Friday's Labor Folklore 
Con Carbon, Minstrel of the Mine Patch
Joe Hill 
   One hundred years have passed since a firing squad at the Utah State Penitentiary executed
 Joe Hill at sunrise on
 Nov. 19, 1915. A century after, the legend of Joe Hill is very much alive.

Songwriter*Poet 
Musician*Cartoonist
Artist*Organizer 

   
 
Labor Martyr and Folk Hero
  He wrote songs
 "to fan the flames of discontent."


Joe Hill's Story
  • Joel Haaglund was born in 1879 in Gavle, Sweden. Both his parents enjoyed music and, as a young man, Joe sang with his family and played piano at a local cafe.
  • Immigrated to the U.S. - through New York City; as an itinerant worker he moved westward, working in a variety of jobs.
  • Joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) known as the "Wobblies."
  • Borrowing melodies from church and Tin Pan Alley songs, Joe wrote biting songs denouncing the bosses and praising the virtues of labor solidarity.
  • Wrote Preacher and the Slave - "pie in the sky when you die" - Casey Jones--the Union Scab, There is Power in a Union, The Rebel Girl and other IWW favorites.
  • Helped build the labor movement by organizing the IWW and by participating in strikes and free speech fights; his songs, poems and cartoons appeared in the union's  Industrial Worker and The Little Red Songbook.
  • Was arrested - in 1914 in Salt Lake City - and charged with murdering a man following a botched grocery store robbery. Joe proclaimed his innocence and, in an unfair trial, was convicted in an atmosphere of anti-union hysteria.
  • Was condemned to death despite international pleas for clemency sent to the governor of Utah.
  • On Nov. 19, 1915 was executed by firing squad; thirty thousand people attended his funeral in Chicago.
  • The IWW placed Joe's ashes in  envelopes which they sent around the world to be released to the winds on May 1, 1916.
[Sources: Anywhere but Utah, Songs of Joe Hill,
liner notes on CD by Bucky Halker; Postal Worker, American Postal Workers Union, magazine, Nov/Dec. 2015, special thanks; Rebel
Voices by Joyce Kornbluh; AFL-CIO web posting.] 
The Music 
Preacher & the Slave 
by Haywire Mac McClintock 
Click here.

The Rebel Girl
 arranged by Hazel Dickens
Click here.

Casey Jones, the Union Scab
by Pete Seeger
Click here.

Joe Hill
by Alfred Hayes & Earl Robinson
sung by Paul Robeson
Click here.

Joe Hill's Last Will
by John McCutcheon
Click here. 


There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. 
 -- Preamble to the constitution of the IWW