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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Managing a secret union in a kitchen is fucking hard two fucking people asked for raises, which they for sure deserve but didn't mention it to the group chat or anything. They picked a shitty time by a couple months and we agreed to coordinate these things and never ask for raises just for ourselves but always vouch for others at the same time. I got every 3 extra bucks an hour last year on my own and hope that would be a motivating factor to stay in fucking line but I guess not.
I know that telling people I will handle their shit for them and to trust me and sometimes just fo what the fuck I say is weird, but I've gotten the good before and we've worked together 30 hours a week for 2 years and I've proven to not only be trustworthy but willing to stick my neck out for others on a pretty constant basis, everyone who's part of the conspiracy is in seceet group contact, so what the fuck? I can make good of this with myself and the other person in play (1 person that asked isn't part of the conspiracy and was overdue, he's got more responsibility and stuff so whatever, I was gonna get him in the fold first but eh) other dude should know better. He went 2 years without a raise before I got hired and six months later made $3\ hrs more