History Textbook Exercise

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – the Wobblies

Dulles, Foster Rhea. The United States Since 1865. Ann Harbor, Michigan. 1959. pp. 223-224.

In these circumstances the AF of L’s conservative attitude, both in respect to the organization of unskilled industrial workers and political activity, almost inevitably led to discontent on the part of leftwing radicals among American Workers. The IWW was organized in 1905. Its members were prepared by sabotage and violence to seek the overthrow of the entire capitalist system. "Instead of the conservative motto, ‘A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s pay,’" the ringing manifesto of the I.W.W. declared, "we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wage system.’ It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism."

The IWW never had a membership of more than sixty thousands. Largely made up of migratory workers in the western wheat fields, lumberjacks, metal miners, and some few newly arrived immigrants in eastern textile mills, it made little headway among the more stable elements in the organized labor movement. Under the fiery leadership of "Big Bill" Haywood, onetime cowboy, homesteader, and miner, the "Wobblies" nevertheless won a national reputation for aggressive violence. Their strikes and free speech for a time awoke widespread alarm.

They entered the struggle for workers’ rights with a zest, enthusiasm, and reckless bravado that welcomed combat. The songs sung at union meetings, in harvest and lumbering camps, and on the picket line, reflected their fighting spirit: "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back," "Paint ‘er Red," "Tie ‘em Up," "The Red Flag," and "Hallelujah! I am a Bum!" –

O! I like my boss,

He’s a good friend of mine,

And that’s why I’m starving

Out of the picket line!

Hallelujah! I’m a bum!

Hallelujah! Bum Again!

Hallelujah! Give us a hand-out

To revive us again.

In their invasion of the East, the IWW won a great strike of textile workers at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and then were defeated in another spectacular strike in the silk mills of Patterson, New Jersey. Thereafter, their influence began to decline, and when they adopted a strong antiwar stand in 1917, their doom was sealed. Their leaders were arrested, tried and convicted under the Sedition Act. Many of the Wobblies found a postwar haven among the communists, but the IWW disintegrated.