Joe Hill

Franklin Rosemont

Description

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.

Sujets

• Working class
• Rank and File
• Trade union
• Folk music
• Blue Collar
• Prolétariat

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 18 décembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781629632100
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Carlos Cortez: Joe Hill poster (linocut, 1973)

Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture , Second Edition Franklin Rosemont
© PM Press 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher
Introduction © David Roediger 2015 PM Press C.H. Kerr Company PO Box 23912 1726 Jarvis Avenue Oakland, CA 94623 Chicago, IL 60626 www.pmpress.org www.charleshkerr.com
Cover design by Josh MacPhee
ISBN: 978-1-62963-119-6 • Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930903
This edition first published in Canada in 2015 by Between the Lines
401 Richmond Street West, Studio 277, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8, Canada
1-800-718-7201
www.btlbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher or (for photocopying in Canada only) Access Copyright www.accesscopyright.ca .
Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. Between the Lines would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Rosemont, Franklin, author
Joe Hill : the IWW & the making of a revolutionary working class counterculture / Franklin Rosemont.
Co-published by: PM Press.
Reprint. Originally published: Chicago, Il. : C.H. Kerr Pub., 2003, c2002.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77113-233-6 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-77113-234-3 (epub). ISBN 978-1-77113-235-0 (pdf)
1. Hill, Joe, 1879-1915. 2. Industrial Workers of the World--History. 3. Working class--United States--History. 4. Labor movement--United States--History. I. Title. HD8073.H55R68 2015 331.88’60973 C2015-903801-4 C2015-903802-2 ISBN 978-1-77113-233-6 Between the Lines paperback ISBN 978-1-77113-234-3 Between the Lines epub ISBN 978-1-77113-235-0 Between the Lines pdf
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
To
ARCHIE GREEN,
the Shakespeare & Hegel of laborlore,
and to the memory of
Joe Hill’s friends:
WILLIAM CHANCE,
ALEXANDER MACKAY,
LOUIS MOREAU,
& SAM MURRAY,
Wobblies true-blue.
"Human emancipation
remains the only cause
worth serving ."
André Breton
All for One & One for All!


The first biography of Joe Hill, by Ralph Chaplin, appeared in this 1923 IWW magazine
TABLE OF 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 WORKING CLASS 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
JOE HILL’S ARTWORK
(in order of appearance in this book)
1 ( p. 62 ). Cover of IWW Songs (Los Angeles edition, 1912), probably designed and lettered by Joe Hill, who edited the volume.
2 ( 83 ). "How the Memory Doth Linger" (sketch of Sam Murray) (1915).
3 ( 94 ). Cover design, sheet music for "A Trip to Honolulu" (1915).
4 ( 159 ). "Cataract." Oil painting (pre-1902).
5 ( 161 ). "I’ve Got a Mission to Fill" (self-portrait). Hand-drawn postcard (29 April 1911).
6 ( 164 ). "As It Was, As It Is." One Big Union Monthly (November 1919).
7 ( 166 ). "Class War News: IWW Submarines Are Annoying the Enemy Everywhere." Industrial Solidarity (24 October 1914).
8 ( 168 ). "Oh you Hoboing." Hand-drawn postcard (2 September 1911).
9 ( 169 ). "Mr and Mrs Highbrow." One Big Union Monthly (November 1919).
10 ( 195 ). "Constitutional Guarantee." Industrial Worker (24 April 1913).
11 ( 197 ). "Doings of Våran Kalle." Hand-drawn postcard (24 January 1911).
12 ( 258 ). "Aerogram ‘Help! Help! We’ve Hit Something!’" Cartoon for IWW Songs (Los Angeles edition, 1912).
13 ( 272 ). Cover art, sheet music for "The Rebel Girl" (1915).
14 ( 292 ). Cover art, sheet music for "Workers of the World, Aw