Initialed by O.E.B., "My Country" appeared in Solidarity on July 29, 1916, and is an eloquent articulation of the IWW's internationalism. According to the author, the worker's country is Industrial Democracy, an ideal founded on the solidarity and cooperation of all the world's workers. Within this country being a patriot means not slaying and pillaging your neighbors, but living in peace with all humanity.

MY COUNTRY

By O.E.B.

I have a country
I love my country
I love it with a love that is lasting
And that must be returned.
If love of one's country
Makes a patriot
Then I am a good patriot.

My country is boundless
It has no limit
No king, no potentate-
Only a race of human beings.

There need be no hunger, nor cold,
No want in my country.
There is room for all the
Children of the world there;
And they can dwell in peace,
And plenty, and happiness,
And joy forever
In my country.

I do not dwell in my country,
But I can live in the hopes it holds
For the future,
When many shall sojourn therein.

I can be a patriotic subject
Of my country
Without robbing or slaying
One of my brothers.
I need not wrest from others
Land, or riches of any sort,
That I may pour them into the coffers
Of a group, or of an individual.

I can be a true patriot
And love all the people of the earth
As I love my own family.
My country demands of her patriots
That they be charitable to all mankind.

I can work and fight
For my country,
And die, if need be,
But I cannot dwell there alone.
Humanity is the population
Of my country.

Industrial Democracy
Is my country.