Ode To Workers

— New York City Labor Chorus

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New York City Labor Chorus . . .

Ode To Workers

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A Great Choral Convergence featuring six labor choruses from around the country gathered in concert in Washington DC on Saturday, June 19, 2004. The Convergence was the opening of the Great Labor Arts Exchange that year. The GLAE is sponsored every June by the Labor Heritage Foundation.

The Convergence concept was the brainchild of Bobbie Rabinowitz of the New York City Labor Chorus. Each group -- all working people, most union members -- came to the historic get-together with its own repertoire and unique style of presenting and sharing labor and union songs.

The existence of these choruses represents a revival and resurgence of a long history of labor, union, and fraternal working people's choruses dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. Most went out of business during the repressive McCarthy period. The New York City Labor Chorus, founded by Laura Friedman, Barbara Bailey, and Rabinowitz, was the first of the current crop.

The New York City Labor Chorus's interpretation of Schiller's and Beethoven's Ode To Joy as Ode To Workers, with an added first verse by chorus member Jeff Vogel, was recorded at the Convergence. Singing this piece is inspired by the life and legacy of the great Paul Robeson, who sang Schiller's verses 2 and 3. The NYCLC's proudest moment as a chorus came in 1998 when it performed in Carnegie Hall as part of a gala centennial tribute to Robeson.

Other choruses on the Convergence CD: Brooklyn Women's Chorus, Fruit Of Labor, Seattle Labor Chorus, San Francisco Bay Area Labor Heritage/Rockin' Solidarity Chorus,

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Ode To Workers

Workers sing your union anthem cross the land and o'er the Earth,
Tell the story of the battles that led to our glorious birth.
Robber barons, Wall Street tyrants, gathering wealth is all they know,
Come together, join our forces, and defeat our greedy foe.

Hail the sun of peace new rising, hold the war clouds close afurled,
Blend our banners oh my people in the rainbow of the world.
Red as blood and blue as heaven, wise as age and proud as youth,
Meld our banners wonder woven, in the one great light of truth.

Build the road of peace before us, build it wide and deep and long.
Speed the slow and check the eager, help the weak and curb the strong.
None shall push aside another, none shall let another fall,
March beside me, oh my people, all for one and one for all.

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NYCLC director: Peter Schlosser; pianist: Edward Kortis; sound: Ellis Boal, George Mann, Marc Urselli.

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Union affiliations of NYC Labor Chorus members:

American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Local 1000
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
      (AFSCME)
American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
Communication Workers of America (CWA), Local 1180
Council of Supervisors and Administrators (CSA)
District Council 37 (DC37)
DC 37, Social Service Employees Union (SSEU), Local 371
DC 37, Local 375
DC 37, Local 1251
DC 37, Local 1549
District Council 1707
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the US and Canada (IATSE), Local 52
New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA)
National Writers Union (NWU)
Professional Staff Congress (PSC)
Public Employees Federation (PEF)
Retail, Warehouse and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 108/29
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1199
Union of Needle, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE!)
United Auto Workers (UAW), District 65 Retiree Division
United College Employees of Fashion Institute of Technology (UCE of FIT)
United Federation of Teachers (UFT)

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Songs not otherwise attributed were recorded at the annual Great Labor Arts Exchange in 2001, 2003, 2004, or 2005 at the National Labor College/George Meany Center, Silver Spring, Maryland. Engineers: Bob Barnes, Ellis Boal, Charlie Ray Fetty III, Joe Jencks, Ray Korona, George Mann, Dave Sless, Isaac Wilson.

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