Joe Hill

by Rosemont, Franklin

• ISBN13: 9780882862644
• ISBN10: 0882862642
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Charles H Kerr Pub Co

Summary

Biography. This throrough biography chronicles the life and revolutionary ideas ofJoe Hill, the best-known figure in the heroic history of the Industrial Workers of the World (a.k.a. Wobblies). Unlike previous biographies, Franklin Rosemont's book sheds new light on the crime Hill was framed for and his martyrdom, but focuses overall on Hill's ideas and actvity. Here we see Hill as a songwriter, poet, artist, hobo, thinker, humorist, and archetypal rank-and-file-Wobbly.

Table of Contents

Joe Hill's Artwork	x
A Note on the Notes	x
INTRODUCTION
Troubadour of Discontent	1	(6)
I: JOE HILL & HIS UNION
1. The ABC of the IWW: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism	7	(6)
2. Conflicting Views of IWW History	13	(6)
3. The Hobo Contribution to Critical Theory & the Origins of the Wobbly Counterculture	19	(18)
4. Joe Hill: The Problem of Biography	37	(6)
5. "Born on a Planet Called the Earth": A Sketch of the Life of a Footloose Wobbly	43	(6)
6. Ester Dahl: Joe Hill's Sister	49	(4)
II: THE WOBBLY BARD
1. Songs to Wise Up the Slaves	53	(10)
2. A "One Big Union" of Poets	63	(10)
III: A FREE-SPIRITED INTERNATIONALIST
1. From Swedish Immigrant to Citizen of the World	73	(4)
2. "The Pleasure of Fighting Under the Red Flag": Joe Hill & the Mexican Revolution	77	(12)
3. The Fraser River Strike: The IWW Bard in Canada	89	(6)
4. More Mysteries of a Hobo's Life: Fellow Worker Hill on the Honolulu Run	95	(6)
5. "Don't Sing 'My Country Tis of Thee'": Joe Hill's Internationalism	101	(2)
IV: A CLASSIC CASE OF FRAME-UP
1. Why Was Joe Hill Arrested?	103	(6)
2. Red Scare: Why & How the Police and the Press Stir Up Fear and Hatred	109	(4)
3. Convicting the Innocent, Encouraging the Guilty	113
4. The Mystery Woman l	18	(107)
5. "Do Something to Save the Life of Joe Hill": The Defense Committee Swings into Action	125	(8)
6. The International Defense	133	(4)
7. 19 November 1915: A Case of Judicial Murder	137	(2)
8. Responses to the Execution	139	(4)
9. Two Funerals, Unending Memorials	143	(14)
V: JOE HILL & THE ARTS
1. A Painting by Joe Hill	157	(4)
2. Joe Hill, IWW Cartoonist	161	(6)
3. A Class-War Humorist	167	(6)
4. The Wobbly Art of Parody	173	(6)
5. Carl Michael Bellman & Joe Hill's Favorite Song	179	(3)
6. Joe Hill, Composer	182	(3)
7. Songs, Music, & Cartoons: Reflections on Scribbling	185	(6)
8. Pie in the Sky	191	(5)
9. "I Have Lived Like an Artist"	196	(3)
VI: JOE HILL MYTHS
1. Superman, Saint, & Savior	199	(12)
2. Remorseless Scoundrel, Devil Incarnate	211	(8)
3. One Man's Joe Hill Myth: John Maata Retells the Story as He Remembered it	219	(4)
VII: THE IWW & THE WHITE PROBLEM
1. One Big Union: A Challenge to White Supremacy	223	(8)
2. Another Look at "Scissor Bill," or Good Intentions Are Not Enough	231	(4)
3. Redeeming the Earth from Private Property: The IWW & Native Americans	235	(10)
4. The Importance of Chinese Cooking in the History of the IWW	245	(7)
5. In the Abolitionist Tradition: Wobblier Against Whiteness	252	(6)
6. Race, Class, & the Titanic: Looking at a Joe Hill Cartoon	258	(7)
7. Joe Hill & Ben Fletcher	265	(4)
8. Toward the New Abolitionism: George Seldes & Ray Sprigle	269	(4)
VIII: WOMEN WOBBLIES & WOBBLY FEMINISM
1. Joe Hill, The Rebel Girl, and Rebel Women	273	(26)
2. The Strange Case of Agnes Thecla Fair	299	(8)
IX: WOBBLIES VERSUS "SKY PILOTS"
1. Joe Hill, the IWW & Religion	307	(16)
2. The Mormon Influence in the Hill Case	323	(5)
3. Ammon Hennacy & the Salt Lake City Joe Hill House of Hospitality	328	(9)
X: COPS & WOBBLIEST LAW, CRIME, PRISON & THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKINGCLASS EMANCIPATION
1. How Criminalizing the IWW Helped Gangsterize the U.S.A.	337	(12)
2. Wobblier as Critics of the "Injustice System"	349	(8)
3. Axel Steele: The Union-Busting Thug as Law Enforcer	357	(8)
XI: WOBBLIES VERSUS STALINISM
1. Contributions to a Critique of a Comical Party	365	(10)
2. The Communists & Joe Hill	375	(4)
XII: WOBBLIES & WILDERNESS
Joe Hill & the IWW as Forerunners of Earth First! & Eco-Socialism	379	(14)
XIII: JOE HILL, THE WOBBLIES, & THE BEAT GENERATION
1. The Hippest Union in the World	393	(4)
2. From the '29 Depression through the Cold War '50s	397	(6)
3. The Old Wobbly: Keeper of the Flames of Discontent	403	(12)
4. Discovering the IWW in the Sixties	415	(10)
5. The Kerouac Connection	425	(5)
6. Gary Snyder: Cold Mountain Wobbly	430	(5)
XIV: WOBBLY POETICS IN THEORY & PRACTICE
1. The IWW Passion for Poetry	435	(12)
2. Revolutionary Workingclass Romanticism	447	(8)
3. What Joe Hill Taught Carl Sandburg	455	(8)
4. Suggestions for the Future: Wobblies & the "Avant-Garde"	463	(14)
5. The Power of Song: The Little Red Song Book, Its Friends & Enemies	477	(6)
6. The Whole World Is Listening: Mary Gallagher & International Song Publishers	483	(5)
7. The Art of Soapboxing, or Storytelling in the Service of the Revolution	488	(6)
8. The Futurist Society of America	494	(5)
9. Revolutionary Rewriting & Infrapolitics: New Songs & Comics in the Shell of the Old	499	(12)
10. Collective Creation: Players of the World, Unite!	511	(12)
XV. THE IWW COUNTERCULTURE & VERNACULAR SURREALISM
1. Surrealism, Wobbly Style	523	(6)
2. Ralph Chaplin: Brother of the Wild Wind	529	(4)
3. Arturo Giovannitti: Against Silence, Death & Fear	533	(4)
4. Laura Tanne: Running on Swift Feet Out of the Darkness	537	(6)
5. Covington Hall: Visioning the Unseen from the Seen	543	(8)
6. T-Bone Slim: Bringing the Sublime & the Ridiculous into a Compromising Proximity	551	(9)
XVI: "YOURS FOR A CHANGE"
1. On the Road to Chicago	560	(3)
2. The Later Years of Joe Hill's Friends	563	(8)
CONCLUSION All the Good Thing of Life	571	(20)
ENVOI Joe Hill-A Long-Distance Call	591	(4)
Acknowledgments	595	(4)
Bibliography	599	(30)
Index	629