Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture (The Charles H. Kerr Library)

The only biography of musician, IWW labor activist, and martyr Joe Hill to fully explore his politics and cultural contributions as well as his lasting effect on the radical counterculture This expansive work covers the life, times, and culture of that most famous member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or “Wobblies”—songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr—Joe Hill. Many aspects of the life and lore of Joe Hill receive their first and only discussion in IWW historian Franklin Rosemont’s opus. In great detail, the issues that Joe Hill raised and grappled with in his capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, and industrial unionism are shown in both the context of Hill’s life and for their enduring relevance in the century since his death. Collected too is Joe Hill’s art, plus scores of other images featuring Hill-inspired art by IWW illustrators. As Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really died as he lives in the minds of rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day. Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Joe Hill’s Artwork A Note on the Notes Introduction to the 2015 Edition by David Roediger Introduction: “Troubadour of Discontent” by Franklin Rosemont I: Joe Hill & His Union 1. The ABC of the IWW: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism 2. Conflicting Views of IWW History 3. The Hobo Contribution to Critical Theory & The Origins of the Wobbly Counterculture 4. Joe Hill: The Problem of Biography 5. “Born on a Planet Called the Earth”: A Sketch of the Life of a Footloose Wobbly 6. Ester Dahl: Joe Hill’s Sister II: The Wobbly Bard 1. Songs to Wise Up the Slaves 2. A “One Big Union” of Poets III: A Free-Spirited Internationalist 1. From Swedish Immigrant to Citizen of the World 2. “The Pleasure of Fighting Under the Red Flag”: Joe Hill & The Mexican Revolution 3. The Fraser River Strike: The IWW Bard in Canada 4. More Mysteries of a Hobo’s Life: Fellow Worker Hill on the Honolulu Run 5. “Don’t Sing ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee’”: Joe Hill’s Internationalism IV: A Classic Case of Frame-Up 1. Why Was Joe Hill Arrested? 2. Red Scare: Why & How the Police and the Press Stir Up Fear and Hatred 3. Convicting the Innocent, Encouraging the Guilty 4. The Mystery Woman 5. “Do Something to Save the Life of Joe Hill”: The Defense Committee Swings into Action 6. The International Defense 7. 19 November 1915: A Case of Judicial Murder 8. Responses to the Execution 9. Two Funerals, Unending Memorials V: Joe Hill & The Arts 1. A Painting by Joe Hill 2. Joe Hill, IWW Cartoonist 3. A Class-War Humorist 4. The Wobbly Art of Parody 5. Carl Michael Bellman & Joe Hill’s Favorite Song 6. Joe Hill, Composer 7. Songs, Music & Cartoons: Reflections on Scribbling 8. Pie in the Sky 9. “I Have Lived Like an Artist” VI: Joe Hill Myths 1. Superman, Saint & Savior 2. Remorseless Scoundrel, Devil Incarnate 3. One Man’s Joe Hill Myth: John Maata Retells the Story as He Remembered It VII: The IWW & The White Problem 1. One Big Union: A Challenge to White Supremacy 2. Another Look at “Scissor Bill,” or Good Intentions Are Not Enough 3. Redeeming the Earth from Private Property: The IWW & Native Americans 4. The Importance of Chinese Cooking in the History of the IWW 5. In the Abolitionist Tradition: Wobblies Against Whiteness 6. Race, Class & The Titanic: Looking at a Joe Hill Cartoon 7. Joe Hill & Ben Fletcher 8. Toward the New Abolitionism: George Seldes & Ray Sprigle VIII: Women Wobblies & Wobbly Feminism 1. Joe Hill, The Rebel Girl, and Rebel Women 2. The Strange Case of Agnes Thecla Fair IX: Wobblies versus “Sky Pilots” 1. Joe Hill, the IWW & Religion 2. The Mormon Influence in the Hill Case 3. Ammon Hennacy & The Salt Lake City Joe Hill House of Hospitality X: Cops & Wobblies: Law, Crime, Prison & The Struggle for Workingclass Emancipation 1. How Criminalizing the IWW Helped Gangsterize the U.S.A. 2. Wobblies as Critics of the “Injustice System” 3. Axel Steele: The Union-Busting Thug as Law Enforcer XI: Wobblies versus Stalinism 1. Contributions to a Critique of a Comical Party 2. The Communists & Joe Hill XII: Wobblies & Wilderness Joe Hill & The IWW as Forerunners of Earth First! & Eco-Socialism XIII: Joe Hill, the Wobblies & The Beat Generation 1. The Hippest Union in the World 2. From the ‘29 Depression through the Cold War ‘50s 3. The Old Wobbly: Keeper of the Flames of Discontent 4. Discovering the IWW in the Sixties 5. The Kerouac Connection 6. Gary Snyder: Cold Mountain Wobbly XIV: Wobbly Poetics in Theory & Practice 1. The IWW Passion for Poetry 2. Revolutionary Workingclass Romanticism 3. What Joe Hill Taught Carl Sandburg 4. Suggestions for the Future: Wobblies & The “Avant-Garde” 5. The Power of Song: The Little Red Song Book, Its Friends & Enemies 6. The Whole World Is Listening: Mary Gallagher & International Song Publishers 7. The Art of Soapboxing, or Storytelling in the Service of the Revolution 8. The Futurist Society of America 9. Revolutionary Rewriting & Infrapolitics: New Songs & Comics in the Shell of the Old 10. Collective Creation: Players of the World, Unite! XV. The IWW Counterculture & Vernacular Surrealism 1. Surrealism, Wobbly Style 2. Ralph Chaplin: Brother of the Wild Wind 3. Arturo Giovannitti: Against Silence, Death & Fear 4. Laura Tanne: Running on Swift Feet Out of the Darkness 5. Covington Hall: Visioning the Unseen from the Seen 6. T-Bone Slim: Bringing the Sublime & The Ridiculous into a Compromising Proximity XVI: “Yours for a Change” 1. On the Road to Chicago 2. The Later Years of Joe Hill’s Friends Conclusion All the Good Things of Life ENVOI Joe Hill: A Long-Distance Call Acknowledgments Bibliography Index A monumental work, expansive in scope, covering the life, times, and culture of that most famous of the Wobblies--songwriter, poet, hobo, thinker, humorist, martyr--Joe Hill. It is a journey into the Wobbly culture that made Hill and the capitalist culture that killed him. Many aspects of the life and lore of Joe Hill receive their first and only discussion in IWW historian Franklin Rosemont's opus. In great detail, the issues that Joe Hill raised and grappled with in his life: capitalism, white supremacy, gender, religion, wilderness, law, prison, and industrial unionism are shown in both the context of Hill's life and for their enduring relevance in the century since his death. Collected too is Joe Hill's art, plus scores of other images featuring Hill-inspired art by IWW illustrators from Ralph Chaplin to Carlos Cortez, as well as contributions from many other labor artists. As Rosemont suggests in this remarkable book, Joe Hill never really died. He lives in the minds of young (and old) rebels as long as his songs are sung, his ideas are circulated, and his political descendants keep fighting for a better day. -- taken from back cover. "Joe Hill (1877-1915) is the best-known figure in the heroic history of the Industrial Workers of the World (a.k.a. Wobblies). US labour’s most world-renowned martyr and celebrated songwriter, he is remembered above all for his songs in the Little Red Song Book: “The Preacher and the Slave” (“Pie in the Sky”), “Mr Block,” “There Is Power in a Union,” and many more that are still popular on picket lines today Although Joe Hill was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) only for the last five or six years of his life, those years happen to bepreciselythe years in which a young and undistinguished Swedish immigrant hobo became the man we know as Joe Hill.