(sigh)
Hey, you know what ELSE is cool? Bardcore!
Oh, and also Steeleye Span!
Also Weird Al polka versions of current hits!
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Yes, Stan Rogers wanted a shanty he could sing the lead on rather than just the chorus, so he wrote one.
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The union songs that get recorded can be remembered for more than the cause. They are lyrical and you remember the tune, and they aren’t simplistic.
Wobbly songs weren’t recorded, but much later people felt a need to record them, Utah Phillips doing a lot. “Bread and Roses” was a poem derived from the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike (a Wobbly strike), much later turned into a song. Woody ‘s “Deportee” was just lyrics until Martin Hoffman (yes, Judy Collins’, “Song for Martin”, “I first heard Woody’s songs from him…”). Even “Joe Hill” started as a poem.
Union Maid and Rebel Girl are songs in their own right.
Too often when Phil Ochs is pulled out, it’s because of his politics. But he wrote songs, and they are worth pulling out because they are good songs (not just “good politics”). He’d change style to fit the lyrics. And some of his best songs were not political, though it’s still there. “Pleasures of the Harbor” could be seen as akin to Eric Andersen’s “Thirsty Boots”. And “Flower Lady” feels like an early spring night in New York City, except it includes “soldiers, disillusioned, come home from the war, sarcastic students tell them not to fight no more”.
Joe Hill’s legacy is his songs, it’s hard to tell his effectiveness as an organizer. But the songs were organising, and that happened because of his musical ability.
Political art is more than hitting people on the head with signs.
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At least many of us here understand their power and impact, especially to friends, family, and fellow workers, regardless. People have died in defense of community and worker’s rights, and deserve the recognition. Future workers may also die for community and worker’s rights, and they deserve both the respect and lessons these songs impart.
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Canadian music is firmly rooted at the intersection of union songs and sea shanties. Some great examples have been posted upthread, but I encourage anyone who likes this stuff to look at the entire catalog of The Irish Descendents, The Real Mackenzies, Great Big Sea, and Spirit of The West. Even The Arrogant Worms and Amanda Marshall to some degree. Like all such music, the line between sea shanty and silly drinking song gets blurry pretty quickly, but that’s part of the fun.
Oh the long winter nights we spent screaming the lyrics of those songs in dive bars after hockey games. 
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one of my favorite union songs:
Note: the intro didn’t age well and is even cringe worthy in light of “mezkins turk arr jerbs” nonsense. skip a bit to the song and remember
“look for the union label”
And the occasional over-refreshed wedding reception. 
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The LoC sent this as part of their weekly update and I thought of this thread:
Since the preview only partially worked:
Before the Golden Age of the American musical theater with shows like Oklahoma! (1943) and Annie Get Your Gun (1946), there was a long-running musical revue with an unusual cast and a rather unassuming title: Pins and Needles . For those unfamiliar with the show, the name might evoke thoughts of an arm or leg “falling asleep” and the associated tingling sensation. But there has been no musical yet devoted entirely to one’s foot falling asleep. Instead, Pins and Needles derives its title from the unconventional circumstances of its creation by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU).
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Dude. We all just went through a shit year and this year is starting out shittier. Maybe let people enjoy sea shanties and union songs in peace. You do you.
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For some reason, I got a “video unavailable” message… 
So here they are on Top of the Pops…
Also, Robeson hanging out with Scottish miners!
And how about Danny Boy just cause…
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It’s hard to find on YouTube (and this is the shorter of the two), but right after 9/11, there were these “buy American” drug ads.
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A couple of my favorites from Dick Gaughan
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No wonder. Billy Bragg is a labour activist who has recorded a lot of protest songs.
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I wish these guys had Youtube clips, but Bandcamp will have to do.
Australia’s best Irish band, Trouble in the Kitchen:
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Thank you for reminding us of the structured, planned, racist violence of the oft-forgotten Peekskill Robeson concert riots, @Wanderfound & Cory @doctorow.
Lest we chalk up this outrageous incident as ancient history without any current relevance: my neighbor Nina (passed away just in the last decade) was there. A young Jewish woman, she lost half a finger when a fleeing bus driver closed the door on her hand. She recounted how she ended up on stage with Pete Seeger at the follow-up event, showcased as a victim of the attacks; her activism continued throughout her life, to the point of, in her 80s, joining a bunch of younger folk on an overnight bus from Northern California to get out the vote for local candidates in Arizona during the Kerry campaign. In her last days, as she was dying at home, our community joined in singing her songs like the ones in this thread.
Although the initial accounts you cite focus on horrific assault on Blacks, at the rescheduled concert, perhaps 80 percent of the audience was Jewish, and clearly they were not spared the force of the mob attacks.
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