Billy Bragg & Johnny Marr & Kirsty MacColl
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Bragg’s song about protest and the right to unionize developed from the popular Civil War tune about the Union, “Battle Cry of Freedom.”
[Verse 1]
There's power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a union
[Verse 2]
Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood
Mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir
[Chorus]
The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, the workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far-off lands
There is power in a union
[Verse 3]
Now I long for the morning that they realize
Brutality and unjust laws cannot defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organize
When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?
[Chorus]
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a union
[Instrumental Break]
[Chorus]
The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters, together we will stand
There is power in a union
There Is Power in a Union was written by George Frederick Root & Billy Bragg.
There Is Power in a Union was produced by Kenny Jones & John Porter.