Left Archive: Songs of the Workers – A Socialist Party Publication, Socialist Party of ireland, 1975 August 12, 2013
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Left Online Document Archive, Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI).trackback
To download the above document please click on the following link:SPI SONGS GO
This pamphlet was published the SPI in 1975. As noted in the Introduction:
The songs reproduced in this book show various aspects of the continuing struggle between the working class and the capitalists, whether employers or landlords. The SP believes that the international nature of the workers’ struggle needs particular emphasis in Ireland today, where so many organisations exist, who would again lead us into the blind alley of nationalism.
And it continues:
The fight for socialism, for human rights and decent standards is international. As James Connolly said – “the workers of all countries are my fellow patriots, the capitalist of my own country is my natural enemy”.
And concludes:
Music and songs have an important part to play in the battle for socialism. They are invaluable in building confidence and strengthening class solidarity as well as in combating the attitudes of the exploiters.
Many of the songs are accompanied by brief explanations as to their historical and political provenance and the selection is wide.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
How true of James Connolly when he wrote all those years ago –
” No revolutionary movement is complete without its poetical expression. If such a movement has caught hold of the imagination of the masses, they will seek a vent in song for the aspirations, the fears and hopes, the loves and hatreds engendered by the struggle. Until the movement is marked by the joyous, defiant, singing of revolutionary songs, it lacks one of the distinctive marks of a popular revolutionary movement ; it is a dogma of a few, and not the faith of the multitude.”
James Connolly Introducing, “Songs of Freedom” N.Y. 1907
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