Almost one year ago, on Dec.30th, 1945, some 25 singers and songwriters met in New York to set up a national organization which would “create, promote, and distribute songs of labor and the American people”. We had no capital, no angels, nothing but confidence that our idea was a good one, and enthusiasm to put it into action.
SOURCE People’s Songs 1, no. 10 (November 1946), 2.
I just got back from a 6000 mile trip, visiting People’s Songs members in other corners of the land, and I tell you I feel very optimistic and confident that we will keep growing for a long time to come.
We’ve now got over 1700 members in 38 states (and 5 foreign countries). Members in other states have organized their own songwriting and performers groups. Los Angeles has a weekly “songbag” in a local paper. Union papers print a “song of the month” sent out on mats from New York. Singing filmstrips have been produced, and the first Union records in years have started rolling out of the pressing plants. The country’s best library of People’s Songs has been built up in NY … over 15,000 folksongs and labor songs, most of them unavailable in any public library. Thousands of citizens have heard these songs for the first time in the many Hootenannies and concerts run by People’s Songs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, and other cities.
Well, I think we have a right to be mighty proud of what we have accomplished, considering that we started off with nothing at all. But we have some big jobs to do, because there’s a rocky road ahead.
1) We’ve got to get better songs printed in this bulletin. We want to hear from you—all of you, as to your ideas, criticism, and experiences. Only then will this bulletin be the tremendously exciting document that it can be.
2) We’ve got to spread our songs far and wide. This job cannot be done by a National Office alone. Every member must help see that these songs get to be heard in bars as well as Union Halls, in Churches as well as Concert Halls, on street corners as well as in parlors. We cannot wait for MGM and NBC to make “Listen, Mister Bilbo” known in every corner of the land, can we? We’ve got this job to do ourselves.
Peter Seeger