The Early IWW’s Unionism Was So Effective That Capitalists Decided It Had to Be Smashed
The Industrial Workers of the World pioneered a radical unionism that built a small but incredibly dedicated group of unionists and union supporters — which is why American capitalists and politicians quickly decided they needed to stop the union.
Industrial Workers of the World labor organizer Frank Tannenbaum, speaking to a gathering at Union Square in New York City, March 21, 1914. (Bettmann / Getty Images)
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and its radical unionism was exploding in power and members. Yet less than ten years later, the IWW was all but smashed after a brutal campaign of repression and vigilantism. How did such a vibrant force of working-class power end up all but destroyed in the course of a decade?
In his new book, Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers, labor and legal scholar Ahmed White documents the legal and extralegal repression the union faced, along with the incredibly dedicated radical unionism such repression was designed to stamp out. He spoke to labor historian Peter Cole about his new book and what the history of Wobbly repression has to teach unionists today.
Peter Cole
First, tell us about the IWW and why this union was both so important and so distinct from other unions in the early twentieth century.
Ahmed White
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