The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #80023   Message #1455966
Posted By: Dave'sWife
09-Apr-05 - 02:01 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Solidarity Forever
Subject: RE: Origins: Composer: solidarity Forever
Here are some links to Folk Songs about The Polish Union, Solidarity found on the PBS webiste:

Polish Lyrics


English Lyrics



Here are the titles of the songs and the limited comments on those songs:

"Old Man" from Gdan'sk
The tune is traditional. The text is about the negotiations. "Pyk, pyk" means "puff, puff," as when smoking a pipe, and the name of the chief negotiator was Pyka.

Our Demands (Zsdania)
There was enormous increase in poem-writing during the strike. This is one of those poems.

A Ballad from a Shipyard
. (it's to the tune of The Times They Are a Changin')

Postulate 22
The striking workers made a list of 21 demands to the government. This is the 22nd demand, and the very prerequisite of the others. This poem became somewhat of a signature of the trade movement. It was set to several different melodies.

The Song of the Free Trade Unions
An old Polish folk-song with a new text. There are many parallels to the old American trade union songs


All these songs can be found here:
"Solidarity! Postulat 22 - Songs from the New Polish Labour Movement," Smithsonian Folkways Records, F-37251. Produced by Jörgen Widsell and Lars Holmberg in cooperation with the trade union Solidarnosc in Gdansk, 1981.