Song of the Month

  • The Picketline Song
    Evan Greer
    Feb 28 2010 - 11:36pm

    Says Evan Greer: "The first action I ever went to was a projectionist strike in Somerville, Massachusetts, on May Day. I was probably about 16. I wrote the chorus to Picketline Song to sing while we walked the line, and dealt with repeated attacks by police."

  • Endless War
    Julius Margolin
    Feb 1 2010 - 11:44am

    Julius Margolin walked and sailed the planet for 93 years before his death in 2009. He was a CIO organizer and member of the Merchant Marine and National Maritime Union until the FBI blacklisted him in 1949. A veteran himself, Julius laments in this poem the effects of America's imperial adventure on the country's youth.

  • The Living Wage
    Kristin Lems
    Dec 23 2009 - 12:44am

    As a single mom holding only part time jobs for awhile, I did live this song, though the starting number was higher. I always said I started the month in the middle class, dwindled to working poor as the month went on, and usually ended the month as a debtor. . . .

  • Trabajo en el Hotel
    Francisco Herrera
    Nov 1 2009 - 12:01am

    Honor Migrante is a musical narrative that tells the story of a community of proud immigrants whose voices are rarely heard publicly. Francisco Herrera is a soulful border musician/storyteller using the hybrid styles of the Chicano border community, a flexible cultural space that has maintained the spirit of mestizo identity in the midst of global cultural homogenization–further influenced by work in Central and South America.

  • Talking Union
    Pete Seeger
    Feb 1 2009 - 12:01am
    The Almanac Singers were a group of folk musicians who, as their name indicates, specialized in topical songs, especially songs connected with union organizing. Members Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie began playing together informally in 1940 or 1941. Pete Seeger and Guthrie had met at Will Geer's "Grapes of Wrath Evening," a benefit for displaced migrant workers, in March 1940. That year, Seeger joined Guthrie on a trip to Texas and California to visit Guthrie's relatives. Hays and Lampell had rented a New York City apartment together in October 1940, and on his return Seeger moved in with them. They called their apartment Almanac House, and it became a center for leftist intellectuals as well as crash pad for folksingers, including (in 1942) Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
  • Blue Diamond Mines
    Kathy Mattea
    Oct 1 2009 - 8:39pm

    For the miners, Kathy Mattea’s new album digs into Appalachia’s heart. Coal is king in eastern Kentucky, as well as in West Virginia, where country music star Kathy Mattea grew up. Her parents didn’t work in the mines, though her mom was a secretary for the miners’ union. But both Mattea’s grandfathers were coal miners, and in West Virginia, that’s enough.

  • Raise Your Voice and Be Heard
    Richard Trumka
    Sep 1 2009 - 10:35pm
    On June 22, 2009, at the Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing in Silver Spring, Maryland, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka spoke to us about the meaning and the effects of what we as musicians and artists accomplish for the movement.
  • Hurricane
    Professor Louie
    Aug 17 2009 - 5:05pm
        Watercolor: Ricardo Levins Morales,
        Northland Poster Collective.
        Click for pop-up.

    It was thunder and lightening
    Fire and rain
    Heaven was equal
    When the pain came.

          When the rain was over,
          Day turned to night
          Were you rich or poor?
          Were you black or white? . . .


    Personnel: Professor Louie, lead vocals, co-producer; Felix Sanabria, batas, coro-lead; Francisco Cotto, second voice; Danny Lapidus, co-producer, recording, mixing, mastering.

    Labor Notes is losing a friend, the Northland Poster Collective. As an organization that struggled on for over thirty years, the collective enjoyed long and deep relationships with many organizers, activists, students, teachers, leaders and rank and filers in unions, immigrant rights, nationalist, GLBTQ, farmer, women's and too many other movements and groups to enumerate. We salute its members, and wish them the very best in their future endeavors. More....


  • Get Ready to Strike
    Ray and Rachel Rodriguez, Riley Wallace
    Jul 15 2009 - 1:48pm


    On April 4, the contract covering 110,000 workers between the Communications Workers (CWA) and AT&T expired. Bargaining is continuing while CWA members keep working. The company booked a $12.9 billion profit last year. Eighty-eight percent percent of voting members authorized a strike in late March. The last negotiations, in 2004, led to a four-day strike.

    At this writing a strike is not imminent, but the union is keeping the pressure on with rallies and demonstrations, usually accompanied by this song.

    Ray and Rachael Rodriguez co-wrote it with Toronto hip-hop artist Special, as a means to reach out to their local's next generation of union members.

    Ray and Rachael are members of CWA Houston Local 6222. He works as a cable splicer and she is a customer service rep. Both are stewards and hold other local offices.

    Special -- also known as Riley Wallace -- got involved when a friend of the Rodriguezes contacted his management team. Ready to Strike was originally intended for a Local 6222 rally, but word of it spread to other chapters, who shared it on the internet. Special also recorded a second version that strips out the local references. The original version is heard here.



    We need solidarity in the front line
    Why would I support it 'cause hey I want to get mine
    Kicking at union hall, times hard,
    We work hard and dammit we deserve it all

    Pittsburgh rally.

    Hey my kids need to eat, mortgage payments is due,
    And I gotta to put shoes on my feet
    So I guess you can say that I am
          fighting for my family
    On the front line, I guess it’s the man in me

    Red shirt 'cause it represents my unity
    Ray Rod says he did, its nothing new to me
    And I'm a help you do
    I'm a tell you what we've got to do

    Put your hands up
    CWA Local 6222
    Wear your red, stand strong, 'cause its rough like Luther
    One Union One Fight, and you know it's One Future!

    Get ready to strike
    Get ready to walk the line
    Protect my healthcare, don’t lower my wages
    Realize Recognize Mobilize Stay Alive

    District 4 night vigils.

    Get ready to strike
    Get ready to walk the line
    Protect my healthcare, don’t lower my wages
    Realize Recognize Mobilize Stay Alive

    We gotta fight for the next generation
    Look at all the problems we're facing
    We gotta stand strong, look
          what we're wearing
    Same color is the power, rules no matter
          if there caring

    If we fight we gonna make them care
    Front line, we're gonna be right there
    They're trying to lower our wages in this economy
    That’s outrages Special like 10 inch stages

    Hundreds of CWA activists attend AT&T's annual meeting.

    And I speak hope thru the speakers
    U N I T Y just like Latifah
    So when u get the green light get ready
          to strike
    I got you Special to hold you down
          on the mike

    The Uverse Stewards Army, the Uverse Techs
    In the front like looking at Ray Rod, like what's
          next?
    He says it might get rough like Luther
    One Union One Fight, 'Cause you know it's
          One Future!

    Get ready to strike
    Get ready to walk the line
    Protect my healthcare, don’t lower my wages
    Realize Recognize Mobilize Stay Alive

    Get ready to strike
    Get ready to walk the line
    Protect my healthcare, don’t lower my wages
    Realize Recognize Mobilize Stay Alive

    Get ready to strike
    Get ready to walk the line
    Protect my healthcare, don’t lower my wages
    Realize Recognize Mobilize Stay Alive


    Ray and Rachael Rodriguez.
    Special. Courtesy photo.


    Personnel: Special.

    Photos (except for Special): CWA members.

    Sources: Labor Notes, CWA, CWA Local 6222, Wall Street Journal.