Little Red Songbook

The Little Red Songbook

Since the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the IWW, songs have played a big part in spreading the message of the One Big Union. The songs are preserved in the Little Red Songbook.

The Little Red Songbook was first published by a committee of Spokane, Washington locals in 1909, (It was originally called Songs of the Workers, on the Road, in the Jungles, and in the Shops—Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent.) It includes songs written by Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, T-Bone Slim, and others. The early editions contain many of the labor songs that are still famous, such as "The Red Flag," "The Internationale," and "Solidarity Forever." Thirty-six editions were published between 1909 and 1995.

A new edition commemorating the centennial of the IWW's founding in 1905 was published by the Philadelphia IWW in 2005. The 190 different songs included in the Little Red Songbook between 1909 and 1973 are collected and annotated in The Big Red Songbook, published in 2007.

Bibliography

• IWW Songs - to Fan the Flames of Discontent: A Reprint of the Nineteenth Edition (1923) of the Famous Little Red Song Book. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 2003. ISBN 0-88286-189-1
• Songs of the Workers to Fan the Flames of Discontent: The Little Red Songbook. Limited Centenary Concert Edition. Philadelphia: Industrial Workers of the World, June 2005.
• Archie Green, David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont, and Salvatore Salerno, eds., The Big Red Songbook. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 2007. ISBN 0-88286-277-4

External links

• Text of the songbook and downloadable PDF version from website of the IWW in the British Isles
• Text of the songbook
• Archie Green interviewed on National Public Radio about The Big Red Songbook

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