Who Was Joe Hill? He's Gone Missing From the History Books
If you're a fan of folk music or lyrics about working people, you might be familiar with the song "Joe Hill."
The song, originally written as a poem by Alfred Hayes, has been performed for decades by the likes of Paul Robeson, Joan Baez (at Woodstock in 1969), Phil Ochs, and Billy Bragg. [also Bruce Springsteen]
The song's lyrics recall a dream where Joe Hill, a workers' hero who was likely framed on a murder charge and sentenced to death, returns in a seemingly spectral form, symbolizing the spirit of the labor movement.
Alive as you or me
Says I, But Joe, you're 10 years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he..."
Joe Hill isn't a fictional character. He was a poet, songwriter, and a union activist.
(He also inspired the famous union phrase "Don't mourn, organize!" — but more on that later.)
Born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, he came to the U.S. from Sweden in the early 1900s with the hopes of finding work. He adapted to his new home by changing his name to Joseph Hillstrom, which he later shortened to Joe Hill once he began to write songs.
Upon arrival in New York City, he sought employment as a migrant laborer but found opportunities sporadic and sometimes nonexistent. This sparked his interest in a labor union, which would give him and his coworkers a voice on the job no matter where they worked.
He found his calling when he discovered the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
One of the IWW rallying cries was "one big union," and its goal was uniting every working person worldwide into one union. That sat very well with Hill.
Having been raised in a musical family, he began writing songs, poems, and powerful speeches after joining the IWW. He became the resident lyricist and a frequent cartoonist.
Hill wrote songs about all different types of IWW members, from immigrant factory and railway workers to itinerant laborers moving across the country from job to job. His songs inspired people — and still do today.
His popularity grew when the IWW published the first version of its "Little Red Songbook" in 1909. The musical collection, bearing the subtitle "Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent," was made up mostly of Hill's compositions.
It included the song "There Is Power in a Union" about ... well, power in a union, and "The Preacher and the Slave," about how religion causes people to fight for things in heaven rather than on earth:
http://www.upworthy.com/ever-heard-of-union-hero-joe-hill-hes-missing-from-most-history-books-today?c=reccon3
= new reply since forum marked as read
So..Thank You for going back to fill in the history.
Paul Robeson was an incredible person .....if anyone wants to to the Search on Him.
A "Man Who Made a Difference" ......but, our history often doesn't go back far enough to "Catalogue" Those Who Went Before! We forget so easily filling in the pieces and spaces in the gaps in our minds.
And...how many kids are taught today about Paul Robeson? I don't know...but, it matters.
Frank H. Little (1879 – August 1, 1917) was an American labor leader who was lynched in Butte, Montana, for his union and anti-war activities. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1906, organizing miners, lumberjacks, and oil field workers. He was a member of the union's Executive Board when he was murdered.
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Industrial Workers of the World
Little was born in 1879. Not much is known about his family background, but he told friends that he had "Indian blood" and his mother was part Cherokee.[2]
He was said to live in Fresno where he worked as a union organizer with the Western Federation of Miners before becoming active with the Industrial Workers of the World in 1906.[1]
He took part in the free speech campaigns among workers in Fresno, California in 1910. Little and several hundred workers were arrested for violating a city ordinance; he was reported to have refused to work on the city rock pile. Many more IWW workers came to the city and struck in support. He also led free speech efforts in Spokane, Washington and Missoula, Montana. Little was involved in organizing lumberjacks, metal miners and oil field workers into industrial unions. On one occasion in Spokane, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison for reading the Declaration of Independence.[3] In 1910, Little successfully organized unskilled fruit workers in the San Joaquin Valley of California.
In August 1913, Little and fellow IWW organizer James P. Cannon arrived in Duluth, Minnesota, to support the strike of ore-dock workers against the Great Northern Railway over dangerous working conditions. In the course of the strike he was kidnapped, held at gunpoint outside of the city, and dramatically rescued by IWW supporters.[4]
By 1916, Little was a member of the IWW's General Executive Board.[1] That year he also worked with mine workers in a strike at the Mesabi Range in Minnesota.[5]
Anti-war activism
Little was a strong opponent of capitalism and the Great War. While General Secretary-Treasurer William Haywood and members of the General Executive Board shared Little's opinions about the war, they disagreed about whether to work to create anti-war agitation. When the United States (US) joined the war in April 1917, Ralph Chaplin, the editor of the IWW's newspaper Solidarity, claimed that opposing the draft would destroy the IWW by visiting government repression upon the union the likes of which had not before been seen. Other Board members argued that organized labor would not have the power to stop the war until more workers were organized, and the union should continue to focus on organizing workers at the point of production, even if their actions might incidentally impede the war effort.
Little refused to back down on this issue and argued that: "...the IWW is opposed to all wars, and we must use all our power to prevent the workers from joining the army."[1] In the summer of 1917 in Butte, Montana, he said that soldiers serving in Europe were "Uncle Sam's scabs in uniform."[1] He had gone to The Mining City to support union organizing after 168 men died in early June 1917 in a fire at the Granite Mountain & Spectacular Mines owned by Anaconda Copper.[5] The mine workers formed a new union, Metal Mine Workers’ Union (MMWU), and were joined in a strike by other trades. A federal mediator persuaded the other workers to return to work for the war effort.[5]
Lynching
In June 1917, more than 1200 striking mine workers in Arizona were rounded up and deported to Mexico. Little had broken his ankle and was not part of that action, but visited organizers.
Following the fire, organization of Metal Mine Workers and strike in Butte, as noted above, in early July 1917, Little arrived in the city to help organize a copper miners' union and lead the miners' strike against the Anaconda Copper Company. The striking workers had been subject to attack by a "home guard" organized by the company, and newspapers worked to undermine public support for the workers. Little created a picket line at the mines, persuaded women to join the lines, and ultimately encouraged the other trades to join the strike. During this period, he also spoke out against US involvement in the war.[5]
In the early hours of August 1, six masked men broke into Little's boardinghouse room.[1] He was beaten and taken to the edge of town where he was lynched, hanged from a railroad trestle.[1] A note with the words "First and last warning" was pinned to his thigh, referring to earlier Vigilantes giving people three warnings to stop objectionable actions.[5] The note also included the numbers 3-7-77 (a sign of Vigilantes active in the 19th century in Virginia City, Montana, some people thought referred to grave measurements), and the initials of other union leaders, suggesting they were next to be killed. The attorney for the Metal Mine Workers said after Little's murder that the union had received warnings about Joe Shannon, Tom Campbell, and another man.[1]
It was widely believed that Pinkerton agents were involved, and possibly police of Butte. No one was apprehended or prosecuted for Little's murder. An estimated 10,000 workers lined the route of his funeral procession, which was followed by 3500 more persons.[5] He was buried in Butte's Mountain View Cemetery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Little_%28unionist%29
A plantationation full of Joe and Jane Hills living in a Walmart world aren't even aware there's a problem.
The latest controversy of Texas textbooks involved African slaves being described as 'workers.' Texas education officials rejected a proposal that would require university academics to fact-check the textbooks.
By Story Hinckley
Christian Science Monitor, Staff NOVEMBER 19, 2015
The Texas Board of Education rejected a measure Wednesday that would require university experts to fact-check the state’s textbooks in public schools.
The board rejected the measure 8-7, reaffirming the current fact-checking system that relies on citizen review panels made up of parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.
The measure was likely proposed in response to a complaint last month, when a Houston mother found her child’s newly approved geography textbook referred to African slaves shipped to plantations in the United States between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers.”
Instead of requesting academic consultation, the board voted unanimously to require that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience,” at the discretion of the Texas education commissioner.
SNIP...
Republican board member Thomas Ratliff proposed the initial measure to reduce the national controversy over Texas’ textbooks
CONTINUED...
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/1119/Texas-We-don-t-need-academics-to-fact-check-our-textbooks
Remember: A conservative education is a miseducation.