PAGE 28 | August 16, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
ON LABOR DAY
Solidarity — Now, and Forever
one of about 100 IWW members
who went to prison under the Es-
pionage Act of 1917 for oppos-
ing U.S. involvement in World
War One. He was released after
By Don McIntosh
serving four years of a 20-year
This Labor Day — like every sentence, and went right back to
Labor Day the last 20 years — a labor activism.
crowd will gather be-
Chaplin lived in
side a gravestone in
Tacoma for the last
Tacoma to honor the
decade of his life. There
man who wrote the
he worked as an archivist
words to “Solidarity
for the Washington State
Forever.”
Historical Society and
Solidarity Forever
served as editor to the
— sung to the tune of
newspaper of the Pierce
the Battle Hymn of
County Labor Council.
the Republic — is the
He died in 1961 and was
Ralph Chaplin
most famous anthem
buried beside his wife at
of the American labor movement.
Calvary Cemetery in Tacoma.
Ralph Hosea Chaplin wrote it in
The annual graveside obser-
1915 after witnessing the bloody
vance
began in 1999. It started
struggles of striking coal miners
in West Virginia. At the time, with a pledge a local labor leader
Chaplin was a poet, writer and made to a dying member. Phil
cartoonist for the Industrial Work- Lelli, the longtime leader of In-
ers of the World (IWW), a radi- ternational Longshore and Ware-
cal anarchist-influenced union of house Union Local 23, promised
Local 23 member T. A. “Tiny”
miners and loggers.
Where the Battle Hymn says Tronson he wouldn’t let Chap-
“his truth is marching on,” Soli- lin’s place in labor history be for-
darity Forever ends its refrain gotten. That year and every year
with “the Union makes us since, the Pierce County Labor
strong.” Today it’s sung at union Council has sponsored the me-
meetings, rallies, and on picket morial. It features songs, stories,
lines in the United States and and the display of an artifact —
other English-speaking countries. a tin cup Chaplin scratched his
Chaplin was one of the name on when he was in jail on
IWW’s leading lights, and was the Espionage Act charges.
In Tacoma, Ralph Chaplin’s body
may be ‘mouldering in the grave’
but his spirit is marching on.
■ Time: Monday, Sept. 2
■ Place: Calvary Cemetery, 7220 S
Mullen St, Tacoma, Washington
Solidarity Forever
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?
But the union makes us strong.
CHORUS:
Solidarity forever. Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever.
For the union makes us strong!
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.
[Chorus]
In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold,
greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old.
For the union makes us strong.
[Chorus]
— Ralph Chaplin, Jan. 17, 1915