Paul Robeson sings for the workers at Sydney Opera House

[@alanhughes1262]

My dad was in the crowd , he was a steel fixer working on that site he always use to talk about old man river song .my dads name was Robert hughes.sadly missed as he passed on a few years back.

[@ttbr7687]

Your dad helped build this country, he deserves that recognition. Socialists will always represent the interests of workers, to secure the lives they deserve. Nothing is too good for the working class.

[@sforbesgocka]

rest in power.

[@qkranarchist3015]

Peace to you and your good father's spirit.

[@sternpenny7725]

rest in power

[@isladurrant2015]

A giant of a person... inside and outside. The world was blessed by his existence and he lives on in my heart.

[@menufrog]

My Grandfather invited Paul Robeson to the family home at La Perouse during his time over here, which he accepted. By all accounts, he was a wonderful man

[@elena16350]

Dully Noted lovely story, your dad was honoured by Paul Robeson presence .

[@elizabethtout7163]

Wonderful. Was your grandfather a member of the local indigenous families -Timbers, Longbottoms, Lesters etc?

[@elizabethtout7163]

Timberys. Damn autocorrect.

[@moominpic]

How wonderful.

[@itsprivate4360]

What a voice, what articulation grace and power… a rare honour to have and be in such company!

[@catherinemcguire8967]

This should be projected on the Opera House....the history of those that built it!

[@Nickleby2]

There is a clip of paul Robeson being interviewed in Australia during this trip. It was very enlightening. it is now being incorporated into the Australian school curriculum to teach children about the struggle of oppressed people for freedom and equality.

[@annimerethenilsen8888]

What a voice,no music,no backup!!!

[@cloudiaelder3215]

My Grandfather David is standing on Paul Robeson's right. He's wearing the white hat smoking. Such a beautiful video for me to see!

[@curiousted]

Best bass voice I've ever heard. Period.

[@spencerturner6375]

I worked on the Opera house site in 1971 when I was on the run from conscription. I heard that Robeson sang at the site back then from other builders labourers.

[@davidfowler9865]

what a site meeting,you can smell the workers beer and feel the solidarty.

[@homeemail7021]

A heroic figure and a great talent.

[@johnlock9579]

A giant man with a voice and soul to match.

[@suzannedixon8277]

Thank you so much for posting this. I can never see it often enough. This great man - a great artist, thinker, activist - died on this day, apparently, in 1976. Like Joe Hill, he lives on.

[@annimerethenilsen8888]

He was my idol in my youth,i will never forget him!!

[@hyderhode]

But thank you so much for this! He would have been a great man even without the voice. But oh! the voice!

[@alanpattinson6211]

So true

[@tremorsfan]

I once saw a documentary about Paul Robeson that said he changed the lyrics to Ol' Man River for this performance. However, I later learned he actually changed the lyrics in 1938.

[@paultighe8787]

What a legend

[@TheMurraymason]

Magical.

[@alanpattinson6211]

This was when working class people of all colours had a affinity towards each other, that is of course outside the USA. The system suceeded in the divide and rule policy and now we have greater extremes of wealth than even the Victorian times.

[@MrKonradsen]

Great man, great voice

[@poodah2013]

My Hero.

[@cosmicmusicreynolds3266]

paul Robeson, a great singer, human rights campaigner and hope for the oppressed. R I P Paul

[@genemynahan554]

This imprompd tu concert occurred on Wednesday, November 9th, 1960 and included the spiritual, "Old Man River" and the union anthem, "Joe Hill".

[@dovbarleib3256]

Ole' Man River was written by 2 Jews: Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

[@niallcamus]

A great man!

[@harriffanconshertini8804]

I learned about this at my (Australian) school years ago, but I forgot who it was that sang! Never would have guessed it was Robeson! Thank you!

[@iansing5278]

I love his voice, school lessons 56yrs ago. Fascinated by his voice then, love it forever...

[@RobertB0H]

Absolute king

[@XxquickcamsXx]

One people one voice viva the working class

[@cosmicmusicreynolds3266]

well put . worker of the world unite. we need more paul robesons in our time now

[@peacemaker7]

"... Paul Robeson visited Australia in October and November 1960. The Australian Peace Council had invited him in 1950; soon afterwards, the United States government had confiscated his passport because of his communist sympathies and loyalty to the Soviet Union.1 When his passport was returned in 1958, Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda went on many singing tours, in an effort to earn some of the money lost during the hard unfriendly years of the 1950s, and to advocate a number of political causes - international peace, workers’ rights, and gender and racial equality. The last of those tours was to Australia and New Zealand. This chapter is an account of that tour, especially as it related to Indigenous people and political activism around Indigenous rights... press.anu.edu.au/.../Passionat.../8271/Text/ch08.html

[@shauno1005]

+Swaraaj .Chauhan during ww2 he was allpauded for conecting USA with USSR almost immediately after WW2 the gov Of USA turned on him. the rest is history. a great man... tell your kids about him

[@Meijimack]

that is fantastic background thank you Swaraaj - it's Labor Day in the US and Canada today, as it happens _ - -_ I am in Sydney Australia, and learned to love Paul Robeson through my father. What an extraordinary human being he is.

[@billieabbott3198]

I saw him in 1960, maybe at the Town Hall, how lucky am I.....

[@MsPoppsie]

Link wouldn't open...said forbidden.

[@Gusty85]

Long live the social revolution! Resist and fight the fascist backlash!

[@anthonykehoe1773]

socialists are the ultimate fascists and murderers.

[@iliouxa]

And you are the ultimate idiot !

[@billsmith3042]

Robeson embodies this quote: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Martin Luther King, Jr.

[@Meijimack]

@@anthonykehoe1773 It's OK to be a fuckwit Anthony, but to advertise the fact so brazenlyand so publicly is truly ----------- sad. Any yet, Robeson would have looked straight through you - even though he could have laid you out with the flick of a finger.

[@billsmith3042]

Meijimack yet another communist moron. Can you sing too?

[@irisroffmanabiboutros5488]

this is great thank you

[@dawindler]

Wonderful footage! Thank you for posting!

[@valeriesmith5780]

Incredible

[@knyongo]

lovely

[@johnkarrys8096]

There are two individuals I think about when I think about developing integrity: Michael Jackson and Paul Robeson. But Paul Robeson's story helped move me into the next level and to Jam among those who were trying to break me. To cross reference, because of Paul Robeson I'm beautifully unbroken.

[@johnmaclean3397]

Magical

[@davidgluskie3343]

My dads funeral... one of his songs played at his passing was going home by Robeson god bless the late singer and my late father his voice is real class both my father who tried to imitate him though he wasn’t baritone and the singer who sings in this version with no auto tune or accompiament and very basic microphone

[@markwilesmith5599]

God bless your wonderful Dad David. I try also to imitate Robeson. For me it's in the shower on occasions with no great success. It is fun trying though..

[@sonerkadrigungor3126]

​@@markwilesmith5599 Çok güzel, önemli olan gerçeğe sadakat ve aklın cesareti.

[@RickB50SS]

Paul Robeson is an icon of working class knowledge and promotion of socially progressive ideas, as few have matched in many dimensions. He visited Aotearoa - New Zealand in the late 1950s when many WW2 vets were still young, like my dad, 32 missions over Germany, [and mum a depression and war child] our working class cousins whenua-land, and they wanted a new post WW2 world free of industrial war and false scarcity. I have a photograph of me as a young child with Paul and my siblings, oh how the workers were consistently divided into the modern digital age which they produced. Its never too late to dream Parahaka, MX and MLK was informed by Paul as were many many others, lost but not forgotten with aroha.- love. What wonderful tech recordings and writings are.

[@christianbandala8715]

he spoked the language of us all. he understood there is no differnce between us! there is only the fence which we all let us devite from each other!

[@flossie5432]

wonderful ! in tune and in time.my childhood hero .my folks went to concerts he gave in wales and london and bought lots of is records, some 33 and some 78 rpm. we still have them.everyone i knew in the uk thought he had been treated shamefully by the us government.we wish he could have stayed in wales ,where his voice and his stance on human rights was appreciated.

[@AsSudan33]

Thank you.

[@FunerealObsession]

One manly ass voice.

[@KennBurch]

Thanks for posting this. I'd heard of this performance, but didn't know it had been filmed. I hope Barack Obama, before he leaves office, apologizes on behalf of the U.S. government, for the barbaric treatment Robeson received in the 1950's.

[@billsmith3042]

KennBurch it was Obama’s party of the democrats who oppressed blacks and fought against civil rights, and continue to oppress minorities by enslaving them to the welfare state. He owes an apology for how democrats treated Joe, not republicans.

[@SandfordSmythe]

@@billsmith3042 Cheap partisan comments.

[@derspike]

​@@billsmith3042it happened on both sides.

[@hustler3of4culture3]

​@@billsmith3042 then Nixon happened and the Reagan Democrats and there was a party switch in the 70s and eighties. Not the same people

[@billsmith3042]

@@hustler3of4culture3 Nixon enslaved blacks to the welfare state? That was LBJ. Nice try.

[@ausbrum]

This would have been about 1959: the foundations were still being laid, no sign of the sails. Many of the workers on the site stayed on at took jobs at the Opera House when it opened

[@suzannedixon8277]

9th November, 1960

[@alicehoffman1786]

I honor the Memorial House to Robeson in West Philly

[@Tenderness1959]

Thank you so much. Never seen this footage before. I was familiar with picture of this but not the actual video. Do you have more?

[@scottsoutham825]

Holy crap, how did I never know there was footage of this!?

[@senecaiii2009]

My uncle Norm is the bloke on his right, smoking a cigarette and wearing a hat. He went into WW2 as a marine commando shortly after this video.

[@moominpic]

I hope he came home. My Uncle was Combined Ops and went to Canada after the war.

[@grahamwright9693]

OMG WHAT A MAN!

[@MsSmallthings]

Oh, I agree. Robeson was everything the American dream hopes to be, intelligent, athletic, talented and incredibly handsome in his youth. All this talent could have been put to better use instead of the good ole US of A treating him like shit. Mind you, the British all closed ranks when the shit hit the fan over Edwina Mountbatten.

[@johnthompson9440]

Also sang at Midland Rail workshops in WA

[@thewordygecko]

Read Jeff Sparrow's new book about Paul Robeson called No Way But This: In Search of Paul Robeson (Scribe 2017). Gives a good overview of his life and thoughts on the Stalin question. I think he felt desperately saddened by the betrayal of the people by the brutal Stalinist regime and it broke him in the end.

[@robertosoares2643]

Brilliant Julian Casablancas brought me here

[@corvegastarkiller9786]

Not a cellphone in sight. Just working men living in the moment.

[@christianbandala8715]

finally one guy who understood, that there is no border between any "races", only between classes!!

[@woodyguthriefan1]

Class reductionism is a dead end.

[@sonerkadrigungor3126]

​@@woodyguthriefan1Bu da ne demek şimdi? Sınıflar yok mu? Anlamaya ve değiştirmeye nereden başlayalım?

[@clickthelink5686]

Did he make theses songs from freestyle?

[@17soulable]

Gr8 comment. :)

[@svendbosanvovski4241]

The man standing next to him was Bill Morrow. Political activist, unionist, peace fighter, Tasmanian Senator. ONe of our forgotten left heroes:- see biography Audrey Johnson, "Fly a Rebel Flag: Bill Morrow, 1888-1980" biography.senate.gov.au/morrow-william/

[@juliogutierrez3962]

El escribió sobre Joe Hilo. Quien era Joe Hill. ???

[@Milordvega]

Era un inmigrante de Suecia que se convirtió en líder laboral que luchaba por los derechos de los trabajadores. Fue ejecutado en 1915 en Salt Lake City por haber matado a un polícia aúnque podía haber sido inocente. En esta canción, Robeson relata haber hablado con el espíritu de Joe Hill, y éste dice que "jamás he muerto" mientras siguen luchando por las clases laborales

[@spontaneous45]

No, I'm sorry that's it.

[@donnabraithwaite]

yup, cos that's all he was, not his humanity, just a voice ffs.

[@Piggy-Oink-Oink]

Are you joking> ? he had JAY-Z as his Bro at his inauguration. I am sorry but obama is probably very unfamiliar with paul Robeson. he;s never mentioned his name once yet he appeared on Oprah, leno; Letterman, etc. But hr talks about JAY Z and Beyonce. He needs a hsitory lesson. I didnt hear him say anything about ANY mistreatment of ANYONE pre civil rights. Not a word!

[@ixlnxs]

Robeson was a great artist and he fought for great ideals, but he also foolishly believed in tyrannical ideologies. I am fond of Robeson the singer and Robeson the civil rights activist, but kindly ignore Robeson the Stalinist.

[@LadyRavenhaire]

And you learned that Stalin was a tyrant and mass-murderer from where? Oh, from the Capitalist media and capitalist written textbooks. Good source of information. Did you believe our government when it said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or the Nazi's said the Jews burnt the Reichstag, too? I have family and family friends who were in Russia during the time and they had nothing, but praise. As thinking human beings, we need to always question the source of where we get our information.

[@ixlnxs]

LadyRavenhaire I was only a teen during the Iraq war but I was quite sceptical, yes. However, to compare the Bush administration with the Nazis is a bit over the top, don't you think? I would not even compare Bush to Jorge Videla. Getulio Vargas, maybe, or Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador. At the most.

[@Elitist20]

LadyRavenhaire Also someone called Nikita Khrushchev - read 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences' aka 'the Secret Speech'. 1956.

[@ixlnxs]

***** Were you replying to me?

[@dnickaroo3574]

+John X Most people in the West grew up during the Cold War and its associated propaganda. Much information that people quote about Stalin was written by Robert Conquest in his book "The Red Terror". Conquest worked for British Intelligence, and later with American Intelligence. He says that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 30 million people. However, on reprints of the book he would change this figure; and, when Soviet archives became available during the 1990's, his figures and much what he had written were found to be false. Unfortunately he is often used as a source by other historians. Solzhenitsyn was even much further off the mark, claiming a figure of 100 million killed by Stalin! After WWII Solzhenitsyn put blame for the War on Stalin rather than on Hitler; he said that Stalin should have negotiated more with Hitler, even suggesting that land within the USSR should have been ceded to Hitler to prevent a war. Events in Greece following WWII do the "democracies" no credit. Greeks fighting against Nazi Germany had mostly been urban and rural workers led by Communists. Britain imposed a Govt on the Greeks which they did not want (many Greeks supported socialist and communist ideals). When the British could not cope with the situation they called on the USA for help. The US invaded Greece and 140,000 Greeks were killed in the resulting war. Tens of thousands of Greeks were kept in "re-education camps". Perhaps the Russians of today can best judge Stalin: about 50% disapprove of him, whereas about 50% think favourably of him (even some who had been in the Gulags). On a poll of Russians, Stalin was thought of having been the third best leader in Russian History (Alexander Nevsky got the number one place). Khrushchev in 1956 was replacing Stalin's chosen successor; therefore he had political motivations for criticising the "the cult of personality" which had developed around Stalin.

[@danger2709]

Musically, I really enjoyed this. But the irony of privileged Aust workers claiming solidarity with a black American singing about slavery, etc is BEYOND absurd!

[@santouchesantouche2873]

Excuse me? Privileged aussie workers? Many men died in awful conditions building the opera house and the harbour Bridge. Either way, it's beside the point is it not? Working class solidarity transcends whatever petty gripe you have. This is the problem with politik, the rich have unity. They have a shared goal. The working class have been splintered beyond recognition by the type of commentary you proffer... Let's try find common ground in the class war yeah?

[@rosemma34]

@@santouchesantouche2873 good retort, thank you

[@robertmchugh9024]

Robeson was a hypocrite with breath taking double standards. Highly articulate when talking about the USA's pre-1865 history of slavery, yet totally silent on the enslavement and mass murder of millions throughout Stalin's Soviet Union during the 1930's, 40's and 50's when he was a regular, highly celebrated guest of Stalin's. Accepted the Stalin Peace Prize and wrote a cloyinglly nauseating eulogy upon the dictators death in 1953 titled "To You Beloved Comrade". Even after Khrushchev revealed the horrendous detail of Stalin's crimes in 1956 so that even the most blinkered and brainwashed Marxist could no longer plead ignorance, the usually loquacious Robeson said not a word. I'll quote one of Lenin's most apt descriptions to have the final say on Robeson.....a "useful idiot".

[@bigidiotdumbstupidguy9329]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. He was so blinded by the power and function of the Communist powerhouse that he just couldn't see the negatives (a bit like BLM today). I wrote a paper on Paul Robeson in my Sophomore year of highschool because when I first heard the 1936 "Show Boat" version of Ol' Man River, I cried, and then I learned his ideals and went from there. We had to do a character study and present it. My thinking is that he was a man of the past in a Capitalist society and a man of the present in a Communist one. Even though he was the everyman, one-man Rat Pack before the Rat Pack in America. He would show up to events in better tuxedos than "the whites" and slicked back hair and people would wonder where "that [racial slur] singer" was because he was so well mannered and dressed, but he hated watching people like these construction workers struggle to live doing hard work while he sang and was payed like he cured cancer. But in a Communist society, he lived for the day. He saw that people were happy (because if they weren't they would "go missing" or "get lost in the woods") because their leader was so kind and no one was poor due to the absolute factory like production that allowed people to earn equal amounts for different work and the program where you could get a job instead of relying solely on welfare to live. I think he didn't do it out of spite or ignorance (though it may have contributed. Perhaps he wanted to open people's eyes to the corrupt American system). I think he did it to be happy. He just wanted that happinesss that most people don't ever achieve in their lives. As we've seen in the past, some of the most popular, famous, and/or richest people are the least happy and resort to the lowest of the low to cope. Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, and Robin Williams to name a few. I'll say again: This was two years ago now. These were my opinions and I do NOT hold them to be any more truthful than any other opinion. Criticism is fully welcome! All my opinion ever tried to do was make it so it was possible to see Paul Robeson's life from another point of view. I could be completely wrong, but if I am, please let me know!

[@mortalwomble]

Spoke several languages, won top honours at Rutgers University, earned a degree in Law, taught Latin, briefly practiced law, was a talented athlete and fought against racism at a time when blacks were being lynched for less. I won't begin to speak of his talent for music as that should be obvious to all. There are lots of things you could call Robeson but not 'idiot', but I suppose if he was a 'useful idiot' I suppose that all his learning and talent would still put him head and shoulders above you. Unlike yours, his name will live on for Generations because you sir are a useless idiot.

[@bigidiotdumbstupidguy9329]

mortalwomble I don't know. I see him as sort of Malcom X / Muhammad Ali type figure. As you say, he's definitely no idiot. But he was too provocative for his time. Literally becoming a star only 4~6 years after the Red Scare. He got blacklisted by the US for being a Communist sympathizer. I mean, the most he did to 'fight against racism' was star in a movie that had him play the part of a native African tribesman, wrote a paper called, "I Want to be African," because he wanted to 'get in touch with his ancestry.' Of course getting in touch meant visiting fascist-communist Europe. While in Berlin he literally said he was inspired and enlightened by the racism of the Nazi Party, but during his visit to Moscow he was quoted as saying, "Here, I am not 'that Negro' but a human being for the first time in my life... I walk in full human dignity." He was definitely an interesting character study and for people to call him an idiot is just dim.

[@nickrockway472]

of course you white supremacists find a way to bring black lives matter into this somehow; comparing the movement to josef stalin. honestly, fuck you

[@davidhumphries1146]

Lenin did not know Robeson. You are a vile misquote of history. The Stalin years took years to unravel. Many were blindsided by his regime. But any more ruthless than an American government that sent a very high proportion of black men to their deaths to Vietnam, and ruined the career of a boxer? Stalin was the best the left had in those days. And without his support, Germany would have certainly won WW2.

[@hghtrfnko8634]

Hmm bad singer tho