Words and Music of "The Red Flag" Socialist anthem, Written by James O'Connell, 1899 (in: IWW Songbook)

MP3 of Song: http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/music/audio/connell/redflag.mp3

















Lyrics: The Red Flag
(James O'Connell, 1899)

The worker's flag is
deepest red
It shrouded oft our martyred dead;
And ere their limbs grew stiff and
cold
Their life-blood dyed its every fold.

cho: Then raise the scarlet standard
high!
Beneath its folds we'll live and die.
Though cowards flinch and traitors
sneer
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look 'round, the Frenchman loves its
blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are
sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

It waved above our infant might
When
all ahead seemed dark as night.
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We will not change its
color now.

It suits today the meek and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and
place,
To cringe beneath the rich man's frown,
And haul that sacred emblem
down.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come
dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

from the IWW
songbook.