TO READERS: I AM REPOSTING THIS GREAT PIECE BECAUSE I FORGOT THE LINK IN THE ORIGINAL!
Peter Rothberg, associate editor of The Nation, collected his ten top songs about working people. This is an appropriate way to begin Labor Day. Each song is accompanied by a video.
Enjoy!
Rest from your labors.
PS: I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT THE LINK!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
of course my mind goes to Pete Seeger immediately and the coffee houses of the 60s….
This one: “5. Judy Collins, Bread and Roses” it is this weekend the celebration of the Bread and Roses strike in MA. NYEducator posted a comment on this about a year ago; he also displayed the poster showing the strikers. College students came out from Boston (in those days it would have been by train about 30 miles) and they told the wrong side — they sided with the owners instead of the families, women and children. You can find the poster at the Howard Zinn Institute and I will try to locate what NYEducator wrote about it…. a good classroom teaching tool.
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the post from 2010 by NYCeducator — retrieved from Diane Ravitch blog nyceducator.com/2010/09/ivy-league-union-busters-then-and-now.html
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http://www.thenation.com/article/top-ten-labor-day-songs/
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I’ve always thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor for teachers to come up with a “soundtrack” for their work.
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Workin..in a coal mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAzAucMOE0s
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but that’s only lately, with all this reform stuff going on.
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The list forgot to Springsteen’s “The ghost of Tom Joad” ( with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine)and “We Take Care Of Our Own”!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzRbeHyIomk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibgZs5yH0ss
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I would also suggest Tom Morello’s albums Union Town and World Wide Rebel Songs. On the former he reprises a number of classis including Solidarity Forever and 16 Tons. His version of Which Side Are You On seems very relevant to the readers of this blog. World Wide Rebel Songs has some, hopefully, new classics like Save the Hammer for the Man, the title track, and Union Town. Tom, Tim McInrath, and Wayne Kramer all sang in Madison and later in Ohio to support the anti-Senate Bill 5 movement.
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LINK?
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See bertisdowns comment above to get link.
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This one is about unions specifically rather than labor in general. It is chillingly beautiful.
Which Side Are You On?
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Huey Lewis and the News – Workin’ for a livin’
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Unfortunately, Labor Day for teachers is that day to labor on lesson plans for the week. LOL!!
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Dropkick Murphy’s Workers Song
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“God Bless the Child”, sung by Billie Holliday in 1941, was written as a sorrowful lament of the plight of the downtrodden.
Them that’s got shall have
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible says and it still is news
Mama may have and Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own, that’s got his own.
Over seventy years later, rather than empathy for working people, the verses conjure support for a divisive “be on you own” charter school policy supported by Democrats and Republicans alike.
See more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-camins/why-god-bless-the-child-t_b_5118915.html
http://www.arthurcamins.com
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Thank you Dr. Ravitch for this post. Thank you Teacher Peter Rothberg and all contributors for wonderful music.
Since I have always been a foster citizen, I really feel for “It is a hard knock life”. Here is my contribution of this song’s link. May
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQKZdjf9FJU
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Blue Diamond Mines by Jean Ritchie (coal miners); Brother Can You Spare a Dime (Depression era)
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