![]() up in a cloak of humor to take the dryness off of them, he will succeed in reaching a great number of workers who are too unintelligent or too indifferent to read a pamphlet or an editorial in economic science (quoted in Winters 1985:41). Yet the IWW crusade against religion was not the only factor motivating the union’s embrace of singing. The famous Wobbly songwriter, leader, and martyr, Joe Hill, wrote:Ī pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over and I maintain that if a person can put a few cold, common sense facts into a song and dress them. ![]() Using humor and brutal honesty, Wobbly songwriters ridiculed the pretensions of organized religion and appealed to workers at the same time. If you love the Holy Ghost, go murder, pray, and die. God above is calling you to rob and rape and kill Īll your acts are sanctified by the Lamb on high Pulpiteers are spouting effervescent swill, Slay your Christian brothers, or by them be slain Onward Christian soldiers! Duty’s way is plain The IWW’s gravitation toward music and song developed partially in response to the union’s rivalry with organized religion. Wobblies thought that religion only diverted workers’ attention away from the ills of the capitalist system by promising “pie in the sky” rewards. Yet they recognized the appeal of religion and the enthusiasm generated by religious organizations such as the Salvation Army. The IWW turned to music to beat the Salvation Army at its own game and began to compete with it, literally on the same streets. When a Salvation Army band met in public to sing and play music, Wobblies often would converge to sing their own lyrics to the band’s tunes. The famous militant Christian song, “Onward Christian Soldiers,” for example, became the famous Wobbly parody, “Christians at War,” which opened with the biting stanza (quoted in Winters 1985:42): Joe Hill, IWW Songsīetween its founding convention in 1905 and the United States’ entry into World War I in 1917, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) became one of the most active labor unions in the country. The widespread appeal of the union’s goal-nothing less than the overthrow of capitalism-and its commitment to forming “one big union” of all workers were key factors in the union’s growth, but its organizing tactics also played an important role. The IWW created music that appealed to workers in ways that political pamphlets and other forms of propaganda did not. The union’s songbook, Songs of the Workers (or The Little Red Songbook), which originated among the members of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the IWW, captured that music.
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