Stand Firm ! (1913)
Stand firm, and stand together,
All ye who work for bread;
Stand firm, and stand together,
For the living and the dead!--
For the welfare of the Present,
And the days that are to be,
For the honor of the heroes
Who have died for you and me.
Stand firm and stand together,
Tempestuous is the weather,
And our Flag is floating free!
Now in the ranks of Labor
Be no dividing creed,
For every man's a neighbor,
And all are One in need.
No cleaving castes or races
Our unity must spoil;
One common Cause embraces
All who for others toil,--
The miner grimed and gritty,
The groom in livery drest,
The spruce clerk of the city,
The stalwart of the West;
The sailor on the water,
The weaver at the loom,
The toiler's pallid daughter
In the sweater's living tomb;
The brown earth's humble tiller,
The wise man teaching truth,
The slow and peaceful miller,
The eager rebel youth;
And the artist and the poet,
Though their hands be soft and white,
For they plough the soul, and sow it
With the golden seed of Right.
Wide are these avocations,
Yet one supreme Cause links
The low with the higher stations--,
The clod with the man who thinks;
The Cause, men live, and die for,
That makes brave hearts elate
With the hope of the days we sigh for,
And the end of the days we hate.
While'er we stand united
No foe shall work us ill,
But evil shall be righted
By our concentred will.
Dark clouds may on us lour
The sun sink down aghast,
But Unity hath power
To quell the thunderblast.
Stand firm, then! stand together,
All ye who toil for bread;
Tempestuous is the weather,
And our Flag flies overhead.
Notes
From the Wagga NSW Newspaper the Worker Thursday 1 May 1913 p. 14.
Interestingly when this song was first published in the Brisbane edition of the Worker in 1906 it bore the title "Solidarity" and each allusion to the Flag was the Red Flag and the nom de plume of its composer was given as The Torch.