Phil Ochs was a union troubadour of rare grace & skill. The words 'American folk singer' may strike terror into the hearts of many but to my mind Ochs stands as an exemplar of the maxim oft attributed to Vladimir Mayakovsky: 'Art is not a mirror with which to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it' .
While many of Phil Ochs' works addressed current affairs or historical events they never do so passively with the veneer of supposed objectivity. Instead Ochs applied the principles with which he led his life to proceedings and defiantly makes the case time and again for the values he espoused: pro-worker, pro-union, pro-justice.
What follows is a decidedly arbitrary list of five Phil Ochs songs which We Need to Talk About Bevan regard as prime starting points for those who wish to immerse themselves in the work of one of the finest advocates of the labour movement.
Links on the Chain
A chronicle of North American trade unionism from its inception to the time of its writing which refuses to shy away from addressing the movement's decidedly uneven history regarding representation (in particular Black workers).
In under four and a half minutes Ochs covers: the nascent American union movement, police violence, the role unions played in the defeat of fascism in World War II, the value of direct action, a word of warning around the divide and rule tactics of unscrupulous employers, automation in the workplace, the vital importance of industrial action, and a deliciously vitriolic denunciation of scabs.
And the man who tries to tell you that they'll take your job away
He's the same man who was scabbing hard just the other day
And your union's not a union till he's thrown out of the way
And he's choking on your links
Of the chain, of the chain
And he's choking on your links
Of the chain
Ochs never allows himself to fall into a rose tinted nostalgia. Failings of the movement are highlighted but not solely to admonish rather so that we may learn collectively from our mistakes.
The central power of the piece lies however not in its frankness (though that lends it credibility) but in the way it situates the listener as part of the ongoing labour movement. The audience is left in no doubt that we too are forging Links on the Chain and the piece serves as a reminder that those that come after ourselves and Ochs may well test the soundness of the links that we forge.
For now the times are telling you the times are rolling on
And you're fighting for the same thing, the jobs that will be gone
Now it's only fair to ask you, boys, which side are you on?
As you're building all your links
On the chain, on the chain
As you're building all your links
On the chain
I Ain't Marching Anymore
A paean to pacifism which dispenses with the genre's traditional wistful laments for peace but instead proffers a decidedly militant and confrontational stance. Pacifism as an active rather than a passive action.
Even in a brisk time signature a song which details the military history of the United States of America may seem more suited to Leonard Cohen when it comes to the length of the piece. Ochs takes the perspective of American soldiery from the very inception of the nation through to the USA's standoff with Cuba (which endures at the time of writing). The listener is left to ponder the effect of the drip feed of bloodshed will have on the psyche of a nation as a whole and those that serve in its armed forces in particular.
For I stole California from the Mexican land Fought in the bloody Civil War Yes, I even killed my brothers And so many others But I ain't marching anymore
For I marched to the battles of the German trench In a war that was bound to end all wars Oh, I must have killed a million men And now they want me back again But I ain't marching anymore
Even in a song explicitly addressing militarism and the peace movement Ochs still finds time to level his sights against those in the union movement that have fallen short of the values that Ochs professes. For Ochs recognised the way in which war and industry are often inextricably bound via the military industrial complex.
In so doing he highlights the way legitimate but situationally opposed values (support for reducing militarisation versus job losses at an armaments plant) need to be addressed as one. Only then will we be able to beat swords into ploughshares (or transition military hardware manufacture to green energy jobs and similar).
Now the labor leader's screamin'
When they close the missile plants
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore
Call it peace or call it treason
Call it love or call it reason
But I ain't marching anymore
No, I ain't marching anymore
Love Me, I'm a Liberal
"In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects, ten degrees to the left of centre in good times, ten degrees to the right of centre if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic."
Just a consummate takedown of the vast gulf that exists between the rhetoric of the Liberal and the tangible policies that they will support. In addition to the lyrical barbs that Ochs has fashioned his intonation of the paternal condescension (typical of all too many Liberals) is unerringly accurate.
In a canny move while the references to individuals (Malcolm X, Medgar Evans, [Hubert] Humphrey) and events (e.g. The Korean War) situate the work in a specific timeframe Ochs achieves a timelessness with the sentiment that Liberals will always strike out at the Left when it is expedient for them to do so (& even when it isn't). It also lends the piece ripe for updating with more contemporary figures.
The final verse (if shorn of irony) could well grace the pages of a number of ostensibly left-wing periodicals today with an interchangeable columnist's by-line.
Sure, once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser,
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
Ballad of the Carpenter
As a lifelong Catholic the greatest song about Jesus Christ was performed by a secular Jewish Socialist (& written by Salford-born Ewan MacColl). Glad we got the uncontroversial preamble out of the way - now let's get down to why this is the case.
In the time it would take you to watch Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' you could have listened to Phil Ochs' Ballad of the Carpenter thirty-one times and frankly the latter is a better use of your time. We are given a decidedly workerist depiction of the life of Jesus with shades of the assertion by James Green in Grassroots Socialism that 'God Almighty advanced the first unionism. Jesus Christ was a member of the first idea of unionism, and it had one scab in it.'
He became a wandering journeyman
And he travelled far and wide
And he noticed how wealth and poverty
Live always side by side
Live always side by side
So he said "Come you working men
Farmers and weavers too
If you would only stand as one
This world belongs to you
This world belongs to you"
Ochs achieves a secular Jesus without invalidating or discounting those whose views would accommodate the religious. We are given Jesus as the Proto Worker Priest who stands with the poor and is vilified by the powerful (not least of which being 'the occupying troops' of the Roman army). As is so often the case Ochs ends on a call to action.
Two thousand years have passed and gone Many a hero too But the dream of this poor carpenter Remains in the hands of you Remains in the hands of you
That's What I Want To Hear
We finish with a rousing call to union arms. That's What I Want To Hear serves as an explicit clarion call to organising (a subject which is cruelly underrepresented in the arts addressing the union struggle).
When the idea of solidarity is discussed all too often it is solely through the lens of the mass meeting, the innumerable rally, and the countless of the union. Ochs recognises that the first act in establishing solidarity can (and often must) be done on a one-to-one basis.
So don't explain that you've lost your way
That you've got no place to go
You've got a hand and a voice and you're not alone
Brother that's all you need to know
There is a robustness in Ochs' organising the understanding that the desire to fight is as much a requirement as the ability to do so. Ochs's works are a burnished hammer of a brilliant sheen. Reflecting the world as it is before delivering the blows that he hopes will shape the world to what it should be.
So you tell me that your last good dollar is gone
And you say that your pockets are bare
And you tell me that your clothes are tattered and torn
And nobody seems to care
Now don't tell me your troubles
No, I don't have the time to spare
But if you want to get together and fight
Good buddy that's what I wanna hear
