Friday, June 5, 2020

preacher and the slave joe hagglund hill


the cave art covers everything public
like christo in sprayfeint

no smoking carcasses to speak of, other
than workers neglected

lest i lie we got to the 25 bricks
hearst orders  in deadwood but never

put his name on in pie o joe hill square
which more circular and indian

than martyr swede
does not negate

sol
i
dare
airity


"Joe Hill (October 7, 1879 – November 19, 1915), born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund and also known as Joseph Hillström, was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, familiarly called the "Wobblies").

 A native Swedish speaker, he learned English during the early 1900s, while working various jobs from New York to San Francisco.

 Hill, an immigrant worker frequently facing unemployment and underemployment, became a popular songwriter and cartoonist for the union.

 His most famous songs include "The Preacher and the Slave" (in which he coined the phrase "pie in the sky"),

"The Tramp", "There Is Power in a Union", "The Rebel Girl", and "Casey Jones—the Union Scab", which express the harsh and combative life of itinerant workers, and call for workers to organize their efforts to improve working conditions.:_

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