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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 22, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Publishes Songs Of Revolution & Blanket Stiffs
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 19, 1909:
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IWW Song Books Now Ready
the Classic Songs of Revolution and the
Songs of the Modern Blanket Stiff
25 Songs in AllAddress:
B. Holmes
Literature Agent IWW
Rear 412-420 Front Ave.Price-10 Cents Each
$5.00 per 100
#2.50 per 50
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Richard Brazier, BRSB p388 from Lbr Hx Winter 1968
https://books.google.com/books?id=QaXECwAAQBAJ
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Aug 19, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v1n23-aug-19-1909-IW.pdf
See also:
Big Red Songbook -250+ IWW Songs!
-ed by Archie Green, David Roediger,
Franklin Rosemont, Salvatore Salerno
-foreword by Tom Morello
-afterword by Utah Phillips
PM Press, Feb 19, 2016
(search: “ad for the first songbook”)
(search: “story of the iww’s little red songbook richard brazier”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=QaXECwAAQBAJ
Page 476:
An ad for the first songbook appeared in the Industrial Worker, August 19, 1909.
[One copy known to exist, can be found in Archie Green Collection at U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.]
The outside front cover indicates:
An Injury to One Is an Injury to All
Labor Is Entitled to All It ProducesSongs of the Industrial Workers of the World
Rear 412-420 Front Avenue, Spokane, Wash.
Listed from 1-24 are the Songs of the First Edition. Note that the ad above states that there are 25 songs in the first edition.
The first song of the first edition of the Little Red Song Book is “The Red Flag” by James Connell, 1889. Of these 24 songs, 15 are by Richard Brazier. Notes and lyrics for each song of the first edition can be found on pages 37-73.
Page 375:
The Story of the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook”
-by Richard Brazier
Reprinted from Labor History, Winter 1968
I first came to Spokane, from the Cobalt section of Northern Ontario, in 1907. Even before arriving there, I had learned of the IWW and its songs from the Ontario miners, who had flocked to the area in and around Cobalt when large-scale deposits of cobalt and silver had been found. The IWW was active in Spokane and my curiosity was aroused, for I remembered the miners’ friendly comments about this organization. So I began to attend its meetings.
What first attracted me to the IWW was its songs and the gusto with which its members sang them. Such singing, I thought, was good propaganda, since it had originally attracted me and many others as well; and also useful, since it held the crowd for Wobbly speakers who followed…..
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First Song of First Edition of IWW’s Little Red Songbook
The Red Flag – Lyrics by James Connell, 1889
(Would love info on artist of painting and also names of singers.)
The people’s flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts’ blood dyed its every fold.
Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.
Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow’s vaults its hymns were sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.
It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.
It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.
It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man’s frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.
With head uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.