“Wage Workers, Come Join the Union” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Wage Workers, Come Join the Union” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Anonymous.
Tune: “John Brown’s Body.”
We have seen the reaper toiling in the heat of summer sun;
We have seen his children needy when the harvesting is done;
We have seen a mighty army dying, helpless, one by one
While their flag went marching on.
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union:
Industrial Workers of the World.
O, the army of the wretched, how they swarm the city street;
We have seen them in the midnight where the Goths and Vandals meet;
We have shuddered in the darkness at the noises of their feet,
But their cause went marching on.
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union:
Industrial Workers of the World.
Our slavers’ marts are empty; human flesh no more is sold
Where the dealer’s fatal hammer wakes the clink of leaping gold.
But the slavers of the present more relentless power hold
Though the world goes marching on.
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union:
Industrial Workers of the World.
But no longer shall the children bend above the whizzing wheel;
We will free the weary women from their bondage under steel;
In the mines and in the forests, worn and helpless folk shall feel
That their cause is marching on.
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union:
Industrial Workers of the World.
Then lift your eyes, ye toilers, in the desert hot and drear;
Catch the cool winds from the mountains; hark, the river’s voice is near;
Soon, we’ll rest beside the fountain and the dreamland will be here
As we go marching on.
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union!
Wage workers, come join the union:
Industrial Workers of the World.