T-Bone Slim

Matti Valentin Huhta (February 14, 1880 – May 15, 1942), better known by his pen name T-Bone Slim, was a Finnish-American humorist, poet, songwriter, hobo, and labor activist, who played a prominent role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Nickname T-Bone Slim was a relatively frequent nickname. In addition to Matti Huhta, the nickname T-Bone Slim was also used by the miner William Vann, the labor organizer Al W. McBride, and various other unidentified individuals, often transients.

Life Huhta was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, to Matti and Johanna Huhta, Finnish immigrants from Kälviä, Finland. In 1902, he married Rosa Kotila of Ashtabula, with whom he had four children. The marriage ended when the children were young, and he left Ohio in 1912, having no further contact with Rosa or the children. The body was not claimed, and was buried in a pauper's grave on Hart Island. and during the 1960s there was renewed interest in his songs when they were sung by activists during the Civil Rights Movement. In an interview, Noam Chomsky cited T-Bone Slim as one of his favorite Wobbly singers.

A number of T-Bone Slim's songs can be found in the Little Red Songbook. Among the best known are "The Popular Wobbly", "Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life", and "The Lumberjack's Prayer". First published by the IWW in 1909, the songbook has never gone out of print. The IWW brought out the 38th edition in 2010 and the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company has other works by T-Bone Slim in its catalog. For a long time, there were no known photographs of T-Bone Slim, but the cartoon sketch at the head of his column was said to have been a good likeness.

The first Finnish translation of T-Bone Slim's writings was published in 2013. In 2025 a new English language collection of Slim's work, The Popular Wobbly: Selected Writings of T-Bone Slim, was co-edited by Owen Clayton and Iain McIntyre, and published by University of Minnesota Press.

Street musician John Westmoreland is the great-grandnephew of T-Bone Slim. Originally from North Carolina, Westmoreland has come to Finland—following his relative's ancestral roots—and has been seen busking on Helsinki's Esplanadi.

Selected works IWW Songbook 1920 Power of These Two Hands 1922 Starving Amidst Too Much 1923

Quotes "Wherever you find injustice, the proper form of politeness is attack." Only the poor break laws—the rich evade them.