A Man
I am a man as a man I've been told
Bacon is brought to the house in this mold
Born of your bellies I yearn for the cord
Years I have groveled repentance ignored
And I have been blamed
And I have repented
I'm working my way toward our union mended
I am man who has grown from a son
Been crucified by enraged women
I am son who was raised by such men
I'm often reminded of the fools I'm among
And I have been shamed
And I have relented
I'm working my way toward our union mended
And I have been shamed
And I have repented
I'm working my way toward our union mended
we don't fare well with endless reprimands
we don't do well with a life served as a sentence
this won't work well if you're hell bent on your offence
I am a man who understands your resistance
I am a man who still does what he can
to dispel our archaic reputation
I am a man who has heard all he can
cuz I don't fare well with endless punishment
Cuz I have been blamed and I have repented
I'm working my way toward our union mended
And we have been blamed and we have repented
I'm working my way toward our union mended
song performed by by Alanis Morissette from Under Rug Swept
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Once Lonely Now Mended
A lonely heart is not something new;
A lonely heart contains only blues.
A lonely heart grows until old;
A lonely heart never unfolds.
A lonely heart is ready for doom;
A lonely heart keeps the mood gloom.
A lonely heart will never heal;
A lonely heart is like a bad card deal.
A mended heart is like one of no other;
A mended heart can be noticed by a lover.
A mended heart won’t take anymore pain;
A mended heart will shine like a flame.
A mended heart pumps love with a flow;
A mended heart beats and never lets’ go.
poem by Michael Vanderkooi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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And the success of the union movement, historically, has always been to benefit all working men and women - not just people who belong to the union.
quote by Warren Beatty
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Working On The Highway
Friday nights pay night guys fresh out of work
Talking about the weekend scrubbing off the dirt
Some heading home to their families some looking to get hurt
Some going down to stovell wearing trouble on their shirts
I work for the county out on 95
All day I hold a red flag and watch the traffic pass me by
In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss
Someday mister Im gonna lead a better life than this
Working on the highway laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway all day long I dont stop
Working on the highway blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway
I met her at a dance down at the union hall
She was standing with her brothers back up against the wall
Sometimes wed go walking down the union tracks
One day I looked straight at her and she looked straight back
Working on the highway...
I saved up my money and I put it all away
I went to see her daddy but we didnt have much to say
Son cant you see that shes just a little girl
She dont know nothing about this cruel cruel world
We lit out down to florida we got along all right
One day her brothers came and got her and they took me in a black and white
The prosecutor kept the promise that he made on that day
And the judge got mad and he put me straight away
I wake up every morning to the work bell clang
Me and the warden go swinging on the charlotte county road gang
Working on the highway...
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Union City Blue
What are we gonna do?
Union Union Union City blue
Tunnel to the other side
It becomes daylight
I say he's mine
Oh power, passion plays a double hand
Union union union city man
Arrive climb up four flights to the orange side
Rearrange my mind
In turquoise Union Union Union City blue
Skyline passion Union City blue
Power, passion plays a double hand
Union union union city man
I say he's mine
I have a plan
I say he's my Union City man
What are we gonna do?
Union Union Union City blue
song performed by by Radiohead
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ode to the Wobblies
I am decent college student
Who does like to roam
To travel many a mile around
And to go and go
I like to roam everywhere I can
Without rime or reason
I will go ever I can go and roam
In the summer season
To roam is to go and go some more
And to leave thy home behind
To go out here and everywhere
To ride to ride to ride
I will I say go near and far
To every mine and mill
To help to roam and a ways know
That the union lives still
That I will help every union man
Striking on the line
That they may go and organize
out with their picket sign
Telling the boss that they want
To get their fare share
To get every thing that they need
Here there everywhere
Oh this I will say to you
That I will be there
When worker start to organize and strike
It’s I who will share
in the triumph and in the fight
in the beatings that come
I will stand among us you all
Standup now endure
For working men across this land
I will say once again
That where men organize that ‘s were we win
At ever river bend
That we may win the good fight
All across this land
That we may stand and fight
All across the dessert sand
That we may win this great battle
All across this land
From California to New York
To the beaches and
From north to south east to west
And everywhere in between
When working men organize and fight
That’s were the Wobbllies will be
Am I in ballad meter?
poem by Timothy Young
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The only conclusion you can draw from the real historical movement is that by and large, in day-to-day life, what Lenin called trade union consciousness dominates the working class. I would call it elementary class consciousness of the working class.
quote by Ernest Mandel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Love Working On You
(jim collins/craig wiseman)
You woke up this morning
Changes were taking place
You looked in the mirror
A smile was all over your face
cause out of nowhere
Someone was there
Who dared to climb
Those walls you made
Its exciting, a little frightening
But girl dont you be afraid
Thats just the love working
Love working on you
Thats just the love working
Working on pulling you through
Cant even remember
All the sorrow that you left behind
Its a brand new day
Theres a bright new way
And your tears have turned into wine
You never forget
When your eyes met
Or just how clearly you could see
Where the turns are deep in your heart
That lead you to believe
Thats just the love working
Love working on you
Thats just the love working
Working on pulling you through
All of the while you felt forsaken
And all of the while
Loves been waiting, waiting
Suddenly you see how it could be
If we all only felt this way
And for a while girl you can see this world
Looking through the eyes of fate
Thats just the love working
Love working on you
Thats just the love working
Working on pulling you through
Thats just the love working
Love working on you
Thats just the love working
Working on pulling you through
Thats just the love working on you
Thats just the love working
Working on pulling you through
song performed by by John Michael Montgomery
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ears Are Closed
There is one basic problem that sits between them.
They all have been conditioned to believe,
Each one of them were born to lead.
And no one perceives a listening should be done.
Where the foundation,
Of true leadership begins for anyone.
That is why what's going on can not be fixed.
Those involve desire to captain their own ship.
And ears are clearly plugged to be closed
While those of flapping lips persist...
The resolving of their started problems,
Should lay on someone's shoulders.
But not on theirs to take the risk.
'You should be blamed for this! '
No.
You should be blamed for this!
'No.
You should be blamed for this! '
No.
You should be blamed for this!
*EVERYONE SING:
You should be blamed for this,
No.
You should be blamed for this,
No.
You should be,
You should be...
You should be blamed for this!
You should be blamed for this,
No.
You should be blamed for this,
No.
You should be,
You should be...
You should be blamed for this!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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While these attitudes are more visible when direct- ed at government, there is ample evidence that many working people distrust their own union as much as they do the corporation they work for.
quote by Robert Teeter
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mind in Sex is Supreme
Union of mind, not followed
By union of body,
Still sustains pleasure.
Union of body, not accompanied
by union of mind
Gives instant pleasure.
Orgasm exists as
Bodies and minds together fuse.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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As much as I value an union of all the states, I would not admit the southern states into the union, unless they agreed to the discontinuance of this disgraceful trade, because it would bring weakness and not strength to the union.
quote by George Mason
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It has no enforceable standards to stop a union from conspiring with employers to keep another stronger union out or from negotiating contracts with lower pay and standards that members of another union have spent a lifetime establishing.
quote by Andy Stern
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.
quote by Vladimir Lenin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It's like there was the Union, and then there's the Union Management. In some of the strikes that I covered when I saw the strike starting to break, wasn't necessarily when Management was giving in, more so than when the strikers were at odds with the Union Management.
quote by Richard Grimes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Factory
Early in the morning factory whistle blows,
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes,
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light,
Its the working, the working, just the working life.
Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain,
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain,
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life,
The working, the working, just the working life.
End of the day, factory whistle cries,
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.
And you just better believe, boy, somebodys gonna get hurt tonight,
Its the working, the working, just the working life.
song performed by by Bruce Springsteen
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Clampdown
Taking off his turban they said is this man a jew
Cause theyre working for the clampdown
And they put up a poster saying we earn more than you
When were working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
Train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers
Judge said five to ten - I said double that again
Im not working for the clampdown
Well no one born with a living soul
Could be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall cause governments to fall
How can you refuse it
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
Dont you know that you can use it
The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time theres nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You dont owe nothing so boy get running
Its the best years of your life they want to steal
You grow up and you calm down
Cause youre working for the clampdown
And you start wearing the blue and the brown
Cause youre working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
Does it makes you feel big now
And you drift until you brutalize
Youve made your first kill now
I say in these days of evil presidentes
Working for the clampdown
I said lately one or two have fully paid their dues
Working for the clampdown
Working for the clampdown
Hey you are now
Working for the clampdown
Hey you are now
(working for the clampdown)
Kick over the wall (working for the clampdown)
Cause governments to fall (working for the clampdown)
How can you refuse it (working for the clampdown)
Hey get along now
(working for the clampdown)
Giving away no secrets
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The reality is that no one can be forced to join a union against their will, and a union cannot take action against those who decide not to join their union.
quote by Dan Lipinski
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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World War II Lessons That We're Still Fighting
Summer of 1966
I had been working
Since I turned eighteen
As an apprentice pressman
It was summertime in San Francisco
I got to work full time so in the Fall
I could afford to work part-time
And go to college
My dad had been
A newspaper pressman
Since he returned home
From WW II in the Pacific
He got me my job at the Chronicle
That was how you got union jobs
You had to know someone
Who was already working there
That's why no Blacks were in our union
None worked upstairs either
To report there were none
Working on the presses downstairs
My dad was only seventeen
When he and his buddies
Signed up for the Navy
Right after Pearl Harbor
His graduation was in North Carolina
Learning how to be a tail-gunner
Getting ready to ship out and find out
What the wide white line was for
Painted down the middle of the floor
Of the hall where the band played loud
While young men danced with women
Most would never see again
The local civilians thought
Concessions were being made
By even allowing them
In the building
But my dad saw firsthand
They knew their place
One side of the dance floor
Restrooms bar and buffet tables
Where for Whites Only
Sailors Waves nurses and
Local white females
Waiting to dance and be held
The other side of the line
Not to be crossed
Its restrooms bar and separate buffet
Were for the Blacks
They all danced
To the same music
Only careful not to cross
That wide white painted line
Summer of 1966
We danced in Golden Gate Park
Silly us - - - Did we think we had erased
That wide white dividing line
poem by Tom J. Mariani
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Everything Is Kiling Me....
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
poem by Adnan Zahedi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Working Class Hero
As soon as you're born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all.
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so f***ing crazy you can't follow their rules.
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear.
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still f***ing peasants as far as I can see.
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill.
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
song, music by John Lennon, lyrics by John Lennon from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (11 December 1970)
Submitted by anonym
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