The People's Flag Is Palest Pink - History

History

The lyrics of the song were written by Irishman Jim Connell in 1889. There are six stanzas, each followed by the chorus. It is normally sung to the tune of "Lauriger Horatius", better known as the German carol "O Tannenbaum", though Connell had wanted it sung to the tune of a pro-Jacobite Robert Burns anthem, "The White Cockade". The lyrics of the first verse and the chorus, which are the most well-known parts of the song, are as follows:

The people's flag is deepest red,

It shrouded oft our martyr'd dead

And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,

Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high,

Within its shade we'll live and die,

Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,

We'll keep the red flag flying here.

"The Red Flag" resonated with the early radical workers’ movement in the United States, and it appeared as the first song in the first edition of the Little Red Songbook of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1909. Only five of the six stanzas were printed, omitting the fourth stanza that begins, "It well recalls the triumphs past."

"The Red Flag" has been the British Labour Party's official anthem from its founding; its annual party conference closes with the song. "The Red Flag" was first sung in the House of Commons on Aug. 1, 1945, when Parliament convened after Labour’s defeat of Winston Churchill’s Conservatives. It was sung again in Parliament in February 2006 to mark the centenary of the Labour Party’s founding. During the Tony Blair years the leadership sought to downplay its role.