Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was born in Okemah, Oklahoma. He left home as a teenager to hitchhike, ride freight trains, live in hobo camps, and follow migrant workers. He saw the effects of the Dust Bowl, followed the Okies to California.
He died a lingering death of Huntington’s chorea, a hereditary degenerative disease.
He wrote “Union Maid” in 1940, and it became one of his most popular songs (he wrote over 1,000 songs).
Here is a portion sung by Woody Guthrie.
Here is the entire song, sung by Pete Seeger.
Here is a recording made earlier this year.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One of the greatest songs ever written. Here, another favorite of mine, Coal Tattoo, written by Billy Ed Wheeler.
My favorite verse:
I stood for the union and walked in the line and fought against the company.
I stood for the U.M.W. of A. Now who’s gonna stand by me?
I’ve got no house and I got no job. Just got a worried soul.
And a blue tattoo on the side of my head.
Left by the number nine coal.
And here, a couple of my favorite pictures of Woody:
http://retrorebirth.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-14-today-in-rock-music-history.html
A friend of mine who is a singer/songwriter traveled a bit with Joan Baez, and Joan told her this story: A number of years ago, the Martin Guitar Company asked to borrow Joan’s Martin so that they could copy it to make a Joan Baez signature guitar. When the company took the guitar apart, they found that a repair person, years before, had written inside the guitar, “Too bad she’s a Commie.” Funny!
Of course, what makes this so absurd is that Joan was no such thing. But she was a union maid, for sure. If we are going to address the problem of the poverty of children in our schools, we’re going to have to see a rebirth of the union movement in this country. That’s a “reform” that would get to the root of the real problem, but don’t look for it to come from the Dimocrats or the Repugnicans, for both parties are owned by the oligarchs, as the present administration’s unwavering support for the education deform movement so amply illustrates.
Warm regards to you and yours, Harlan, this Labor Day! Now I’ll just go back to singing the Internationale with this bunch of hippie degenerates here. . . .
: )
Hey, whatever floats your boat. Self-knowledge is a good thing.
Seriously, though. State socialism was a great evil. So is oligarchy. All these top-down totalitarianisms are the enemies of decent men and women. We need some new thinking and to get past these old left-right divides.
I can certainly agree with you there. The “new thinking” I’m currently looking at is Mark Levin’s THE LIBERTY AMENDMENTS. There’s a real possibility there of bypassing both the statists and the plutocrats. People power in the states.
I shall have a look at it, Harlan. Thanks!
Too bad you are ALL commies. It’s not as if it weren’t evident. Even to lowly guitar craftsmen. Does it matter?
Is that your idea of humor or irony, Harlan? Because given your output here, it reads more like red baiting to me, an occupation with a long history, but not an honorable one.
Humor, my friend. But if the shoe fits . . . .
“Red baiting” is what reds yell when they’ve been found out. It’s a way of deflecting the necessity of defending their views. When was any RED ever honorable? The purpose of reds is to get control of everyone. Transparent. But I’m not huffy or bothered by it. It’s just the way it is. The last time a red wanted justice was before the Big Bang. Mao, Khmer Rouge, Pete Seeger, nothing new in American history about THAT. Lighten up. Have the courage of your convictions. “Communist teacher” does. “Free working men and women” says Robert. Oh give me a break. Now in Poland, the unions and the Church stood together to good end. Solidarnosch. A good thing. Honest leaders. But here? $15 an hour minimum wage. Fuhgedaboudit. Flags for troops.
Harlan, belief in the right of free working men and women to organize certainly does not make one a believer in state socialism, if that’s what you mean by “Commie.”
The Workers’ Paradise, you mean? The function of unions is to take over the state and use it to their own advantage. That’s close enough for me. Don’t be so sensitive, unless you have a bad conscience.
Harlan, I generally enjoy your comments, which while often wrong, have conviction and style.
However, on this one, you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
I hope I am wrong and that you are right.
The ice cream truck came by playing Union Maid, we had to run out to buy some! This song has been playing in my head all weekend- thanks for these links- Happy Labor Day
: )
I grew up in the folk song era and still love that music. It is too bad that the history of the unions is lost on so many Americans today. It will take a rebirth of the movement to set some things right. I don’t see that happening soon.
“There once was a union maid,
she never was afraid
of goons and ginks and company finks…”
In the labor parlance of the 1930’s, a “fink” was a stooge for the boss, informing on and undermining the union.
Since there’s little or nothing new under the sun, here in the NYC schools, that would currently be Educators for Excellence, stooges for Mr. Stacked Ranking himself, Bill Gates.
The number of college graduates working for minimum wage has increased by 70% in 10 years.
Hi Joseph,
Do you have a source for that figure? I would love to use that information but I like to have a source to cite. Thanks,
Ms. CW Librarian!
This number comes from a report in that left-wing rag The Wall Street Journal. : )
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/03/30/number-of-the-week-college-grads-in-minimum-wage-jobs/
Thank you so much. The NYT!!
Love the sponsored links from online colleges. Wonder if there’s a correlation in the online degrees and the low pay? Perhaps we are saturated with college grad$ – not trying to pick a fight here, just wondering. We already know our degrees aren’t valued, perhaps we aren’t the only ones.
A little off topic:
“House of Earth”, Guthrie’s only novel to be published was published last year to commemorate his 100th birthday. The forward by Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp(!) gives a fascinating account of the singer and the Dust Bowl era. My father grew up in the Pampa, Texas area
during that time. After reading a great deal about the Dust Bowl it is easy to see why Timothy Egan chose “The Worst Hard Time” for his book on the subject.
The forward goes into a great deal about Guthrie and his philosophies. I did not know that “This Land Is Your Land” was written in protest of the song, “God Bless America”. I learned many things from the forward and I would encourage anyone with an interest in that era to read the book.
Sadly as you look to the current state of our country’s weather and other climate related events you may see that we may well be at a point of another cycle of destruction.
Of course I meant “foreword” not forward. We use Fast ForWord at my school and I am completely messed up with my spelling of anything related to those letters. Imagine how the children feel.
Thank you, Diane, for your inspiration on this Labor Day. Music has always been an important part of movements! Let us continue to sing about the atrocities that have befallen education and use music to move us forward. (Oh wait, don’t THEY want to get rid of music in schools?)
Arlo Guthrie, with anecdotes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni6-ditmXZo
Wonderful. As a child, I listened to many songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, played by my parents on their record player.
Oh, Diane you have done it again. Happy Labor Day to you too. Thanks for the inspiration.