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Joe Hill and the Industrial Workers of the World, November 2016
Selector: Meghan Courtney, Kristen Chinery, and Elizabeth Clemens
Joe Hill and the Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in 1905 and is a member-run union for all workers. The IWW organizes all workers producing the same goods or services into one union instead of pooling them by skill or trade. Numbered among its members (known popularly as Wobblies) are lumberjacks, miners, farmhands (especially migrant workers), sailors, and workers in textile mills. Since their founding, the IWW has made significant contributions to labor struggles around the world. The union is proud of its long-standing tradition of fierce defense of the first amendment and breaking down barriers of race, ethnicity, and gender. Since its founding in Chicago, the IWW has moved its headquarters around the country.
Joseph Hillstrom, known as Joe Hill, was a famous activist for the IWW who specialized in songs and poetry to inspire the movement. He was born in 1879 in Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1902, and was ultimately put to death in November 1915. Though he was accused of crimes unrelated to his activism, Hill's death made him a martyr to many in the Wobbly movement.
Websites
- Industrial Workers of the World
Web page of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW): includes the preamble of the IWW constitution, a listing of sub-unions, historical resources, and news. - Walter P. Reuther Library
Website of the Walter P. Reuther Library, official repository for the papers of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). - IWW History Project
Compilation of information on more than 1,800 strikes, campaigns, arrests, and other incidents involving IWW members. Includes hundreds of photographs, documents, and an interactive map of IWW Locals throughout North America. Created and hosted by the Labor Archives of Washington and University of Washington Libraries.
Books in Print
We Shall Be All by
Call Number: HD 8055 .I5 D8ISBN: 0252025954Publication Date: 2000-09-11This is the classic history of the Industrial Workers of the World, the influential band of labor militants whose activism mobilized America's poorest and most marginalized workers in the years before World War I. Originally published in 1969, Melvyn Dubofsky's We Shall Be All has remained the definitive archive-based history of the IWW. While much has been written on aspects of the IWW's history in the past three decades, nothing has duplicated or surpassed this authoritative work. The present volume, an abridged version of this labor history classic, makes the compelling story of the IWW accessible to a new generation of readers.In its heyday, between 1905 and 1919, the IWW nourished a dream of a better America where poverty--material and spiritual--would be erased and where all people, regardless of nationality or color, would walk free and equal. More than half a century ago the Wobblies tried in their own ways to grapple with issues that still plague the nation in a more sophisticated and properous era. Their example has inspired radicals in America and abroad over the greater part of a century.The letters of Joe Hill. Compiled and edited, with historical notes on the famous Wobbly (IWW) song-writer, by Philip S. Foner. by
Call Number: HD 8073 .H55 A4Publication Date: 1965Radical songwriter and organizer Joe Hill was murdered by the state of Utah in 1915, but his songs continue to inspire working-class activists and musicians. This collection of letters, edited by radical historian Philip Foner (1910–1994), provides a window into the political reflections and personal struggles behind Hill’s legacy.Red November, Black November by
ISBN: 0791400891Publication Date: 1989-07-15Red November, Black November is a study of the culture of the I. W. W. movement at the turn of the twentieth century. It analyzes the Wobblies use of cultural expressions such as songs, poems, and cartoons as a means of educating and unifying workers, and as weapons in the struggle against the repressive social conditions of industrial development. The book emphasizes the important role played by immigrant activists, Wobbly artists, and intellectuals, offering a fascinating portrait of the complexity of pre-World War I labor radicalism."
Solidarity Forever by Call Number: HD8055.I5 B5 1985ISBN: 0941702111Publication Date: 1985-10-01An oral history of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is based on interviews done for the award-winning documentary The Wobblies.
Articles and Ebooks
Always on Strike by ISBN: 1608462269Publication Date: 2014-12-15Though widely recognized as one of the Industrial Workers of the World's leading members and one of its most prominent militants, this is the first book-length biography of Frank Little. Little's life offers innumerable lessons for working class people facing many of the same economic injustices in today's world. Arnold Stead, PhD, is a poet, fiction writer, historian, playwright, and jazz and film critic. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and family.
Wobblies on the Waterfront by ISBN: 0252031865Publication Date: 2007-07-27During the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) era. For much of its time, Local 8's majority was African American and included immigrants from Eastern Europe as well as many Irish Americans. In this important study, Peter Cole examines how Local 8, affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), accomplished what no other did at the time. He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union's destruction.
Class Divisions on the Broadway Stage by ISBN: 1137353058Publication Date: 2014-07-10Examining twenty-five years of theatre history, this book covers the major plays that feature representations of the Industrial Workers of the World. American class movement and class divisions have long been reflected on the Broadway stage and here Michael Schwartz presents a fresh look at the conflict between labor and capital.
- Wobblies and Mexican Workers in Mining and Petroleum, 1905–1924The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or “Wobblies”, represented a transitional stage in Mexican labor movement history. The Wobblies enjoyed support from workers because their philosophy corresponded to the Mexican labor movement's deeply-rooted anarchosyndicalist traditions. While cooperating with Mexican radical labor organizations, the IWW advocated workers' control, better pay, conditions, and union recognition. In mining and petroleum, the IWW built upon the earlier organizational efforts of mutual and gremial organizations. And, although the Wobblies failed to establish a permanent foothold inside Mexico, their efforts resulted in the eventual organization of industry-wide unions.
- “Joe Hill Ain’t Never Died”: The Legacy of the Wobblies’ Practical SyndicalismWhile there is no denying that our globalized, post-industrial economy poses a host of organizational challenges to unions that the Wobblies could never have possibly imagined, it can be argued that their industrial syndicalism is more relevant today than at any time since the IWW's collapse nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
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Videos
Archival Collections
Many original, primary source documents are held at Wayne State's Walter P. Reuther Library that tell the story of Joe Hill and the Industrial Workers of the World. These materials span many formats, from photographs to pamphlets to correspondence and more. These collections are open to the public in the Reuther Library Reading Room.
Oral History Interviews
- Interview with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1962
A conversation with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in which she discusses her upbringing and entry into the political scene as the “girl orator,” her organizing efforts and labor defense work on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), and the evolution of her political beliefs. Of particular interest is a description of her arrest under the Smith Act and her years spent in prison at the Women’s Reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia.
Keywords: Industrial Workers of the World, Communism, Socialism, Lawrence Strike, Joe Hill, Herbert Hoover, Bill Haywood, Joe Hill, McCarren Internal Security Act, Smith Act, Palmer Raids, Tom Mooney, Sacco and Vanzetti Trial.
Artwork and Artifacts
Portrait of Joe Hill
Painting of Joe Hill by M. Baer, 1918
IWW Beaded Purse
A hand-beaded IWW purse, made by an imprisoned IWW member who was convicted as a result of the Centralia Incident. The the word “Solidarity” is woven into the beadwork and the piece features the IWW “sabo-tabby,” c. 1910s.
IWW Beaded Banner
A hand-beaded IWW banner, made by an imprisoned IWW member who was convicted as a result of the Centralia Incident. The banner features the “sabo-tabby” and a shimmering gold and black IWW logo. The words "Education, Organization, Emancipation" are incorporated into the beadwork, c. 1910s.
Joe Hill, Memorial Poster
A memorial poster for Joe Hill, created by celebrated I.W.W. artist Carlos Cortez in 1979.