Welcome Brothers and Sisters. As a union worker from a union family, and a movie lover, I have a natural fondness of labor films and love sharing and discussing them. A special thanks to the kind Daily Kos users who found and watched last week’s labor film, and for their encouragement, suggestions and helpful feedback, which I employed in this weeks installment.
This week I chose another labor film relatively new to me, an entertaining and informative historical drama that had me laughing, outraged, and satisfied. 1971’s Joe Hill, aka “The Ballad of Joe Hill,” is a witty-gritty biopic of the labor movement’s own warrior poet, written and directed by Bo Widerber. The film’s music was arranged by Stefan Grossman, who scored certain scenes masterfully with some of his own original steely-hot blues guitar licks, as well an eclectic selection of pieces authentic to the period, ranging from operatic standards to folk songs.
Joe Hill was a Swedish-American immigrant who arrived in New York City in 1902. His life in the United States was spent largely on the move, living a hobo’s life on the rails across the country. Along the way, he became acquainted with a group of activist organizers, who came to be known as the Wobblies, of the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW), who also relied on illicit transport, opportunistically obtained via railroad from one place to the next. Never content with making speeches and distributing literature, these men and women would procure employment of every description. This was done not only to support themselves and the movement along the way, but as a means to earn the trust of their fellow workers they sought to educate and organize, toiling side by side together for their daily bread. Through his actions and his words, Joe Hill became a preeminent figure in the IWW, and eventually a legend in the labor movement at large. Finding the cause he was born to stand for, it did not take long for Hill’s legend to grow, and for both good and ill, his reputation to precede him.
There are a few viewing options. The film is available free for viewing below, or to add to your YouTube watchlist for later. It is also free on Vimeo if you prefer, or with a subscription to FlixFling.
The film’s dialog is almost entirely in English, but there are small portions toward the beginning in Swedish. I don’t think the filmmaker intended subtitles, because straightforward context and solid acting provided an adequate gist of the meaning the first time I watched. The second time, I tried out the subtitles, but honestly the experience was essentially the same. The YouTube uploader hosting the film embedded below, graciously provided us the option, which you may turn on or off by clicking the “CC” symbol on the bottom right, which if active will have a small red underline.
Another thing to know prior to viewing is that there are portions of scenes with animals that may be potentially upsetting to some viewers. At the risk of minor spoilers, but for the necessary benefit of those sensitive to such things; at timestamp 11:06 through 11:09, a turtle is needlessly bopped on the head; at 29:37 to 29:45, a chicken is “twirl” slaughtered, and is shown carried dead intermittently through 30:28 where it is plucked, and finally more intermittent carrying and a close-up of it cooked on a spit through 30:51 (if you need to skip through all of this, nothing plot-essential will be missed); finally, at 55:11 there’s a scene in a tannery where real cow hides are being processed, but there is plot essential dialog starting at 55:36 for the rest of the scene, but fortunately there are only a few seconds of the hides visible at the beginning of the dialog, and mostly in the background.
Joe Hill is sadly unremembered to the degree that he should be, even among labor’s strongest contemporary proponents. This is partially due to the complicated history of a labor movement which has not always lived up to the principles of solidarity. The IWW was, in part, born of a reaction to existing craft unions’ exclusivity, leaving unskilled workers out in the cold. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
A satisfactory, honest, comprehensive examination that publicly addresses organized labor’s complicated history does not exist for several reasons. The best answer is that noting is over; our fight against common adversaries continues, and airing our dirty laundry in public is like giving them free ammunition, twisting words and framing events out of context. I can only speak for my own experience as a non-leadership working member of my union, but our freely admitted past mistakes are what chiefly informs our work to recruit, educate, and organize our members.
What is important is that all work has value, all workers have worth, and labor is a commodity, purchased by the hour at the lowest possible price; United We Bargain, Divided We Beg. Like so many others, Joe Hill bore the scars and bruises inflicted for offenses against a brutal order of the day, enforced by what could be described as anything from sanctioned bullying, to domestic terrorism.
Prior to protective legislation, there was a time in this country when labor organizing was effectively illegal, and persecution and violence towards the brave men and women who literally risked everything to fight for workers rights was a common everyday threat. The “bosses,” wealthy and powerful business men, employed armed thugs as strikebreakers, and dubious hired guns who fancied themselves “private investigators” to sabotage organizing efforts, and terrorize workers and their families. As for law enforcement, a blind eye was routinely turned to this violence and intimidation, and all too often, police actively cooperated and conspired with the bosses who financed it.
The bosses were indeed not above using espionage to infiltrate, co-opt and undermine the efforts of budding unions, thus meetings were held in secret and safeguards were established, and much of the modern symbolic ritual of unions is rooted in literal precautions taken in the past. Pledges and oaths of allegiance were authored and sworn, secret handshakes and hand signals were established, as were procedures for securing the actual entrances of meeting places and certifying the identity and loyalty of those in attendance. There were even “sentry challenge” questions carefully circulated, to accompany and further verify the credentials of newcomers, especially those who would need privileged access to a local organization when proving loyalty over a probationary period was not practical, for example when an organizer from a different part of the country was visiting on official business. A great example of this was portrayed in another classic labor film Matewan, when a union organizer, whom the rightly suspicious and embattled local coal miners had never met before, subjected to an historically accurate series of these questions, including “Where is Joe Hill buried?” As it is shown why, towards the end of this week’s film, the correct answer is “All over the world.”
Joe Hill was a gifted speaker and writer, an achievement in its own right, given he spoke almost no English when he arrived in the US. He used this talent, among other ways, in the age old practice of writing new lyrics to older popular tunes. Such an old tune with new lyrics was sang by protesters in Salt Lake City, well into the later half of the film. I recognized it as the tune of "Jesus Loves the Little Children," used by World Vision Christian Charities television spots in the 90’s. These lyrics were written in the later 1800’s by the Chicago born Philadelphia preacher Rev. Clare Herbert Woolston. The tune’s oldest known, first published incarnation was a civil war song. Written by George Fredrick Root in 1864, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" was a song for Union POW’s, but caught on with soldiers still in the fight, and soon after adapted by rebel soldiers. It is featured in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, but during a recent viewing, I could not pick it out. The song in our film, the one sang in Salt Lake City refereed to above, of still very same tune, is itself is called "The Tramp.” Another Joe Hill original, which he wrote in 1913, the lyrics are about a downtrodden, wandering worker not welcome anywhere for long.
Though considered a hero by many, Joe Hill was a human being, complete with all of our incumbent failings, weaknesses and shortcomings, which this film makes no effort to downplay or conceal. He was both a tough and gentle person, who did what he felt was right using the means at his disposal. The film mostly allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions from the circumstances and motives surrounding Joe Hill’s doubtlessly unjust demise. In less than 14 years, he achieved immortality. He was 36 years old.
My overall takeaway from the film is a general reinforcement of my conviction that civil society, with our values, laws and customs, are artificial, yet vitally essential window dressing; an ever evolving, imperfect, safeguard against our incumbent human failings, weaknesses, and shortcomings, a system we must believe in, participate in, and perpetually reinvest in for our very survival. As we are reminded from time to time, greed and cruelty, where the strong prey upon the weak, are a real and immediate threat any time that vigilance, essential to liberty, even momentarily fails. Armed with the tools we have, humans can protect eachother from ourselves. We can ensure that all workers get a fair shake, and perhaps one fine day, those better angels of our nature may deliver thus transcendence, a higher state divorced from our demons. I will not live to see that day, but I will forever fight for its promise. In the mean time, the need for unions is greater than ever, for all workers, and my opinion is that to believe we have somehow evolved beyond the need for them is foolish, not when every value, law and custom favoring workers was born of the labor movement.
When I meet someone who effectively feels that the benevolence of business is sufficient protection, and that there is no need to protect ourselves and eachother, no need for unions, I wish I had a “what if” machine. With this machine, I would show them the consequent feudal plutocracy that would exist should we let our guard down. Yet even in such a comparative hellscape, where collective bargaining is illegal, unions are outlawed, and workers are little more than disposable indentured chattel, I would dream of the world that was, and what could be, and I would like to believe I would have the courage to organize, just as folks like Joe Hill did when it was an exponentially greater risk to do so than today. I feel I dishonor the memory of folks like him by not doing so, and hope I can continue to summon the courage, come what may, to never, ever stop.
If the workers take a notion,
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains;
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.
Part of "Workers of the World, Awaken!" yet another song by Joe Hill, this excerpt, poetry on its own merit, is considered Hill’s most well known written work.
The last telegram Joe Hill was allowed to send from jail read: “Don’t waste time mourning, Organize!”
Enjoy watching, and thank you for reading, and every comment is encouraged and appreciated.