Amazon and Halker’s web site. Billy Bragg (for examples of contemporary labor protest music) Must I Paint Your Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime, The Internationale. Available through Amazon. Pete Seeger, Pete Seeger Sings and Answers Questions (includes a section on Labor Songs and another on Union Labor Songs). Smithsonian-Folkways (www.folkways.si.edu). Music Web Sites: “Joe Hill” unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/u017.html “The Preacher and the Slave” unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/u010.html “Solidarity Forever” unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/u025.html “Which Side Are You On?” unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/u015.html “The Internationale” unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/u112.html And many other songs on this site, some lyrics only. Woody Guthrie site has lyrics and downloadable music www.woodyguthrie.org “Talking Union” by Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers—has lyrics, may or may not be able to download the music www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/tunion.html “Eight Hours” http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiHRSEIGHT;ttHRSEIGHT.html “Hold the Fort” http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/drad/pages/tHOLDFORT;ttHOLDFORT.html There is also an alphabetical listing of many songs (including “Solidarity Forever” and “Union Maid”, some of which have music as well as lyrics) at “Digital Tradition Folk Music Database” where the above two songs came from. Sources of Lyrics: The above sites all have lyrics as well as music. In addition some sites only have lyrics, but they may add music capabilities. Foner, Philip S. American Labor Songs of the Nineteenth Century. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975. Glazer, Joe and Edith Fowke. Songs of Work and Freedom. Dover Publications, 1973. Halker, Clark D. For Democracy, Workers, and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-95. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Reprints many examples of song-poems. I.W.W. Songs: To Fan the Flames of Discontent. www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/songbook.doc (includes “Hold the Fort,” “Solidarity Forever,” “Rebel Girl,” “Preacher and the Slave,” and many more.
Assessment(s) 1. Group Participation. 2. Analysis Sheet. 3. In-class essay. Analysis Sheet: Name/author/approx. date— Historical context— Problems workers faced— Responses/solutions— Relationship between workers and capitalists— Place of labor in the economy/society— May generate a list of key terms for students to apply in their analysis (this may differ if you use the extension activities to the 1930s/1940s or the present)—republicanism, dependence, solidarity, natural/equal rights, mutualism, individualism, and so on. Examples of Song-Poems for Analysis: THE REBEL GIRL Words and Music by Joe Hill There are women of many descriptions In this queer world, as everyone knows, Some are living in beautiful mansions, And are wearing the finest of clothes There are blue blooded queens and princesses Who have charms made of diamonds and pearl; But the only and thoroughbred lady Is the Rebel Girl. CHORUS To the working class she's a precious pearl. She brings courage, pride and joy To the fighting Rebel Boy. We've had girls before, but we need some more In the Industrial Workers of the World. For it's great to fight for freedom With a Rebel Girl. Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor, And her dress may not be very fine; But a heart in her bosom is beating That is true to her class and her kind. And the grafters in terror are trembling When her spite and defiance she'll hurl; For the only and thoroughbred lady Is the Rebel Girl SOLIDARITY FOREVER! By Ralph H. Chaplin (Tune: "John Brown's Body") When the Union's inspiration through the worker's 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! But 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 u~ with his might? Is there anything left for us but to organize and fight? For the Union makes us strong. 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, 'mid the wonders we have made; But the Union makes us strong. All the world that's owned by idle drones, is ours and ours alone. We have laid the wide foundations; built it skywards, stone by stone. It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own, While 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. 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 the new world from the ashes of the old, For the Union makes us strong. Lyrics as reprinted (with minor corrections by Manfred Helfert) in Ronald D. Cohen & Dave Samuelson, liner notes for "Songs for Political Action," Bear Family Records BCD 15720 JL, 1996, p. 85. ORIGINAL ISSUE: "TALKING UNION" Keynote K 301 A (Keynote album 106), July 1941 [PETE SEEGER, solo] Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you. You got to build you a union, got to make it strong, But if you all stick together, boys, it won't be long. You get shorter hours, better working conditions, Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore. It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain Just why you got to ride on the union train. 'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay, We'll all be a-waitin' 'til Judgment Day. We'll all be buried, gone to heaven, St. Peter'll be the straw boss then. Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't; He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint. You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten, You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'. Talk it over, speak your mind, Decide to do somethin' about it. Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool To go to your meetin' and act like a stool. But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact, He's got a yaller streak a-runnin' down his back. He doesn't have to stool, he'll always get along On what he takes out of blind men's cups. You got a union now, and you're sittin' pretty, Put some of the boys on the steering committee. The boss won't listen when one guy squawks, But he's got to listen when the union talks. He'd better, be mighty lonely Everybody decide to walk out on him. Well, he's puffing a big seegar, feeling mighty slick 'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked. Well, he looks out the window and what does he see But a thousand pickets, and they all agree: He's a bastard, unfair, slavedriver, Bet he beats his wife! Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time. The boss will try to bust your picket line. He'll call out the police, the National Guard, They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card. They'll raid your meetin', they'll hit you on the head, They'll call every one of you a goddam red, Unpatriotic, Japanese spies, sabotaging national defense! But out at Ford, here's what they found, And out at Vultee, here's what they found, And out at Allis-Chalmers, here's what they found, And down at Bethlehem, here's what they found: That if you don't let red-baiting break you up, And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up, And if you don't let vigilantes break you up, And if you don't let race hatred break you up, You'll win. What I mean, take it easy, but take it! Hold the Fort chorus: Hold the fort, for we are coming Union men be strong! Side by side we battle onward, Victory will come. We meet today in Freedom's cause And raise our voices high; We'll join our hands in union strong To battle or to die. Look, my comrades, see the union Banners flying high; Reinforcements now appearing Victory is nigh. See our numbers still increasing Hear the bugles blow; By our union we shall triumph Over every foe. Fierce and long the battle rages But we will not fear, Help will come whene'er it's needed, Cheer, my comrades, cheer. A political rewrite of an 1870 gospel song by Bliss; circulated by the Knights of Labor ca. 1890. RG Eight Hours (2) (Words I.G. Blanchard, tune Rev. Jesse H. Jones) We mean to make things over, we are tired of toil for naught With but bare enough to live on and ne'er an hour for thought. We want to feel the sunshine and we want to smell the flowers We are sure that God has willed it and we mean to have eight hours; We're summoning our forces from the shipyard, shop and mill cho: Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest Eight hours for what we will; Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest Eight hours for what we will. The beasts that graze the hillside, and the birds that wander free, In the life that God has meted, have a better lot than we. Oh hands and hearts are weary, and homes are heavy with dole; If our life's to be filled with drudgery, what need of a human soul. Shout, shout the lusty rally, from shipyard, shop, and mill. Ye deem they're feeble voices that are raised in labor's cause, But bethink ye of the torrent, and the wild tornado's laws. We say not toil's uprisnig in terror's shape will come, Yet the world were wise to listento the monetary hum. Soon, soon the deep toned rally shall all the nations thrill. From factories and workshops in long and weary lines, From all the sweltering forges, and from out the sunless mines, Wherever toil is wasting the force of life to live There the bent and battered armies come to claim what God doth give And the blazon on the banner doth with hope the nation fill: Hurrah, hurrah for labor, for it shall arise in might It has filled the world with plenty, it shall fill the world with light Hurrah, hurrah for labor, it is mustering all its powers And shall march along to victory with the banner of Eight Hours. Shout, shout the echoing rally till all the welkin thrill THE PREACHER AND THE SLAVE By Joe Hill (Tune: "Sweet Bye and Bye") Long-haired preachers come out every night, Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right; But when asked how 'bout something to eat They will answer with voices so sweet: CHORUS You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die. And the starvation army they play, And they sing and they clap and they pray, Till they get all your coin on the drum, Then they tell you when you're on the bum: Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out, And they holler, they jump and they shout "Give your money to Jesus," they say, "He will cure all diseases today." If you fight hard for children and wife- Try to get something good in this life- You're a sinner and bad man, they tell, When you die you will sure go to hell. Workingmen of all countries, unite, Side by side we for freedom will fight: When the world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain: LAST CHORUS You will eat, bye and bye, When you've learned how to cook and to fry; Chop some wood, 'twill do you good, And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.