         \\\INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD////////
                          education
                           W * W
             organization     *      _I_      *      emancipation
-------------------------------------------------------------
                   ``We Never Forget''

                          * * * >>>      NOVEMBER 19 :  JOE  HILL
MURDERED

     November 19 marks the 99th anniversary of the  execution  of
our  fellow  worker  Joe  Hill,  songwriter and organizer, by the
state of Utah, for a crime he did not commit.

     Born Joel Emmanuel Haggland on October  7,  1879,  Joe  left
Sweden  for  New  York  about 1902.  He played piano in NYC, then
moved west  and  worked  as  a  longshore-worker  in  San  Pedro,
California.   Joe  travelled around the west working on farms and
construction.

     Joe Hill's songs first appeared in the IWW Songbook in 1911.
Joe  was at the Fraser River, B.C. rail construction when workers
struck in 1912.  He wrote *Where  the  Fraser  River  Flows*  and
helped win the strike.

     Arrested in Salt Lake City in 1914,  Joe  was  charged  with
murder  of  a  storekeeper  and ex-policeman.  Evidence shows the
storekeeper was killed for revenge by ex-convicts he  had  helped
send  to  prison.   But  police  were  eager  to  get  rid of the
songwriter, and so Joe was convicted with many irregularities  in
the trial.

     Worldwide protests came from  the  Swedish  government,  and
hundreds of letters and telegrams came daily to the Utah governor
asking for a pardon.  In prison Joe kept writing songs, including
*The  Rebel  Girl*, written for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, which Joe
considered his best song.

     November 18, 1915, Joe sent this telegram to  IWW  secretary
Big   Bill  Haywood:   *Don't  waste  any  time  in  mourning  --
organize!*   Later, Joe handed a guard a paper with these words:

                MY LAST WILL
     My will is easy to decide,  For I have nothing to divide
     My kin don't need to fuss and moan,
     Moss does not cling to a rolling stone
     My body -- Ah, 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 -- Joe Hill.

Joe Hill was executed by a firing squad November  19,  1915.   In
the  1980's,  an urn containing Joe Hill's ashes was found in the
US Post Office.  After some negotiation, the  ashes  were  turned
over to the IWW, and scattered at about 20 different sites around
the United  States.   Wherever  people  are  fighting  for  their
rights,  the  spirit  of  Joe  Hill  lives  on!   Don't  mourn --
organize!


          THE REBEL GIRL
     by Joe Hill  /words updated/

     There are women of many descriptions
     In this cruel world as everyone knows
     Some are living in beautiful mansions
     And wearing the finest of clothes

     There's the blue blooded queen and the princess
     Who have charms made of diamonds and pearls
     But the only and true kind of lady
     Is the Rebel Girl

chorus:
     She's a rebel girl, a rebel girl
     To the working class she's the strength of this world
     From Newfoundland to B.C.
     She's fighting for you and for me

     Yes she's there by our side
     With her courage and pride
     She's unequalled anywhere

     And I'm proud to fight for freedom
     With the rebel girl!

\\\THE BOSSES NEED YOU - YOU DON'T NEED THEM/////// ###










































