1st of May Joe Hills

1st of May International Labor day

Nordic History 

Joe Hill
Sjöwall/Wahlöö - Martin Beck
Gunnar Staalesen - Varg Weum

Almost everywhere where the western culture was the way to live and in the old Communist east block,

1st of May is celebrated as a day to stand up for the working man. The ways it is done can differ a bit.

A Swedish immigrant in the USA got to be the symbol for the Labor movement,

Joe Hill is probably more known in the USA than in native Sweden?

His songs and spirit live on to this day. Sung everywhere where people gather today.

Joseph Hillström - Joe Hill Born 1879 in Gävle Sweden Executed on false accusations

in Salt Lake City 1915

The Nordic countries built up their welfare states with Social Democrat ideologies.

A mixture between the Capitalist and the Socialists ways. And as it seems the best result if you ask

the common people in the Nordics. Often in the top in satisfied indexes. In Sweden it is called

the Swedish model, a mixture of Socialism and Liberal Capitalism.

But all weren't satisfied with the result, especially in the 1960ies there was criticism from the left.

Especially in the culture sphere. And from it the genre Nordic Noir was born.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

Nordic Noir as a genre has its roots in the red left. Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö was self confessed Marxists. And wanted to create a more realistic crime novel genre. Away from the Agatha Christie formula.

Often with a mild stroke of Marxist criticism in between the lines. Gunnar Staalesen was as social aware

as the Sjöwall/Wahlöö couple. 

Well in that area to look on the happenings in the society. You find their later disciples

Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson a bit less left but certainly in the literary frontlines of solidarity and

equality. And uses social criticism as one of the methods. 

Nordic Noir is far from socialist agitation today. The new writers might have an ounce of it,

but most of them focus on other aspects of the genre. And as both Mankell and Larsson did was to

broaden the perspective to include racism and oppression of women in the formula.
And isn’t Saga Norén, Länskrim Malmö a voice for the Neuropsychiatric minority communities?    

So today is not only the day of the trade unions and hard working people. It is also a day that was

a part of the building of our beloved genre, Nordic Noir.

The Videos

Fred Åkerström

Singing Joe Hill in Swedish is Swedish artist Fred Åkerstöm. Kapital (the English title is

“The Pie in the Sky”). Joe Hill is both covered and celebrated by artists such as Pete Seeger,

Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphy’s and many more.  

Joe Hill directed By Bo Wideberg

The film about Joe Hill was directed by Bo Wideberg who also directed the critically acclaimed

Martin Beck film Mannen på taket. Very true to the Sjöwall/Wahlöö novel The Abominable Man

(Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle).