Here is Pat Humphries with "Bread and Roses."

Union activists know that labor songs can unite and help people feel strong. This can be true even when the music has nothing to do with unions.

"De Colores" is a popular Spanish folksong. It talks about fields in the spring, little birds, rainbows and the great loves of many colors.

This song is popular with supporters of the United Farm Workers union. We listen as Baldemar Velasquez leads the band Aguila Negra in "De Colores."

For many years, folksinger Joe Glazer was a union activist with a guitar. He was also a labor historian. Labor's Troubadour was the name of a book he wrote about his life. He believed in organized labor and preserving the musical history of the American labor movement. Joe Glazer died in 2006 at the age of 88.

Here is Joe Glazer with "Solidarity Forever," written by Ralph Chaplin.

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. Steve Ember and Barbara Klein were our readers. To learn more about American life, go to learningenglish.voanews.com. And join us again next week for This Is America with VOA Learning English.