Music Monday: 10 Songs for Labor Day

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In honor of road-tripping MoJo intern Tim Murphy’s stop in Woody Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma, we’ve loaded up a player with five of Woody’s most labor-oriented songs and matched them with another five commie pinko classics, including Gene Autry’s version of “The Death of Mother Jones.” As you enjoy the end of summer this fine Monday check out Josh Harkinson’s dispatch from coal country, West Virginia, where the memory of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones lives on despite Massey Coal CEO Don Blankenship’s rampant villainy. Click the video thumbnails to listen to each song and don’t forget to ask yourself the necessary question: What Would Woody Do?

 

  • Woody Guthrie – Pastures of Plenty
  • Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – John Henry
  • Woody Guthrie – Union Burying Ground
  • Woody Guthrie – Blowing Down that Road Feelin’ Bad
  • Woody Guthrie – Jesus Christ
  • Mississippi John Hurt- Spike Driver Blues
  • Quilapayun – El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido
  • Gene Autry – The Death of Mother Jones
  • Pete Seeger – Which Side Are You On?
  • Merle Haggard – Working Man’s Blues

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

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