Responsibility and Power
One of the finest sets of verses ever written to illustrate the personal responsibility and power of
the workers in regard to achieving their own emancipation, is the following appropriately dedicated
to May Day, by Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an American poet and lecturer:--
Shall you complain who feed the world ?
Who clothe the world ?
Who house the world ?
Shall you complain who are the world ?
Of what the world may do ?
As from this hour
You use your power.
The world must follow you.
The world's life hangs on your right hand.
Your strong right hand.
Your skilled right hand ;
You hold the whole world in your hand.
See to it what you do !
Or death or light,
Or wrong or might,
The world is made by you !
Then rise as you never rose before !
Nor hoped before !
Nor dared before !
And show, as was never shown before,
The power that lies in you !
Stand all as one !
See justice done !
Believe, and Dare, and Do !
Notes
From the South Australian Newspaper The Daily Herald 1 May 1924 p. 2.
American compositions like this often found their way into Australian newspapers, especially at times when the Australian Labour movement was pioneering the right to vote and finding new ways to demand better conditions."
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