Happy birthday, Wobblies! On this day in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union was created in the US at a conference in Chicago. A new kind of revolutionary, multi-racial union, it aimed to unite all workers into One Big Union, form the body of a new society, run by the working class, in the shell of the old. Facing savage repression from employers many members were lynched, killed and imprisoned. But they organised large swathes of previously unorganised workers and won many strikes. The IWW was formally constituted at a subsequent conference in June 1905, and still exists today in several countries, and often acts as a militant minority union. Pictured, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addresses a crowd of IWW strikers in 1913. libcom.org/tags/iww
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 01:21:36 +0000