#utah phillips

[folk-enjoyer]

Song of the day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask, and I'll do a full rundown like here)

"Bread and Roses"

Judy Collins, 1976

since its labor day i thought we could talk about some good ol' IWW labor history

in 1911, Helen Todd gave a speech about women's suffrage and ended it

"Not at once; but woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice."

James Oppenheim, inspired by this speech, created the poem "Bread and Roses" in 1911, whose words would later become the lyrics for the judy collins song.

in 1912, 30,000 immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, went on strike due to poor working conditions and poor pay. this strike was led by the International Workers of the World and was comprised mostly of women. the phrase "bread and roses" was all over signs and became the slogan of the strike, with it even being called the "Bread and Roses Strike". like many strikes in the USA it was absolutely brutal for the strikers, and several people died, but they were able to win some of their demands.

in 1970, the James Oppenheim poem was put to music by mimi fariña, and then covered by judy collins. my favorite cover is by Utah Phillips in 1983 , where he explains the history of the textile strike and the meaning of the slogan

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses 🌹

[tastethebloodofmeatthawsmoth]

"When I joined the Army, it was kind of like somebody that I had been brought up to respect, wearing a suit and a tie, and maybe a little older, in my neighborhood. Think about yourself in your neighborhood, and this happened to you. He walked up to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and said, See that fellow on the corner there? He’s really evil, and has got to be killed. Now, you trust me; you’ll go do it for me, won’t you? Now, the reasons are a little complicated; I won’t bother to explain, but you go and do it for me, will you?

Well, if somebody did that to you in your neighborhood, you’d think it was foolish. You wouldn’t do it. Well, what makes it more reasonable to do it on the other side of the world? That’s one question.

Well, now hook it into this. If I was to go down into the middle of your town, and bomb a house, and then shoot the people coming out in flames, the newspapers would say, Homicidal Maniac! The cops would come and they’d drag me away; they’d say You’re responsible for that! The judge’d say, You’re responsible for that; the jury’d say You’re responsible for that! and they would give me the hot squat or put me away for years and years and years, you see? But now exactly the same behavior, sanctioned by the State, could get me a medal and elected to Congress. Exactly the same behavior. I want the people I’m talking to to reconcile that contradiction for themselves, and for me.

The third question–well I take that one a lot to peace people. There’s a lot of moral ambiguity going on around here, with the peace people who say, "Well, we’ve got to support the troops", and then wear the yellow ribbon, and wrap themselves in the flag. They say, "Well, we don’t want what happened to the Vietnam vets to happen to these vets when they come home–people getting spit on." Well, I think it’s terrible to spit on anybody. I think that’s a consummate act of violence. And it’s a terrible mistake, and I’m really sorry that happened. But what did happen? Song My happened; My Lai happened; the defoliation of a country happened; tons of pesticides happened; 30,000 MIAs in Vietnam happened. And it unhinged some people–made them real mad. And what really, really made them mad, was the denial of personal responsibility–saying, I was made to do it; I was told to do it; I was doing my duty; I was serving my country. Well, we’ve already talked about that.

Now, it is morally ambiguous to wrap yourself in the flag and to wear those ribbons. And it borders on moral cowardice. I don’t mean to sound stern; well, yes I do, but what does the Nuremberg declaration say? There’s no superior order that can cancel your conscience. Nations will be judged by the standard of the individual. Look, the President makes choices. The Congress makes choices. The Chief of Staff makes choices. The officers make choices. All those choices percolate down to the individual trooper with his finger on the trigger. The individual private with his thumb on the button that drops the bomb. If that trigger doesn’t get pulled, if that button doesn’t get pushed, all those other choices vanish as if they never were. They’re meaningless. So what is the critical choice? What is the one we’ve got to think about and get to? And, friends, if that trigger gets pulled–if that button gets pushed, and that dropped bomb falls–and you say I support the troops, you’re an accomplice. I don’t want to be an accomplice; do you?

And I don’t want to dehumanize anyone. I don’t want to take away anybody’s humanity. Humans are able to make moral decisions–moral, ethical decisions. What do we tell the trooper who pulls the trigger, or the soldier who turns the wheel that releases oil into the Persian Gulf, that they’re not responsible–just following orders, just doing their duty, have no choice–bypassing them, making them a part of the machine, we deny them their humanity, their responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions. Look, I’ve been a soldier. I don’t want any moral loophole. I need to take personal responsibility for my actions. And if we don’t learn how to do this, we’re going to keep on going to war again, and again, and again." - Utah Phillips, "The Violence Within"

[nando161mando]

Freedom is something you assume. Then you wait for someone to try to take it away from you. The degree to which you resist, is the degree to which you are free. -Utah Phillips

[kdo-three]

Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips - The Internationale (Instrumental) (1999) Pierre Degeyter from: “Fellow Workers” (LP | CD) "Singing Through the Hard Times - A Tribute to Utah Phillips (CD 2 | 2009)

Anthem | Instrumental

Burning.Typepad (left click = play) (192kbps)

Personnel: Ani DiFranco: Guitar / Banjo / Mandolin Utah Phillips: Guitar Julie Wolf: Accordion Jason Mercer: Double Bass Daren Hahn: Drums / Percussion

Produced by Ani DiFranco

Recorded: @ Kingsway Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana USA 1999

Released: on May 18, 1999 Righteous Babe Records (USA) Cooking Vinyl (UK)

"Fellow Workers!" is the phrase with which members of the Industrial Workers of the World traditionally begin their public addresses.

Happy May Day

[suzilight]

“These kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.” - Utah Phillips, American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet

Republicans continue effort to erode US child labor rules despite teen deaths

[thefishisburning]

[deathbecomesthem]

Hi. It's maybe a good time to revisit the Fellow Workers released in 1999.

Let's remember, the struggles and pain we face today is NOT a new American experience by any means. Remember the past or be doomed to repeat it.

We've been fucking around, and now we're finding out.

[theoutcastrogue]

"Joe Hill wrote a song for the Free Speech fight of 1910, and it was introduced on the streets of Spokane by Haywire Mac McClintock. He was a branch secretary [of the IWW] then, he wrote "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Hallelujah, I'm a bum!". He got together a little band: T-Bone Slim, a tuba, a garbage can lid. They stood in a doorway waiting to leap out at the unemployed throng, regale them with song.

They used a shill to build the crowd, you know, a carny shill? Somebody who uses tricks to build a crowd? His name was Tresca, he wore a black suit, a black bowler hat, a string tie with an umbrella and a briefcase. Looked like a banker.

He walked down where they were hiding in the doorway and suddenly he started to yell "Help! Help! Help! I've been robbed! Help! I've been robbed!". Everybody'd run across the street, "what's the matter, what's the matter". Soon as he got the crowd together, he yelled: "I'VE BEEN ROBBED BY THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM, FELLOW-WORKERS!"

He talked to them for ten minutes, and then the boys would leap out and start singing, and this is what they were singing."

Utah Phillips - The Preacher and the Slave ("Pie in the Sky")

Long-haired preachers come out every night To try to tell you what's wrong and what's right But when asked about something to eat They will answer in voices so sweet

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

The Starvation Army they play And they shout and they clap and they pray When they've got all your coins on the drum They will tell you when you're on the bum

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

Working folks of all countries unite Side by side we for freedom shall fight When this world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain

You will eat, bye and bye When you've learned how to cook and how to fry [How to fry!] Chop some wood, it'll do you good And you'll eat in that sweet bye and bye [THAT'S NO LIE!]

full lyrics, from the 1911 edition of the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, here

[paintingsandrecords]

a white-nosed coati; ink and watercolor

last ten day’s listening:

joni mitchell - mingus

the messthetics and james brandon lewis - the messthetics and james brandon lewis

jon snodgrass - barge at will

wesley willis - greatest hits vol ii

the curse - teenage meat (1977-78)

verse - from anger and rage

utah phillips - el capitan

war on women - live from magpie cafe

john linnell - state songs

void - condensed flesh

the vipers skiffle group - skiffle music

q and not u - no kill no beep beep

[kornwulf]

So I've been seeing a lot of anti-Salvation Army rhetoric on this website as of late (for good reason) and I felt this might be appreciated by tumblr.

Around the turn of the last century, Joe Hill, who was an extremely prolific songwriter and poet affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote a song called "The Preacher and the Slave". It was a parody of one of the hymns favored by the Salvation Army of the period, "In the Sweet By-and-By", The Salvation Army having positioned themselves against the IWW during the labor organization of the early 20th century.

Here's a 1981 live rendition of the song by labor organizer and musician Utah Phillips

[helena-bottom-farter]

[gertruderobinsonscat]

I didn't know what exhausted me emotionally until that moment, and I realized that the experience of being a soldier, with unlimited license for excess, excessive violence, excessive sex, was a blueprint for self-destruction. Because then I began to wake up to the idea that manhood, as passed onto me by my father, my scoutmaster, my gym instructor, my army sergeant, that vision of manhood was a blueprint for self-destruction and a lie, and that was a burden that I was no longer able to carry. It was too difficult for me to be that hard. I said, "OK, Ammon, I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed.

[nando161mando]

[no-one-left-but-us]

[rockin-mobbin]

The path of least resistance is what makes a river crooked.

They De-Tumblrized Ms. Frizzle