Hi Joe,

I just read a novel for teen-agers by Deborah Hopkinson, called "Hear My Sorrow; the diary of Angela Denoto, a Shirtwaist Worker" which is about the 1909 strike and the Triangle Fire.

It has the lyrics to a song called THE UPRISING OF THE TWENTY THOUSAND, and says it was a union song dedicated to the Waistmakers of 1909. I would like to develop a story about the strike for my Labor History storytelling, and sing the song as part of it, so I am looking for the tune as well as the lyrics.

The ILGWU is now HERE-UNITE, after a few amalgamations with other unions. I think I'll contact them and see if they have the tune to the song. Anyway, here are the lyrics as they appear in the book.

In the black of the winter of nineteen nine,
When we froze and bled on the picket line,
We showed the world that women could fight
And we rose and won with women's might.

Chorus:
Hail the waistmakers of nineteen nine,
Making their stand on the picket line,
Breaking the power of those who reign,
Pointing the way, smashing the chain.

And we gave new courage to the men
Who carried on in nineteen ten
And shoulder to shoulder we'll win through,
Led by the I.L.G.W.U.