Labor's Endless Chain

At meetings of miners forms of action were proposed,

And thirty-one of the fittest miners they chose

For a sit-in strike deep within Kemira mine

And those thirty-one started moving down the line.

At four in the morning Mister Pratt from B.H.P.

Sacked them and told them that very soon they'd see

Where the strength lay for he was turing off the power.

"Do what you will," they said, “You won't see miners cower."

All through October the workers callied round,

Steelworkers and wharfies and many unemployed

Who knew how it felt to find their jobs destroyed.

At the Wollongong showground a meeting was arranged

And here righteous anger began turning into rage.

A motion was passed that to Parliament they'd go,

So for every threatened worker they could strike a blow.

At the end of the month on trains and busses hired,

They headed for Canberra their fuels of anger fired.

As they passed working suburbs cheering spoke of mass support

Which showed that working folk might be sold but can't be bought.

As they massed in the capitol their forces were aligned,

Newcastle and Sydney and Canberra came behind.

Then to Parliament House irresistibly they marched

Their bellies filled with fire and their hearts for justice parched.

As they marched on King's Hall they felt their spirits rise;

Anger at betrayal honest folk can not disguise.

The barricade fell just like words used to deceive

And the crowd at King’s Hall soon started chanting "Heave!"

The door soon burst open and Parliament was breached

And finally our pompous politicians had been reached.

Fraser agreed to meet them and Hawke and Hayden came,

The oppression of the working folk can never be the same.

After sixteen days in a world that knew no sun,

The Tribunal tumed on B.H.P. and concessions had“been won.

Not enough to save their jobs but enough to show the world

That a new fighting banner for the worker was unfurled.

So wherever you work, in factory, shop or mine;

In ships, on wharves or in jobs of any kind,

Remember the Thirty-one, think on their sacrifice

And when it comes to be your tum remember their advice.

B.H.P.: Broken Hill Mining Party Ltd.

Take the sack: be fired,

Fraser was the liberal prime minister at the time; Hawke was the leader of the Australian

Council Trade Unions; Hayden was the leader of the Labour party.

Labor's Endless Chain

First appearence, 36th adition.

We go to work to get the cash to buy the food to get the strength

To go to work to get the cash to buy the food to get the strength to...

Collected from the Rebel Song Book, Rand School, NY, 1935. i7