Piece Comment

Review of The Man Who Didn't Die


Dick Meister opens his compelling history nugget with the 1915 execution of Joe Hill, condemned organizer for Industrial Workers of the World, and moves back in time to explain what the fiery labor leader meant to the workers movement, and to the government which set out to squash him. Meister always packs lots of interesting information into his commentaries. His straight ahead delivery has improved by leaps and bounds in the past year or so. Not glamorous production, but solid, air-able, and damn valuable. Plus there?s a tasty nugget about postal workers invoking the Espionage Act to seize a packet of Hill's ashes. Which sounds like something that could happen this very day. With the minimum wage sitting stagnant year after year, and the 8-hour work day becoming a distant memory, and about 8,000 other things, this commentary led this reviewer to a moment of reflection on how painfully retro America has become. Dick Meister is a liberal, no doubt about it, and I'm his fan.