does anybody know

who wrote "which side are you on, boys"? I think it was Arlo Guthrie, but I'm not sure. Thanks!

But I'm not sure of that either. Pete Seeger for a second guess?

Which Side Are You On

This government had an idea
And parliament made it law
It seems like it's illegal
To fight for the union any more

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

We went out to join the picket line
For together we cannot fail
We got stopped by police at the county line
They said, "Go home boys or you're going to jail"

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

It's hard to explain to a crying child
Why her Daddy can't go back
So the family suffer
But it hurts me more
To hear a scab say Sod you Jack

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

I'm bound to follow my conscience
And do whatever I can
But it'll take much more than the union law
To knock the fight out of a working man

Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

WORDS & MUSIC – Florence Reece
Adapted 1984 by Billy Bragg
© 1946 Stormking Music Inc
assigned to Harmony Music Ltd
Reproduced by kind permission of Harmony Music Ltd

http://www.google.com/search?q=guthrie++%22which+side+are+you+on%2C+boys%22+copyright&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&safe=off

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:W3w5mrpEH_MJ:www.top50lyrics.com/a/arloguthrie-lyrics-300/whichside-lyrics-13085.html+guthrie++%22which+side+are+you+on,+boys%22+copyright&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

Artist: Arlo Guthrie
Song Title: Which Side
Album: Outlasting The Blues


words and music by Arlo Guthrie

There's trouble all around the world
Well, it looks that way to me
People don't know what to do
They don't know where they should be

But just one question still remains
To which we must respond
Two roads lead from where we are
Which side are you on

CHORUS:
Are you on, boys
Which side are you on
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on

Moses crossed the desert
With a band of weary men
For forty years they wandered through
The hot and burning sand

And Moses went and prayed alone
The weary vagabond
And lightning wrote these words in stone
Which side are you on

CHORUS

Jesus stumbling through the streets
On the road to Calvary
Nailed high to testify
With other local thieves

And as they hung there dying
One asked what lay beyond
That all depends the master said
Which side are you on

CHORUS

Some men work for little things
And some men work for more
Some men work for anything
And some don't work at all

And me mysef I'm satisfied
To sing for God's own son
And ask you what I ask myself
Which side are you on

Album: Outlasting The Blues (1979) Lyrics

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/01/opinion/lynch/main520455.shtml
On July 30 Sweeney gave a rousing speech at a noontime rally on Wall Street as part of the AFL-CIO’s “No More Business As Usual” campaign. “When corporate criminals invade our workplaces and our markets to steal our jobs and our savings, we must react every bit as when thieves enter our homes and try to bring harm to our loved ones,” he said. The crowd roared and chimed in on the old Pete Seeger song, “Which side are you on, boys, which side on you on?”

best known version.

If I'm not mistaken, it was one of many that Seeger wrote new lyrics to and made his own.

(as it is in the version in post #2)

In CARRY IT ON: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S WORKING PEOPLE IN SONG AND PICTURE (Seeger and Reiser,1991) Pete Seeger writes that the song was written by Reece, the wife of a union coal miner charged with murder in connection with a walkout in Harlan County, Kentucky.