Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, having much in common with anarcho-syndicalist unions, but also many differences. It contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the profit system abolished. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshall the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict and government repression. Today it numbers about 1,000 members world-wide, but with a recent renewal of organizing activity membership appears to be rising again.

Further reading

Archives

• Industrial Workers of the World Collection predominantly, 1950s-1970s at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs.
• Documents, Essays and Analysis for a History of the Industrial Workers of the World. Online archive at the Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved April 16, 2005.

Books

• Brissenden, Paul F., The IWW: A Study of American Syndicalism - New York: Columbia University Press, 1919. 438 pages 2nd edition, 1920. Reprinted by Russell & Russell, New York, 1957.
• Kornbluh, Joyce L., ed., Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964, illustrated. 419 pages. Reprinted by Charles H. Kerr Co., Chicago, 1988 with new introduction and essays, ISBN 0-88286-237-5
• McClelland, John, Jr., Wobbly War: The Centralia Story, Washington State Historical Society, 1987, hardcover, ISBN 0-917048-62-8
• Moran, William, Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove, St. Martin's Press, 2002, hardcover, 320 pages, ISBN 0312301839
• St. John, Vincent, The I. W. W.: Its History, Structure & Methods, I. W. W. Publishing Bureau, 1917 ed.
• Thompson, Fred The I. W. W.: Its First Fifty Years, Chicago: IWW, 1955