#utah Phillips

[folk-enjoyer]

Song of the day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask, and I'll do a full rundown like here)

"Bread and Roses"

Judy Collins, 1976

since its labor day i thought we could talk about some good ol' IWW labor history

in 1911, Helen Todd gave a speech about women's suffrage and ended it

"Not at once; but woman is the mothering element in the world and her vote will go toward helping forward the time when life's Bread, which is home, shelter and security, and the Roses of life, music, education, nature and books, shall be the heritage of every child that is born in the country, in the government of which she has a voice."

James Oppenheim, inspired by this speech, created the poem "Bread and Roses" in 1911, whose words would later become the lyrics for the judy collins song.

in 1912, 30,000 immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, went on strike due to poor working conditions and poor pay. this strike was led by the International Workers of the World and was comprised mostly of women. the phrase "bread and roses" was all over signs and became the slogan of the strike, with it even being called the "Bread and Roses Strike". like many strikes in the USA it was absolutely brutal for the strikers, and several people died, but they were able to win some of their demands.

in 1970, the James Oppenheim poem was put to music by mimi fariña, and then covered by judy collins. my favorite cover is by Utah Phillips in 1983 , where he explains the history of the textile strike and the meaning of the slogan

Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses 🌹

[suzilight]

“These kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.” - Utah Phillips, American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet

Republicans continue effort to erode US child labor rules despite teen deaths

[nando161mando]

[prole-log]

[theoutcastrogue]

"Joe Hill wrote a song for the Free Speech fight of 1910, and it was introduced on the streets of Spokane by Haywire Mac McClintock. He was a branch secretary [of the IWW] then, he wrote "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Hallelujah, I'm a bum!". He got together a little band: T-Bone Slim, a tuba, a garbage can lid. They stood in a doorway waiting to leap out at the unemployed throng, regale them with song.

They used a shill to build the crowd, you know, a carny shill? Somebody who uses tricks to build a crowd? His name was Tresca, he wore a black suit, a black bowler hat, a string tie with an umbrella and a briefcase. Looked like a banker.

He walked down where they were hiding in the doorway and suddenly he started to yell "Help! Help! Help! I've been robbed! Help! I've been robbed!". Everybody'd run across the street, "what's the matter, what's the matter". Soon as he got the crowd together, he yelled: "I'VE BEEN ROBBED BY THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM, FELLOW-WORKERS!"

He talked to them for ten minutes, and then the boys would leap out and start singing, and this is what they were singing."

Utah Phillips - The Preacher and the Slave ("Pie in the Sky")

Long-haired preachers come out every night To try to tell you what's wrong and what's right But when asked about something to eat They will answer in voices so sweet

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

The Starvation Army they play And they shout and they clap and they pray When they've got all your coins on the drum They will tell you when you're on the bum

You will eat, bye and bye In that glorious land in the sky [Way up high!] Work and pray, live on hay You'll get pie in the sky when you die [THAT'S A LIE!]

Working folks of all countries unite Side by side we for freedom shall fight When this world and its wealth we have gained To the grafters we'll sing this refrain

You will eat, bye and bye When you've learned how to cook and how to fry [How to fry!] Chop some wood, it'll do you good And you'll eat in that sweet bye and bye [THAT'S NO LIE!]

full lyrics, from the 1911 edition of the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, here

[alder-knight]

doing my damnedest to put a pipe bomb through the overton window

[both photos are of me, a brown nonbinary trans person wearing mostly black with a red face mask, from the NYC March to End Fossil Fuels in NYC, 17 Sept 2023. paint + sharpie cardboard sign in first photo reads "EXTINGUISH THE WILDFIRES WITH THE BLOOD OF THE BILLIONAIRES." other side of sign in second photo reads "THE EARTH IS NOT DYING, IT IS BEING KILLED, AND THOSE WHO ARE KILLING IT HAVE NAMES AND ADDRESSES. - UTAH PHILLIPS"]

[goingtolesbos]

I have led a good life full of peace and quiet

Now I shall have an old age full of rum and riot

Yes, I have been a good lad, careful and artistic

Now I shall have an old age coarse and anarchistic

Once I paid my taxes and followed every rule

Banker, boss, and bureaucrat thought me a willing tool

I voted democratic and paid the church its due

Now all those swine will have to find some other chump to screw

Of interest, banks, and credit; insurance, tax, and rent

Of lawyers, agents, generals, and clerics, I repent

With fist for corporations and scorn for those elected

Oh, I shall be an old bum, loved but unrespected

[saresmusings]

The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.

- Utah Phillips

[paintingsandrecords]

a white-nosed coati; ink and watercolor

last ten day’s listening:

joni mitchell - mingus

the messthetics and james brandon lewis - the messthetics and james brandon lewis

jon snodgrass - barge at will

wesley willis - greatest hits vol ii

the curse - teenage meat (1977-78)

verse - from anger and rage

utah phillips - el capitan

war on women - live from magpie cafe

john linnell - state songs

void - condensed flesh

the vipers skiffle group - skiffle music

q and not u - no kill no beep beep

[teledyn]

'I Will Not Obey' - Utah on Anarchism

[kornwulf]

So I've been seeing a lot of anti-Salvation Army rhetoric on this website as of late (for good reason) and I felt this might be appreciated by tumblr.

Around the turn of the last century, Joe Hill, who was an extremely prolific songwriter and poet affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, wrote a song called "The Preacher and the Slave". It was a parody of one of the hymns favored by the Salvation Army of the period, "In the Sweet By-and-By", The Salvation Army having positioned themselves against the IWW during the labor organization of the early 20th century.

Here's a 1981 live rendition of the song by labor organizer and musician Utah Phillips

[gertruderobinsonscat]

I didn't know what exhausted me emotionally until that moment, and I realized that the experience of being a soldier, with unlimited license for excess, excessive violence, excessive sex, was a blueprint for self-destruction. Because then I began to wake up to the idea that manhood, as passed onto me by my father, my scoutmaster, my gym instructor, my army sergeant, that vision of manhood was a blueprint for self-destruction and a lie, and that was a burden that I was no longer able to carry. It was too difficult for me to be that hard. I said, "OK, Ammon, I will try that." He said, "You came into the world armed to the teeth. With an arsenal of weapons, weapons of privilege, economic privilege, sexual privilege, racial privilege. You want to be a pacifist, you're not just going to have to give up guns, knives, clubs, hard, angry words, you are going to have lay down the weapons of privilege and go into the world completely disarmed.

[nando161mando]

[auxryn]

I was listening to The Dollop history podcast about PG&E. I kept thinking about this quote:

“The Earth is not dying-it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses.”

— Utah Phillips

Actually, I think about that quote a lot. I think the lesson is that you can't rely on police or government to protect you when people with money, power, or authority come after you. We need to protect ourselves, and each other.

[helena-bottom-farter]

[no-one-left-but-us]