The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7575   Message #3622862
Posted By: mark gregory
29-Apr-14 - 03:13 AM
Thread Name: Anti-war songs from WWI
Subject: RE: Anti-war songs from WWI
The Australian coal miner poet Josiah Cocking was strongly opposed to war all his long life

He wrote the following poem in 1910 4 years before WWI so could be described by some as "prematurely anti-war"

The following verses by "Dandelion" were printed in the "International
Socialist Review" of Feb. 12, 1910.

DANDELION BITTERS.
"Fling out the. flag, let it flap & rise
On the breath of the eager air."- FranCis Adams.

We have flung the flag; see ! it flaunts & waves
In the light of the Southern Cross;
'Neath the gaudy rag are a million slaves
'Neath the heel of our Owner's Boss !

For a hundred years we have wiped the sweat
From our faces, in field & mine;
And of blood & tears we shall wipe them yet
If our forces we don't combine.

Shall we tear our foes; & remain content
To be hewers of wood and stone ?
Shall we toil for those till our lives are spent,
Or produce for ourselves alone ?

Shall we listen yet to the cry of "creed"
Or of "color", or "flag", or "race" ?
Shall we bleed and sweat to supply the need
Of the authors of our disgrace?

Shall we cultivate, in these Austral States,
At the Labor mis-leader's calI,
An insensate hatred of "foreign" mates
When together we stand or fall ?

Shall we-shoot or hang ev'ry man that's black,
Or affront every man that's brown
To appease the Gang on our bended back
Who divide us to keep us down ?

Let's respect each man, be he black or tan,
And discard stupid racial pride;
Let's adopt the plan to despise & ban
Only those who are black inside !

Must the workers live in the depths of Hell?
Shall we never attempt to rise ?
Should we want & give to the drones who dwell
On the mountains of Paradise ?

Let us join our hands round the whole wide earth,
And unite with a noble aim--
Let us bravely stand with all men of worth
And this fact to the world proclaim:-

That we mean to fight in our solid might
( Not with bombs, but with active brains ),
For the reign of Right, and for Justice, bright,
And for freedom from wage-slaves chains!

To the drones and kings-- & all useless things-
We shall offer the pick or pen;
And no man will sing "God preserve the king ",
But "God save all our fellow-men."

And we mean to keep what we make & reap
From the Line to the Polar Skies;
And the word shall leap orr the rolling deep
That the World is our Final Prize ! "

Cocking always wrote poetry under a pen-name in this case Dandelion (refers to Daniel De Leon one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World ) As can be seen above his thinking has a deal of IWW philosophy about it.