Don’t Mourn—Organize! Songs of Labor Songwriter Joe Hill (1990)
15. “There Is Power in a Union” (words: Joe Hill, music: L. E. Jones / 1913)
Entertainment Workers Industrial Union 630, I.W.W.
Utah Phillips – narrative and vocals
Marion Wade – vocals
Bob Bovee – vocals and guitar
Bruce Brackney – vocals
Faith Petric – vocals
Jeff Cahill – vocals
J.B. Freeman – vocals
Robin Oye – vocals and mandolin
Fred Holstein – vocals
Kathy Taylor – vocals
Eric Glatz – vocals
Mark Ross – vocals and banjo
Recorded 1 September 1984 at Holstein’s, Chicago, Illinois.
Engineered by Rich Warren
From Rebel Voices: Songs of the Industrial Workers of the World (Flying Fish FF 484), originally released 1988.
Singing generally creates an unspoken solidarity between workers, but in this song Joe Hill gave specific voice to the power of community, advocating group action to improve working and living conditions rather than individual deals with bosses and belief in the delayed rewards of religion. The Entertainment Workers Industrial Union 630 of the I.W.W. “assert by their willingness to organize and work together that they are workers, like carpenters and plumbers, organized to improve conditions of their labor and, in solidarity with other workers, to advance the emancipation of their class” (Rebel Voices). The twelve members of the union who appeared on Rebel Voices (Flying Fish FF 484) reflect a large percentage of the current membership of the Entertainment Workers I.U.
These workers represent the living spirit of the I.W.W., particularly the living spirit of the arts as an organizing tool. Joe Hill’s songs live within an evolving tradition in which performers rewrite songs to reflect broad changes, as Hazel Dickens remade “The Rebel Girl,” and simply adjust other songs like “There Is Power in a Union.” A few words have been updated in this renditions and in The Little Red Songbook to eliminate gender bias “come, do your share, like a man” is “come, do your share, lend a hand” and “power in a band of workingmen” is now held by “workingfolk.”
Joe Hill remains the archetypal example of the worker using music as an organizing tool. The breadth of his influence is hinted by the variety of performers on this album and beyond them to the performers and listeners they continue to influence. We may not be able to name our cultural forebears any more than we can name our great-grandparents, but we participate in the tradition every time we sing one of these songs, listen to these performers, or retell one of the stories we learn from them.
Would you have freedom from wage slavery,
Then join in the grand Industrial band;
Would you from misery and hunger be free,
Then come, do your share, lend a hand.
There is power, there is power
In a band of workingfolks,
When they stand hand in hand
That’s a power, that’s a power
That must rule in every land—
One Industrial Union Grand.
Would you have mansions of gold in the sky,
And live in a shack, way in the back?
Would you have wings up in heaven to fly,
And stay there with rags on your back?
If you’ve had enough of the “blood of the lam”
Then come join the grand Industrial band;
If, for a change, you’d have eggs and ham,
Then come, do your share, lend a hand.
If you like sluggers to beat on your head,
Then don’t organize, all unions despise.
If you’d have nothing before you are dead,
Shake hands with your boss and look wise.
Come, all you workers from every land,
Come, join in the grand Industrial band;
Then we our share of this earth shall demand.
Come on! Do your share, lend a hand.
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