Songbook

Hold Fast

4/19/2025

Winner, Strike Song of the Year 2025, in the Labor Notes and Pittsburgh Labor Choir song contest for general strike songs and poetry.

Hold Fast (link here)

Am Dm E
People rise up, people shout- put your tools down and walk out
E Am
Hold fast! All together, hold the line!
Am Dm E
Every worker in this land, strike together hand in hand
G Dm E
Hold fast! All together, hold the line!
Chorus
Am
Hold the line! Hold the line!
Dm E
Hold it for the future, yours and mine-
Am Dm E
With a fire in your belly, and iron in your spine!
E Am
Hold fast! All together, hold the line!

Cross our arms and plant our feet, and we’ve got the system beat
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!
Not a single wheel will turn, ‘til we’ve taken what we’ve earned
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!

King Don can build his wall, but the curtain always falls
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!
Soon the first will be the last, and we’ll march out of the past
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!

This old world has come apart, there’s a new one in our hearts
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!
Workers know what we are worth- we demand only the earth
Hold fast- all together, hold the line!

The Marathon Strike

4/24/2024

Dm C F A Dm A
When Marathon locked us out, they thought they’d have us beat
Dm C F A Dm A
We’ve been walking through the blizzards, we’ll be walking through the heat
Dm C F A Dm A
There’s only ever been one way to run a marathon,
Gm A Dm
One foot, then the next, keep moving on

Gm Dm
And the line, keeps on walking, walking
Gm DM A
Under the shine, of the gas-flare light
Gm Dm
And that river, well it keeps on rollin’, keeps on rollin’
A F C Dm
Keeps on rolling on into the night

And inside the refinery, the scabs fumble along
Juggling jobs- they’ll drop the ball, if anything goes wrong
Those hydrofluoric gasses, if she blows she’ll choke the town
And gut the Mississippi running down

Chorus

A strike’s a war of money- every nickel, every dime
At Marathon and Speedway, they want you to cross the line
So if you see a picket and you know you wouldn’t pass
Don’t be a scab when you fill up your gas

Chorus

With scabs in the refinery, they twisted in the blade
Brought rats to build the scaffold and kicked out the Building Trades
And the law says it’s a different fight, but everybody knows
we’ll walk together or we’ll hang alone

Chorus

So march, march, day and night, beneath the cooling tower,
They’ve got the refinery, but we’ve still got the power
Keep fire in your belly and keep iron in your spine
Keep walking and we’ll see that finish line

New Era Windows

4/24/2024

Am E Am E Am
It’s more bear than I can bear, the bull market is dozin’
Am E Am E Am
Word down at the banks, is always be foreclosin’
Dm e
Wall Street got the bail out, we got our two weeks
Am E Am E Am E Am
And if you owed a loan to try to own a home, you got thrown out on the street
Dm E
Now there’s camps like they had in Tahrir Square, and we’re talking with UE
Am E Am E Am E Am
If we go Occupy, what we’re too broke to buy, we’ll start with the factory
Dm E
When they kick us that’s just business, when we fight back it’s a war
Am E Am E Am
You gotta make yourselves a window, when the man slams shut the door

We baked them up their cake, they left us with the crumbs
Rust Belt’s waiting for tomorrow like a train that never comes
First they burst the bubble, then they pack their cash and leave
Cut the pay and do a longer day when they re-open overseas
They throw away our jobs like pawns then tell us we’re to blame
So we knocked over the board and cut the king out of the game
When they kick us that’s just business, when we fight back it’s a war
You gotta make yourselves a window, when the man slams shut the door

Bridge:
E Dm Am
It’s better than starting over, it’s faster that litigation
E Dm Am
Taking it back ain’t trespassing, it’s called expropriation
Dm E
They did it in Argentina, they did it down in Greece
Am E
You’ll never get a space in life if you wait to get a lease

When the bust hit in ‘08, with more debt than they could pay
then JP Morgan Chase and the goddamn B-o-A
Put the factory up for scrap, until we scrapped their plans
Occupy until somebody buys, that’s how we forced their hand
But when the new boss tried to shut it down, we figured what the hell-
If a boss is bound to run it into the ground, we’ll have to run it for ourselves
When they kick us that’s just business, when we fight back it’s a war
You gotta make yourselves a window, when the man slams shut the door

The Battle of Kobane

4/24/2024

Adaptation of a song by David Riondino

Dm
Safe up on the hill, the soldiers watch the battle
A
A black banner is rising in the center of the town
Gm
The city is a loss, say the politicians
A Dm
But before the morning comes, the flag is torn down
Gm
Standing guard along the border, the soldiers watch the battle.
Dm
The fascists knives are hunting for the throats of the comrades
A
Bombs re-draw the streets, to that same eternal city-
Gm A D
Sarajevo, Warsaw, and Stalingrad.

And higher than the fire, the stars watch the battle
The rebels burn the banner, and let their colors fly
The fascists will be back again, before the day is over
And the bombs of an ally, like lightning burns the sky
The press up on the hill photographs the battle.
The reporter reads conversion in the shadow of a knife
And the Caliphate station brags over their slaughter
And every life gets easier, to take another life

The daughters from the city are marching to the battle.
Some march to liberation, and others to the grave
The rage of the avenger, the laughter of the fascist
When he rapes the defenseless, and makes a girl a slave
And somewhere there are angels who stand and watch the battle
Who see the devil manifested in the name of God
The smoke of death is rising with the calling of the prayers
But the angels do not come; guerillas send another squad

The women from the mountains track the hired soldiers
Who kill for a prophet, who try to take their prey alive
And all the burning homes driving clickbait for the watchers
Porn for the spectacle; a horror to survive
And the wind from the mountains is a friend that walks beside you
With a rifle on her shoulder, on a road smashed by shells
The girl from Kobanê looks back for a moment,
and keeps marching down into hell

The fires from the hill roll down into the battle
Against the slave traders and against the caliphate
The choking snake of empire, the jackals of the fascists
And vampires hidden behind every state
Walking to the front line, the girl from Kobane
No words for the watchers as she passes by
Freedom was a word, but now it is a breath
That you win by refusing to die

Maurice Bishop Villainelle

4/24/2024

Played with a back beat; written for Jessica Garraway as an Afro-Carribean, socialist song

D
Where will be our restitution
A
For the centuries downtrodden?
G… D A
It is in the revolution
Bm
Like Job suffered his persecution
G We had been machines for cotton
D... Bm A
Where will be our restitution?
D
Maurice wrote his constitution
A
To sweep away the broke and rotten
G D A
It is in the revolution

There can be no substitution
struggle is how freedom’s gotten
Where will be our restitution?

Washington sent retribution
Before the seeds we’ve sown could broaden
It is in the revolution

Struck down by an execution
Maurice you are not forgotten
Where will be our restitution
It is in the revolution
Bm A D

Quarantine Shanty

4/24/2024

Quarantine Shanty, to the tune of Banks of Newfoundland

Come all you lascar sailors, now I’ll tell you to beware
For you never can know when you’re coming home when you sign on to fare
There’s home port and the others, and the ocean lying between
And ship’s a floating prison, when you’re stuck in the quarantine

Chorus:
We’ve been six months aboard her, and we’ll sit for six months more
In quarantine ‘til the coast is clean, just off England’s shore

Back in Shanghai when we let fly, after working a run from Valdez
Stacked high with crates, we made for the straits of Malacca and then Suez
But the COVID virus spreading, flew faster than we could haul
By the time that we passed Sicily, they’d had to lock down it all

Chorus

There’s cards to play while we’re passing the days and waiting ‘til we can go
And the north-west breeze knocks through the trees, ‘til the docks are white with snow
And the chaplains bring us packages, but the owners always say
We can’t step on the land so close at hand, or go home a world away

Chorus

The bunks are cramped here on the tramp, and we huddle in the canteen
With a crew of Indian lascars and men from the Philippines
A big Norwegian captain, and a mate I think is a Dane
And the pilot-house wags a Mongolian flag for a shell company in Ukraine

Chorus

I wish once more I’d see Bangalore and the family I left behind
While I’m on deck, if they’re getting the checks, then I think I can keep my mind
But we’re going insane, while we remain with the water all around
For sailors like me, in prison at sea, til they cut the virus down

Chorus

Cross of Gold

4/24/2024

D
That combine is a war machine, the widest yet I ever seen
A Bm
said get big or get out, they’re weren’t lying
G D
plant to harvest, life is filled with making ends meet at the mill
D A
and gettin’ out is just the same as dyin’
D
trawling fields like a golden sea, fish for corn or subsidies
A Bm
Fed into the silos by the tracks
G D
keep it going day by day, that river cuts the land away
D A
the rain digs out the soil deep and black
A G D
As long as the levees hold it back
Bm G D
And my father, said you’ve got two hands that you’re dealt
Bm D A
One you give freely when a neighbor falls behind
Bm G
And the other your hold pressed like a secret to your chest
D Bm
So when the plant was out he never crossed the line
D A D
Though said what’s yours is yours and mine is mine

My great grandpa was a refugee when he came from the old country
The King’s police were barking at his heels
In the city or on the land, either way you’re living by your hands
Either way the rich man finds a way to steal
The cavalry corp’s killing floor, stolen in the Indian war
The arrowheads still come up with the plow
he built the cabin out of sod and a rugged cross to a murdered god
To bless the crop, the sweat from off his brow
But you get nothing without more blood anyhow
God was a carpenter, built mangers for the shepherds.
He was a shepherd, trying to lead his flock to fold
But now the Romans own the rails, and these prices are the nails
And they crucify us on a cross of gold
They crucify us on a cross of Gold

The quarter’s on the auction block, some man buys land he’ll never walk
Another farm is fallen through the cracks
Boom to boom and bust to bust, everyone does as they must
Anything you’re given can be taken back
You each grow more, the grain gets cheaper, costs get higher, debts get steeper
Each auction is a player quit the game
The kids look through us and their sights are trained onto the city lights
Like a moth looks past the night into the flame
But this life’s already burned, so who’s to blame?
And the grass whispers the memories of a prairie
And the glass offers confessions from the rye
Waiting for the sun to set but it hasn’t got there yet
Watch it sinking in the corn fields like the price
The blood, God knows, has been the sacrifice

Daniel Alan Baker

4/21/2023

D A D
Daniel Alan Baker came back from the war
G D A
He’d seen the bloody oil fields, and what we were fighting for
D A D
And the terror of the occupation over in Iraq
G D Bm
So he walked away from the army when they tried to send him back
A G D
Just following his orders would mean a lifetime of disgrace
A D A
He laid down the White Man’s burden to rejoin the human race
D A D
He had made a promise to defend the people of this land,
G D A
But the threat is here at home, in the ruling class’s hands.

Chorus:
G D
When they say put your hands up, we’ve got to stand up
G D A
And we’ll fight to hold our ground, if that’s how it’s got to be
G D
Keeping watch around the fire for the ones behind the wire
D A Bm
Daniel fought for freedom and we’ll fight to set him free

When Syria exploded, when the dam of war had broke
And the state that they called ISIS, came rising from the smoke
A monster born from decades of the wars across the sea
to help protect the people, Daniel joined the YPG
He trained with them in Rojava, with the skills the army taught,
No more a tool of empire, but for battles to be fought
To defend a revolution that grew out of the ash
When the world turned it back, Daniel charged into the clash

Chorus

When Trump lost the election, he peddled his Big Lie
And he told his black and yellow shirts to stand back and stand by
He swore he would go out with not a whimper, but a roar
And his goons broke down the windows to invade the senate floor
The violence they had wrought in other lands and in our streets
Now they hurled at the Congress, to reverse their don’s defeat
The police let them leave, and just arrested a few men
But the Right had tasted power, and they swore they’d try again

Chorus

In the streets of Tallahassee, lurked the shadow of the Klan,
And each state capitol was targeted in the coup supporters’ plan
Daniel knew that fascism was Empire come back home
And he knew the storms were gathering around the capitol dome
So he printed out a flyer, to raise the people in alarm
And like the Right had done so many times, he made the call to arms
But the cops and Klan are hand in hand- they soon had Daniel caught
They called him a terrorist for fighting back when they would not

Chorus

Daniel Alan Baker is sitting in a cell
While the fascists are in Congress and in uniform as well
Another POW in our growing Years of Lead
A three way fight between the White, the Blue, and the Red
No government fights fascism to bury it for good
They need the Klan to be their terror, lurking underneath the hood
No one else can stop it for us, so together we will stand
And we’ll free our captured friends to take the future in our hands

Chorus

It Burns (translation of Es Brennt)

4/21/2023

"It burns, brothers, look! It burns! Our little shtetl screaming as it burns
Winds of death like wolves come howling
Breaking, pulling and devouring,
The smoke that chokes our lungs is scouring
And our shtetl burns

Chorus:
And you stand and cross your arms
Or with you backs turned
And you stand and cross your arms
While our shtetl burns

"It burns, sisters, look! It burns!
And over us the flaming pillar churns
Tar-paper and creosote, Gulped into its hungry throat,
The winds laugh and the soldiers gloat
And our shtetl burns

Chorus

"It burns, mothers, look! It burns
As one by one each shtetl has its turn
God forbid, the time may come
Our village and ourselves as one
Will by these flames be turned to ash
Like trenches shelled, the walls burned black

Chorus

It burns, fathers, look it burns.
Now watch the fires spreading out, and learn
Unless we want to die in shame Let’s take a bucket, fight the flame
If not with water, soon, a flood
Will quench the world in our blood

Don’t just stand and cross your arms
Or with your backs turned
Don’t just stand and cross your arms
And watch our people burn

Es Brennt was written by Mordecai Gebertig, a Jewish socialist, songwriter, and furniture maker. He wrote the song in response to pogroms targeting Jews in Poland in the years before World War Two. He was murdered in the Krakow Ghetto by the Nazis as he and other elderly Jewish prisoners were executed by gunfire as the German occupiers forced Jews onto the trains to the Belzec death camp.

In addition to his haunting premonitions of the spreading fires of fascism and antisemitism in Europe, Mordecai Gebertig's work covers a vast range, from humorous to tragic, songs of worker resistance, life in poverty, children's play songs, love, and more. He lives on through his work, which the fascists and their bullets could never bury.

CHAOS (AFA Solidarity Song)

4/21/2023

CHAOS
to the tune of bubliki, swung as a Dixieland jazz number

D
It takes finesse and grace, a stewardess’s place,
D A
An ironed dress with lace, a frozen smile
G D
When groping hands come round, you’ve got to stand your ground
D A Bm
You give an inch and the man will take a mile
To get an airline beat, it’s only fair to cheat
You’re gonna square up light a couple tons
You want to unionize? Then learn to use surprise,
Strike out some flights but never tell the boss which ones

It’s pandemonium, sheer pandemonium
They need each stone to fall right into place
if we just take a seat, we can kick up our feet
And watch the system turn to chaos in their face

You want to bag a trip, out on the Vegas Strip?
The old main drag, and things you’d never do
Make sure you’re on a line that has a contract signed
What happens stays there but now you’re staying there too
And so you hatched a plan to fly to Ketchikan To get attached to nature, northern style
But your returning flight has been adjourned tonight
It’s time learn what can occur into the wild

It’s pandemonium, ruined the symposium
Ask the custodian if you can crash
Maybe he’s got a couch, if your checks are vouched
Might even drive you south, if you’ve got cash

When Donny played the clown, shut public payments down
Sarah Nelson said it wouldn’t fly
Unless you make a deal, we’ll bring the planes to heel
You want a shutdown? Well we know how to provide

It’s pandemonium, salty like sodium
She’s the Napoleon of US flights
‘Cause when the union walks, boy, we can screw your stock
We’ll rip it through to rock the parasites

They’ll try to fleece our sight and to police our fight,
But labor peace is rotting with the worms
To get a sweeter deal, keep the heat to their heels
We’ll get them beat before we sit to come to terms

It’s pandemonium, fire and petroleum
It’s not utopian, it’s just hardball
They can count their beans, but we can freeze machines
Until we seize the means and take it all