Yeh, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread

Have bled for your countries and counted your dead

In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines

We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed



We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die

The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out



For the worker is working when the fat cat's about


And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth

Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?




All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun

We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can