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19 August 1909: Little Red Song Book published
On this day, 19 August 1909, the first edition of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World union’s Little Red Songbook was published in the US. Spreading faster than many radical texts, these songs were sung by thousands on picket lines across the country in the coming years, including perhaps the most famous, 'Solidarity Forever', written by Ralph Chaplin during a miners' strike in West Virginia in 1912. It also included numerous songs by Joe Hill, the Swedish immigrant IWW activist who was executed by the state of Utah in 1915.
We have made available this book in our online store compiling loads of IWW songs. Proceeds help fund our work: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/the-big-red-songbook-250-iww-songs
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