After 25 years, the Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus is calling it a day. We’ll be performing three last concerts: an hour of favorite songs, in historical context. If you’re an old member or a long-time follower, please come down for a last chance to sing along. All concerts are free.

This website will be maintained for the foreseeable future to honor the legacy of both the Chorus, and its director, Pat Wynne.

Labor Chorus concerts

The Chorus in 2012 at the Western Women’s Labor Heritage conference (Youtube video screen grab)
Pat Wynne and Chorus members singing in SF c. 2012
The Chorus in concert in 2012, for ILWU Local 34
The Chorus singing at the 2013 Labor Day union picnic, Alameda
2014 concert at CCSF
The 2014 “Great Migration” show
Chorus members jamming in Pat Wynne’s living room, c. 2019
In concert, 2019
Screen grab from the 20th anniversary video
Singing in 2022, SF Unitarian Universalist church
2023 concert poster

Solidarity Forever

It was Pat Wynne’s inspiration
Kept us singing on so long,
As she led us into battles
Where we’d right a thousand wrongs,
And our strength shall last forever
Every time we join in song,
The Labor Chorus makes us strong.

CHORUS: Solidarity Forever (3 x)
For the union makes us strong.

verse by Pat Wynne

When the workforce opened up
And we women were of use,
We were paid half the wage of men
And took twice the abuse,
Alone we didn’t stand a chance,
But we paid our union dues,
Now the union makes us strong.

Classic verses by Ralph Chaplin

When the union’s inspiration
Through the worker’s blood shall run,
There can be no power greater
Anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on earth is weaker
Than the feeble strength of one?
But the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions
That they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle
Not a single wheel can turn;
We can break their haughty power,
Gain our freedom when we learn
That the Union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power,
Greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies
Magnified a thousand fold;
We can bring to birth a new world
From the ashes of the old
For the Union makes us strong.

What is there we hold in common
with the greedy parasite,
who would lash us into serfdom
and would crush us with his might?
Is there any thing left to us
but to organize and fight?
For the Union makes us strong!

All the world that’s owned by idle drones
is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations,
built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in,
but to master and to own.
While the Union makes us strong!

More new verses

It is we that wash the dishes,
scrub the floors and chase the dirt.
Feed the kids and send ’em off to school
and then we go to work.
Where we work for half the wages
for a boss that likes to flirt.
We will make the Union strong!

There are women in the workplace,
They are smart and they are strong.
They work hard for lower wages
and we know that this is wrong!
They’re your mothers and your daughters,
Standing equal by your side
And the Union makes us strong!

Spanish verses

Spanish trans: A. Lira, L. Valdez, F. Cantu

CHORUS: Solidaridad pa’ siempre (x3)
Que viva nuestra union.

En las vinas de la ira
luchan por su libertad.
Todos los trabajadores
quienren ya vivir en paz.
Y por eso companeros
nos tenemos que juntar
con solidarida.

Vamos, vamos campesinos
los derechos a pelear.
Con el corazon en alto
y con fe en la unidad.
Que la fuerza de los pobres,
como las olas en del mar,
la injusticia va a inudar.