From ‘Industrial Worker’, June 22, 1911, Spokane, Washington
Can you see the city’s slum
From your mansion where you dwell?
Then with me to the window come,
And I will show you hell.
Have you seen the busy street
Where men of commerce buy and sell —
Where millionaires and beggars meet?
That, my friend, is hell.
Have you seen the well-named “pit,”
Where men pretend to buy and sell —
Where the worst of gamblers sit?
That, my friend, is hell.
Have you heard the horrid roar
of musketry and screaming shell —
Seen brothers bathed in brothers’ gore?
That, my friend, is hell.
Does your conscience now condemn
For some deed the world called well,
Some wrong you did to fellow man?
This to you, my friend, is hell.
Have you abused the poor, dumb brute
That served you long and well?
Then this truth you’ll not refute —
You’re well deserving hell.
Hades is not beyond the tomb,
As some people gravely tell —
The human heart that’s filled with gloom
Is also filled with hell.
Resource links:
About Face: Veterans Against The War
Anti-Militarism/Anti-War:
Ten Years a Soldier, from War Commentary (1944)
Militians, Yes! But Soldiers, Never!, by various Spanish anarchist militias (1936)
The Deadly Parallel, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1917)
The Psychology of War, from The Blast (1916)
Don’t Become a Murderer!, from The Blast (1916)
To the Soldiers, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1914)
Should I Ever Be a Soldier, by Joe Hill (1913)
War and the Workers, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
Military Power, from Industrial Worker (1909)
Rebellion of the Soldier, by Manuel González Prada (1906)
To the Conscripts, from l’anarchie (1906)
IWW content on this site:
Industrial Workers of the World in Vancouver, by M.Gouldhawke (2002)
The Politician is Not My Shepherd, by Covington Hall (1933)
The Deadly Parallel, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1917)
Collected texts by Joe Hill (1910-1915)
Break This Conspiracy of the Shipping Trust, by Ben Fletcher (1914)
The Spirit of Revolt, from Industrial Worker (1913)
Queries and Replies, from Industrial Worker (1913)
The Yellow Peril, from Industrial Worker (1913)
Manifesto to the Workers of the World, by the Mexican Liberal Party (1911)
Fighting On, by Ricardo Flores Magón (1911)
Reds Die For Freedom, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
War and the Workers, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1911)
The IWW and Political Parties, by Vincent St. John (1910)
Military Power, from Industrial Worker (1909)
On other sites:
Industrial Workers of the World
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn texts at the Marxists Internet Archive
E73-74: Ben Fletcher, by the Working Class History podcast (2023)
Indigenous labour struggles, by M.Gouldhawke (2022)
E52: The IWW in Canada, by the Working Class History podcast (2021)
Fitz St. John: A Longshoreman’s Longshoreman, by the ILWU (2020)
Mexican Workers in the IWW and the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), by Devra Anne Weber (2016)
Land, Labour and Loss: A Story of Struggle & Survival at the Burrard Inlet, by Taté Walker (2015)
Ben Fletcher: portrait of a black syndicalist, by Jeff Stein (1987)
Don’t Take My Papa Away From Me, by Joe Hill (1915)
Should I Ever Be a Soldier, by Joe Hill (1913)
Away with Race Prejudice, by Caroline Nelson (1912)
Down with Race Prejudice, by Phineas Eastman (1912)
Organize the Mexican Workers, by Stanley M. Gue, from Industrial Worker (1911)
William Stanley Dead, from Industrial Worker (1911)
The Battle of Mexicali, by F.A. Compton, from Industrial Worker (1911)
To Arms Ye Braves! An Appeal from the I.W.W. Brigade in Mexico, from Industrial Worker (1911)
For Land and Liberty: Mexican Revolution Conference in New York, from Industrial Worker (1911)
Developments at Spokane, by J. H. Walsh (1908)
Japanese and Chinese Exclusion or Industrial Organization, Which?, by J. H. Walsh (1908)
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