Today I went to see Salt of the Earth and it was amazing to watch on the big screen – if you have the chance, definitely go to a theatre to view it.
Of course I alternated between tears and maniacal suppressed laughter while all the elderly posh people around me watched with sober attention. But hey – I’m allowed – I am legitimately working class.
When the movie ended I turned to my kid and said You won’t remember, but that is how people talk where we come from.
Not the accent, but the attitude.
Then I resisted delivering extensive lectures about the history of labor organizing, life in the company towns of the Pacific Northwest, and the Centralia Massacre.
Instead, I walked around humming songs I have not performed for nearly eight years.
Union Maid
Original source: Woody Guthrie
As interpreted by the Amalgamated Everlasting Union Chorus Local 824
There once was a union maid
Who never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks
And deputy sheriffs who made the raid
She went to the union hall
When a meeting it was called
And when the company boys came round
She always stood her ground
Chorus:
Oh you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ with the union
I’m stickin’ with the union, I’m stickin’ with the union
Oh you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ with the union
I’m stickin’ with the union til the day I die
This union maid was wise
To the tricks of the company spies
She’d never be fooled by the company stools
She’d always organize the guys
She’d always get her way
When she struck for higher pay
She’d show her card to the company guard
And this is what she’d say
[Chorus]
When the union boys they seen
This badass union queen
Stand up and sing in the deputy’s face
They laughed and yelled all over the place
And you know what they done?
Those two gun company thugs?
When they heard this union song
They tucked their tails and run!
[Chorus]
A woman’s life is hard
Even with a union card
She’s got to stand on her own two feet
And not be a servant to the male elite
We’ve got to take a stand
Keep working hand in hand
‘Cause there’s a job that’s gotta be done
And a fight that must be won!
Oh you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ with the union
I’m stickin’ with the union, I’m stickin’ with the union
Oh you can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ with the union
I’m stickin’ with the union til the day I die!