In a letter to every president, congressman, career politician
Scrawled in spite across the envelope
With all of our conviction
It only took a few hours for his peers
To find him guilty in a trial too fair
A wobblie, immigrant worker has no place amongst the living
"My body if I could choose to ashes it reduce."
Murdered by the capitalist
1915 be careful of what you wish
Who is wrong and who is righteous?
What was stolen from us we will replace
Off with the head on the body we feast
Who is wrong and who is righteous
Will never be our own decision
He yelled fire to the squad with guns, they stopped his heart from beating
Every word he wrote, he spoke, he sung, we are still singing:
"My body if I could choose to ashes it reduce
And let the breezes blow to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flower then would come to life and bloom again"
If the workers take a notion
They can stop all speeding trains
Every ship upon the oceans
They can tie with mighty chains
Every wheel in the creation
Every mine and every mill
Fleets and armies of all nations
Will at our command stand still