Joe Hill

Joe Hill born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, and also known as Joseph Hillström, was a radical songwriter, labor activist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies. He was executed for murder after a controversial trial. After his death, he became the subject of a folksong.

Sourced

• You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
  • "The Preacher and the Slave" (1911)

• There is pow'r, there is pow'r
  In a band of workingmen.
  When they stand hand in hand,
  That's a pow'r, that's a pow'r
  That must rule in every land —
  One Industrial Union Grand.
  • "There is power in a Union" (1913)

• A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over. And I maintain that if a person can put a few common sense facts into a song and dress them up in a cloak of humor, he will succeed in reaching a great number of workers who are too unintelligent or too indifferent to read.
  • Letter to the editor of Solidarity (1914-11-29)

• I'll take the shooting. I'm used to that. I've been shot a few times in the past, and I guess I can stand it, again.
  • Remarks to the judge after being found guilty of murder (1915-07-08), as quoted in Philip Foner, The Case of Joe Hill (International Publishers Co., 1966, ISBN 0-717-80022-9, 127 pages), p. 49. Under Utah law, he was allowed a choice of being shot or hanged.

• 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.
  • My Last Will (1915-11-18)

• Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize.
  • Telegram to William "Big Bill" Haywood (1915-11-18), quoted in International Socialist Review, vol. XVI (December 1915)

• I die with a clear conscience, I die fighting, not like a coward.
  • Said while being taken to his execution, as quoted in Philip Foner, The Case of Joe Hill (International Publishers Co., 1966), p. 108

• Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights.
  All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites.
  Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave?
  Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?
  • "Workers of the World Awaken"

About Joe Hill

• I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
  Alive as you or me
  Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead,"
  "I never died," says he.
  • Written by Alfred Hayes (c. 1930), recorded by numerous artists including Billy Bragg, Earl Robinson, Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez.