There is Power in a Union (and music)

Protest through song has a long and colourful history.  Musicians have use song to inspire people to action, inform the ignorant and to unite the downtrodden and dispossessed.  From Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' to Steve Poltz's 'Hey God, I'll Trade you Donald Trump for Leonard Cohen' music has changed and shaped our society.

Growing up in the eighties punk was just warming up and was ripe for the counterculture movement of the Thatcher years.  This is the music I have grown to love.  Stories about people and their struggles.  The anti-thatcher protest music coming out of the UK was what I thought music was all about - The Smiths, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Billy Bragg.  It is a little ironic (or perhaps not) that my new favourite band is called 'The Dead Maggies' after the Baroness herself.

Music has always been a good friend to the worker and has been used by trade unions to spread their message.  Music is a tool that the voiceless can use to convey their message to thousands and, well, up the worker!  Solidarity Forever!

It was in this spirit that His Grumpiness and I went to the TasUnions May Day dinner and the whole room was filled with like minded people who were passionate about workers rights.  Let me tell you the workers' movement sure knows how to party and boy can they drink.  There were rousing speeches with lots of "Hear, Hear" and calls of "Shame" from the floor.  There were inspirational stories of individuals and groups who had 'stuck it the man'.  Best of all was the uplifting "Solidarity Forever" sing-a-long.

The band of the evening was Single Bar comprising three young folk in white suits and an inflatable banana.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go but it turns out that they are an 80s cover band.  And not the cheesy new romantics but Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", Men at Work's "Overkill"  followed by The Doors, Dire Straits and Run DMC.  Needless to say the room went off.


At the end of the dinner His Grumpiness and I were not yet ready to go home and give up the evenings good vibes so we called in to the casino's Birdcage Bar for one last drink before heading home.  Matt Edmonds was playing a bunch of old drunk person favourites included Cat Stevens, John Cougar Mellencamp, George Michael, Paul Kelly, Bryan Adams, Hunters and Collectors. I knew that things had really gone pear-shaped when I was on the dance floor singing REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight This Feeling" at the top of my voice. But as I shared a questionable sing-a-long with a bunch of strangers in the bar I was once again I was struck by music's ability to bring people together and give the common person power to express ideas and influence the world.  Up the Worker!