Interview With Union Thugs

… here’s a brand new interview with Union Thugs, taken from Industrial Worker

DPM: What should readers know about you and your band? Who are you? When/Where are you performing and what are the best ways to keep up with your recordings and performances?

Union Thugs: The band started out in 2017 following discussions around forming a union band with Montréal General Membership Branch members. Almost all six of us had experience with previous bands but it never been nothing close to a career—with the Union Thugs we always considered ourselves to be workers first and foremost, who just happen to play music on the side. So yeah, we pretty much all take part in the Montréal punk scene in one way or another, since the early 2000s.

But with the Union Thugs project, we wanted to bring back the old tradition of a syndicalist music act that would speak to laborers everywhere. We kinda grew tired of singing revolutionary punk songs to an already convinced revolutionary punk crowd. We wanted to bring what we had to say about the system and how it can be changed a step further. It’s Joe Hill who said: “A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over.” And we think that does make a lot of sense!

So after almost seven years and close to 200 shows either in bars, squats, demos or picket lines all across Quebec and Ontario provinces, we’re actually about to embark on our first ever European tour that’s going to take place from the 17th of August until the 11th of September. Éric Sédition, our singer and main booker, has prepared 21 dates for us that will lead us from Germany to France with a few nights in the Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy and more importantly will connect us with the members and organizers of the German IWW (GLAMROC), the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) and the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) amongst other things!

For the longest time we’ve been touring around the provinces of Quebec and Ontario which (don’t get us wrong here!) we really enjoyed doing all those years. Just in the last few months this gave us the opportunity to play with bands such as Brigada Flores Magon, les Ramoneurs de Menhirs and the Dreadnoughts, but the time has come to visit the old countries and meet with workers from around the world!

The best way to stay up to date with our whereabouts would be to subscribe to our Facebook or Instagram accounts. In the U.S. all our music is available through PM Press and although there’s nothing like a real show, you can also catch us on all the major streaming  platforms and if you feel like supporting us, we also have a Patreon page; that way you can help us replace broken strings and put gas in the car!

DPM: Who are the people in your community making it happen? Who/What inspires you?

UT: Well the most inspiring thing for us is all these workers that resist and fight back against the abuse of the bosses. We’ve taken up a habit of stopping by to visit striking workers, chatting with them, playing a few songs. It’s always a very rich moment of exchange and we learn a lot.

Another thing that’s inspiring would be the movement for housing rights in Montréal right now. People are organizing against their landlords raising their rent and evicting them in a lot of traditionally working-class neighborhoods. People are fed up with being displaced and it shows.

One such fight was brilliantly led by the tenants of the Mont-Carmel retirement home who fought against an eviction notice to 200 tenants in 2023. There is also the resurgence in the fight for paid internships for students which is mostly led by women in care-centered programs.

And how can we forget about our very own Union, the Montréal branch of the IWW, which survived the pandemic and in addition to a few organizing campaigns always going on under the radar, just recently dumped a pick-up truck full of manure on the steps of Quebec’s Employers Council and is currently fighting a 20K wage theft campaign against a café owner. That list is obviously not everything that’s going on this year, that is just from the top of our heads!

Sebcom in Mâcon, France.
Sebcom in Mâcon, France.

DPM: A recent split release, including your contributions “J’avance” and a Woody Guthrie cover, “All You Fascists,” is a collaboration with Brooklyn-based Out of System (OOST). What inspired your contributions to the release and what kinds of solidarity and creative exchange are happening between Brooklyn and Montréal?

UT: Since the beginning of the band, we’ve mostly been doing covers of old union folk songs with a pinch of punk-rock or classic punk tunes that we folked on the way. This split recording was the first to feature an original song alongside a Woody Guthrie classic we’ve been performing since day one.

OOST and the Union Thugs had shared the stage a few times before this collaboration and Wawa (our now ex-drummer) and Derek (our current drummer) were friends with them before joining the band. OOST were also an obvious choice for us because of our shared views on politics and the duo is just great and really fun to be around!

Brooklyn and Montréal also have their share of similarities such as a strong working-class history in the heart of big city as well as rampant gentrification problems. It just really made sense for us to be featured on the same release as them.

Because of our cultural love for folk music and our political affiliation with the IWW, we have always felt very close with the American working class, but due to the particularly authoritarian nature of the U.S. border and some problem with the justice on our side, we haven’t succeeded yet in crossing the border, but we feel that this collaboration with OOST and PM Press, who helped us with the release, strengthen that link even if physically meeting is still pretty hard.

DPM: How are art and music related to worker struggle in your experience?

UT: Workers have a longstanding tradition of sharing their struggles and daily lives through art and music. For us, our shows are all about saying ‘’You are not alone to live like this! Others who are in your situation succeed in changing things and if you look around you just right now, you will realize that everyone wants to change things. You can do it too!’’

Music specifically is a great and accessible way to reach people and to open discussions about what actions can be taken to improve our living conditions. It can also be a means to support workers’ struggle.

For example, a picket line can be pretty boring if nothing is going on. They are usually held on roads where there is not much visibility; hours are long; it’s often really hot or really freezing. In that case, having a band visit can be really invigorating for the workers on those picket lines. In our experience, it really felt like people were happy to have this little change of pace in the day. It also felt like we were able to communicate our solidarity to them and that it was appreciated.

On the picket line of the Windsor Salt Mine Workers in Southern Ontario.
On the picket line of the Windsor Salt Mine Workers in Southern Ontario.

DPM: From your first release in 2018, Union Thugs’ songs have been consistently worker-centered and multilingual. In your wildest fantasy, how are your recordings being used?

UT: Being invited to play when workers are on strike and being able to go on a 21-date European tour is already beyond our wildest dream, but if we dare to dream even further, it would also be neat someday to play in demonstrations outside of Montréal and Quebec and (why not?) become the soundtrack of some revolutionary worker-led movement! But hey, if we can just happen to be in someone’s playlist at work and spark the idea of organizing their workplace, that would make the whole trip completely worth it!

DPM: How do you balance art, family, and work?

UT: That’s pretty chaotic! From the start, as any organizer will tell you, keeping six persons on a tight schedule for an extended period of time is a challenge in itself. It’s a shame that there are only 24 hours in a day because we are pretty hyperactive both as a band and as individuals!

We usually play at least 20 shows a year, sometimes over 30. Some of us are pretty active in the IWW, others run a label, an underground venue and some have other bands. At work we are all in fairly different industries. In the band we’ve got a building painter who does seasonal work in the cinema industry, a high school teacher, a day laborer, a harm reduction worker, a journalist and bartender and to add to that puzzle our singer,  Eric, just had his first child a few months back. But we always kind of make it work!

However, playing music, dreaming of a working class revolution, meeting with workers who are fighting the good fight and helping the labor movement to grow are things that we wouldn’t exchange for nothing in the world.  For the last 10 to 20 years, we all have been actively militant against the Capitalist system and, to be honest, we wouldn’t even know what else to do.

Solidarity,

Fellow workers Noel, Sansan & Stakh for the Union Thugs


Union Thugs – Folklore Ouvrier

“the people are on the march and must have songs to sing” (Pete Seeger)

… absolutely overjoyed to have Union Thugs added to the “left wing mob” that comprises the Rebel Time Records line-up / family …

Based in Montreal, and made up of members of punk/oi bands like Action Sedition, Riot Porn and Mayday, this six-piece combo plays amped-up, accordian-fueled revolutionary folk-oi. As they put it, they’re here to “rock folk songs and folk rock songs in order to present a revival of classic popular and working class songs, with an original flavour.”

Union Thugs concentrate on covers of working class anthems and the album is a musical journey through the pages of the revolutionary songbook. You get fighting songs / songs of solidarity and struggle, by the likes of Anne Feeney, Jaques Brunet, Leonard Cohen, The Almanac Singers (with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie) and Molodoi.

Band members are active in organizations like the I.W.W. (International Workers of the World), COBP (Committee Opposed to Police Brutality) and RASH (Red And Anarchist Skinheads). and they’ve played countless benefit shows for anti-fascist, anti-colonial, community organizing and student movement causes. More often than not, you’ll find the band on the picket lines and the front lines, firing up the workers!

Folklore Ouvrier / Worker’s Folklore is an exercise in international solidarity and mutual aid, with the album being released via Discos Machete (Mexico), Dure Realite (Quebec), Fire and Flames Music (Germany), Kale Borroka Records (Basque Country), Rudy’s Back (France) and Rebel Time Records (Canada).

Comes with a big zine too!!

Of this release, the band says:

“A second release for the Thugs! This time, 6 songs including War on the Workers, Les piqueteuses de la gloire, Partisan, Union Maid, La complainte des ouvriers and The Preamble of SITT-IWW with banjo accompaniment.

This worker’s folklore album is part of our continued effort to develop a revolutionary working culture. Though modern popular songs have been omitted from our selection this time in favour of certain classics like Union Maid and Partisan, you will still find yourself in this mix of folk and punk-rock ready to wake up the striker in you!

This short album we dedicate to strikers and those locked out, grassroots activists, militants and delegates, professional shit-disturbers, and to everyone for whom taking it laying down has never been an option! ”

 

Of their mission, the band says:

“Hello Everybody! We are the Union Thugs, A Labor Folk band based in Montreal. Let’s get this out of the way, we are not musicians, but workers that play music. We travel far and wide looking for people like us, who are part of the working class and are pissed off!

Pissed off to always see the same fat cats getting all the wealth while our conditions stall or get set back. Pissed off to witness condos upon condos being constructed in the city while people still sleep in the streets. Pissed off to see that when we rise up, we’re getting stomped on by back to work legislation, the police and their batons.

Friends we come to you with a message. We are fed up and we want change! We don’t think that this change will come from ballots. Ignoring the problem and participating obediently and quietly will do us any good.

We think it’s through organizing our workplaces, our neighborhoods to take back control. To produce by the community for the community, without bosses to steal the fruits of our labor.

For this to work, we have to stop being afraid of differences, namely : religion, sexual orientation, skin color, gender, native language, among others. No, we have to realise the truth! The true enemies are the bosses that exploit our labor, landlords that harvest our rents every month, bankers that put us in debt and shareholders that throw workers out on the streets by voting to close a plant at the last board of directors meeting, It’s also politicians that introduce themselves as heroes of the people, but once they are in office they’ll cater to capital’s needs.

It’s high time we trust ourselves and we clean this mess up, It’s time for the revolution! If we organize properly, we’ll just have to cross our arms so every single person stops working to see that old world crumble like a sand castle, we’ll clean up the rubble after.”

The Punk Site had this to say about the new release:

“Montreal’s Union Thugs are a six-piece combo that are on a musical journey through the pages of the revolutionary songbook, one that on their latest release includes Anne Feeney, Jaques Brunet, Leonard Cohen, The Almanac Singers and Molodoi, that is delivered in seven songs of accordion fuelled revolutionary folk punk and oi. Union Thugs are active in organizations like the I. W.W., C.O.P.B and R.A.S.H and, more often than not, you’ll find them on the picket lines and the front lines firing up the workers. Union Thugs have now issued their second release, and their debut EP, “Folklore Ouvrier”“, via an international coalition of like minded labels scattered across North America and Europe. The “Folklore Ouvrier” EP is delivered in both French and English, whilst I only possess a tenuous grasp of the French language the message from Union Thugs comes through loud and clear, from the opening chords of ‘Intro‘ to the final notes of ‘Preamble To The I.W.W. Constitution’, a track that lays out a revolutionary manifesto.

Whilst there is a distinctly vintage feel about this EP, mainly because all but one of the songs on “Folklore Ouvrier” is an interpretation of vintage protest songs, there’s an appeal for this EP for any fan of blue collar pro-union rabble rousing punk rock from Dropkick Murphys through to Mischief Brew and Gogol Bordello, with my personal highlight being their interpretation of Anne Feeney'[s 1969 protest song ‘War On The Worker‘. This is an EP that isn’t just words, Union Thugs clearly back up their soundtrack with action and the final verse in ‘Preamble To The IWW Constitution‘ is a sentiment that is echoed within the seven tracks of “Folklore Ouvrier“. “It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organised, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old”.

“Folklore Ouvrier” is now available for streaming and as a ‘name your price’ download via Discos Machete (Mexico), Dure Realite (Quebec), Fire And Flames Music (Germany), Kale Borroka Records (Basque Country), Rudy’s Back (France), Rebel Time Records (Canada) and Union Thugs‘ Bandcamp.”

And Spring Magazine also weighed in, at length, on the album:

“Union Thugs are a Montreal-based six-piece that play a mixture of folk and oi in the spirit of working class and revolutionary anthems. Their latest release, Folklore ouvrier (Worker’s Folklore), presents six of these anthems with a companion zine which details the history and meaning behind the songs and their importance. You can find info on Union Thugs on their Facebook, Bandcamp, and Instagram.

“This short album we dedicate to strikers and those locked out, grassroots activists, militants and delegates, professional shit-disturbers, and to everyone for whom taking it laying down has never been an option!” Folklore ouvrier is Union Thugs’ second release and first EP. The band makes it clear in their introductory track, “[W]e are not musicians, but workers that play music.”

The band sees their music as a tool for organization and the mobilization of political action. All members are active members of groups such as I.W.W. (International Workers of the World), COBP (Committee Opposed to Police Brutality), and RASH (Red And Anarchist Skinheads). To further this message, the EP is delivered with a companion zine, as well as info about anti-fascist movements today and calls to action. The tracks cover work from Anne Feeney, Woody Guthrie, and more. Union Thugs are leading the way in showing that music can not only be a tool for change, but one of revolutionary change and working class solidarity.

I was immediately blown away by the passion and energy that covers this EP from start to finish. Ouvrier is simply drenched in working class power and anti-capitalist spirit. While I wasn’t familiar with all of the songs presented, each one was performed with an infectious energy, and the bilingual zine helped give insight and context into those written for specific struggles.

Music to action
I think it is sadly too common for bands, and certainly punk bands, to make leftist platitudes of political and social change without backing it up with action. The band is active with anti-fascist and pro-worker activities and heavily promote the struggles they are involved in, and those around the world. It’s clear that Union Thugs see the need for cultural expression that represents the ideas of the proletarian, and not the ruling class. By creating art that is not just for, but by and relating to workers, we are able to actually share and communicate radical ideas while also creating platforms for organization.

As mentioned before, the album’s opener, “Intro,” is probably the most pump-in inducing song I’ve ever heard. Like a youth crew singer getting ready for gang vocals, you can’t help but start pacing around the room and throwing your fists out. It also gives the band a chance to lay the cards out on the table: they’re here, ready for a fight, and ready to unite. “We are fed up and we want change! We don’t think that this change will come from ballots. Ignoring the problem and participating obediently and quietly will not do us any good. We think it’s through organizing our workplaces, our neighbourhoods to take back control. To produce by the community for the community, without bosses to steal the fruits of our labor.” They then turn to the need for international and intersectional solidarity and really get listeners engaged to not only hear what they have to present on the album, but take action afterwards.

The rest of the album is a great lesson in historical struggles, with the zine filling in the gaps and relating their relevance today. Part of what makes this album so great is learning the history of these powerful anthems and getting them stuck in your head for days. “War on the Workers,” is an earworm that gets any picket line shimmying. The track, by activist and composer Anne Feeney, is dedicated to Jim Beals and Karen Silkwood. Beals was killed on the job and Silkwood died trying to expose toxic working conditions. Today, workers are being forced to bear the brunt of the Covid-19 crisis, dealing with increasingly unsafe workplaces and being stripped of their pandemic pay, often in minimum wage positions.

Union Maid
Another highlight is their version of “Union Maid.” While the first few tracks on the album place the musical emphasis on the group’s oi sound, “Union Maid,” goes deeper into the folk side of their repertoire. The zine gives the background to the song, something I was unfamiliar with. In 1940, The Almanac Singers (of which Guthrie was a member) were touring with Bob and Ina Wood, who ran a political bookstore in Oklahoma city where Bob was the secretary of the state’s communist party and Ina was an organizer. The group was performing a series of concerts in solidarity with striking hooverville workers. Ina spent time with Guthrie, criticizing him for putting communist women on the periphery of his songs. He took the message to heart, writing and performing the song while on the same tour.

Folklore ouvrier is working class music for the working class movement. It’s inspiring, catchy, radical, and most importantly, good. By delving deep into the revolutionary songbook and providing context for today, Union Thugs are providing a solid memory of class struggle while also proposing organization and solidarity for those fighting for change in the present. If you’re looking for some punk and folk that asks more of the listener than to simply agree with the lyrics, but one that provides you with the next steps, then Folklore ouvrier is the perfect release.”

Union Thugs – Revolutionary Folk & Oi From Montreal

Here at Rebel Time Records, we’re big fans of Union Thugs … revolutionary oi and folk out of Montreal … former members of great bands like Action Sedition and Mayday.  Honored to have had them play a number of our shows over the last few years.

They’re a band that has played countless benefit shows for anti-fascist, anti-colonial, union, student movement, community organizing and other righteous causes. They are involved with the Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW). Some members are also involved in the record label Dure Realitie (a self managed and militant Montreal association that wishes to promote a revolutionary culture through artistic outlets).

In 2018, the band released a fantastic 4-song demo:

Now, in 2020, we are stoked to be one of the labels (along with Discos Machete, Dure Realitie and Fire And Flames) helping to put out their upcoming release “Folklore Ouvrier.”

Here’s the song “Les Piqueteuses De La Gloire,” one of the tracks that will be on “Foklore Ourvier”:

And, here’s the first video for the song “Partisan” …

The band says: “composed for the first time in 1943 in the heart of the 2nd World War, the song was re-popularized by Leonard Cohen during the 90s. We are taking it up here in homage to antifascists from all over the world.

Freedom will come soon and we will emerge from the shadows … ”

Oh the wind, the wind is blowing; Through the graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come; Then we’ll come from the shadows

Les Allemands étaient chez moi; Ils me dirent “Résigne-toi” Mais je n’ai pas peur; Et j’ai repris mon arme

Personne ne m’a demandé; D’où je viens et où je vais Vous qui le savez; Effacez mon passage

J’ai changé cent fois de nom; J’ai perdu femme et enfants Et je tourne en rond; Dans la prison des frontières

Un vieil homme dans un grenier; Pour la nuit nous a cachés Les Allemands l’ont pris; Il est mort sans surprise

Hier encore, nous étions trois; Il ne reste plus que moi Mais j’ai tant d’amis; Et j’ai ma classe entière

Oh the wind, the wind is blowing; Through the graves the wind is blowing Freedom soon will come; Then we’ll come from the shadows

From their bio:

“Considering themselves first and foremost as workers and then as musicians, the Thugs are six syndicalists who moonlight as a six-piece revolutionary folk band. Union Thugs has a specific goal: to rock folk songs and folk rock songs in order to present a revival of classic popular and working class songs with an original flavour.

​ Averaging thirty concerts a year, the Thugs go where the fight calls them. The Thugs have been known to play concert venues, general assemblies, bar scenes, outdoor festivals, picket lines, you name it! With a set packed by covers of the likes of Woody Guthrie, Utah Phillips, Vilain Penguin, Corrigan Fest, Angelic Upstarts, Molodoi, Brigada Flores Magon and many others, the Thugs deliver an inspiring message of syndicalist revival that puts the emphasis on a boundless Solidarity. Through music, they continue to carry this message further, louder, and stronger.

For a union for all workers,
For industrial democracy and the 4 hour workday,
Abolish the wage system,
Down with a society based on class division,
For a fucking good Rock n’ Folk show!
SOLIDARITY!”

Here’s an excellent min-documentary about the band … :