Class struggle has always had a soundtrack. A hundred years ago, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had Joe Hill, author of popular labor folk songs like “The Preacher and the Slave” and “There’s Power in a Union.” American Communists of the 1930s had baritone Paul Robeson, and the activists of the 1960s and 1970s had folksy Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. Today’s striking autoworkers have GmacCash.

Fifty thousand workers at General Motors (GM) are entering week four of a massive strike. GM is losing millions, but won’t give in to union negotiators. Workers’ major demand is an end to the multitiered contracts which screw over new and temporary workers — who now have to work for eight years before reaching full pay — and undermine the solidarity and wages of the whole union.

When the United Autoworkers (UAW) and other industrial unions were built in the 1930s and 1940s, millions of workers went on strike each year, coming together across lines of skill, ethnicity, and geography. Since the 1970s, however, union membership and strike participation have declined precipitously, while millions of manufacturing jobs have been relocated to nonunion plants and income inequality soars. In 2017, only 25,000 workers participated in major work stoppages, the second lowest year on record.

Today’s striking autoworkers, following the lead of hundreds of thousands of teachers who have struck since last spring, are fighting to reverse decades of working-class defeats. It’s a daunting challenge, and it won’t be easy to win. Luckily, autoworkers have some special talents to bring to bear on this fight.

Detroit rapper and former Chrysler worker GmacCash released a song in solidarity with GM strikers called “On Strike” last month. Strikes are transformative experiences for participants, building new communities and commitments. Strikes unlock the ingenious creative capacities of workers to wage and win battles against seemingly all-powerful employers — and produce catchy songs like this one.

In the music video, GmacCash joins GM workers on the picket line singing a chorus that could be a union chant: “We goin’ on strike / We goin’ on strike / We goin’ on strike / Till they get this shit right.” The song has three short verses:

We goin’ on strike so you better listen

We ain’t bout to keep workin’ under these conditions

Working in a hot plant with no air conditioning (it’s hot as hell)

And they got the nerve to tell us that there’s fair conditions (yeah right) If they don’t work their ass off, they’re gonna get fired

Temps workin’ like slaves and don’t get hired

The supervisor don’t care if they get tired (they don’t)

They just trying to make sure them sales get higher (keep goin’) The union gotta stick together

Do this for each other

Do this one for all my sisters, for my brothers

Cause they tryna treat us wrong but they say they love us

We need a change right now or we ain’t goin’ further

Inspired by GmacCash and fed up with GM’s stalling, striking GM workers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, members of UAW Local 2209, released their own picket line strike anthem, “Burn Barrel.” The song opens with the following spoken words: “Solidarity and equality. Shout out to Local 659, home of the original sit-down strikers. It’s now our time to make demands. Better believe we have some grievances that need answering.”