Which Side Are You On? UMW Song (1941)

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- This 1941 recording of "Which Side Are You On?" is performed by the Almanac Singers. It was written in 1931 by Florence Reece, the wife of a union organizer for the United Mine Workers(UMW) in Harlan County, Kentucky. In 1931, the miners and the mine owners of that region were locked in a violent struggle (Harlan County War). In an attempt to intimidate the Reece family, Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men (hired by the mining company) illegally entered their family home in search of Florence's husband. Florence and their children were terrorized by the experience.

That night, after the men had gone, Florence wrote the lyrics to "Which Side Are You On?" The melody was adapted from a traditional Baptist hymn, "Lay the Lily Low".
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(Wiki).. Reece supported a second wave of miner strikes circa 1973, as recounted in the documentary Harlan County USA. She and others performed "Which Side Are You On?" a number of times throughout. Reece recorded the song later in life, and it can be heard on the album Coal Mining Women.
Pete Seeger, collecting labor union songs, learned "Which Side Are You On" in 1940. The following year, it was recorded by the Almanac Singers in a version that gained a wide audience.
More recently, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, Rebel Diaz, Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, Tom Morello, and Panopticon each recorded their own interpretations of the song. The song is referred to by Bob Dylan in the song "Desolation Row". It was also the inspiration for the title of Alessandro Portelli's 2011 book on Harlan County's coal mining community.

- Versions by other artists...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which_Side_Are_You_On%3F

[3Hotdogs]

1. Almanac Singers included Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Woody Guthrie

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3. Thanks for noting that, I love Pete Seeger's

version of singing the song. All greats..

[Grins]

2. That link...!!!!

Leads to labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan and his 1991 book. I read that book shortly after it came out
(Yikes! 30 years ago!); witty and frightening at the same time. It’s terrific, I still have it, and now going to read it again.

Sometime later Geoghegan ran for state office in Illinois, or as a US Congressman. He lost. Our loss.