Changes

The '''Industrial Workers of the World''' (IWW), nicknamed the "Wobblies"  was a far-left violent [[labor union]] in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1905 by William ("Big Bill") Haywood. Its goals were to create "one big union" and destroy capitalism. It practiced dual unionism, which undercut the established unions like the [[AFL]] unions. They in turn worked to destroy the IWW.

[[Image:Iww-kill.JPG|thumb|350px|this 1912 IWW cartoon calls for murdering the capitalists]]The '''Industrial Workers of the World''' (IWW), nicknamed the "Wobblies"  was a far-left violent [[labor union]] in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1905 by [http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/haywood.htm William ("Big Bill") Haywood], an avowed atheist<ref>J. Anthony Lukas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=d07IME-ezzQC Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America]'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998) ISBN 0684846179, p. 236</ref> and Communist.<ref>Jamie H. Cockfield, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=LkiUgn3MTmEC Black Lebeda: The Russian Famine Diary of ARA Kazan District Supervisor J. Rives Childs, 1921-1923]'' (Mercer University Press, 2006), ISBN 088146015X, p. 91, fn. 50</ref> Its goals were to create "one big union" and destroy capitalism. It practiced dual unionism, which undercut the established unions like the [[AFL]] unions. They in turn worked to destroy the IWW.

The IWW never had a large following, making its greatest impact when it seized control of a large textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. The AFL unions greatly outnumbered the small IWW contingent in Lawrence, but dramatic actions gave momentum to the IWW, much to the disgust of regular unionists. John Golden, president of the A.F.L. United Textile Workers denounced the IWW action as "revolutionary" and "anarchistic" but failed to wrest the leadership of the strike away from the I.W.W. A.F.L. President [[Samuel Gompers]] denounced the strike as a "class conscious industrial revolution ... a passing event that is not intended to be an organization for the protection of the immediate rights or promotion of the near future interests of the workers."  Radical historians have celebrated the strike. When the state government sent in the militia, the IWW sent in its top firebrands, Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Carlo Tresca, an Italian anarchist. Finally the strike was a success, and the workers won a small pay increase. IWW membership swelled to 10,000, but the union proved unable to bargain on a routine basis for its members, and membership fell to 400 radicals.  

The IWW never had a large following, making its greatest impact when it seized control of a large textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. The AFL unions greatly outnumbered the small IWW contingent in Lawrence, but dramatic actions gave momentum to the IWW, much to the disgust of regular unionists. John Golden, president of the AFL United Textile Workers denounced the IWW action as "revolutionary" and "anarchistic" but failed to wrest the leadership of the strike away from the Wobblies. AFL President [[Samuel Gompers]] denounced the strike as a "class conscious industrial revolution ... a passing event that is not intended to be an organization for the protection of the immediate rights or promotion of the near future interests of the workers."  Radical historians have celebrated the strike. When the state government sent in the militia, the IWW sent in its top firebrands, Haywood, Italian anarchist Carlo Tresca, and his wife [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]]. Finally, the strikers won a small pay increase. IWW membership swelled to 10,000, but the union proved unable to bargain on a routine basis for its members. Strongest among miners and lumberjacks in the far west, the IWW lost its next big strike, in Patterson, New Jersey, in 1916, and membership fell to 400 radicals.

The IWW lost its next big strike, in Patterson New Jersey in 1916.

[[Image:American-cities-125.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Bombing of the Federal building, Chicago, moments after [[#refNARAcities|95 Wobblies]] were convicted there, 1918. ''Source: National Archives and Records Administration'']]During World War I, the IWW tried to sabotage the U.S. war effort. All leading Wobblies were arrested by the [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson Administration]] under the [[Sedition Act of 1918]] and went to prison. Moments after the sentencing of [[#refNARAcities|95 Wobbies]] (including Haywood) at the Chicago Federal Building in 1918, a bomb ripped through the building, killing four.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9502E2DB1439E13ABC4D53DFBF668383609EDE IWW Bomb Kills Four in Chicago]," September 5, 1918; Charles Howard McCormick, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Vcvhrdr6drgC Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers]'' (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2005) ISBN 0761831320, pp. 31-31</ref> Out on appeal in 1921, Haywood fled to [[Moscow]], where he became a trusted adviser to the [[Bolshevik]] government.<ref>Douglas Linder (2003), [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haywood/HAY_BHAY.HTM William D. Haywood], Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref>

 

That year, after the [[Bolsheviks]] brutally<ref>Scott Zenkatsu Parker, ''[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mhuey/ Pravda o Kronshtadte]'' ("The Truth about Kronstadt"), ed. Mary Huey (university of Michigan)</ref> crushed<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B05EED8133CE533A25752C1A9659C946095D6CF Bolsheviki Crush Moscow Uprising," ''The New York Times'', March 11, 1921</ref> a wave of strikes,<ref>Michael C. Hickey, [ A Social Contract and No Socialism ], H-Russia Discussion Network (April, 2009), H-Net (Humanities and Social Sciences Online), Michigan State University</ref> Haywood betrayed the workers, saying, "every genuine labor union in the United States ought to affiliate with the International Council of Trade and Industrial Unions with its central bureau at Moscow."<ref>Max Eastman, "[http://www.marxists.org/archive/eastman/1921/bill-haywood.htm Bill Haywood, Communist]," ''The Liberator'', April, 1921;</ref> The ICTIU was the phony "union" created and controlled by the [[Kremlin]] to suppress workers' rights in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Israel Getzler, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qK3m05CQhT4C Kronstadt 1917-1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy]'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002) ISBN 0521894425, p. 233</ref> The union collapsed, but a tiny remnant still exists.

 

It was strongest among miners and lumberjacks in the far west. In World War I it tried to sabotage the war effort. All leading Wobblies were arrested by the [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson Administration]] under the [[Sedition Act of 1918]] and went to prison. The union collapsed, but a tiny remnant still exists.

 

The IWW remains an icon of the far left, who admire its bitter, often violent opposition to capitalism and its rejection of American ideals.

The IWW remains an icon of the far left, who admire its bitter, often violent opposition to capitalism and its rejection of American ideals.