Going back to the 1844 Miners' Lockout for this iconic #SongForTheStrike - The Blackleg Miner.
The Northumberland lockout collapsed because of scab labour, but the song depicts the strategies used for deterring strikebreakers in no uncertain terms.
I like this version by Richard Thompson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6KUWgWz3Xg
'So join the union while you may
Don't wait till your dying day
Though that may not be so far away
You dirty blackleg miner'
Today's #SongForTheStrike isn't a strike or union song, but if my purpose was sharing the songs that make me feel solidarity (and maybe hope?) I think it fits - in it's exposure of horrific working conditions it definitely shows the need for, and gains of, the labour movement.
Chemical Workers Song by Ron Angel, sung by Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith - https://youtu.be/nJ5dlew-VVw
Plus, who can't relate: 'Every day you're in this place you're two days nearer death'.
A little bit of Tom Morello for the folks raging on the picket lines today ✊🪧
Union Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqRRBEnsn4g&t=6s
'For Joe Hill and Caesar Chavez who fought in their own time
For our brothers and our sisters up and down that picket line
For the unnamed and unnumbered who struggle brave and long
For the union men and women standing up and standing strong'
Here’s a jolly strike song for Friday – ‘Part of the Union’ by the Strawbs.
I picked it because 1) positive vibes, and 2) I find the idea of academics announcing we're ‘not hard’ hilarious, like, was anyone in doubt?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxNMgoiNLFs
‘And though I'm not hard, the sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman’
Solidarity, softies ✊
Today’s #SongForTheStrike – Which Side Are You On by Florence Reece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzudto-FA5Y
Reece wrote the song during the Harlan County War (violent 1930s mining dispute) when a sheriff and his men illegally entered her home looking for her husband Sam, a union organiser. Sam escaped but Florence and her children were terrorised; she wrote the words that night.
It’s urgent, angry and brave; and its simple, inevasible question is pertinent in every strike.
Solidarity with the UCU and all striking today ✊
#SongForTheStrike – Bread and Roses, sung by Bronwen Lewis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiiKgST_G2Q
This song is often associated with the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA. The strike among textile mill workers ended 111 years ago yesterday with a pay-rise of up to 20%.
Although its associated with the strike the song/poem by James Oppenheim predates it, inspired by a 1911 speech by suffragist Helen Todd.
A song - about not yielding to those in power when they say they'll improve conditions until the deal's actually done.
[Tho tbh I'm still undecided on UCU decisions, just reminds me of this song.]
Pound a Week Rise, written by Ed Pickford, played by John Doyle and Liz Carroll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al6-b0MxALo
'Don't believe Lord Robens when he says you’ll get fair pay
He'll tell you to work hard and make the output rise
You'll get pie in the sky instead of a one-pound rise'
A song of camaraderie for today's UCU strike – Hamish Henderon’s ‘The Gillie More’ (1953), sung by Dick Gaughan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur9uvc7cGZw
The song, commemorating friendship between blacksmiths in Leith and Kiev, speaks to wider solidarity between international workers.
I like it because it’s both local and international; the worker of Leith (or Gairloch!) is the worker of the world.
‘You an me: the man, the brither!
Me an you: the Gillie More.’
Another rousing song for the UCU strike, ‘Solidarity Forever’ - an iconic anthem of the union and labour movement.
It was written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915 for the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), whose members are renowned for their union and protest songs.
Pete Seeger’s version is a go-to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8eK9ZXf-Ow
'We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong'
✊🪧
Every strike day I end up singing a bunch of union songs as I go about my day. They make me feel solidarity - with everyone in the UCU, and with the wider labour movement. Which, on heavy-hearted days, gives me a little hope.
So I thought I'd start sharing them with yous too. Beginning with a classic, 'There is Power in a Union' by Billy Bragg.
'With our brothers and our sisters, together we will stand
There is power in a union'
Ruth Salter