Beloved friends, As we conclude one extraordinary year and begin another, we continue to confront painful and alarming realities. Lets also continue to honor and support one anothers courageous struggles, both collective and personal. As labor hero Joe Hill wrote from his death row cell: Dont Mourn: Organize! Here is some music to sustain us. In his autobiography, Wobbly: The Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, [Ralph] Chaplin tells how he began the writing of the progressive anthem “Solidarity Forever” during the Kanawha miners strike in Huntington, West Virginia. The song was not finished until January 17, 1915 in Chicago, on the day of a giant “Hunger Demonstration”. With the insightful passion of a true labor hero, Chaplin later wrote, “It is true that Solidarity Forever was written in Chicago, but it is also true that nobody ever heard of it until fifty thousand striking Puget Sound loggers bellered it out to a world that didnt care a hoot about the problems of voteless and cruelly exploited timber beasts.” (from Why I Wrote Solidarity Forever by Ralph Chaplin (1968), on line at iww.org/history/icons/solidarity_forever/1)
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:44:26 +0000
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