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.

Organizing

The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the strike of the Pressed Steel Car Company at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in 1909. Further fame was gained later that year, when they took their stand on free speech. The town of Spokane, Washington had outlawed street meetings, and arrested Elizabeth Gurley Flynn http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7462, a Wobbly organizer for breaking this ordinance. The response was simple but effective: when a fellow member was arrested for speaking, large numbers of people descended on the location and forced the authorities to arrest all of them, until it became too expensive for the town. In Spokane, over 500 people went to jail and four people died. The tactic was also used effectively in Fresno, Aberdeen and San Diego.

Related Topics:
Goldfield, Nevada - 1906 - McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania - 1909 - Spokane, Washington - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - Fresno - Aberdeen - San Diego

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By 1912 the organization had around 50,000 members, concentrated in the Northwest, among dock workers, agricultural workers in the central states, and in textile and mining areas. The IWW was involved in over 150 strikes, including those in the Lawrence textile strike (1912), the Paterson strike (1913) and the Mesabi range (1916).

Related Topics:
1912 - Lawrence textile strike - Paterson - 1913 - The Mesabi range - 1916

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized hundreds of thousands of migratory farm workers throughout the midwest and western United States, often signing up and organizing members in the field, in railyards and in hobo jungles. During this time, the IWW became synonymous with the hobo; migratory farmworkers could scarcely afford any other means of transportation to get to the next jobsite. Workers often won better working conditions by using direct action at the point of production, and striking "on the job" (consciously and collectively slowing their work). As a result of Wobbly organizing, conditions for migratory farm workers improved enormously.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize timber workers, both in the Deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924. The IWW lumber strike of 1917 led to the eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Even though mid-century historians would give credit to the US Government and "forward thinking lumber magnates" for agreeing to such reforms, an IWW strike forced these concessions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the late 1910s through the mid-1930s, the IWW's Marine Transport Workers union, led by Ben Fletcher, organized predominantly African-American longshoremen on the Philadelphia and Baltimore waterfronts, even gaining industry control in Philadelphia for over a decade before the Great Depression. The IWW also had a presence among waterfront workers in Boston, New York City, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Eureka, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and Vancouver. IWW members played a role in the 1934 San Francisco General Strike and the other organizing efforts by rank-and-filers within the International Longshoremen's Association up and down the West Coast.

Related Topics:
1910s - 1930s - Boston - New York City - New Orleans - Houston - San Diego - Los Angeles - San Francisco - Eureka - Portland - Tacoma - Seattle - Vancouver - 1934 - International Longshoremen's Association

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wobblies also played a role in the sit-down strikes and other organizing efforts by the United Auto Workers in the 1930s, particularly in Detroit, though they never established a strong union presence there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Where the IWW did win strikes, such as at Lawrence, they often found it hard to hold onto their gains. The IWW of 1912 disdained collective bargaining agreements and preached instead the need for constant struggle against the boss on the shop floor. It proved difficult, however, to maintain that sort of revolutionary elán against employers; In Lawrence, the IWW lost nearly all of its membership in the years after the strike, as the employers wore down their employees' resistance and eliminated many of the strongest union supporters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~