Solidarity forever!

[Local_One2]

Posted: 11/24/07 at 6:53pm

When the Union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
But the Union makes us strong.

Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
Solidarity forever!
For the Union makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the Union makes us strong.

[chorus]
It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid.
Now we stand outcast and starving, 'midst the wonders we have made;
But the Union makes us strong.

[chorus]
All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own,
While the Union makes us strong.


[chorus]
They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power; gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.

[chorus]
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.

[chorus]

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/24/07 at 6:55pm

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 10:57am

Sounds like something that would be read at a North Korean gathering by old Kim

If your union told you to jump off a bridge naked in sub zero weather, would you do it? No disrespect intended but it does sound over the top

I realize in your eyes unions can never do any wrong but believe me they can. My father was a teamster & he could have told you stories of union intimidation & outright thuggery that would make your head spin.

Again I say those I feel sorry for are the innocents in this who are really getting killed over this. Not that the union cares about this. In any strike, innocent people get hurt but as long as the union comes out on top screw everyone.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 10:57am

Sounds like something that would be read at a North Korean gathering by old Kim

If your union told you to jump off a bridge naked in sub zero weather, would you do it? No disrespect intended but it does sound over the top

I realize in your eyes unions can never do any wrong but believe me they can. My father was a teamster & he could have told you stories of union intimidation & outright thuggery that would make your head spin.

Again I say those I feel sorry for are the innocents in this who are really getting killed over this. Not that the union cares about this. In any strike, innocent people get hurt but as long as the union comes out on top screw everyone.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 10:57am

Sounds like something that would be read at a North Korean gathering by old Kim

If your union told you to jump off a bridge naked in sub zero weather, would you do it? No disrespect intended but it does sound over the top

I realize in your eyes unions can never do any wrong but believe me they can. My father was a teamster & he could have told you stories of union intimidation & outright thuggery that would make your head spin.

Again I say those I feel sorry for are the innocents in this who are really getting killed over this. Not that the union cares about this. In any strike, innocent people get hurt but as long as the union comes out on top screw everyone.

[bugmenot]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 11:06am

If Local One didn't care about the innocents being hurt by this, they wouldn't have set aside 20% of their defense fund for the sole purpose of making payments to the OTHER unions affected by the strike, for distributions to their affected members.

Have the Producers continued to pay their non-striking employees? No, they have not. Will the producers fight against any claims for back-pay made by the non-striking workers? I am betting they will. Will they continue to live in comfy homes in East Hampton, Park Avenue, etc., while some of their employees share apartments in hell's kitchen, jersey city, or queens? Yep.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 11:08am

We got it the first time, Roxy. Local One2, I'm totally on your side. I hope that Charlotte "St." Martin comes to her senses.

Although, I actually thought this was the song from Billy Elliott.

[sally1112]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 11:12am

^^^^ It's Not?

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 12:12pm

Mattbrain must be thinking about the song that goes:

(sung with a thick Geordie British accent, with a silent "T")
SOLIDARITY, SOLIDARITY!
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
WE'RE PROUD TO BE WORKIN' CLASS
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 12:23pm

Yeah, I know that this song isn't that one.

But that's beside the point.

Go, Local One!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 1:42pm

I wish the Union would get some new lingo for its cause, something more up-to-date.

"Solidarity" to me just conjures up Lech Walesa and the Polish trade union struggles through the 70's and 80's against the brutal Russian Communists. It seems oddly out-of-place applied to the very commercial Broadway situation.

Plus with everyone on diets these days, solidarity just sounds like twenty extra pounds.

Thoughts for some new lingo? Something with a little Broadway panache? A little soft shoe with the mops? I think if the Union tried, it could razzle dazzle 'em for its extra bucks.

Marketing, it's all about marketing.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 3:27pm

When I hear the word, solidarity, I think of the movie, Life of Brian.

[bardolator]

Posted: 11/25/07 at 5:13pm

Maybe something from the Henry V St. Crispin's Day speech would be appropriate? "We few, we happy few...."