Treating People Right and Joe Hill

John McCutcheon Becomes Joe Hill

In the wake of the industrial revolution people came cheap. At least cheap is what many captains of industry thought because machines could produce goods faster and cheaper.  Not everyone thought that way, especially people having a hard time making a living in hard and dirty jobs. Joe Hill, a Swedish immigrant and labor organizer, campaigned for workers to join together and fight for an eight-hour day and higher pay. In his efforts to recruit members for the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World, he wrote songs and penned poems.  He performed them to promote the IWW union.

In an unfortunate turn of events Joe Hill was executed for a double murder he did not commit.  Many say he was framed because of his union activities.  In any event he became a martyr to the union cause, the subject of a song (I dreamed I saw Joe Hill Last Night) that claimed he never died because his spirit lived on in those who continued to organize miners and mill workers, a powerful symbol of the union movement.

A hundred years after Joe Hill’s death John McCutcheon shows us that the efforts of the labor organizer, his fight for workers’ rights and improved wages, still have relevance today.  In the one-man play “Joe Hill’s Last Will” John becomes Joe Hill for an evening singing Joe’s songs and acting out Joe’s story.  He sings “The Preacher and the Slave” and “There is a Power in a Union” where Joe adapted his lyrics to popular songs of the day. John sets “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” a poem, to his own tune. In the folk tradition, if there had not been a Joe Hill, there would probably not have been a Woody Guthrie, a Pete Seeger, a Bob Dylan, or even a John McCutcheon.

Come see the play based on the life of a pioneer, a working man driven to treating people right, like Pete Seeger who followed him, like John McCutcheon who channels him in the play.  Tickets for “Joe Hill’s Last Will” at St. James’ on June 12^th at 7:30 PM, can be obtained in the Parish Hall at coffee hour on Sundays or by calling St. James’ at 510-797-1492.