All Videos Tagged Almanac Singers (Peace for the Soul) - Peace for the Soul2024-05-07T22:03:39Zhttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/video/video/listTagged?tag=Almanac+Singers&rss=yes&xn_auth=noTalking Union - Pete Seegertag:peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com,2021-05-04:5143044:Video:3704132021-05-04T17:39:51.438ZNada Junghttps://peaceformeandtheworld.ning.com/profile/Nada
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</a> <br></br>Talking Union by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, 1941The Almanac Singers, Woodie Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell and Pete Seeger<br></br>
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Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do<br></br>
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you.<br></br>
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,<br></br>
But if you all stick together,…
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</a><br />Talking Union by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, 1941The Almanac Singers, Woodie Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell and Pete Seeger<br />
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<br />
Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do<br />
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you.<br />
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,<br />
But if you all stick together, boys, it won't be long.<br />
You get shorter hours, better working conditions,<br />
Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore.<br />
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It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain<br />
Just why you got to ride on the union train.<br />
'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay,<br />
We'll all be a-waitin' 'til Judgment Day.<br />
We'll all be buried, gone to heaven,<br />
St. Peter'll be the straw boss then.<br />
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Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't;<br />
He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint.<br />
You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten,<br />
You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'.<br />
Talk it over, speak your mind,<br />
Decide to do somethin' about it.<br />
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Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool<br />
To go to your meetin' and act like a stool.<br />
But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact,<br />
He's got a yaller streak a-runnin' down his back.<br />
He doesn't have to stool, he'll always get along<br />
On what he takes out of blind men's cups.<br />
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You got a union now, and you're sittin' pretty,<br />
Put some of the boys on the steering committee.<br />
The boss won't listen when one guy squawks,<br />
But he's got to listen when the union talks.<br />
He'd better, be mighty lonely<br />
Everybody decide to walk out on him.<br />
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Suppose they're working you so hard it's just outrageous<br />
And they're paying you all starvation wages.<br />
You go to the boss and the boss would yell,<br />
"Before I raise your pay I'd see you all in hell."<br />
Well, he's puffing a big seegar, feeling mighty slick<br />
'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked.<br />
Well, he looks out the window and what does he see<br />
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree:<br />
He's a bastard, unfair, slavedriver,<br />
Bet he beats his wife!<br />
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Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time.<br />
The boss will try to bust your picket line.<br />
He'll call out the police, the National Guard,<br />
They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card.<br />
They'll raid your meetin', they'll hit you on the head,<br />
They'll call every one of you a goddam red,<br />
Unpatriotic, Japanese spies, sabotaging national defense!<br />
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But out at Ford, here's what they found,<br />
And out at Vultee, here's what they found,<br />
And out at Allis-Chalmers, here's what they found,<br />
And down at Bethlehem, here's what they found:<br />
That if you don't let red-baiting break you up,<br />
And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up,<br />
And if you don't let vigilantes break you up,<br />
And if you don't let race hatred break you up,<br />
You'll win. What I mean, take it easy, but take it!<br />
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