JP Covers “Which Side Are You On?” and Dedicates a Song to Bill Moyer and Bill McKibben

By: Mike Elk August 4, 2016

This episode of the Folk Labor Desk is a special episode made while JP laid over at his away-from-home terminal in Nashville, TN. It features poetry about contemporary life on the railroad from a fellow locomotive engineer, Cary Depew, as well as the classic union song “Which Side Are You On?” written by Florence Reece. It also includes an original song, “You Ain’t Gonna Ride This Train,” to frame a commentary about the bust economy affecting workers and communities in the Appalachian coal-producing regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. A native of Pittsburgh, Elk grew up in a UE union family. Elk was the only American reporter in the room with Lula on the morning of the election & traveled with him to the Oval Office. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and attended journalism school at PUC-Rio de Janeiro. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburgh fluently. His email is [email protected]

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