It’s a legendary song. Now it’s a question that Wisconsinites are asking each other, “Which side are you on?”
But the second question, “How long can this last?”, I don’t hear anymore.
I remember locating temp. space in an office on the square at the start of the protests in Madison. I called WORT-FM and I spoke with a staff person to offer room there and he said, “How long do you think this is going to go on?” He floated the idea that it could be 1 week.
I said, “I think this is going to go on for a long time.”
Now if asked I would say, “This will go on as long as it takes”. But nobody asks that question. I assume because it’s understood that we are in it for the duration.
And “this” has transformed itself from protests at the Capitol building to hundreds of protests around the state of Wisconsin, recalls against 8 Republicans Senators (1 of which has already turned in its required signatures), and a come-from-behind candidate who has won an election she was not wagered to win 6 months ago: Joanne Kloppenburg our newest Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.
Scott Walker is next. Enough votes were cast in yesterday’s usually sleepy spring election to recall our governor. This would be only the 3rd time it will occur in U.S. history.
The vote for Joanne Kloppenburg has been called a referendum against Scott Walker or his first recall. It would’ve been better for Scott Walker’s political career if Kloppenburg won by a healthier margin–making his enemies more at ease.
But with only a 204 vote win, and a likely recount, we are even itchier to get to work and keep asking, “Which side are you on?”.
Social activist, poet, and song-writer Florence Reece wrote “Which side are you on?” Her father was killed in a coal mine when she was 14, and she would later marry a coal miner. A breaking and entering company-hired “thug” terrorized her and her family and lay in wait to attempt to kill her husband. Inspiring this song.
“In 1931, coal miners in Harlan County were on strike. Armed company deputies roamed the countryside, terrorizing the mining communities, looking for union leaders to beat, jail, or kill….Her husband, Sam, was one of the union leaders, and Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men came to her house in search of him when she was alone with her seven children. They ransacked the whole house and then kept watch outside, ready to shoot Sam down if he returned.
One day during this tense period Mrs. Reece tore a sheet from a wall calendar and wrote the words to “Which Side Are You On?” The simple form of the song made it easy to adapt for use in other strikes, and many different versions have circulated.”
Learn more about Florence Reese at LaborNotes
Which Side Are You on? (Florence Reese, 1946)
Come all of you good workers,
Good news to you I’ll tell,
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My daddy was a miner,
And I’m a miner’s son,
And I’ll stick with the union,
Till every battle’s won.
They say in Harlan County,
There are no neutrals there.
You’ll either be a union man,
Or a thug for J.H. Blair.
Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can.
Will you be a lousy scab,
Or will you be a man ?
Don’t scab for the bosses,
Don’t listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven’t got a chance,
Unless we organize.
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