Industrial Workers of the World grows as radical labor voice (1 gen 1905 anni – 1 gen 1919 anni)

Descrizione:

A radical labor group founded in 1905, dedicated to organizing unskilled workers to oppose capitalism. Nicknamed the Wobblies, they advocated direct action by workers, including sabotage and general strikes

The skilled men in the nation’s dominant union, the American Federation of Labor, had far more success in organizing but were slow to engage in electoral politics. AFL leaders like Samuel Gompers had long believed workers should improve their situation through strikes and direct negotiation with employers, not through parties and voting. But by the 1910s, as progressive reformers came forward with solutions, labor leaders in state after state began to press for political action.

The nation also confronted a daring wave of radical labor militancy. In 1905, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), led by fiery leaders such as William “Big Bill” Haywood, helped create a new movement, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The Wobblies, as they were called, fervently supported the Marxist class struggle. As syndicalists, they believed that by resisting in the workplace and ultimately launching a general strike, workers could overthrow capitalism. A new society would emerge, run directly by workers. At its height, around 1916, the IWW had about 100,000 members. Though divided by internal conflicts, the group helped spark a number of local protests during the 1910s, including strikes of rail car builders in Pennsylvania, textile operatives in Massachusetts, rubber workers in Ohio, and miners in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, after midnight on October 1, 1910, an explosion ripped through the Los Angeles Times headquarters, killing twenty employees and wrecking the building. It turned out that John J. McNamara, a high official of the American Federation of Labor’s Bridge and Structural Iron Workers Union, had planned the bombing against the fiercely antiunion Times. McNamara’s brother and another union member had carried out the attack. The bombing created a sensation, as did the terrible Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire (see “Cities and National Politics” in Chapter 18 and the IWW’s high-profile strikes. Clearly, much remained to be done to address workers’ demands

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