Helen Keller, though blind and deaf, had a clear view of what is going on in our country today, “The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor” (source).
That was written a century ago, in 1911. Helen Keller, celebrated (as she should be) as a blind and deaf woman who overcame her disabilities, has had her progressive ideas muted (or Alabama would have raised a stink over her portrayal on its state quarter).
Helen Keller can point us to some music (unusual for someone who was deaf) that can help us put the labor back into Labor Day and call attention to the plight of working people (and those who, in these times of high unemployment, wish they could find work), because she was a proud and outspoken member of the Industrial Workers of the World. The I.W.W., also known as the Wobblies (although no one knows why), has not only had one of the strongest voices for working people but also one of the sweetest voices for the rights of workers.
From its founding in 1905, the I.W.W. used music and poetry to attract members and to express the needs of working people. We can find online the lyrics of sixty-six “Industrial Workers of the World Songs” ( source ). Also, we can find online many performances of the Wobblies’ songs.
This article would be an insult to the I.W.W. if it hailed that organization as just a repository of songs. The history of the I.W.W. is a history of working people coming together, working together, and suffering together for the rights of all workers in solidarity, believing (according to the I.W.W. motto),”an injury to one is an injury to all.” That is a history, of course, which schools and textbooks negelct. Many of these songs were written by Joe Hill, a working class martyr who not only was executed by the state of Utah but also had his ashes confiscated by the U.S. government.
Listening to labor history
On the Archive.org page, Songs of the Wobblies, you can hear twelve of the most popular songs of the Wobblies; many of these are also available on Youtube. You can find the words here .
01 There is Power in a Union (Joe Hill)
Would you have freedom from wage slavery,
Then join in the grand Industrial band;
Would you from mis’ry and hunger be free,
Then come! Do your share, like a man.
02 Scissor Bill (Joe Hill)
Scissor Bill is down on everybody
The Hottentots, the bushmen and the man in the moon.
03 Workingmen Unite! (E. S. Nelson)
This earth by right belongs to toilers,
And not to spoilers of liberty.
04 Popular Wobbly (T-Bone Slim)
05 Boom went the Boom
06 Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (Harry McClintock)
07 The Commonwealth of Toil (Ralph Chaplin)
08 Down to the Soup Line
09 The Preacher and the Slave (Joe Hill)
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.
10 The Rebel Girl (Joe Hill)
Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor,
And her dress may not be very fine;
But a heart in her bosom is beating
That is true to her class and her kind.
11 The Tramp (Joe Hill)
Nothing doing here for you;
If I catch you ’round again,
You will wear the ball and chain.
Keep on tramping, that’s the best thing you can do.
12 Dump the Bosses Off Your Back (John Brill)
Are you almost split asunder?
Loaded like a long-eared jack?
Boob–why don’t you buck like thunder?
And dump the bosses off your back.
Good news/bad news
The good news for working people is that the Industrial Workers of the World (the I.W.W. or the Wobblies) is still around, still identifying itself as The Industrial Workers of the World: A Union for All Workers ( website ).
The good news for the bosses — that is, bad news for the rest of us — is that the I.W.W. is a long way from its high point in 1923, when it had some 100,000 members ( source ).
So many years after her death, Wobbly Helen Keller helps us see, and the Wobblies still give a voice to working women and men everywhere. This Labor Day, let’s honor the memory of the suffering of our fellow workers, not by pouring money into the coffers of big business with Labor Day sales, but by pausing to reflect on the meaning and value of our work every day.