Manhattan Chorus "Solidarity Forever"
Written by Ralph Chaplin




CHORUS:

Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong!

(Repeat after each verse)

The workers learn their lesson now with every word we breathe.
The workers know the bosses are their greatest enemy.
We'll fight and fight until we win the final victory
For one big solid union!

The men all stick together and the boys are fighting fine.
The women and the girls are all right on the picket line.
No scabs, no threats can stop us as we all march out on time
Through one big solid union!

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.
For what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
But the union makes us strong!

The workers learned their lesson now as everyone can see.
The workers know the bosses are their greatest enemy.
We'll fight and fight until we win our final victory
For one big solid union!


Written by IWW bard Ralph Chaplin in 1917, while in West Virginia helping organize the Kanawha Valley coal strike. This is the first commercial recording of a song that would become the unofficial anthem of the country's labor movement by the 1930s.

Illustration: I.W.W. Songs (I.W.W. Publishing Bureau, 1914)
 

© Copyright Labor Arts Inc.