Today, October 7, 1879, Joe Hill was born, a Swedish immigrant, songwriter and organiser with the Industrial Workers of the World. Born as Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in Gevalia, Sweden, he emigrated to the United States in 1902, where he changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom. I make no apologies in writing about him again here, after all this was a man who became a myth. A myth on which many people across the globe continue to pin their hopes and dreams. Moving across America in search of work, leading an itinerant life, he ended up in New York, and together with people from the same background, people yearning for a new way of life, inspired by its revolutionary spirit he was to become a Wobbly and became a member of the revolutionary rank-and-file union the IWW ( The Industrial Workers of the World.) Members of the IWW, were especially active in the western United States, where they enjoyed considerable success in organising mistreated and exploited workers in the mining, logging and shipping industries.
Throughout his day Joe Hill was actively involved in many of the labor battles of the day, fighting in Mexico, with partisans against the dictator Ricardo Flores Magon and used his voice as a songwriter and cartoonist for the IWW, many of whose songs still sung today, including 'There is Power in the Union,' his memory still enduring and being kept alive. His songs and tunes urged workers to quit thinking of themselves as a dispirited crowd of immigrants, but through solidarity and organisation. People of all nationalities and differing languages would come together and sing Joe Hill's tunes together. Even if jailed for their protests, the workers would carry on singing his words until their release.The IWW included some of Hill's songs in the "Little Red Song Book." which the union began publishing in 1909.
In 1914 Joe Hill was accused of the murder of a Salt Lake Grocer and former policeman. He was suspected because he had suffered a gunshot wound on the same night. At his trial though not one witness was able to identify him as one of the murderers but he was convicted and sentenced to death anyway, The IWW argued that he had been framed and recent evidence unearthed, seems to back up this view, that he had been engaged in conflict somewhere else, while engaged in a fight over his love. Following an unsuccessful appeal and an international campaign calling for clemency, Joe Hill was executed by firing squad on November 19th, 1915, an innocent man condemned to death for his passion. Many historians have come to recognise it as one of the worst travesties of Justice in American history, after a trial that was riddled with biased rulings and suppression of important defence evidence and other violations of judicial procedure, which was characteristic of many cases involving labour radicals. Just prior to his execution, he had written to Bill Haywood the IWW leader, saying 'Goodbye Bill, I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. 'Organize!" This is still used as a motto by the IWW to this day (Don't mourn organise) .His last actual words were 'Fire!.' Joe then became a martyr to the cause of the working class struggle for social justice, and he became a larger-than-life symbol of the movement in America.
A guard reported that at about 10 pm Joe Hill handed him a poem, through the bars of his cell. It was his last will, which has since become a prized piece of poetry in the American Labour Movement.
Joe Hill's Last Will
My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don't need to fuss and moan
Moss does not cling to a rolling stone.
My body - Oh - If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my last and Final Will
Good luck to all of you,
-
Joe Hill's Last Will - Utah Phillips
An estimated 30,000 people attended Hill's funeral i an impressive singing demonstration under the banner ' In Memorium -Joe Hill, Murdered by the Capitalist Class. The instructions left in Hill's last poem were carried out: Hill's ashes
were put into small envelopes and on May Day, 1916, were scattered to
the winds in every state of the union. This ceremony also took place in
several other countries.
Alfred Hayes wrote a poem about Hill that was later adapted by Earl Robinson and became the famous folk song, I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill last Night, and he has since been immortalised in poetry and song,from Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Paul Robeson to many others. In 1971 Bo Widerberg wrote and directed the popular Swedish film, Joe Hill. Today his name still used as a rallying cry, as we remember this rebel folk hero, many believe his spirit now lives on through the works and deeds of the IWW,, this man and his myth still continuing to inspire, in movements that reflect his call for social justice.Without memory of the past , there can be no hope for the future.
Paul Robeson - Joe Hill
