Union Songs

The Red Flag

A Song by James O'Connell, 1899

The worker's flag is deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their life-blood dyed its every fold

Chorus
Then raise the scarlet standard high!
Beneath its folds we'll live and die
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here

Look 'round, the Frenchman loves its blaze
The sturdy German chants its praise
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng

It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night
It witnessed many a deed and vow
We will not change its color now

It suits today the meek and base
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown
And haul that sacred emblem down

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim
This song shall be our parting hymn

Notes

From The  Digital Tradition

From the IWW songbook. Originally set to The White Cockade, it's now usually sung to the hymn "Tannenbaum"



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union songs..........a selection by mark gregory