Solidarity Forever - lyrics by Ralph Chaplin, ca. 1915
Tune: John Brown's Body (aka Battle Hymn of the Republic)
First Appearance: Little Red Songbook, 9th Edition, 1916

When the union’s inspiration through the workers blood shall run
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun
Yet what force on Earth is weaker than the feeble force of one but
The union makes us strong

Chorus:
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity Forever
Solidarity Forever
For the union makes us strong

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? For…
The union makes us strong

(Chorus)

It is we who plowed the prairies, build the cities where they trade
Dug the mines and build the workshops, endless miles of RR laid
Now we stand outcast and starving ‘mid the wonders we have made but
The union makes us strong

(Chorus)

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone
We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own
While the union makes us strong

(Chorus)

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn that
The union makes us strong

(Chorus)

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold
Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand-fold
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old for
But the union makes us strong

(Chorus)

They say our day is over; they say our time is through
They say you need no union if your collar isn't blue
Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you
For the Union makes us strong!

(Chorus)

They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue
They divide us men and women; they divide us old and young
But they'll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung
For the Union makes us strong!

(Chorus)


haggadah Section: Songs
Source: https://archive.iww.org/history/icons/solidarity_forever/