Talk:Red fly the banners o

Latest comment: 11 years ago by Selimap in topic Main article is dubious!

These are the words I am familiar with The lyrics have been removed from this article.


[Chorus 1]

I’ll sing you one oh

Red fly the banners oh

What is your one oh?

One is workers’ unity

And ever more shall be so

[Chorus 2] I’ll sing you two oh

Red fly the banners oh

What is your two oh?

Two, two the worker’s hands

Working for a living oh

One is workers’ unity

And so on adding one each time: Three, three, the rights of man

Four for the four great teachers [Marx Engel Lenin Trotsky]

Five for years of the socialist plan

Six for the Tolpuddle Martyrs

Seven for the hours of the working day

Eight for the eighth route army

Nine for the days of the general strike

Ten for the days that shook the world

Eleven for the Moscow Dynamos

Twelve for the Moscow Dynamo Reserves

The first is fairly straightforward. Workers' unity is the priority for socialists.

The three rights of man are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (alternatively bread, land and peace)

Some would put Stalin in place of Trotsky in this. Also they would put "Four for the years it took them." to refer to the five year plan.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were imprisoned for organising a trade union.

The campaign for the seven hour working day radicalised workers in the nineteenth century.

The eighth route army was the Chinese Red Army

The general strike lasted for nine days. The government could not defeat it. The workers' own leaders however could.

"Ten Days that shook the world" is an account of the Russian Revolution by John Reid Terryteacher (talk) 07:55, 28 December 2007 (UTC)Reply

Main article is dubious! edit

Both the 'Stalinist' and 'Trotskyist' versions shown contain lyrics like '7 for the days of the 5 day week' which make no sense to me.

And clearly no one would sing "Seven for the stars on the Connolly's flag,"

I know a couple of versions of the song, and the one in the previous talk section is close to what I recall.

I could edit main page but I don't want to offend the author - the versions quoted may be as he heard or recalled them.

Correcting recorded oral tradition just seems wrong!

Selimap (talk) 19:10, 11 January 2013 (UTC)Reply