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Borderlines - Valerie DePriest & Gayle Gingrich

from When We Stand Together by Magpie

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about

We first heard this song in 1984 when we met sisters Valerie DePriest and Gayle Gingrich at a Peoples Music Network conference in Philadelphia. They sang it in a round robin on the topic of Labor. At the time big manufacturing corporations were busting unions by moving their factories to other countries where workers had not organized, thereby cutting wages and maximizing profits, at the same time pitting one country’s workforce against another’s. When we heard the song we told the sisters if there ever was a song that belonged in the Little Red Songbook it was “Borderlines.” Eleven years later the song was published in the 1995 36th edition.

lyrics

I’m hearing how business is tough in America
And they say the union’s out of hand
But I read in the news today about the latest threat to my pay And there's one thing I must understand
For they're telling us that they cannot afford our wage
As they turn their greedy eyes on distant shores

As patrols guard the borderlines
And I'm standing in a picket line
In Corporate boardroom plans are formed To move my plant to Ecuador
Where for fifty cents a day
A worker slaves her life away
And then they tell me she's my enemy

At first I did not have the time
To trouble myself with the words
And it all seemed so very far away
But now I'm in a worried mood
'Cause hands need work and kids need food
And I just got laid off today
And they're telling us that it is just good business As foreign sweat swells profit like disease

As patrols guard the borderlines
And I'm standing in an unemployment line While in the Philippines
A mind grows numb from sewin' seams
In Guatemalan hills of cash
A coffee picker's skull is smashed
And then they tell me he's my enemy

Now I am finally putting it all together Borderlines won't score my loyalty They don't care who is the drone Hands of yellow, black or brown Profit is their only deity
As corporate hands of power reach around the world They'll strangle any weak neck they can find

From the diamond mines in Africa
To the fields of El Salvador
From the sweat shops down in Mexico To Bangladesh where the women sew

Sweat is sweat and blood is blood
And one day soon the time must come We'll stand and face our common enemy

credits

from When We Stand Together, released July 23, 2022
words and music by Valerie DePriest and Gayle Gingrich

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James Connolly Upstate NY IWW Albany, New York

The James Connolly Upstate NY IWW branch is a union for all workers based in NY. Musicians and other workers wishing to organize can find us here upstatenyiww.wordpress.com/contact/

Our benefit album is out May 31st. Support our organizing workers! ... more

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