Sorry NYPD, But FUCK YOU !!! - "Who's Side Are You On Boys ???"

[WillyT]

And Bless you Lawrence...

Which Side Are You On?
A Song by Florence Patton Reece

Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that 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?

My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

<snip>

Notes

Pete Seeger in an introduction to "Which Side Are You On?" on his record "Cant You See This System's Rotten Through And Through" says:

"Maybe the most famous song it was ever my privilege to know was the one written by Mrs Florence Reece. Her husband Sam was an organiser in that "bloody" strike in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1932.

They got word that the company gun-thugs were out to kill him, and he got out of his house, I think out the back door, just before they arrived. And Mrs Reece said they stuck their guns into the closets, into the beds, even into the piles of dirty linen. One of her two little girls started crying and one of the men said "What are you crying for? We're not after you we're after your old man"

After they had gone she felt so outraged she tore a calendar off the wall and on the back of it wrote the words and put them to the tune of an old hard-shelled Baptist hymn tune, although come to think of it the hymn tune used an old English ballad melody ... And her two little girls used to go singing it in the union halls."

Link: http://unionsong.com/u015.html

Another: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which_Side_Are_You_On%3F

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g

Videos 2: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=which+side+are+you+on&aq=f

:nuke:

[rustydog]

1. Good point..watch Harlan County, USA excellent film on miner

union-busting in Harlan County 1970's.

[malaise]

2. I love that song

Rec

[GreenStormCloud]

3. Whose side are they on? Who pays them?

The protesters aren't paying any cops. The Wall street guys with the money are making sure that they have the police protection. The police of any country ALWAYS protect the power establishment.

[latebloomer]

4. Grew up with that song!

My daddy was a union organizer.

Thanks for posting it.

I love the old union songs.

Just as apropos today as they ever were.

[emilyg]

5. On the side of following

orders and getting a paycheck.

[Marrah_G]

6. I would like to add this version by the Drop Kick Murphy's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKWfnO7fhQM&feature=related