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Joe Hill ::
I have two problems with martyrdom. First off, the martyr’s story is always so wrapped up in the ideology of the political or social movement they died for that a significant amount of their humanity is wiped away. For example: in the mythologizing of John Brown, we do not discuss the fact that he was crazy; we also don’t discuss any of the emotional, spiritual, or intelletual struggles he had that led him to Harper’s Ferry. No, he was always fated to fight his battle against oppression, no questions asked. But then on the other hand, when a political movement is blessed with a martyr, they somehow gain the ability to not be held accountable for their views or their political beliefs. It’s as if they have a belief that because they sustained such a loss, what they have to say is no longer up for debate, it is simply right.
The story of Joe Hill that Stegner tells illuminates this double-trouble of martyrdom. Very little is known about the man Joe Hill. He was an immigrant, he traveled the West Coast, and his belief that the IWW was the only answer to the oppression brought on by early twentieth century industrialization was all but unshakeable, right up until the point when he died. As far as anyone could tell, he was in life, as in death, inseparable from the Wobblies. Then on the other hand, his martyrdom is talked about to this day as an event that was emblematic of the injustice of not only Justice system in this country, but the whole economic and political setup as well. But never in that discussion of martyrdom will there be a discussion about the politics that Joe Hill and the Wobblies represented, or their absurd belief that the best way to end oppression in this world was through the perpetuation of violent uprisings.
Joe Hill gave me a sense of labor as it once was in this country. And the fact that it was written by someone who knew labor history but hadn’t made it his religion made the settings so textured and real that I felt I could them when I closed my eyes. But most importantly, this book gave me a version of Joe Hill I don’t think I could find anywhere else. I saw his flaws, his obsessions, and his anger; I saw his commitment and his quiet emotional intensity. I was able to see what made him such a leader in the labor movement, but I also saw what made him a real human being. I wonder what would happen to the present-day IWW if they started viewing Joe Hill as Stegner created him. But then, what would the world look like if we started looking at all our martyrs as a actual people?
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