I stand here in Lawrence, a town that used to be a city   Filled with union women and men   Now all the mills are gone and the story seems so distant   How such a thing could happen again   A hundred years ago battles raged here   You could get shot down for speaking in the street   They sent in migrants from all across Europe   So we had 26 languages, 52 seats      (Chorus)   The fight was long and bloody   But at times it seemed that we had won   Now when I look to the horizon I still see a new dawn   But the battle has just begun      And our watchword was for men and women of all nations   To struggle together as one   So that all around the globe, wherever they may toil   A union worker could see the rising sun   Long before the mills closed down this was the center of the storm   The beacon for the way things could be   The eight-hour day, worker's compensation   Health care and social security      (Chorus)      Now some would say our enemies   Are the hungry children in the mills of Mexico   But I say if the robber barons can move their business away   Then that is where the union needs to go   'Cause here the mills have come and gone   And what once appeared to be foundations, turned out to be a rug   Pulled out from underneath us   Like someone turning on the lights, then pulling out the plug      Because there was a time we organized   Workers from every corner of the earth, throughout this entire nation   At that time many said it couldn't be done   But we rose to meet the situation   And now some will say it can't be done   For the labor movement to be a global fight   And those are the people who have forgotten   That the workers of the world must unite      (Chorus)