Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, September 9th, 2024)
“Part of the Union” Song by The Strawbs, from the album Bursting at the Seams (1973)
Now I’m a union man
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think
That the company stinks
Yes, I’m a union man.
When we meet in the local hall
I’ll be voting with them all
With a hell of a shout
It’s out brothers out
And the rise of the factory’s fall.
Oh you don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
Till the day I die, till the day I die.
As a union man I’m wise
To the lies of the company spies
And I don’t get fooled
By the factory rules
‘Cause I always read between the lines.
And I always get my way
If I strike for higher pay
When I show my card
To the Scotland Yard
This is what I say.
Oh you don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
Till the day I die, till the day I die.
Before the union did appear
My life was half as clear
Now I’ve got the power
To the working hour
And every other day of the year.
So though I’m a working man
I can ruin the government’s plan
Though I’m not too hard
The sight of my card
Makes me some kind of superman.
Oh you don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
You don’t get me I’m part of the union
Till the day I die, till the day I die.
Are you part of a Union? No? For small business owners and independent laborers or artists, unions were created to treat workers more fairly. Labor unions have been and are a large part of the ongoing American Dream (or nightmare, depending on your view).
Big businesses/large corporations have a way of denying their workers the right to be treated fairly. I’ve long been fascinated by the labor movement and the rights of individuals over the wealthy folks who try to seize control and manipulate our lives.
Have you noticed how the Right Wing is often pointing to the Left and calling them Socialists or Marxists, trying to turn them into the “enemy”? Yet our social programs like Social Security and health care are what make us better off. There is a film called Matewan by John Sayles about the coal miners’ strike in the 1920s. The labor movement and this film capture some of the bloody antics that were going on at the time. Check it out; it is one of my favorite films.
The above song is by the Strawbs, one of my favorite sixties/seventies bands that went from bluegrass to folk/rock to proglike influences. The album that it is from is Bursting at the Seams, although the album before it, Grave New World, is my favorite Strawbs record.
A toast to the rights of laborers/free men and women everywhere.
