S tre e t R o o ts • M arch 4 -1 0 , 2 0 1 6
Commentary
P a g e 10
Recurring nightmare of justice: The life and music of Joe Hill
You will eat, bye and bye,
their efforts. Mainstream newspapers
In that glorious land above the sky;
portrayed them as errant troublemakers and
Work and pray, live on hay,
ne’er-do-wells.
n Nov. 19,1915, an innocent man was
You’ll have pie in the sky when you die.
Trekking across the country, working
killed by firing squad. The state of
where he could, Hill joined up with the IWW
Thus, says Hill with tongue in cheek, don’t
Utah determined that immigrant
in Portland, Oregon. In August, 1913 he
ponder or confront the injustices of this world
laborer Joe Hill had murdered two people.
arrived in Utah in search of employment The
What transpired in the court was a
... shut up and get back to your menial lousy
following January, a Salt Lake City grocer and
mockery of jurisprudence. As his trial wore
work! Present-day Wobbly Alexis Buss writes:
his son were shot dead in their store. At the
on, it became obvious that it was not just this
“This iconic song, which added the phrase
time of the murders, a notorious habitual
individual man being tried. It was the radical
‘Pie in the Sky’ to the American vernacular,
criminal
named
Frank
Z.
Wilson
was
found
in
Industrial Workers
was
written to ridicule anti-labor clergy, in
the vicinity of the grocery, but the law zeroed
of the World (IWW),
particular the Salvation Army.” Hill’s ending
in
on
Hill,
jl
e
was
arrested
and
charged
with
the One Big Union
chorus aimed at those whose comfort is due
homicide.
known as the
to the sweat of wage slaves:
The
same
night
as
the
killing,
Hill
showed
Wobblies on trial.
up at a physician’s home with a bullet wound.
And Hill was an
You will eat, bye and bye,
He said that he had been shot in a dispute
outspoken card-
When you’ve learned how to cook and to fry;
over
a
woman.
However,
authorities
carrying member.
Chop some wood, ’twill do you good,
maintained
he
was
shot
by
the
grocer’s
son
He was also a
And you’ll eat in the sweet bye and bye.
before escaping the store. No heartless
multitalented
criminal,
Hill
had
once
been
arrested
for
musician, song
Hill’s letters from prison reflect his
vagrancy. But he was a known member of a
writer, cartoonist
commitment to the IWW and cause of labor.
radical union. His affiliation with the IWW
and humorist.
They are a testimony to his intelligence,
was deemed his greatest transgression. A
During 22 months
strength, kindness, patience and humor. On
cruel and twisted justice would eliminate this
of incarceration, Joe
the eve of his execution, he wrote to Bill
unapologetic
voice
of
the
working
class.
Hill became famous,
Hayward: “I die like a true rebel. Don’t waste
First published in 1965, “The Letters of
an intrepid symbol
any time mourning — organize!” And he
Joe Hill” is composed mostly of his letters
of struggling
makes this request: “Could you arrange to
from jail and a few missives from “before the
workers. In the
have my body hauled to the state line to be
frame-up.” The book concludes with lyrics,
words of historian
buried? I don’t want to be found dead in
poetry and drawings. Hill wrote catchy songs
William M. Adler,
Utah.”
celebrating laboring people and lampooning
“the IWW and its
The story of Joe Hill is encapsulated in this
the owners of capital and their lackeys. Many
allies had
little commemorative volume. It contains late
of bis compositions were adapted to familiar
transformed what
historian Philip Foner’s introduction. For this
religious and popular tunes. Eventually, they
had begun as a murder case of strictly local
edition, a brief foreword is provided by rocker
made their way into “The Little Red
concern, in a remote city of the
Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine,
intermountain American West, into an
Songbook,” which featured songs written by
international cause célebre.”
Hill and other minstrels of labor “to fan the
who says that Hill is his “favorite musician.”
Founded in 1905, the IWW had an
For a more complete rendering of Hill’s story
flames of discontent”
ambitious agenda: organize the unskilled men
One of Hill’s best known songs is “The
and the IWW, read the fine book “The Man
and women not represented by the elite craft
Preacher and the Slave” sung to the air of the Who Never Died” by William M. Adler.
unions of the American Federation of Labor.
melodic “Sweet By and By.” The original
In Chicago, Joe’s funeral would be attended
The Wobblies used direct action,
hymn expresses a vision of divine happiness
by thousands. In time his ashes would be
slowdowns, strikes and the threat of sabotage
in the afterlife. The IWW subscribed to a
respectfully scattered in many places. If
to get abused workers better pay and working
more earth-bound dogma expressed
anyone ever asks you, “Where is Joe Hill
conditions. On streets, IWW soapbox orators
succinctly by Mother Jones: “Pray for the
buried?” the correct answer is “All over the
urged the dispossessed to fight for the dignity dead and fight like hell for the living!” Hill’s
world.”
of all who toil. They were despised by the
composition had this chorus:
rich and powerful and many did jail time for
Reprinted from Real Change, Seattle
BY JOE MARTIN
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
I 1
VoZ
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