Union Songs
songs authors articles recordings books films song links union links The 1913 Massacre A Song by Woody Guthrie Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball I'll take you through a door, and up a high stairs Singing and dancing is heard everywhere I will let you shake hands with the people you see And watch the kids dance round that big Christmas tree You ask about work and you ask about pay They'll tell you that they make less than a dollar a day Working the copper claims, risking their lives So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives There's talking and laughing and songs in the air And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere Before you know it, you're friends with us all And you're dancing around and around in the hall Well, a little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet To hear all this fun you would not realize That the copper-boss thug-men are milling outside The copper-boss thugs stuck their heads in the door One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!" A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing! Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing" A few people rushed, and it was only a few "It's only the thugs and the scabs fooling you" A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down But the thugs held the door and he could not get out And then others followed, a hundred or more But most everybody remained on the floor The gun-thugs they laughed at their murderous joke While the children were smothered on the stair by the door Such a terrible sight I never did see We carried our children back up to their tree The scabs outside still laughed at their spree And the children that died there were seventy-three The piano played a slow funeral tune And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon The parents they cried and the miners they moaned "See what your greed for money has done"
A Song by Woody Guthrie
Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball
I'll take you through a door, and up a high stairs Singing and dancing is heard everywhere I will let you shake hands with the people you see And watch the kids dance round that big Christmas tree
You ask about work and you ask about pay They'll tell you that they make less than a dollar a day Working the copper claims, risking their lives So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives
There's talking and laughing and songs in the air And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere Before you know it, you're friends with us all And you're dancing around and around in the hall
Well, a little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights To play the piano, so you gotta keep quiet To hear all this fun you would not realize That the copper-boss thug-men are milling outside
The copper-boss thugs stuck their heads in the door One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire!" A lady, she hollered, "There's no such a thing! Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing"
A few people rushed, and it was only a few "It's only the thugs and the scabs fooling you" A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down But the thugs held the door and he could not get out
And then others followed, a hundred or more But most everybody remained on the floor The gun-thugs they laughed at their murderous joke While the children were smothered on the stair by the door
Such a terrible sight I never did see We carried our children back up to their tree The scabs outside still laughed at their spree And the children that died there were seventy-three
The piano played a slow funeral tune And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon The parents they cried and the miners they moaned "See what your greed for money has done"
Notes From The Digital Tradition In Calumet, Michigan, in 1913 hired copper company thugs broke up a striker's Christmas party by shouting "fire", and then barring the door. In the panic that ensued, 73 children were smothered to death. I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think that you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow. Woody Guthrie Return to top of page
In Calumet, Michigan, in 1913 hired copper company thugs broke up a striker's Christmas party by shouting "fire", and then barring the door. In the panic that ensued, 73 children were smothered to death.
Return to top of page
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory