Rebecca Graham is the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Communications Specialist. Before joining the Labor Center, Rebecca managed strategic media and public relations for an environmental and fair labor certification body, supporting a global network of commercial, government and NGO clients. She has written for publications and websites as well as handling promotions for several San Francisco Bay Area arts organizations. In her role at the Labor Center, Rebecca is charged with promoting our research through online and traditional media and producing public events to raise the profile of the Labor Center and that of the labor movement in general.

Labor Icon Joe Hill—The Man Who Never Died

by Rebecca Graham


One hundred years ago, workers were fighting for the middle class, organizing for One Big Union; today they’d likely call themselves “The 99 Percent.” Songs united their movement and unified their actions, and many of those songs were written by a Swedish immigrant who called himself Joe Hill. In 1915, Hill was executed by firing squad—most claim it was because he had a red union card in his pocket—but he remains “The Man Who Never Died.”

This Wednesday, October 26, we will sing the songs of Joe Hill, accompanied by local musician Hali Hammer, carrying Hill’s vision of labor solidarity into our century. William B. Adler, author of a new Joe Hill biography described in The New York Times that he “saw the book as a murder mystery, and I saw myself in the role of gumshoe.” Adler will answer questions and share stories from his book of the man and the myth, Joe Hill.