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).

The following choirs feature in the research so far:

• Victorian Trade Union Choir (Australia)

• Sydney Trade Union Choir (Australia)

• Solidarity Choir, Sydney (Australia)

• Winnipeg Labour Choir (Canada)

• Solidarity Notes Choir, Vancouver (Canada)

• Winnipeg Nurses’ Choir (Canada)

• North-End Jewish Folk Choir, Winnipeg (Canada)

Is this published anywhere?

Publications are in preparation. In the mean time, I have presented findings at:

• University of Copenhagen (invited public lecture)

• 47th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia (invited keynote)

• International Association for the Study of Popular Music (Australia/Aotearoa New Zealand branch)

• Canadian University Music Society conference, University of Manitoba

• Society for Socialist Studies conference, L’Université de Saint-Boniface

• Historical Materialism Barcelona

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.