The Wobblies

"Wobblies" was the nickname for the first iteration of the radical (I approve!) Trades Union the "Industrial Workers of the World"  (I.W.W.)

The lore is that the name "wobblies" came from a Chinese member who pronounced "W" as "wobbleyou", but that tale could be an example of early 20th Century racism.

But the IWW cheerfully adopted the nickname.

The wobblies has two notable successes, the first in Spokane, WA  (in truth a success for free speech and the right of public assembly, and also a victory which led to the abolition (by law) of the corrupt businesses which offered poor people a job (for a fee), most often for a job which never existed).

see http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/industrial-workers-world-campaigns-free-speech-spokane-washington-usa-1908-1910

The second in the famous Lawrence, MA strike against the oppressive mill owners.

see  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike

The powers that be - Government and Big Business  - combined to destroy the Wobblies, who were essentially put out of existence in 1917 by the repressive fiat of the so-called progressive President Woodrow Wilson  (n truth he was a rotten racist and segregationist).

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I've just finished "The Man Who Never Died - the Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill. American Labor Icon"  (William M. Adler, Bloomsbury 2011). (Joe Hill, is the American name he used, He was born as Joel Hagglund in Sweden in 1879.)


Joe Hill was the great song writer for the Wobblies.  Their marches and demonstrations were empowered by song.

Singing is so powerful.  Think of the early Methodists; of Welsh Rugby supporters singing "Land of my Fathers"; or of Liverpool F.C supporters singing "When you walk through a storm".

Here is one of Joe Hill's most singable offerings sung to the tune of the Christian Hymn "In the sweet bye and bye"

Long-haired preachers come out every night
To tell you what's wrong and what's right

They will answer in voices so sweet:
But when asked how about something to eat

    You will eat, bye and bye

    You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
    In that glorious land above the sky
    Work and pray, live on hay
    That's a lie


Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum:
And the starvation army they play
They sing and they clap and they pray
'Till they get all your coin on the drum


    Work and pray, live on hay
    You're gonna eat, bye and bye, poor boy
    In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
    You'll get pie in the sky when you die
    Dirty lie


    And you will eat, bye and bye,
Holy Rollers and jumpers come out
They holler, they jump, Lord, they shout
Give your money to Jesus they say
He will cure all troubles today


Try to get something good in this life
    In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
    Work and pray, boy, live on hay,
    You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

If you fight hard for children and wife

    You'll get pie in the sky when you die
You're a sinner and bad man, they tell
When you die you will sure go to hell

    You will eat, bye and bye
    In that glorious land above the sky
    Work and pray, live on hay


    When you've learned how to cook and to fry
Workingmen of all countries, unite
Side by side we for freedom will fight
When this world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters we'll sing this refrain:

    Well, you will eat, bye and bye

    You'll get pie in the sky when you die
    Chop some wood, it'll do you good
    You will eat in the sweet bye and bye

    Yes you'll eat, bye and bye
    In that glorious land above the sky, way up high
    Work and pray, and live on hay

    That's a lie....

The book tells his story, but it's also an exhaustive investigation into his trial for murder in Salt Lake City, and execution by firing squad.  Adler asserts. quite convincingly,that it was show trial presided over by a deeply biased Judge, and that Joe Hill was unjustly convicted and executed, simply because he was the song writer for the Wobblies.