Journalism professor emeritus Clancy Sigal wrote an opinion piece for the London Guardian titled “Labor Day and the spirit of Joe Hill,” celebrating the rebel singer and labor icon. The article explains that Joe Hill, who leads his day's labor unions through songs such as "There is Power in the Union," was framed on a murder charge and strapped into a chair and shot by a firing squad. Sigal wrote that Joe refused to testify because he realized, “He may have been more valuable to the movement as a bullet-punctured corpse than he would have been alive: a reminder that the class struggle for which he was surrendering his life was – and is – as undying as his legacy on this Labor Day, 2011.” Sigal wrote that today, “Americans are working harder for less money,” but the “fighting young” such as the “New York immigrant food workers, panhandlers in Vancouver, Chicago bike messengers” and the “City of London cleaners” hold the spirit of Joe Hill in their hearts. Read the article