Hold the Fort

New York City Labor Chorus
|  June 1, 2010
by Philip Bliss, British Transport Workers' Union

Painting by Herman Giesen. Image courtesy of Stewart Holbrook, True: the Man's Magazine, October 1949. Click to enlarge.


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This tune originally was an evangelical American hymn inspired by the famous stand of a Union army brigade in the Civil War, guarding provisions under heavy attack, trapped in a fort near Atlanta in 1864. They were saved by General Sherman, who signaled by flags over the mountains as he approached to "hold fast, we are coming."

Composed by Philip Bliss soon after the war, Hold The Fort spread through revival meetings and sheet music in the US and Britain.

The Knights of Labor and the British Transport Workers Union re-wrote it, in different versions, as a labor song. Folklorists Edith Fowke & Joe Glazer identify Hold The Fort as one of the oldest songs to spring from the American trade-union movement. (An even older one is Charles Haynes' Eight Hour Song.) The BTWU made it their strike song. Theirs is the version which the IWW included in the the Little Red Song Book in 1914.

An all-I.W.W. crew raising a spar tree 160 ft. long, 22½ inches at top and 54½ inches at butt, at Index, Washington. Photo courtesy of Walker C. Smith: The Everett Massacre, A History of the Class Struggle in the Lumber Industry, p 132. Click to enlarge.

Hold The Fort played a prominent role in the Everett Massacre of two years later. Everett Washington is near Seattle. The IWW had come to support a five-month strike by shingle weavers. Vigilantes organized by business ran them out violently. They retreated to Seattle, where they decided to hold a public meeting in Everett. Handbills went out announcing it for Sunday November 5.

That day, a contingent of 300 supporters sailed for Everett aboard two boats. One, the Verona, arrived first. Passengers sang Hold The Fort as the boat approached the dock. As they tied up, Sheriff Donald McRae came forward, backed by 200 armed deputies on the shore and on a nearby boat in the harbor. "Who is your leader?" he shouted.

"We are all leaders!" the Wobblies shouted back.

McRae jerked the gun from his holster and threatened, "You can't land here." and the reply from the Wobblies was, "The hell we can't."

A shot was fired. The jury was unable to determine from where. A 10-minute volley ensued, most of it from the deputies' side, in which five Wobblies and two deputies died. McRae was wounded. The pilot house was riddled with bullet holes. Confined to the boat, the Wobblies had nowhere to run. The ship nearly capsized due to passengers rushing to the far side. Some were thrown in the water and drowned.

The pilot managed to shift to reverse and back the boat, parting the bow line. The Verona escaped and returned to Seattle, where 74 passengers were arrested. One -- teamster Thomas Tracy -- was charged with firing the first shot and murder of the two deputies. The jury acquitted him after a two-month trial.

No one was charged for the Wobbly deaths.

The shingle weavers ended their strike the day after the massacre, though a few weeks later they downed tools again.


1. We meet today in freedom's cause
And raise our voices high;
We'll join our hands in union strong
To bottle or to die.

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Chorus:

Hold the fort for we are coming.
Union hearts, be strong!
Side by side we battle onward;
Victory will come.

"Holding the fort in Everett". Photo courtesy of Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes: Hard Traveling: A Portrait of Work Life in the New Northwest and Walter Reuther Archives. Click to enlarge.

Chorus

2. Look my comrades, see the union
Banners waving high.
Reinforecemnts now appearing,
Victory is nigh.

Chorus

3. See our numbers still increasing;
Hear the bugle blow.
By our union we shall triumph
Over every foe.


Personnel: New York City Labor Chorus, Peter Schlosser, director, Dennis Nelson, accompanist; Ellis Boal, recording; Mark Dann, mastering.

Buy the New York City Labor Chorus's Hats Off To Labor CD.



 

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    Laurel Blaydes, Joe Jencks, Chapman Zon
    September 1, 2004

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    At the June 2004 Great Labor Arts Exchange. . . This is for Victor Reuther, Millie Jeffries, Marilyn Majors, Eddie Starr, Hedy Hilburn....
  • The 1910 Spokane Free Speech Fight
    Utah Phillips
    August 1, 2004

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    . . . That's when I met Herb Edwards. Herb Edwards lived in West Seattle. He was an old IWW organizer, and a Norwegian immigrant. . . ....
  • I Hate Wal-Mart
    Dave Lippman
    July 1, 2004

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    Brought 6,000 jobs back to South Carolina  /  For a whole 6 months, then sent 'em back to China  /  Where they work 12...
  • Unemployment Compensation Blues
    Finland Station
    June 1, 2004

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    Written in 1949 and recorded in 1989, this timeless tune speaks of Thorazine. Today the drug choices have multiplied.
  • What It's Like
    John McCutcheon
    May 1, 2004

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    In 1985 UFCW Local P-9 struck the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. The local waged a determined two-year fight, taking on the...
  • A Little A' This 'N' That
    Pete Seeger, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
    April 1, 2004

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    My grandma, she can make a soup, / with a little a' this 'n' that. / She can feed the whole sloop group, / with a little a' this 'n' that...
  • Moving Day / We Shall Not Be Moved
    Charlie King, Karen Brandow
    March 1, 2004

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    Fred Stanton got the idea for this song from labor activist Bob Peters in Clive, Iowa, who sent him a story about an eviction in a working-...
  • Solidarity
    Fruit Of Labor
    February 1, 2004

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    This song debuted in the Southern Capitol City of Raleigh in 2001, at the first ever National Union Convention in the State of North...
  • Time To Ring Some Changes
    Tom Juravich
    January 1, 2004

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    This old country's tumbling down / Walls are gone but the roof is sound / Government's deaf, they can never be found / Time to ring some...
  • War On The Workers
    Anne Feeney
    December 1, 2003

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    Anne Feeney went to the Staley picket line 20 times from her home in Pittsburgh, was arrested once, and sang union fund-raising concerts all...
  • Hospital Workers
    Rebel Voices
    November 1, 2003

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    John Philip Sousa as a labor leader.
  • El Mojado
    Águila Negra
    October 1, 2003

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    Baldemar Velasquez has a pretty important day job—president of the Farm Laborers Organizing Committee. But his work for workplace justice is...
  • Jerusalem
    Joe Uehlein, Bev Grant, Pam Parker, Anne Feeney
    September 1, 2003

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    I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good. / The death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood.
  • We're An On-Time Union
    Gloria Britton-Ellis, AFT Singers Burnetta Ajide, Jo Autry, Rennette Brown, Tom Moran, Sharon Wilson
    August 1, 2003

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    Music, struggle, teaching: all of a piece...
  • I Cannot Sleep
    Jon Fromer, Francisco Herrera
    July 1, 2003

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    A Malvina Reynolds tune: I cannot sleep thinking of the children / Who cannot sleep, gone supperless to bed. / I cannot sleep thinking of...
  • Toxic Dreams
    Pat Wynne
    June 1, 2003

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    In 2001 Pat Wynne traveled to Cuba with members of the Freedom Song Network to perform and attend a labor conference and the May Day...
  • Mean Things Happening / Ain't You Got A Right / Roll The Union On
    Luci Murphy, Janet Stecher, Susan Lewis
    May 1, 2003

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    Elders of the tribe: These songs of the civil rights movement were recorded at the June 2001 Great Labor Arts Exchange.
  • If I Only Had A Brain
    George Mann, Julius Margolin
    April 1, 2003

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    I'd read poetry for hours / Circulate in ivory towers / Know Mexico from Spain / I would say it very bluntly / Africa is not a country / If...
  • The People Are In Charge
    Ray Korona
    March 1, 2003

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    Every big, political demonstration has its own rhythm, sense of danger, spirit of determination and edgy humor. Each one, in its own way,...
  • One Puppet Town
    Charlie King
    February 1, 2003

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    Don't bring your puppet to the inauguration / W don't allow no puppets marching around / Don't try any free speech or protestation / 'Cause...
  • No Sweat
    Pat Humphries
    January 1, 2003

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    Bev Grant and I wrote No Sweat for United Students Against Sweatshop's campaign of the same name. We were both raising teenage daughters...
  • Reindeer Games
    David King
    December 1, 2002

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    What if Santa’s reindeer didn’t like how they were treated?
  • Labor Of Love
    Bev Grant
    November 1, 2002

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    Inspired by the birth of Malaya, her daughter's daughter.
  • One More Time
    Charlie Ray Fetty III
    October 1, 2002

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    A song about the Mobil Inspirational, third-prize winner in the 1999 Colorado State Fair Parade (and first prize in originality).
  • The Mill Was Made Of Marble / I Ain't No Stranger Now
    Joe Glazer
    September 1, 2002

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    Since I've been introduced to the CIO / I ain't no stranger now.

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