Unwork at a Job until Fired –
Then get a New Job to Unwork at²
Workers – be like the Flowers: Bloom
In the Strength of your Unknown Power³
Capital Never could have Existed without
Labor – hence Labor is greatly Superior to Capital⁴
Workers have but to Fold their Arms and the World
Will Stop – they’re More Powerful with their Hands
In their Pockets than all the Property of Capitalists⁵
The real Fruit of their Battles lie not in immediate
Results but in an Expanding Union of Workers⁶
Direct Action: the Workers shall tell the Boss
When and Where he shall Work, how Long,
For what Wages and under what Conditions⁷
We shall never cease to Demand more until
We have received the Results of our Labor⁸
They have taken Untold Millions that they
Never toiled to Earn but without our Brain
And Muscle not a single wheel can Turn⁹
They Fear their Slaves will Exercise the
Same Brutality to gain their Freedom as
Owners use to Maintain their Profits¹⁰
¹ Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
² Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
³ Langston Hughes, Chant for May Day
⁴ Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union 1861
⁵ Joseph Ettor, To Lawrence Strikers January 13, 1912
⁶ Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
⁷ I.W.W. Pamphlet, quoted in A People’s History of the United States
⁸ Samuel Gompers, Eight Hours and Nothing Less
⁹ Pete Seeger, Solidarity Forever
¹⁰ Paul LeBlanc, A Brief History of the U.S. Working Class