Industrial Worker

1909 IWW Band Postcard. From the IWW Materials Preservation Project.

Greetings Fellow Workers,

The Little Red Songbook (LRS) Committee has been working for two years on the new 39th Edition of the songs of the IWW. The Literature Committee sent requests to the GOB, IW, Wob Forum, and the Seattle Worker seeking committee participants, submissions, and ideas. A survey for song suggestions was created and widely distributed. With input from many Wobs, we reviewed over 150 songs for their potential publication in our new edition of the songbook.

The Songbook has been a part of the IWW since its first publication 1909. Published in Spokane, Washington during the 1909 Free Speech Fight under the title, Songs of Workers, on the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops. 

The songbook is a foundational piece of our Union. The songbook is the most widely distributed piece of IWW literature to the general public, and might be the best-selling item in our store inventory.

Members of the Committee judged songs based on their pertinence to today, musicality, and content. We submit the following list of song for publication. We ask for your comments and opinions.

Our goal for the next year is to finalize the song list and to start the process of laying out and creating the new edition complete with cords, lyrics, notes, and art. We are hoping to create a rough draft by September 2026. 

Contact, comment, and join the LRS Committee by sending a note to: lrs-39@googlegroups.com

For the OBU.

1916 Industrial Worker Advert, “Selling by the Thousands.” From the IWW Materials Preservation Project. Song List

1. A la Huelga – Chico Sánchez Ferlosio
2. All Used Up
3. All You Fascists Are Bound to Lose – Woody Guthrie
4. Banks of Marble
5. Bread and Roses / Du Pain et des Roses
6. Dump the Bosses Off Your Back
7. El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (2019 version) – Victor Jara
8. El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido – anonymous
9. En la Plaza de Mi Pueblo – anonymous
10. God Bless You Very Wealthy Men
11. Hallelujah, I’m a Bum
12. Hold the Fort / Recordad!!
13. Huelga En General
14. I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night – Alfred Hayes & Earl Robinson
15. If They Come For You – Ed Peckford
16. Joe Hill’s Last Will
17. May Day
18. Minimum Wage Strike
19. Never Cross a Picket Line – Billy Bragg
20. Niños Campesinos
21. Paper Heart -Si Kahn
22. Rich People – Carsie Blanton
23. Roll the Union On – John Handcox
24. Solidarity Forever / Solidaridad pa’ siempre / Solidarité mes frères sœurs
25. Stung Right
26. That Sabo-Tabby Kitten
27. The Chemical Worker’s Song – Process Man
28. The Internationale
29. The Little Flame – Carsie Blanton
30. The Little Red Songbook – Richard Brazier
31. The Popular Wobbly
32. The Preacher and the Slave / Pastel Celestial
33. The Rebel Girl – Joe Hill
34. The Right to be Lazy
35. There is Power in a Union
36. There is Power in a Union (Pride Version) – Billy Bragg
37. Tierra y Libertad
38. Union Maid
39. We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years
40. What Shall We Do with the Starbucks Bosses?
41. Where the Fraser River Flows – Utah Phillips
42. Which Side Are You On?
43. Wobbly Doxology
44. Workers Song – Dick Gaughan
45. Working Folk Unite
46. Ya Ain’t Done Nothing if ya Ain’t Been Called a Red – Faith Petric

This story was published in Seattle Worker in the 2025 September/October edition.

Fellow Workers David Helm, Scott Slaba, and Mary Thurtle. Food for People Soup Kitchen, Bellingham IWW. From the IWW Materials Preservation Project.

Harry Bridges once said, “The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.” While the word itself is as popular as ever, the meaning is far less universal. The truth is, for some workers the word rings with the inspiration of worker-led power, and for others it is buried in the baggage of negative past union experiences.

For Wobblies, Solidarity is not a word, but a weapon. But as any dual card member, especially those fellow workers in business unions, can attest, on the shopfloor, sometimes solidarity isn’t even a word, let alone a real weapon of any note. Eugene V. Debs wrote that “Solidarity is the last and only hope of labor,” a sentiment that I believe to be as true today as it was one hundred years ago. So if it is our only hope, what will it take to reignite the term with the force it demands?

Late author Jane McAlevey once posed the question, “How is every action I’m taking today building solidarity?” This got me thinking. Why hasn’t it gotten any easier to build solidarity on the shop floor? To understand how to build solidarity we have to understand how fellow workers, both radicalized and non-radicalized, understand the concept.

Katie, a Texas-based recruiter shares, “It means that you’re not alone in your fight, and there are people that will be alongside you in challenging times. The word ‘solid’ is the prefix of ‘solidarity’, which to me means that we have to be solid in our approach to fighting together.”

California-based Folksinger Jonny Miller Jr. echoes those sentiments. “Solidarity is about survival. Lot’s of people love to throw around the phrase ‘human nature’ as if it were in our nature to be greedy, rugged individualists. Maybe the last couple thousand years saw a detour in this direction, but there’s no way humanity could have made it this far without cooperation and community. Solidarity is the only way to fight back against the greed of billionaires and the ruling elite, and it is the only way to build a just future for humanity.”

A Colorado-based postal worker and union member shared that “Solidarity means standing up for each other and knowing that other people support me and I support them. We may not agree on everything but I know the support is there and the best interest of a group is there.” 

Javier, a Wisconsin-based national organizer against systemic racism, shared that “Solidarity looks like stepping the f–k up and acting on it.” But that action must be based on a real understanding of the systems and powers at play. “Solidarity means caring and paying attention to the horrors being perpetrated on people, especially those that don’t look like you and are targeted and marginalized for those differences. Caring and paying attention means doing the work to understand how systemic oppression operates, how it functions, who benefits from it, especially how you and people who share characteristics with you benefit from it. This kind of solidarity is role modeling how to use the power and privilege you’ve been given in service to those who have a right to self determination and freedom from persecution.”

Across crafts, occupations, and regions, Solidarity looks different to everyone, but from coast to coast, it never looks like silence, inaction, or absence.

“Solidarity means something. It is the difference between emancipation and slavery. Education without solidarity is ENVY. Organization without solidarity––ain’t! Emancipation without solidarity will never be…”  – T Bone Slim – Industrial Worker, 06 February 1924.

Historically the concept of collective action has changed very little. From the early days of the IWW to today’s largest business unions, to be in solidarity with someone, is simply to stand with them in service of justice. 

So how did it become a buzzword riddled with performative posts, demands from out-of-touch influencers to strike, and more often than not, a toothless word befitting little more than a scoff on the shop floor?

When speaking with an auto mechanic in Wisconsin the word immediately inspired a well-worn anti-union talking point, “I think unions had a time and a place to be useful. If I have a grievance with my employer or my workplace I would just talk to my supervisor about it. If they don’t address the situation in a way that I like I am free to look for work elsewhere. I learned a skill that has always been in high demand since I learned it and I could go apply at any shop that is hiring, maybe even some that aren’t necessarily hiring, and be hired almost on the spot. I don’t need to depend on whining to a third party to negotiate for me while I sit and sulk at a job that I don’t want to be at.”

Solidarity as this worker understands it, isn’t relevant because they don’t think they’ll personally need it. Or in their words, “Ultimately I don’t support unions, and I don’t feel like I need one because of my learned skill and because I think the current employment laws are good enough.” 

I’ve heard anti-union workers complain that there is no solidarity on the shop floor more times than I can count, and I must admit, I’ve seen the rank and file exploit their fellow workers without remorse. Admittedly this is a bigger issue in business unions, but it begs the question, what does solidarity look like in action–and how do we create a culture of solidarity today?

In the spirit of the great wobblies before us, those who Utah Phillips said took the old hymnals and “changed the words so they made more sense,” I humbly suggest that we look to First Corinthians for the template of solidarity in action. 

Solidarity suffers long and is kind; solidarity does not envy; solidarity does not parade itself, is not puffed up; it does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, it is not provoked, solidarity thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; solidarity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The reality is that solidarity might be a word, but collective action is the concept, and that action must be standing with your fellow worker in service of justice to qualify as solidarity. So to return to Jane McAleve’s question, “How is every action I’m taking today building solidarity?”

In 2025, it is more important than ever to start with ourselves. What are we doing to build solidarity where we stand, on our shop floor, in our communities and in our neighborhood? I’ve never met a comrade by putting a flag overlay on my profile picture, but I have met many by asking “What is your experience with unions?” This year more than ever, boots on the ground, one on one conversations, and a willingness to really listen to your fellow worker, even when you don’t like what they have to say is what solidarity demands of us. 

Or as Javier explains, it is also about “being open to criticism and feedback and not letting your hurt feelings become the center of attention. It can look like stepping aside and following the lead of those with lived experience when yours is academic or theoretical.” 

 As the Colorado-based postal worker and union member shared, “I think solidarity in 2025 needs to be more grassroots, physically being together to show support. Organizing online is fine, but people need to have constructive conversations and stand united together on various things. Online and keyboard warrior stuff is fine, but showing solidarity needs to be the physical force of seeing crowds of people together for the common good.”

Jonny Miller Jr. shared those same sentiments, that it’s time to “return to our working class roots, from joining or organizing unions in our workplace to showing up on the picket line for workers in every sector of the economy from Amazon warehouse workers to UAW, teamsters to teachers, and donating to strike funds. There are endless opportunities to build solidarity.”

There are endless opportunities, but that doesn’t make it light work. In 2025 it is on each of us to look in the mirror and ask, “What have I done today to build solidarity with my fellow workers on the shop floor and in my community?” We all have something to give, so each according to their ability, without concern for recognition but rejoicing with the truth. 

Solidarity is both the beauty of community and the weapon of the worker. Together, we can wield it as such, but it can’t just be an academic concept or a nostalgic vision of yesteryear. It must find us where we are, with our boots on the ground, shoulder-to-shoulder taking a stand. 

Solidarity forever.