Scottish Wobblies?

Subject: Scottish Wobblies?
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 09 Jun 14 - 05:39 PM

I've just re-read Huntingtower by John Buchan (1924), and found the following song fragments in it, supposedly sung by one of the Gorbals Die-Hards, street kids from Glasgow:

Class-conscious we are, and class-conscious we'll be
Till our fit's on the neck of the Boorjoyzee.


The Boorjoy's brays are bonnie,
Too-roo-ra-roo-raloo,
But the Workers o' the Worrld
Wull gar them a' look blue.
Wull gar them a' look blue,
And droon them in the sea,
And – for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'll lay me down and dee.


Proley Tarians, arise!
Wave the Red Flag to the skies,
Heed nae mair the Fat Man's lees,
Stap them doun his throat!
Nocht to loss except our chains -


Two questions. 1) Do any of these ring a bell? or did John Buchan make them up? 2) If he didn't make them up, how did he get to hear them?

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Scottish Wobblies?
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 10 Jun 14 - 10:38 AM

Snooping around online brought me to an news archive site with a page from the Perth (Australia) Daily News, Dec 1917,

"To the tune of 'Annie Laurie,' John
E. Nordquist contributes a song en
titled, 'The Parasites,' from which
we take this stanza: —
If the workers fought together. and the
scarlet flag unfurled:
When in one union grand the working
class shall stand,
The parasites shall vanish, and the
workers rule the land."

Not part of what Buchan cites/quotes, but maybe connected.

I'll keep looking.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81821549