1 When the union's inspiration
Through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
For the Union makes us strong

cho: Solidarity forever, solidarity forever, solidarity forever
For the Union makes us strong

2 Is there ought we hold in common
With the greedy parasite?
Who would lash us into serfdom
And would crush us with his might,
Is there anything left to us
But to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong

3 It is we who ploughed the prairies,
Built the cities where they trade,
Dug the mines and built the workshops,
Endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving,
'Mid the wonders we have made,
But the Union makes us strong

4 All the world that's owned by idle drones
Is ours and ours alone,
We have laid the wide foundations
Built it skyward, stone by stone
It is ours! Not to slave in
But to master and to own
While the union makes us strong

5 They have taken untold millions
That they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
Not a single wheel can turn;
We can break their haughty power,
Gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong

6 In our hands is placed a power,
Greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of atoms,
Magnified a thousandfold;
We can bring to birth a new world,
From the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong

Written January, 1915, by Ralph Chaplin
From a book of songs put out by the AFL-CIO
@union @work
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