UNISONActive is an unofficial blog produced by UNISON activists for UNISON activists. Bringing news, briefings and events from a progressive left perspective.

Saturday 2 March 2013

The Oath Of Eureka by Bartlett Adamson

The workers of Kembla, those leaders of men,
Those leaders in deed as in thought,
They challenged the might of the pound and the yen,
And there at the "Dalfram" they fought
The cause of the Chinese distraught,
And still marching onward,
With gaze lifted sunward,
The call of Eureka is caught.
Democracy thrills to that message of yore.
The vow of Eureka has echoed once more.

The workers awaken. They rally and rise.
The workers have taken the lead.
With light of Eureka aflame in their eyes,
United in word and in deed,
They fight the conscriptionist creed.
No despot shall darken
Our wide land, for hearken!
These men of the Southern Cross breed,
They raise the bright flag that all true men adore. -
They march in the light of Eureka once more.

Eureka the Flag! By that symbol they swear
Unswerving to stand to the fight.
And sworn to the faith of Eureka, they dare
To march in their militant might,
To battle for freedom and right,
To vanquish each traitor,
Each Fascist dictator,
Each monster of death and of night.
The workers now march like those freemen of yore.
They take the firm oath of Eureka once more.

The workers have trampled the counsels of gloom,
Of cowardly leaders that quake.
This register card is a ticket of doom.
Then spurn it and burn it and break
Each move that the tyrannies make.
The workers have risen,
And heedless of prison,
And bidding democracy wake,
They march man to man with those great men of yore.
They swear the great vow of Eureka once more.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/adamson-george-ernest-bartlett-9309