WHERE THE FRASER RIVER FLOW
(Joe Hill/Tune: Where the Shannon River Flows)

Fellow workers pay attention to what I'm going to mention
For it is the fixed intention of the workers of the world
And I hope you will be ready, true-hearted, brave and steady
To gather 'round the standard where the red flag is unfurled

Now the gunny-sack contractors, they’ve all proved dirty actors
And they're not our benefactors, as everybody knows
And why their mothers reared them or why God ever spared them
Is a question we can’t answer, we the workers of the world

Where the Fraser river flows, each fellow worker knows,
They have bullied and oppressed us, but still our union grows
And we're going to find a way, boys, for shorter hours and better pay, boys
And we're going to win the day, boys, where the river Fraser flows

This Joe Hill song was popular with the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World). The above version was collected by John Meredith from the singing of Gladys Scrivener of Erskineville NSW. Meredith published it in ‘Folk Songs of Australia’ with the title ‘Workers of the World’. Alan Musgrove recorded it on his ‘The Bagman’s Gazette’ album and added a chorus using the chorus of ‘River Shannon’ as a model:

Where the dear old Fraser’s flowin’, the workers of the world
Are fighting for the moment when the red flag is unfurled
Though the bosses try to cheat us and cruelly mistreat us
They never will defeat us where the Fraser River flows

Joe Hill’s original lyrics as published in the IWW’s 1912 edition of ‘Little Red Songbook’:

Fellow workers pay attention to what I'm going to mention,
For it is the fixed intention of the Workers of the World.
And I hope you'll all be ready, true-hearted, brave and steady,
To gather 'round our standard when the red flag is unfurled.

Chorus:
Where the Fraser river flows, each fellow worker knows,
They have bullied and oppressed us, but still our union grows.
And we're going to find a way, boys, for shorter hours and better pay, boys
And we're going to win the day, boys, where the river Fraser flows.

For these gunny-sack contractors have all been dirty actors,
And they're not our benefactors, each fellow worker knows.
So we've got to stick together in fine or dirty weather,
And we will show no white feather, where the Fraser river flows.

Now the boss the law is stretching, bulls and pimps he's fetching,
And they are a fine collection, as Jesus only knows.
But why their mothers reared them, and why the devil spared them,
Are questions we can't answer, where the Fraser River flows.

Joe Hill wrote the song to aid construction workers laying track for the Canadian Railroad Company in British Columbia who were striking because of low pay, unsanitary living conditions, bad food and hazardous working conditions.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.