Industrial Labor In The 1900's
How did the IWW differ from the AFL and other workers’ unions?
The IWW was a much different union then seen in previous years. IWW believed that most trade unions during it’s promoted same industry worker competition. To be specific, this ultimately would lead worker competition especially seen in terms of wages. In the 1900’s there where multiple different unions; each of which was usually divided by race, gender, or skill. The IWW (Industrial workers of the world) sought a very different type of union apart from trade or craft. For the first time a union truly wanted to organize all the workers from any given union into one big union, regardless of race, gender, or skill. This was a bold idea considering race and gender discrimination was …show more content…
This scared capitalist because capitalist growth was booming during the 1900’s and saw enormous profits. The IWW was fairly small but very powerful as far as unions went. Capitalist and government officials were not happy and did not respond kindly to the IWW. Their gatherings inspired many people and as a result IWW was under consistent attack. Officials responded by trying to pass laws that would stop the IWW from speaking, turned to violence when those laws failed, and framed and arrested hundreds of innocent members. In Spokane there was an ordnance passed which prohibited IWW street meetings, and when an organizer insisted on speaking he was arrested. This infuriated the Wobblies so they marched straight up to the town center and spoke and each one got arrested after speaking. Six hundred Wobblies ended up in jail that day. Untimely the IWW won back its right to speak. A similar event took place in Fresno, again resulting in multiple arrests taking place. This time the however, the arrested members would sing and organize speeches from their jail cells. It seemed that every time the government would try and stop speeches the IWW would always prevail. As a result, the government soon turned very sour towards this group and extreme aggression soon followed. In Washington in 1916, a local sheriff gathered armed vigilantes once word spread of a town meeting. These vigilantes opened fire on the group of Wobblies resulting in seven deaths and many more being seriously injured. The next year WWI broke out and vigilantes captured Frank Little a IWW organizer. They did not just kill Little, but they brutally tortured him and left his lifeless body hanging from a railroad trestle. Meanwhile over in Utah Joe hill (a IWW organizer) was the next target. Hill was accused of a robbery and the murder of a grocer in Salt Lake City. Even though there wasn’t direct evidence
The IWW was a much different union then seen in previous years. IWW believed that most trade unions during it’s promoted same industry worker competition. To be specific, this ultimately would lead worker competition especially seen in terms of wages. In the 1900’s there where multiple different unions; each of which was usually divided by race, gender, or skill. The IWW (Industrial workers of the world) sought a very different type of union apart from trade or craft. For the first time a union truly wanted to organize all the workers from any given union into one big union, regardless of race, gender, or skill. This was a bold idea considering race and gender discrimination was …show more content…
This scared capitalist because capitalist growth was booming during the 1900’s and saw enormous profits. The IWW was fairly small but very powerful as far as unions went. Capitalist and government officials were not happy and did not respond kindly to the IWW. Their gatherings inspired many people and as a result IWW was under consistent attack. Officials responded by trying to pass laws that would stop the IWW from speaking, turned to violence when those laws failed, and framed and arrested hundreds of innocent members. In Spokane there was an ordnance passed which prohibited IWW street meetings, and when an organizer insisted on speaking he was arrested. This infuriated the Wobblies so they marched straight up to the town center and spoke and each one got arrested after speaking. Six hundred Wobblies ended up in jail that day. Untimely the IWW won back its right to speak. A similar event took place in Fresno, again resulting in multiple arrests taking place. This time the however, the arrested members would sing and organize speeches from their jail cells. It seemed that every time the government would try and stop speeches the IWW would always prevail. As a result, the government soon turned very sour towards this group and extreme aggression soon followed. In Washington in 1916, a local sheriff gathered armed vigilantes once word spread of a town meeting. These vigilantes opened fire on the group of Wobblies resulting in seven deaths and many more being seriously injured. The next year WWI broke out and vigilantes captured Frank Little a IWW organizer. They did not just kill Little, but they brutally tortured him and left his lifeless body hanging from a railroad trestle. Meanwhile over in Utah Joe hill (a IWW organizer) was the next target. Hill was accused of a robbery and the murder of a grocer in Salt Lake City. Even though there wasn’t direct evidence