Winchesky’s widely sung Yiddish call to arms, translated.

‘Strife Song’ by Morris Winchevsky from the Daily Worker. Vol. 9 No. 70. March 23, 1932.

(Translated by V. J. Jerome. This poem, by the first Jewish revolutionary writer who died a few days ago in New York, first appeared in “Der Wecker,” London, December 23, 1932 [sic] and has been sung by Jewish revolutionary workers ever since).

Set aflutter the banners the scarlet,
Strike up a march and set columns astir!
Rouse all the tollers, the starvelings half-living.
Say to them: Brothers, see, here we stand—
There—the blood-handed foe.

Here is Freedom, is Light, and is Justice.
There—Oppression and Evil and Darkness.
Brothers, march with us this day!

Let not with weeping the workers’ eyes moisten.
Say to them: Now is no moment for tears.
Let not the voice of this hour sound sorrow,
Now when we go forth to battle the foe,
Battle the blood-handed foe.

We—with a will all men to embrother.
He—with a will to rend us with hate.
Brothers, march with us this day!

Set aflutter the banners the scarlet,
Rouse all the slumbering, those who are weak.
One by one, gather them, all who are scattered.
Ring out the summons: All for the cause
Against the blood-handed foe!

All you oppressed, you insulted, come rally.
Take back the plunder from robbers, enslavers.
Brothers, march with us this day!

Set aflutter the banners the scarlet.
Strike up a march and set columns aswing.
Hold in remembrance our heroes the fallen.
Think of the victims of Pillage and Greed–
Now when we march on the foe!

Fuse the red strength in the pale and the bloodless.
Straighten with courage the bowed and the drooping.
Tell them: March with us this day!

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n070-NY-mar-23-1932-DW-LOC.pdf