T-Bone Slim, born on this day in 1880, was an IWW member, working class songwriter, and author. Due to his popular, labor themed tunes, Slim was dubbed the “laureate of the logging camps”.
Born Matti Valentin Huhta to Finnish immigrant parents in Ashtabula, Ohio, Slim became an itinerant worker after leaving his wife and family in 1912. It isn’t known when Slim became a Wobbly, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), but he first appeared in the IWW’s press in the 1920 edition of the IWW Songbook.
Slim became one of the IWW’s most famous writers during the 1920s and 30s, and many people would buy the “Industrial Worker” just to read his articles - one ad from the paper read “there’s a lot more in Industrial Solidarity and Industrial Worker than T-Bone Slim’s columns”.
Slim did not presume his working-class readership to be unintelligent people, making use of complex wordplay and experimental writing techniques, playing with ambiguity, satire and surrealism.
Slim was also well-known for his songs, such as the “Lumberjack’s Prayer”, a parody of the Lord’s Prayer about the poor quality of food available for the working class, and “The Popular Wobbly”, which experienced a revival among civil rights activists during the 1960s.
In spite of his renown in radical circles during his lifetime, many details of Slim’s life remain unclear. During the mid-1930s, he settled in New York City, where he worked as a barge captain on the docks.
In May 1942, Slim’s body was found in the East River. His cause of death remains unknown and has been subject to speculation. Following his death, Slim largely faded into obscurity, especially compared to more famous IWW-associated writers such as Joe Hill.
Slim’s songs have been preserved, however, re-published in editions of the Little Red Songbook and covered by musicians such as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and his own great-grandnephew, John Westmoreland.
Until recently, there was thought to be no surviving photographs of Slim, however, in 2019 two photos were discovered and published by Working Class History in a Newberry Library collection.
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ive been reading blackshirts & reds and i feel like i’ve already absorbed everything parenti’s saying through osmosis after lurking this site for so long
They’re over exploited!
Everything I know about communism I learned from saturday morning cartoons back in 1986.
hello communists in my phone, you help me get through periods of intense loneliness 💜
You are cool and I hope you are less lonely soon
You people are all cooler than 95% of adults IRL
Yes, you’re right. North Korea doesn’t do [blatant western propaganda] but lying about them is justified because they do [equally blatant western propaganda] so we need to do everything we can against them
why are libs like this?
Imagine realising that you’re living in and supporting the Hitler state. It’s too terrifying for some people.
I get American/western TV news media is bad but holy shit I really didn’t think it was that bad until I glanced at it watching the TV at the gym earlier. There was a segment on CNN where the little (what’s the thing called? A chevron?) ticker down at the bottom read “Securing Europe’s Future” with some b-roll footage of a fucking arms factory. Later in the same segment they showed a Ukrainian tank rolling by in the field and there was a fucking iron cross on the side. I’ve seen mockery of this shit on hexbear before but it’s fucking surreal to see it casually IRL
The response of a normal healthy society to losing a war in eastern europe
chyron
Chiron
I don’t think anyone has made a post moping about being single on Valentine’s Day so I’ll just mope in the megathread
I just want a partner but I have no idea how to approach people. Also I like the idea of being in a relationship but am too afraid of the difficulties of starting one. Also my social circle has only been shrinking in the past few years
same, haven’t so much as had an acquaintance IRL for like 15 years
trying to pull myself out of depression enough to change things for the better.
I know the feeling, comrade. I’ve been chronically single for a long-ass time. Recently though I started going to a salsa dancing group in my city, I’ve had more success in socializing there than anywhere else in the last 7 years. So maybe something to look into
Recently though I started going to a salsa dancing group in my city, I’ve had more success in socializing there than anywhere else in the last 7 years.
what’s happened? how many people have you met?
Made friends with about six women and three guys that I see there on a regular basis. Have a bit of an ongoing flirting thing with one girl. I haven’t had any luck socially for years before this, so it’s a huge step up for me.
“If people think that markets are rigged and democracy isn’t listening to them, then you get – and this is the worrying thing to me – an increasing number of young people saying, ‘I don’t believe in democracy, I don’t believe in markets’.”
Had a dream i was hanging out with a bunch of very tall women and was like “waow”. What’s the opposite of a nightmare?
New Megathread Nerds!!!
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No current struggle session discussion here on the new general megathread, i will ban you from the comm and remove your comment, have a good day/night :meow-coffee:
Howdy
Not having a laptop anymore sucks
First
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you: seething soy possum
me: calm chad possum
me: “okay i’m going to seduce the oracle at delphi but i gotta look good for it”
tailor about to invent seersucker fabric: “i’ve got just the thing in mind”
set a reservation for a surf and turf dinner for valentine’s day with my SO and they sit me down at a table with a medieval peasant and JK rowling wtf???
Another user banned for being a belgian. When will they learn? Smh
anyone who engages with any company that was allied with the nazis is also a nazi. if you post an aesthetic image of a vw camper or smth you’re a fascist. this is a serious opinion of mine
“Generic… Please… “ as I grasp my chest in pain and the paramedic offers me Bayer Aspirin to thin my blood
“take the stairs!” I scream at the paramedics as I spot a ThyssenKrupp logo in the elevator. “Paper only!” are my last words after I see the IBM laptop the nurse is using to record my lack of oxygen
I’ve come to realize that my flavor of lifelong crippling ADHD is like the big spinning clockwork blade room from Thirteen Ghosts. When Monk has to jump through the blades to get to the center, he hesitates because he can see no way through, and can only imagine being torn apart. Only on going into some bullshit love trance can he make the leap to the other side.
I spend 95% of my time awake agonizing about things I know I have to do, should do, that would make my life better, unstick it from this rut, but most of the time I can only focus on anticipating the bite of the blade. Only after spending all night alone hitting this pen and spending all my thinking power on trying to beat my record in this resident evil unity clone could I finally enter the fugue state necessary to register effortlessly for college again after not going since the pandemic started. Usually the very thought lays me out with anxiety about wasted time.
Real. I feel for you, comrade.