From the April 1909 issue of the Socialist Standard
A SONG OF REVOLUTION
Words & Music by H. J. Neumann
You toilers of the world, arise!
To bravely speed the day,
When all your forces organise
King Capital to slay,
And from the master class you'll wrest
The Powers of the State,
Which, wielded in your interest,
Your class emancipate.
There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose."
Your lot in life is darkest gloom;
You sow and others reap.
And want and mis'ry are your doom,
While idlers treasures heap.
Why have they riches, you distress,
Though you all wealth have wrought?
It is because the few possess
The earth, while you have nought.
There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose."
While you an idle class maintain
For pittances you'll toil.
To own your products you must gain
Possession of the soil
And of all means the workers need
To found the Commonwealth,
And thus enable all to lead
Full lives of peace and health.
There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose."
Arise! the message to proclaim,
The message full of cheer:
That Labour's freedom is your aim,
That brighter days are near.
To men exhausted by the fray,
To women in despair,
To children wanting food and play,
To all the message bear
There sounds above the class war din
The battle-cry we use:
Unite! you have a world to win,
Your chains alone to lose."
Copies of the above four-part song S., A., T., B. (which will be sung by a choral party at the Annual Social on April the 9th, complete with pianoforte accompaniment and Tonic-Solfa setting may be obtained, price 3d., or post free 3½d., through the branches or from the Head Office.
1 comment:
From Robert Barltrop's 'The Monument':
"One other publication of the time failed to find success. At the Executive Committee one night Hans Neumann stood on the table in his tail-coat and sang the revolutionary song he had composed: The World for the Workers. It was advertized in the Socialist Standard as a 'four-part song—S, A, T, B—complete with pianoforte accompaniment and Tonic-Solfa setting'. Underlying its performance was the hope that it might oust The Red Flag and The Internationale, but it did not catch on even in the Party itself. Not many people wrote for copies, and it died in a year or two despite the renderings by the Paddington Branch Choir at meetings and social gatherings . . . " (page 32)
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