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Source:SOLIDARITY NEWSPAPER SYDNEY April 1918 SITE SOURCE: Labour History Will We WakeI've been thinking, fellow members,Of our brothers in the past, We fought to build the Union up, To make it mighty strong, And check the hungry wool kings, Who had kept us down too long. In those days we had no wage boards, No legal gents to fee In fixing of a living wage, Which leaves the bosses free, Left him face to rob and plunder, As they're doing here today, With their mighty rings and combines, And none to say them nay. It seems that our politicians, Like the workers, have been doped, For they stand like loony cattle, Or sheep newly-roped, They stand tamely by and silent, While the wealthy and the sleek, Work their capitalistic dodges, On the helpless and the weak. It was not for this we battled, In the rough of days of yore, When fighting down the Lachlan, In the strife of ninety-four, We fought to build a party up, To get us a square deal, (We have the party, sure enough, But what about the deal?) And yet perchance, when all's summed up, The workers are not to blame, For the workers are like cattle now, Like cattle very tame. Old 'Militancy' has fled, And even the hopes that prod them on Seem very nearly dead. Arbitration's gag has done its work, The dope has washed all round, Until today to fight a wrong, There's no one to be found, Our Union 'heads' are like the rest, Their thoughts on place and pay, While all the while the fat man bloke Is gaily making hay. My vote is for a forward move, Onward, let us be borne, And lift us from our present state, Of sheep all nicely shorn, A forward push we badly need, Too long we've been asleep, To long we've stood the big fat man Old Fatty, sly and sleek.
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