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.
Refrain:
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.
Is there aught 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.
Refrain.
It is we who plowed 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
midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.
Refrain.
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.
Refrain.
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.
Refrain.
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.
