Union Songs

United We Stand

A Song by Smokey Dymny©Smokey Dymny 2006

- [play]


There's problems in the country, the economy's not for all
We're blaming the politicians, but it ain't them at all.
We've got to get together, we can do it all,
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

They've been raising our taxes for mor'n a hundred years,
Workers and children dyin'- parents shedding tears.
We can stop their bloody rip offs, well, we can do it all,
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

There's problems with our forests, our garbage and the air,
Corporations say they're green now, politicians that they care
But only you & I can set them straight, we can do it all.....
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

We've got too much unemployment, folks livin' on the streets,
Families at the food banks; they can't afford to eat.
We need income redistribution, we can do it all, For....
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

Unions are getting shafted, lots of them back down,
Time to forge some solidarity, bring the bosses down,
No more separate unions, all for one and one for all, For....
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

No more separate unions, all for one and one for all,
For united we stand; divided we fall.
For united we stand; divided we fall.

Notes

Many thanks to Smokey Dymny for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

Smokey Dymny writes
"I was sitting at the in-laws' place on the eastern shore of Lake Simcoe, near Beaverton, reading, once again how a Canadian union was getting defeated at something or other when I remembered that the Wobblies had campaigned to organize One Big Union. You see, the wobblies were the lowest class of itinerant workers, booming from town to town and occupation to occupation; farm work lumber mills, tree falling, whatever was available. But they saw the high class workers, organized in craft unions and they wondered why they were so separatist. They could clearly see, being at the bottom of the labour heap, so to speak, that if all the workers organized together and simply made each different trade a division in One Big Union, why then one day they could hold a General Strike, it would be very short, because all work would stop. And then their demand would be that they take over the means of production, dismantle the capitalist system and abolish wages. Just go look up the preamble to the I.W.W. Constitution.

This is not an unusual thing for workers to think of. In England 1825 unions were finally declared no longer illegal. Right away somebody thought that a good thing would be to join the separate unions together and organize an umbrella union. So, in 1833 Grand National Consolidated Trades Union was founded by Robert Owen. see p.42 The Tolpuddle Martyrs.
Well there I was depressed on L. Simcoe, and I figured I'd better write a song to remind unionists of this grad idea. The song grew out of the one line, adapted from The Three Musketeers. Instead of "all for one and one for all" I wrote "united we stand, divided we fall."
By the way in the documentary about the South African workers' long struggle against the apartheid regime, one of the speakers at a rally in the 1970's in South Africa used the Wobbly phrase word for word; "An injury to one is an injury to all." (2006)"

"Smokey's voice is a pork chop with a little bit of road dirt."- Art Farquharson
http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Smokey
http://www.newunionism.net/solidarityidol.htm
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Smokey Dymny
Box 745, Quathiaski Cove, B.C.
V0P 1N0, Canada
phone: 250-285-2447

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