Singing Solidarity and Struggle

This project is about the social life of workers’ choirs in political work and activism, in the past and in the present. It is international in scope, though has tended to coalesce around points of proximity and access.

It was sparked by a Victorian Trade Union Choir performance and singalong at May Day 2022, in Naarm (Melbourne).

What is a workers’ choir?

The workers’ (sometimes known as labour or union) choir is an ensemble defined neither by specific musical genres nor by the perceived musical abilities of its members. It rarely conducts auditions; people are invited to participate regardless of whether they have ever taken formal music lessons.

Unlike nearly all other music embedded in global systems of capital and exchange, the workers’ choir appears to resist its own commodification, focused instead on building community and solidarity.

What is this project about?

Singing Solidarity and Struggle asks what the social formation of the workers’ choir can teach us about what music can do politically (and perhaps, also, what it cannot).

I have presented preliminary findings at the Public Lecture on Popular Music at the University of Copenhagen (November, 2024) and at the 47th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia (December, 2024).

Do you have experience with, or knowledge about, a workers’/labour/union choir?

Are you or someone you know currently in a workers’ choir, or have been active in such a choir in the past?

Do you have access to resources or archival material on a current or past local workers’ choir?

Are you inspired to start a workers’ choir?

If so, I would love to hear from you. Please get in touch.

I am looking to speak to current and past members of workers’ choirs anywhere in the world. If I can be physically present, I would like to attend your rehearsals or performances as well.

I am on the lookout for archival material as well as any other sources on the topic, for example:

music scores; lyrics; photographs; video recordings; audio recordings; personal accounts; concert programs; periodicals; records of committee meetings; newspaper clippings.