September 25, 2024 — As part of a resolution passed by the Convention body in 2022, the popular union anthem “Solidarity Forever” is sung at the end of each Convention by the delegates. The song has a long and storied history and is deeply rooted in the movement for workers’ rights and, in some ways, civil rights.
The song’s writer, Ralph Hosea Chaplin, was born in 1887. At age seven, he attended the Pullman Strike in 1894 which saw 30 workers killed and 57 wounded as part of the demonstration. Chaplin witnessed the violence, which shaped his ideas of worker solidarity from a young age.
Chaplin worked with Mother Jones to help organize and lead a strike of coal miners in West Virgina between 1912 and 1913, another bloody event that would lead him to eventually write the ‘Solidarity Forever’ anthem—but first as a poem. While the song was written between 1913 and 1914, it was not completed until 1915.
The song is sung to the tune of “John Brown’s Body” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” both which celebrate and call to action anti-slavery activists and have roots in civil rights, abolitionism, and support of the Union during the American Civil War.
It was later sung by Pete Seeger, who in the 1960s began to emerge as a singer of protest music and a supporter of civil rights, environmental rights and workers’ rights.
Despite its popularity and adoption by unions throughout its many years, Chaplin did not like that the song gained popularity during his lifetime.
“I didn’t write ‘Solidarity Forever’ for ambitious politicians or for job-hungry labor fakirs seeking a ride on the gravy train,” said Chaplin in an article.
Over the years, verses have been added to ‘Solidary Forever’ to reflect various issues, including women’s rights. As a result, several versions of the song exist. It has also been translated into several languages, including French, Spanish, Polish and German.