Billy Bragg--There is Power in a Union

[Steve Plonk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwbzxemJ ... re=related

[Steve Plonk]

Let's hear Billy Bragg play this wonderful unionizing song one more time...
Happy Labor Day, everybody!

[stilltrucking]

Haooy labor day Steve. Keep the faith bro

[Arcadia]

happy belated día del trabajo! (ours was May 1st... ). Loved the video and the song, (first I guessed Greenday´s singer was singing, until I googled the name of the singer... !! ) Lovely irish-celtic-like ritmo, I´ll search for the lyrics because I coudn´t understand it!!!!!

[Steve Plonk]

Arcadia, glad you liked the music. Lyrics will become clearer when you read the script. This song by Billy Bragg is one of my favorite renditions of "There is Power in a Union". It is tough times for unions in this country. Unions need
all the encouragement and help they can get... See lyrics, below...
"There is Power in a Union"

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a 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
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir

The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a Union

Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?

Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union

The Union forever, defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union.

[Arcadia]

gracias!, yeah it´s easier to understand the written lyrics..! but ... what is a "blackleg"?

[Steve Plonk]

Arcadia, Glad you liked the song & lyrics.
In answer to your question, hope this definition clears up what a "blackleg" is--
From Merriam-Webster's online dictionary: A blackleg is a slang word,
3) chiefly British : a worker hostile to trade unionism or acting in opposition to union policies : scab

[Steve Plonk]

In view of a recent defeat of the UAW at our local Volkswagen Plant,
this song goes out from Chattanooga, TN, USA, to all who support
Unions in the Southern USA & elsewhere.
In future,there will be a brighter day...

[stilltrucking]

you can't scare me I'm sticking to the union

[Steve Plonk]

Thank you for your video post, Still Trucking. Where there is life, there is hope.
It pays for us to stand our ground on causes we believe in. Sorry it took me so long
to get back to you.

[Arcadia]

workers day is near again, I´ve been searching for videos for seeing with the seventh grade kids about the historic side of the day in local tones. I found this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnO2Ohcw9pA

No idea what the old sindicalistas, socialistas or anarquistas used to sing in the first decades of the XX century or so here, tough, I´ll search about it!

[Steve Plonk]

Hope everyone had a happy international Labor Day on May 1, 2014.
Arcadia, thanks for the history video.

[Arcadia]

de nada, Steve!

Last week doing zapping in canal Europa-Europa and Canal Encuentro I watched two films somehow related with workers day, the singing thing & the ideas & the emotions sometimes packed in the songs:

The first one the film "Las 13 rosas"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_13_rosas

It made me wonder how terrible it must be to make you sing something you don´t want to sing ...

The other one, was a Zizek documentary about ideology & something like "beware of what you are singing" realized somewhere in Britain or Ireland ... (I saw some lines in gaelic or something similar in the credits). It made me laugh at times, although I think it must made me cry instead ... ... . I watch one tv the last hour of so of it, but it seems it is two hours long:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ6QszbQMEs

[Steve Plonk]

Time to refresh this good old pro-union song.

[stilltrucking]

Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a union