Video and Music: History of Solidarity Forever, Anne Feeney and my favorite labor song

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.

From YouTube

Solidarity Forever sung by Pete Seeger & The Weavers, with old photographs of the labor movement in US History.This is a tribute to all the workers who sacrificed to make a better world for their children and grand children.

The history of this song can be found at Wikipedia,

"Solidarity Forever", written by Ralph Chaplin in 1915, is perhaps the most famous union anthem after The Internationale. It is sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body" and is inspired by the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Although it was written as a song for the Industrial Workers of the World, other union movements, such as the AFL-CIO, have adopted the song as their own. The song is still performed by musicians such as Utah Phillips, and was redone by Emcee Lynx. It is still commonly sung at union meetings and rallies in Australia and Canada, and has also been sung at conferences of the Australian Labor Party and the Canadian New Democratic Party. The use of the originally patriotic tune for a progressive and left-wing cause also inspired the anthem of the consumer cooperative movement, "The Battle Hymn of Cooperation."

heres a new verse I didn't know existed

They say our day is over; they say our time is through,
They say you need no union if your collar isn't blue,
Well that is just another lie the boss is telling you,
For the Union makes us strong!
(Chorus)

They divide us by our color; they divide us by our tongue,
They divide us men and women,; they divide us old and young,
But they'll tremble at our voices, when they hear these verses sung,
For the Union makes us strong!
(Chorus)

Anne Feeney: War On The Workers, my favorite labor song

Copy and pasted from my new Joe's Union Review MySpace account
Speaking of Anne Feeney, heres a clip from the 2002 G8 protest in Calgary with Chris Chandler

Trade Unionist in Turkey, Meryem Özsögüt, jailed for 6 months, get E-Active to help

Got this from Eric Lee over at Labourstart, doing my part, please pass it along.

This message will be very brief and to the point.

The Turkish government has jailed a woman trade unionist, Meryem Özsögüt, and has kept her in detention for nearly six months. Meryem is a leader of the public sector union SES, and we've been asked by Public Services International (PSI) to launch a big online campaign demanding her release. For more details and to add your signature, please click here now.

This campaign will not take off, and we will not secure Meryem's release, unless we can mobilize thousands of our members around the world.

Please do what you can to help this campaign go viral -- forward it to your email lists, post information on your union websites, pass out flyers at events, use new tools like Twitter, Facebook and blogs to spread the word.

Meryem needs our help. I know that I can count on all of you.

Eric Lee