[10][11][12] When Billy Bragg recorded the song in 1990 with Scottish folk singer Dick Gaughan, he sang it to this original "White Cockade" melody.

The lyrics of the first verse and the chorus, which are the most well-known parts of the song, are as follows: The people's flag is deepest red, It shrouded oft our martyred dead And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, Their hearts' blood dyed its every fold.

So raise the scarlet standard high, Beneath its shade we'll live and die, Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, We'll keep the red flag flying here.

"[14] In a 1913 article for the Industrial Worker, the celebrated IWW bard Joe Hill rejected the category of "the people" as middle class, and suggested a further change to the song.

Referring to his experiences in the Magonista rebellion of 1911,[15] he wrote:When the Red Flag was flying in Lower California there were not any of "the people" in the ranks of the rebels.

"The Red Flag" was first sung in the House of Commons on 1 August 1945, when Parliament convened after Clement Attlee's Labour defeat of Winston Churchill's Conservatives.

"The Red Flag" was sung by Labour MPs on 27 May 1976, allegedly prompting Michael Heseltine to swing the parliamentary mace above his head.

[23] During the Tony Blair government it was claimed the leadership sought to downplay the use of the song,[1][24] but it is often sung at the end of party conferences, along with Jerusalem.

[27] The People's Flag is deepest red, It shrouded oft our martyred dead, And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, Their hearts' blood dyed its every fold.

It suits today the weak and base, Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place To cringe before the rich man's frown, And haul the sacred emblem down.

With head uncovered swear we all To bear it onward till we fall; Come dungeons dark or gallows grim, This song shall be our parting hymn.

A version of the lyrics sung regularly at the Liberal Democrats' Glee Club, also dated to the mid-1960s, is: The people's flag is palest pink, It's not as red as most folk think.

[30] The anarcho-syndicalist punk band Chumbawamba's "Reubens has been Shot" parodied the song which conflated "The Red Flag" and "Oh Christmastree", which share a common tune, to suggest the corruption or wilting of the Labour movement's original values: Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree How bent your branches seem to be Nineteen twenty-one and all's well Another fifteen years and we'll be laughing in hell One bullet straight through the heart Rubens caught a ricochet, Durer's lady cried today Cracked old masters up against the wall Blue-faced Wendy Woolworth--she's seen it all Housepainter, housepainter Hanging your swastika wallpaper Rows of pretty cabbageheads to gobble up your words Laughing along to your blah, blah, blah[31] A parody of unknown origin is known as "The Foreman's Job",[32] and this is sometimes considered a rugby song.

So raise the open standard high Within its codes we'll live or die Though cowards flinch and Bill Gates sneers We'll keep the net flag flying here.

The 2001 Hong Kong film Running Out of Time 2 ends with "The Red Flag" at a Christmas party, when it is revealed that the magician-thief made charitable donations to African children.

The tune also appears in the title sequence of popular 1970’s UK sitcom Citizen Smith, which is about a Marxist revolutionary living in Tooting, London.