"WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A
THOUSAND YEARS"
The Legacy of the Wobblies
a dramatic and musical collage for
Labor Day
by Charles Deemer
-----------------------------------------------
For 5 actors
Music by General Strike and actors
-----------------------------------------------
LABOR DAY: INTRODUCTION
ACTOR #5
Labor Day, the first
Monday
in September, is a creation
of the labor movement
and is
dedicated to the
social and
economic achievements
of
American workers. It
is a
yearly national
tribute to
the contributions
workers
have made to the
strength,
prosperity and
well-being of
our country.
The first Labor Day
celebration was in
1882 in
New York, which also
introduced the first
state
bill for such a holiday.
But
the first state to
pass a
Labor Day bill was
Oregon, on
February 21, 1887.
ACTOR #1
(in audience,
rising to feet)
Come on! Let's tell the
whole truth here!
He will make his way to the front.
ACTOR
#5
You are out of
order! This
is a Labor Day
celebration.
ACTOR #1
What's there to
celebrate?
Open your eyes,
people, and
look at the facts!
Another actor rises from the
audience.
ACTOR #2
He's right! Look at the
facts!
ACTOR #1
Listen up! In retail trade
there are 19 million
of us
who earn less than
$10,000 a
year, mostly with no
benefits.
ACTOR #2
Our 1.1 million bank
tellers
and clerks earn an
average of
$8.19 per hour and
are
rapidly being
replaced by
machines.
A third actor rises from the
audience.
ACTOR #4
Eight million of us
are
machine operators and
assemblers. Average
real
wages for these
production
workers in 1993 were
less
than what they were
in 1973.
The 3 actors move toward the front
of the
stage, speaking to, pleading with,
the
audience:
ACTOR #1
Two million adults work
full-
time and yet remain
at the
poverty level. And
what's the
government doing
about it?
Nothing. Instead we
subsidize the defense
industry.
ACTOR #4
What an incredible
waste of
resources!
ACTOR #2
Every $1 billion
spent in
such defense
subsidies
creates 16,000 jobs.
But
spending that much on
mass
transit would create
30,000
jobs.
ACTOR #4
Spending it on
housing would
create 36,000 jobs.
ACTOR #2
On education 41,000
jobs, on
health care
47,000.
ACTOR #1
Have you noticed that
when
the discussion is
about mass
transit, education,
or health
care, the loud voices
stop
talking about jobs
and start
talking about
affordability?
We can afford weapons jobs,
but not jobs fixing
up
schools!
They've reached the front of the
room.
ACTOR #2
So what the hell are we
celebrating here
today
anyway?
SONG 3: WOBBLY DOXOLOGY
by General Strike
CHORUS
Praise boss when morning work
bells chime Praise him for
chunks of
overtime Praise
him whose bloody wars
we
fight Praise him, great
leech and
parasite A-hell!
SONG 4: THE PREACHER AND THE SLAVE
(JOE HILL) -
D
by General Strike
VERSE 1
Long-haired preachers
come
out every night, Try to tell
you what's wrong and
what's
right; But when asked how
about something to eat They
will answer with
voices so
sweet:
CHORUS (MAIN)
You will eat, bye and
bye,
In that glorious land above
the sky; Work and Pray, live
on hay, You'll get pie in
the sky when you
die.
VERSE
2
And the starvation
army they
play, And they sing and they
clap and they
pray. Till
they get all your
coin on the
drum,
Then they tell you
when you're on the
bum:
Chorus.
VERSE 3
Workingfolk of all
countries
unite, Side by side we for
freedom will
fight; When the
world and its wealth
we have
gained To the grafters we'll
sing this
refrain:
CHORUS (FINAL)
You will eat, bye and
bye,
When you've learned
how to
cook and to fry Chop some
wood, will do you good And
you'll eat in the sweet bye
and bye.
PART ONE: REMEMBERING THE WOBBLIES -
A LEGACY
IN BLOOD
ACTOR #1
The history of labor
is a
story of courage and
sacrifice. Today we take for
granted working
conditions
that hundreds upon
hundreds
of thousands of men, women
and children fought
to
secure. Nobody fought harder
for the rights of
working
people than the
Wobblies.
Their legacy is a river, a
rapids, of sweat and
blood.
We begin on a day in
June,
1905, in a meeting
hall in
Chicago. The IWW, the
Industrial Workers of
the
World, soon called
the
"Wobblies,"
would define
their cause at this
meeting.
The gavel was struck
by a
bull of a man named
William
"Big Bill"
Haywood.
ACTOR #5
"In calling this
convention
to order I do so with
a sense
of the responsibility
that
rests upon me and
rests upon
every delegate that
is here.
This is the
Continental
Congress of the working
class."
ACTOR #1
And a grandmotherly
woman
with a fist for
justice was
there as well: Mother Jones.
ACTOR #3
"I belong to a
class who have
been robbed,
exploited and
plundered down
through many
long centuries and
because I
belong to that class
I have
an instinct to go and
help
break the
chains."
ACTOR #1
After considerable
debate, a
constitution was
adopted.
ACTOR #4
Preamble to the
Constitution
of the IWW: "The working
class and the
employing class
have nothing in
common.
There can be no peace
so long
as hunger and want
are found
among millions of working
people and the few,
who make
up the employing
class, have
all the good things
in life."
ACTOR #1
The goal of the
Wobblies was
to unify working
people -
men, women and
children,
white and non-white
alike -
under the banner of One Big
Union.
ACTOR #5
"If the workers
of the world
want to win, all they
have to
do is recognize their own
solidarity. They have
nothing to do but
fold their
arms and the world
will stop.
The workers are more
powerful
with their hands in their
pockets than all the
property
of the
capitalists" Joseph
Ettor, IWW organizer.
ACTOR
#1
This meeting did not
come out
of a vacuum. Working people
had suffered for
centuries
but now were fighting
back in
greater numbers than ever
before. By 1905,
their
struggle was already
very
old.
ACTOR #2
On July 3, 1835,
children
employed in the silk
mills in
Paterson, NJ go on
strike for
the 11 hour day, 6
day week.
ACTOR #3
In 1860, 800 women operatives
and 4,000 workmen
march
during a shoemaker's
strike
in Lynn,
Massachusetts.
ACTOR #4
January 13, 1874: in
New
York's Tompkins
Square Park,
a detachment of
mounted
police charges into a
crowd
of demonstrating
workers.
Hundreds of men,
women and
children are injured.
ACTOR #3
"The workers
asked only for
bread and a
shortening of
long hours of toil.
The
agitators gave them
visions.
The police gave them
clubs."
Mother Jones.
ACTOR #5
June 21, 1877: ten
coal
mining activists, the
"Molly
McGuires," are
hanged in
Pennsylvania.
ACTOR #1
The voices of those
who lived
through these events
rise up
and come to us across
the
gulf of years like
ghostly
winds, reminding us of our
heritage, whether we
want to
listen or not. There are too
many of these voices
to
count. They are too loud to
ignore. And they won't shut
up.
ACTOR #4
July 14, 1877: A
general
strike halts the
movement of
U.S. railroads. In
the
following days,
strike riots
spread across the
United
States.
ACTOR #5
July 11, 1892: Striking
miners in Coeur
D'Alene,
Idaho, dynamite the
Frisco
Mill, leaving it in
ruins.
Mining strikes spread
to
Colorado, and Federal
troops
are called up.
ACTOR #3
"Mr.
Rockefeller, I want you
to come out to Colorado
...
what you see will
make you do
things which will
make you
one of the country's
greatest
men."
ACTOR
#2
"I am afraid the
dear lady is
inclined to throw
compliments."
ACTOR #3
"Oh, no. I am much more
inclined to throw
bricks."
Mother Jones.
SONG 5: MINER'S LIFEGUARD - D -
FEATURING
CHARLES
Charles with General Strike
ACTOR #1
Miner's life is like
a
sailor's. 'Board a ship to
cross the waves. Ev'ry day
his life's in
danger, Still
he ventures being brave.
Watch the rocks,
they're
falling daily. Careless
miners always
fail. Keep
your hand upon the
dollar
And your eye upon the scale.
CHORUS
Union miners stand
together,
Heed no operator's
tale,
Keep your hand upon
the
dollar, And your eye upon
the scale.
ACTOR #1
You've been docked
and docked
again, You've been loading
two to one; What have you to
show for working Since this
mining has
begun? Overalls
and cans for
rockers, In
your shanties, sleep
on
rails. Keep your hand upon
the dollar And your eye upon
the scale.
Chorus twice.
ACTOR #1
Too many voices to
count -
and they won't shut
up.
ACTOR #2
1899 and 1901: U.S.
Army
troops occupy the
Coeur
d'Alene mining region
in
Idaho.
ACTOR #4
November 23, 1903: Troops
are
dispatched to Cripple
Creek,
Colorado, to control
rioting
by striking coal
miners.
SONG 6: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
(FLORENCE REECE)
- A MINOR
by General Strike
VERSE 1
Come all you good
workers,
Good news to you I'll
tell,
Of how the good old
union
Has come in here to
dwell.
CHORUS
Which side are you
on? Which
side are you on? /
Which side
are you on? Which side are
you on?
VERSE 2
Oh, workers can you
stand it?
Oh, tell me how you
can.
Will you be a lousy
scab,
Or will you take a
stand?
Chorus.
VERSE 3
Don't scab for the
bosses,
Don't listen to their
lies.
Us workers haven't
got a
chance,
Unless we
organize.
Chorus.
ACTOR #5
November 22, 1909:
20,000
female garment
workers go on
strike in New York,
and many
are arrested. A judge
tells
them: "You are
on strike
against God."
ACTOR #3
"We don't want
Sunday
schools. We've had enough of
them. We want to fight."
Mother Jones.
ACTOR #1
In trade after trade,
occupation after
occupation,
workers were
organizing.
SONG 7: MAKIN' WHOOPEE (UNION VERSION) -
FEATURING JO ANN
Jo Ann with pianist
ACTOR #4
Another night,
another day
Of livin' tight, from
pay to
pay And here's the reason my
life ain't
easin' Ain't got
a union.
I go to work when
work is
there I never shirk, I do my
share It doesn't matter, my
wallet's flatter Without a
union.
(Break:) Sometimes I
sit and
daydream, Thinkin' how
things could be, Silly to
some it may seem I'd like
seniority, and
Grievance procedure,
when
things ain't
fair Vacation
leisure, without a
care
Benefit fringes, I
know it
hinges On bein' union.
Sisters and brothers,
hear
what I say We need each
other, there's just
one way
We've got to realize,
we've
got to organize Into a
union.
ACTOR #1
And still more voices
...
ACTOR #3
February 24, 1912:
Women and
children are beaten
by police
during a textile strike in
Lawrence,
Massachusetts. The
women were trying to
send the
children to New York
for
safety.
ACTOR #2
"The children
approached the
train in a long,
orderly
line, two by two,
their
parents watching
nearby.
Suddenly the police closed
in, swinging their
clubs.
Mothers rushed to
protect
their children but
both were
beaten and bloodied
indiscriminately and dragged
to military trucks to
be
hauled away."
Report to
Congress by the
Women's
Committee of
Philadelphia.
ACTOR #1
Socialist candidates
for
office challenged the
status
quo. In 1912, Presidential
candidate Eugene Debs
got
900,000 votes, double
what he
had in 1908.
ACTOR #5
April 20, 1914: The
"Ludlow
Massacre." State Militia
attack a union tent
camp with
machine guns. Then
they set
it on fire. Five men,
two
women and 12 children
die.
ACTOR #1
When World War I
started, the
Wobblies refused to
support
it. They organized against
the draft. This would be the
straw that broke the
government's back -
not only
were they labor
agitators,
they were unpatriotic
as
well.
ACTOR #3
"You ask me why
the IWW is
not patriotic to the
United
States. If you were a
bum
without a blanket; if
you had
left your wife and
kids when
you went west for a
job and
had never located
them since;
if your job had never
kept
you long enough in a place to
qualify you to vote;
if you
slept in a lousy,
sour
bunkhouse and ate
food just
as rotten as they
could give
you and get by with
it; if
deputy sheriffs shot
your
cooking cans full of
holes
and spilled your grub
on the
ground; if your wages
were
lowered on you when
the
bosses thought they
had you
down; if there was
one law
for Henry Ford and
another
for Henry Thaw; if
every
person who
represented law
and order and the
nation beat
you up, railroaded
you to
jail, and the good
Christian
people cheered and told them
to go to it, how in
hell do
you expect a man to
be
patriotic? This war
is a
business man's war
and we
don't see why we
should go
out and get shot in
order to
save the lovely state
of
affairs we now
enjoy." Henry
Thaw, Wobbly.
ACTOR #1
During the "Red
Scare" after
World War I, the
government
went after the
Wobblies with
no holds barred, lest
they
lead a working class
revolution like the
one that
had just happened in
Russia.
What resulted was one
of the
more oppressive periods in
our history.
ACTOR #2
August 1, 1917: IWW
organizer
Frank Little is
lynched in
Butte, Montana.
ACTOR #4
"When Carlo told
me the
terrible news, I left
the
stove, sat down and
began to
cry. Our friend Johnny, soon
to be in uniform,
asked in
surprise, What's
wrong? As
Carlo told us the
horrible
details - of how six masked
men came to the hotel
at
night, broke down the
door,
dragged Frank from
his bed,
took him to a
railroad
trestle on the
outskirts of
town and there hanged
him -
this simple
working-class
youth said
sorrowfully, So
that's what I'm going
to
fight for?" Elizabeth Gurley
Flynn, radical and
labor
organizer.
ACTOR #1
No wonder the
government was
worried.
In New York in
1917, the Socialist
candidate
for mayor got 22
percent of
the vote. Ten socialists
were elected to the
state
legislature.
ACTOR #5
"Yes, in good
time we are
going to sweep into
power in
this nation and
throughout
the world.
We are going to
destroy all enslaving
and
degrading capitalist
institutions and
re-create
them as free and
humanizing
institutions. The world is
daily changing before
our
eyes." Eugene Debs,
Socialist candidate
for
President.
SONG 8: WE HAVE FED YOU ALL FOR A
THOUSAND
YEARS - G
by General Strike
VERSE 1
We have fed you all for a
thousand years
And you hail us still
unfed
Though there's never
a dollar
of all your
wealth
But marks the workers dead
We have yielded our
best to
give you rest
And you lie on
crimson wool
But if blood be the
price of
all your wealth
Good God! We have
paid in
full!
VERSE 2
There is never a mine
blown
skyward now
But we're
buried alive for
you
There's never a wreck
drifts
shoreward now But we are
its ghastly crew Go reckon
our dead by the
forges red
And the factories
where we
spin If blood be the price
of your cursed
wealth Good
God! We have paid it
in!
VERSE 3
We have fed you all
for a
thousand years For that was
our doom, you
know From the
days when you chained us in
your fields To the strike a
week ago You have taken our
lives, our husbands
and wives
And we're told it's your
legal share But if blood be
the price of your
lawful
wealth Good God! We have
bought it fair!
ACTOR #4
In September, 1917,
the FBI
simultaneously raids
48 IWW
meeting halls across
the
country, confiscating
literature.
ACTOR #2
Later that month, 101
Wobbly
leaders are put on
trial and
convicted of
conspiring to
hinder the draft.
ACTOR #3
"I doubt if ever
in history
there has been a
sight just
like them. One hundred and
one lumberjacks, harvest
hands, miners,
editors ...
who believe the
wealth of the
world belongs to him
who
creates
it." John Reed,
journalist.
ACTOR #1
Today, the best known
Wobbly
is probably Joe Hill,
the
great labor song
writer. He
wrote the "pie in the sky"
song that we sang
earlier.
Joe Hill was executed
in Utah
for a crime many
people think
he didn't commit. 30,000
people joined his
funeral
procession in
Chicago. Some
of Joe Hill's last
words were
in a letter Joe sent
from
jail to Big Bill Haywood:
"Don't waste any
time in
mourning.
Organize."
SONG 9: "I DREAMED I SAW JOE
HILL LAST NIGHT"
(EARL ROBINSON) - G? - FEATURING
ELISA
Elisa with General Strike
ACTOR #2
I dreamed I saw Joe
Hill last
night, Alive as you or me
Says I, "But
Joe, you're ten
years dead," "I never died,"
says he "I never died," says
he
"In Salt Lake,
Joe," says I
to him, Him standing by my
bed,
"They framed you on a
murder
charge," Says Joe,
"But I ain't
dead," Says
Joe, "But I
ain't dead"
"The copper
bosses killed
you, Joe, They shot you,
Joe," says
I. "Takes more
than guns to kill a
man,"
Says Joe, "I did
not die,"
Says Joe, "I did
not die"
"Joe Hill ain't
dead," he
says to me, "Joe Hill ain't
never died. Where working
folk are out on
strike Joe
Hill is at their side,
Joe
Hill is at their
side".
"From San Diego
up to Maine,
In every mine and
mill,
Where workers strike
and
organize,"
Says he, "You'll
find Joe
Hill," Says he,
"You'll find Joe
Hill."
I dreamed I saw Joe
Hill last
night, Alive as you or me
Says I, "But
Joe, you're ten
years
dead," "I never died,"
says he "I never died," says
he
ACTOR
#2
December 22, 1919:
Amid a
strike for union
recognition
by 395,000
steelworkers,
approximately 250
"anarchists," "communists,"
and "labor
agitators" are
deported to
Russia. Many of
these are Wobblies.
ACTOR #3
January 2, 1920: the FBI
begins carrying out
the
nationwide
"Palmer Raids."
Federal agents seize
labor
leaders and
literature in
hopes of discouraging labor
activity.
ACTOR #1
The ranks of the
Wobblies
were jailed, deported
and
decimated, but it was too
late to reverse their
call to
arms.
Workers had heard
enough to
make a difference,
and if
there was not yet One Big
Union, workers were
organizing all over
the
country and demanding
better
working conditions.
OFFERING during song below.
SONG 10: SOLIDARITY FOREVER (RALPH
CHAPLIN) - G
by General Strike
VERSE 1
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 strength of one,
For the Union makes
us
strong.
CHORUS
Solidarity forever,
solidarity forever,
solidarity
forever For the
Union makes us
strong.
Chorus.
VERSE 2
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.
VERSE 3
En los campos de
Delano
luchan por su
libertad Todos
los trabajadores
quieren ya
vivir en paz Y por eso
companeros nos tenemos que
juntar Con solidaridad!
SPANISH CHORUS
Solidaridad por
siempre (3x)
/ Que viva nuestra
union!
VERSE 4
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 the Union makes us
strong!
Chorus.
PART TWO: WORKING IN AMERICA
ACTOR #1
What most of us want
is
simple enough: work
that
means something to us, for
compensation with
which to
provide ourselves and
our
families a
comfortable life.
But what is simple to
express
can be hard to
achieve.
In 1972, Studs Terkel
published a
remarkable book
called WORKING:
PEOPLE TALK
ABOUT WHAT THEY DO
ALL DAY
AND HOW THEY FEEL
ABOUT WHAT
THEY DO. Perhaps no other
document better
captures the
diversity of work in
America
and gives voice to our
continued dreaming
for a
better life. Here are a few
of the voices in that
book.
ACTOR #2
"You come in at nine, you
open the door, you
look at
the piece of
machinery, you
plug in the
headpiece. That’s
how my day begins.
You
tremble when you hear
the
first ring. After
that, it’s
sort of downhill –
unless
there’s somebody on
the phone
who is either kind or
nasty.
The rest of the
people are
just non, they don’t
exist.
They’re just voices.
You
answer calls, you
connect
them to others, and that’s
it". Sharon
Atkins,
receptionist
ACTOR #3
"I have to be a
waitress. How
else can I learn about
people? How else does
the
world come to me? I
can’t go
to everyone. So they
have to
come to me. Everyone
wants to
eat, everyone has hunger. And
I serve them. If
they’ve had
a bad day, I nurse
them,
cajole them. Maybe
with
coffee I give them a
little
philosophy. They have
cocktails, I give
them
political science.
I’ll say
things that bug me.
If they
manufacture soap, I
say what
I think about
pollution. If I
pour water, I say,
Would you
like your quota of
mercury
today? I just can’t
keep
quiet. I have an opinion on
every single subject
there
is. In the beginning,
it was
theology, and my
bosses
didn’t like it. Now I
am
political and my bosses don’t
like it. I speak
sotto voce.
But if I get heated,
then I
don’t give a damn. I
speak
like an Italian
speaks. I
give service. There
is a
difference."
Dolores Dante,
waitress
ACTOR #2
"I started picking
crops when
I was eight….We used
to work
early, about four
o’clock in
the morning. We’d
pick the
harvest until about
six. Then
we’d run home and get into
our supposedly clean
clothes
and run all the way
to school
because we’d be late.
By the
time we got to
school, we’d
be all tuckered out.
Around
maybe eleven o’clock,
we’d be
dozing off. Our
teachers
would send notes to
the house
telling Mom that we
were
inattentive. I began to see
how everything was so
wrong.
When growers can have
an
intricate watering
system to
irrigate their crops but they
can’t have running
water
inside the houses of
workers.
Veterinarians tend to
the
needs of domestic
animals but
they can’t have
medical care
for the workers. They treat
him like a farm
implement. In
fact, they treat
their
implements better and
their
domestic animals
better. They
have heat and
insulated barns
for the animals but
the
workers live in
beat-up
shacks with no heat at all."
Roberto Acuna, farm
worker
ACTOR #5
"This is a
profession that
everyone has looked
up to and
respected. They
always say,
‘Here comes the
mailman’ –
pony express or
something.
This always brought a
gleam
to everyone’s eye.
Everyone
likes to receive
mail. I feel
it is one of the most
respected professions
that
there is throughout
the
nation. You’re doing a job
for the public and a
job for
the country."
John Fuller,
mail carrier.
ACTOR #3
"My work is trying to change
this country. This is
the job
I’ve chosen. When
people ask
me, Why are you doing
this?,
it’s like asking what
kind of
sickness you got. I
don’t
feel sick. I think
this
country is sick. The
daily
injustices just gnaw
on me a
little harder than
they do on
other people."
Bill Talcott,
labor organizer
SONG 11: "BY THE SWEAT OF MY
BROW" (HAZEL
DICKENS)- FEATURING DEBORAH
Deborah with General Strike
ACTOR #3
I'm making my livin'
by the
sweat of my brow / I
couldn't
be crooked 'cause I
don't
know how / I've lived
in a
shack and cooked in a
can /
Making a fortune for
some
other man
CHORUS
I learned early in
life that
that was the rule / A
worker
ain't nothin' but a
rich
man's tool / Every
day he
gets richer, I get
poorer
somehow / Making a livin' by
the sweat of my brow
ACTOR #3
Picked food for your
table
'til my back ached
with pain
/ Planted rows of trees in
the cold freezing
rain / Been
sprayed like an
insect, think
I'm dyin' now /
Making a
livin' by the sweat
of my
brow
Chorus.
ACTOR #3
Rich folks sell junk
bonds,
do S&L scams / We
fight their
bloody wars in far
away lands
/ I've worked hard,
stayed
honest, and I've got
by
somehow / Making a
livin' by
the sweat of my brow
Chorus.
ACTOR #4
"A housewife is
a housewife,
that’s all. Low on
the totem
pole. Someone who is
a model
or a movie star,
these are
the great ones. I
don’t
necessarily think
they are,
but they’re the ones
you hear
about. Somebody who
goes out
and works for a living is
more important than
somebody
who doesn’t. What
they do is
very important in the
business world. What
I do is
only important to
five
people. I don’t like
putting
a housewife down but
everybody has done it
for so
long. It’s sort of the thing
you do. Deep down, I
feel
like what I’m doing
is
important. But you
just hate
to say it because
what are
you? Just a
housewife."
Therese Carter,
housewife
SONG 12: FATHER GRUMBLE (POEM)
ACTOR #3
There was an old
woman, there
was an old man
Who never could
agree
He said he could do
more work
in a day
Than she could do in
three.
ACTOR #2
Now said the old
woman unto
the old man
If this you will
allow,
Why you shall stay at
home
today
An' I'll go follow
the plow.
ACTOR #4
But you must milk the
teeny
cow
For fear she will go
dry,
An' you must feed the little
pigs
That lay within the
sty.
ACTOR #2
An' you must watch
the
speckled hen
For fear she'll go
astray,
An' you must wind the
bobbin
of yarn
That I spun
yesterday.
ACTOR #3
The old woman she
picked up
the shares
To go an' follow the
plow,
The old man he picked
up the
pail
To milk the teeny
cow.
ACTOR #4
Teeny she winked an'
Teeny
she blinked
An' Teny curled up
her nose,
An' give' the old man
such a
kick in the face
That the blood
streamed down
to his toes
ACTOR #3
He went to feed the
little
pigs
That lay within the
sty,
The old sow run up
against
his legs
An' knocked him ten foot
high.
ACTOR #4
He went to watch the
speckled
hen
For fear she'd go astray,
An' forgot to wind
the bobbin
of yarn
That his wife spun
yesterday.
ACTOR #2
He swore by the sun,
he swore
by the stars
An' the green leaves
on the
tree,
That his wife could
do more
work in one day
Than he could do in three!
ACTOR #5
"I can’t imagine
a job where
you go home and maybe
go by a
year later and you don’t
know
what you’ve done. My
work, I
can see what I did
the first
day I started. All my
work is
set right out there
in the
open and I can look at it as
I go by. It’s
something I can
see the rest of my
life."
Carl Murray Bates,
stonemason
ACTOR #2
"I used to work
in a bank.
You know, it’s just
paper.
It’s not real. Nine
to five
and it’s shit. You’re
lookin’
at numbers. But now I
can
look back and say, ‘I
helped
put out a fire. I
helped save
somebody.’ It shows
something
I did on this
earth." Tom
Patrick, fireman
ACTOR #1
The voices never
stop,
reminding us of those
who
gave their lives so
we might
work an eight-hour day, a
five-day week. The voices
never stop because,
in fact,
the struggle
continues.
Today corporate
downsizing
makes job security a
pipe
dream, and the gulf
between
rich and poor gets
even
wider.
SONG 13: BANKS OF MARBLE - A
by General Strike
VERSE 1
I've traveled 'round
this
country.
From shore to shining
shore;
It really made me
wonder
The things I heard
and saw.
CHORUS
But the banks are
made of
marble,
With a guard at every
door,
And the vaults are
stuffed
with silver
That the worker*
sweated for.
VERSE 2
I saw the poor dirt
farmer,
Plowing sod and
loam;
l heard the auction
hammer
A-knocking down his
home.
Chorus.
VERSE 3
I saw the weary
mother/Working two
jobs in
one
day;/Low wages at the
factory/And at home,
she gets
no pay.
Chorus.
VERSE 4
I've seen my fellow
workers
Throughout this
mighty land,
We will fight to get
together
In the one big Union
grand.
CHORUS (FINAL)
Then we'll own those
banks of
marble
And we'll open every
door
And we'll share those
vaults
of silver
That we all have
sweated for!
ACTOR #1
The struggle continues:
and
there are even
moments to
celebrate. In June, workers
organized at the
country's
largest textile
plant,
breaking a 93-year
anti-union
bias. And on college
campuses across the
country,
the anti-sweatshop
movement
is the largest wave
of
student activism since the
student demand for
divestment
from South
Africa. The
struggle
continues. Join us
now in singing a song
that
many people think should be
our national anthem:
SONG 14: THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
(WOODY GUTHRIE)
- C
General Strike with congregation
CHORUS
This land is your
land, this
land is my land
From California to
the New
York Island,
From the redwood
forest to
the gulf stream
water,
This land was made
for you
and me.
VERSE 1
As I went walking that
ribbon
of highway
I saw above me that
endless
skyway,
I saw below me that
golden
valley
This land was made
for you
and me.
Chorus.
VERSE 2
One bright Sunday
morning, in
the shadow of the
steeple
At the relief office, I saw
my people;
As they stood hungry
I stood
there wondering
If God blessed
America for me
Chorus.
VERSE 3
As I went walking, I
saw a
sign there;
On the sign it said
NO
TRESPASSING,
But on the other side it
didn't say
nothing--
That side was made
for you
and me!
Chorus.
ACTOR
#1
There is still much
to be
done. The stock market goes
up, but the gulf
between rich
and poor widens. Popular
designer clothes with
high
price tags are
manufactured
in overseas sweat
shops.
In Third World
countries pre-
pubescent brothels
serve the
erotic tastes of visiting
businessmen from the
developed
countries.
According to
Anti-Slavery
International, there
are over
27 million slaves in the
world today, people
that in
author Kevin Bales
calls
"Disposable
People: New
Slavery in the Global
Economy". In this light, the
struggle of the
Wobblies is a
contemporary
struggle, and
the question they
asked at
the beginning of the
20th
century has a
contemporary
ring as we enter the
new
millennium: Which side are
you on? It's a question to
ask of ourselves, our
associations, and our
government. Which side are
you on? Which side are you
on? Go in peace, go in love
- GO IN SOLIDARITY!
Amen.
SONG 15 - "RED, RED ROBIN"
(WOBBLY VERSION)
as actors file out
----