Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD (IWW)

Founded in 1905 by the leaders of 43 labor organizations, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was a radical labor union. The IWW pursued short-term goals via strikes and acts of sabotage and a long-term agenda to overthrow capitalism and rebuild society based on socialist principles. One IWW organizer proclaimed that the "final aim is revolution." Though small in numbers because of their extremist views and tactics (its membership probably never exceeded 100,000), the IWW members, called "Wobblies," attracted national attention. Railroad labor organizer and socialist Eugene Debs (1855–1926) endorsed the organization's anti-capitalist agenda and became one of its leaders.

Unlike the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the IWW organized skilled and unskilled workers by industry rather than by craft. Founded and led by miner and Socialist William "Big Bill" Haywood (1869–1928) and mineworkers agitator Mary "Mother" Jones (1830–1930), the IWW aimed to unite all workers in a camp, mine, or factory for eventual takeover of their employer's industrial facility. The union organized strikes in lumber and mining camps in the West, in the steel mills of Pennsylvania (1907), and in the textile mills of New England (1912). The leadership advocated the use of violence to achieve its revolutionary goals and opposed mediation (negotiations moderated by a neutral third party), collective bargaining (when worker representatives bargain with an employer), and arbitration (when a third party resolves a dispute). The group declined during World War I (1914–18), when the IWW led strikes that were suppressed by the federal government. The organization's leaders were all arrested and the organization dissolved. Haywood was convicted of sedition (inciting resistance to lawful authority), but managed to escape the country. He died in the Soviet Union.

See also: American Federation of Labor (AFL), Knights of Labor, Textiles