Discussions With David is an hour-long interview program that I've been doing live, livestreaming at davidrovics.com/quarantine and on YouTube, Periscope/Twitter, Facebook and VK at 10 am Pacific most days of the week during the pandemic crisis.  Each episode is also archived here on SoundCloud as well as on a playlist on my YouTube channel, and it goes out as an episode of the This Week with David Rovics podcast, which you can subscribe to on all the usual podcasting platforms.

Discussions With David

A collection of audio essays on the general theme of the social engineering of society by "social media," corporate media, and the rest of the power structure.

This playlist begins with the most recent and ends with ruminations I recorded at the beginning of 2021.  Everything here also can be found in written form at davidrovics.com/thisweek and if you look me up on Substack.

Social Engineering

This playlist contains specifically songs about the history of the Industrial Workers of the World in its heyday in the early 20th century, or events directly related, or involving sister organizations such as the Working Class Union ("Oklahoma, 1917"), the One Big Union in Canada ("Winnipeg," "Song for Ginger Goodwin") and the syndicalist movement in Denmark ("Stock Exchange").  In the case of the Easter Rising in Ireland, it was organized by Irish people who in some cases were also prominent leaders of the IWW in the US.

Note that Ballad of A Wobbly is the title track of one of my albums, and the album is not the same as this playlist.  For lots of closely related songs about labor struggles prior to 1905 or after 1921, see other playlists.

If we were to try to assess the overall impact of no-platforming campaigns over the course of the past century, what would we conclude?

The Historic Failure of No-Platforming

A song about an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, myth or reality I don't know.

Live At Club Passim (2000)

Song for Boxcar Betty

Whether the left develops an inclusive orientation towards organizing the working class, or the exclusive orientation of a dystopic cancellation cult, is up to all of us.

The Left: How We Can Build It and How We Can Destroy It

I've heard from so many people asking for my response to this song that I had to listen to it, learn it, make a couple minor edits to it, cover it, and write an essay about it.  Here's the podcast version of it.

Why I Love the Song, "Rich Men North of Richmond" (After Slightly Revising the Lyrics)

If you spend most of your time going down rabbit holes, it's easy to develop tunnel vision.

The Mind-Warping Effects of Rabbit Holes

Ever wake up one morning and realize you've been a pawn in someone else's game, when you thought you were making history instead?

The Social Engineering and Paralysis of the US Left

Millions of people around the world actively opposed World War I, and many were imprisoned and killed for their opposition to it.

From the album, When I'm Elected President
www.davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Lyrics:

Neither King Nor Kaiser

A hundred years ago today the arms race was at an end 
If there was a soul alive who could begin to comprehend
The suffering to follow, the hell that would transpire
When the soldiers were lined up and the men began to fire

A hundred years ago today, all around the world
There were hordes of marching men with flags of empire unfurled
And then there was the opposition who wouldn't stay on bended knee
Who said we'll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country

A hundred years ago today the streets were filled to burst
With millions of people who said they had no thirst
For the blood of other workers who lived across the sea
They said we'll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country

A hundred years ago today referendums were ignored
Democracy was something no empire could afford
Sedition laws were passed and they filled the penitentiaries
We'll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country

A hundred years ago today the executions were at dawn
Bomb blasts filled the air, the battle lines were drawn
The muddy fields were all red, a voice echoed amid the bodies
We'll fight for neither king nor kaiser, neither God nor country

Neither King Nor Kaiser

If you're a card-carrying member of the IWW or just Wobbly-adjacent, this message is for you.  (If you've never heard of the IWW, it's also for you.)

Will the Real Wobbly Please Stand Up full episode

At some point near the beginning of 2015 I realized it was now the year of the 100th anniversary of the execution of songwriter, cartoonist and organizer Joe Hill.  From the album, The Other Side.

lyrics:

Joel Haglund came from Sweden 
Which was very far from Eden 
By the time he left most of his family died 
His sisters and his mother 
His father and his brothers 
So with one remaining sibling at his side 
He got a notion 
To sail across the ocean 
Where he heard the streets were paved with gold 
Not long after his arrival 
As he toiled for survival 
He realized the bill of goods that he'd been sold 

He got a whole lot wiser 
Became an organizer 
And he organized with artistry and skill 
He spoke up, raised his fist 
Got right on the blacklist 
That's why he changed his name to Joe Hill 
He heard that it was best 
If he headed to the west 
Where the Industrial Workers of the World 
Were finding the solutions 
For making revolution 
With red songbook and red flag unfurled 

A hundred years ago the bard 
With the union card 
Proved his music was too powerful, too strong 
They couldn't stand the sound 
They had to take him down 
Lest he organize the working class in song 

Soon as he paid his dues 
He tried hard to light the fuse 
Speaking, singing, writing lyrics and cartoons 
He sent off the whole mess 
To the Wobbly press 
And they sang his songs as they fought the goons 
He joined a singing movement 
That fought for improvement 
By abolishing wage-slavery worldwide 
He sang the Wobbly line 
Beseeching workers to combine 
Learn from Mr Block -- the bosses lied 

Chorus 

His life would be cut short 
By a kangaroo court 
Eager to determine one man's fate 
Evidence was circumstantial 
But that's inconsequential 
When you've become an enemy of the state 
They put him up against the wall 
And that was all 
They gunned him down in 1915 
He took all the bullets he could take 
There by the Salt Lake 
For being the best bard they'd ever seen 

Chorus

Joe Hill

A song for the real Helen Keller -- not the one they sanitized for the school books.  From my album, Live in Houston, which you can stream or download in its entirety at www.davidrovics.bandcamp.com.

Lyrics:

Give to me a moment, I'll tell you of a woman
Who was a heroine of mine
It's half a century since she's gone
But her vision and her light still shines
She was born in 1880 and she spent her life
Speaking out against injustices she saw
Traveling and writing and supporting tactics
Both within and far outside the law

Give to me a moment, I'll tell you of a member
Of the Industrial Workers of the World
Who responded to the critics who said she was a stooge
For waving her red flag unfurled
By saying how could she do otherwise and still call herself a feminist
Or did they believe that women got a pass 
That women were not workers, subject to the bosses
Just like every other member of their class

Give to me a moment, I'll tell you of a comrade
A celebrity, a thinker and a fighter
Her weapons were her words and she used them as an expert
As a touring speaker, as a writer
When workers were on strike she beseeched the public
To come out and support the union's stand
She said there could be no future except in solidarity
Every race, ability and gender hand in hand

Give to me a moment, I'll tell you of a citizen
Who spoke up against Wilson's war
Who said it's best to go to prison than to go kill other people
To settle some imperial score
Without this voice of reason, this servant of the people
The world surely wouldn't be the same
So here's to a fearless warrior who could neither hear nor see
Fellow Worker Helen Keller was her name

Give to me a moment, I'll tell you of a woman
Who was a heroine of mine

Helen Keller, Revisited

The IWW's back was broken by the massive Palmer Raids anti-labor campaign of 1919.  Title track of my 2017 studio album.

Ballad Of A Wobbly

Here's the audio version of the livestreamed broadcast I did this morning on various platforms, at 10 am Pacific Time.  It's me yapping for an hour about songwriting, mostly, and answering related questions from folks who tuned in live on either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Linked In or VK.  If you'd rather watch it, you'll find it archived on all those platforms.

Pandemic Songwriting

My first interview victim on this new Discussions With David series of livestreamed broadcasts I'm doing from my living room is Peter Werbe, founding editor of the Fifth Estate newspaper, and longtime Detroit-area talk show host.

Discussion with Peter Werbe

In this hour I talked with London-based photojournalist, Guy Smallman, about a wide-ranging variety of subjects that Guy has extensive and very current knowledge of, including mutual aid in London, Afghan refugees in Greece, and the corruption of the ruling parties of the UK.

Discussion With Guy Smallman

In this hour with songwriter and author, Robb Johnson, we talk about school, parenting, being quarantined with children, the history of education, tour cancellations, viral pandemics and other exciting subjects.  Robb has a new book out on PM Press titled The People's Republic Of Neverland: The Child versus the State.

Discussion With Robb Johnson

In this hour with Maire McNally -- revolutionary, history buff, and grandmother from Belfast, Ireland -- we talk about life under quarantine, the plight of essential workers, Irish politics currently and historically, the history of civilization, the IRA, the commonality of liberation struggles around the world, and many other things.

Discussion With Maire McNally

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), libertarian socialist, dad, lover of life.