Marching to the Music: Songs of the American Labor Movement
09/01/2013
Strikers in New York City around 1937. Laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration helped strengthen the labor movement.
Welcome to This Is America with VOA Learning English.
Most of the world observes Labor Day on May 1. But the United States has its workers holiday on the first Monday in September. Steve Ember and Barbara Klein have a few songs from the history of the American labor movement.
Labor songs are traditionally stories of struggle and pride, of timeless demands for respect and the hope for a better life.
Sometimes they represent old songs with new words. One example is "We Shall Not Be Moved." It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song.
Here is folksinger Pete Seeger with "We Shall Not Be Moved."
Many classic American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mine owners bitterly opposed unions. In some cases, there was open war between labor activists and coal mine operators.
Once, in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to one man's home but could not find him there. So they waited outside for several days.
The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?"
Again, here is Pete Seeger.
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