[You Gotta Go Down And Join The Union Put It On The Ground Union Maid We Shall Not Be Moved Which Side Are You On?]



You gotta go down and join the union

You got to join it by yourself

Ain't nobody here can join it for you

You gotta go down and join the union by yourself



[Spoken:]

Working in the factories would kill a dog

Working on the belt line killed your soul

Working in the limestone and cement quarries withered your lungs

Working in the cotton mills shot your legs and feet all to hell

And working in the steel mills burned up your spirit

like a gnat that lit in the melting pot

But out of this whole mixing bowl of hell and high water

The working folk have marched against Billy clubs,

against machine guns

And they sang their way through the whole dirty mess



Now, the bank men have got their union, and the

landlords got their union

And the finance men got their union

But down south and out west

On the cotton farms and working in the orchards and fruit crops

It's a jail house offense for a few, common everyday workers

To form them a union and get together for higher wages

Honest pay and fair treatment.

[Woody Guthrie, 1941]



You gotta go down and join the union

You got to join it by yourself

Ain't nobody here can join it for you

You gotta go down and join the union by yourself



If you want a raise in pay all you have to do

Is go and ask the boss for it and he will give it to you

He will give it to you, my boys, he will give it to you

A raise in pay without delay; He will give it to you



Oh, put it on the ground, spread it all around

Dig it with a hoe and it will make your flowers grow



Oh, the men who own the industries they own no bon