Today marks the 90th anniversary of Wobbly Poet Ralph Chaplin's penning of "Solidarity Forever." (I am indebted to Erin Scharff for reminding me of this.) In honor of this august anniversary, i reproduce the song's lyrics, sans assorted feminist, farmworker, Local 34, and GESO verses which have been appended to it in the course of the last nine decades, in their entirety.

When the unions’ inspiration through the workers blood shall run

There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun

Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one

But the union makes us strong



Chorus

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

Solidarity forever

For the union makes us strong



Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite

Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might

Is there anything left to us but to organise and fight?

For the union makes us strong.



It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;

Dug the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid;

Now we stand outcast and starving, 'midst the wonders we have made;

But the union makes us strong.

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.

We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone

It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own

While the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn

But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel could turn

We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn

That the union makes us strong



In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold

Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand fold

We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old

For the union makes us strong