Rebel Voices Read online
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Errata
Page 2, column 1: The hall used by the Haymarket anarchists moved (apparently more than once), and at the time of the IWW’s January 1905 conference it was at North Clark and Chestnut Streets.
Page 29, column 1: Kipling’s “Song of the Dead” was written to support Britain’s claims to rule the seas.
Page 86, column 2: In fact, very few if any IWWs and, indeed, few real hoboes, used these signs.
Page 135, column 2: Subsequent research has shown that Riebe’s “Mr. Block” comic strip inspired Joe Hill’s song.
Page 157, column 2: Joe Hill was cremated on November 27, 1915.
Page 326, column 2: “Christians at War” first appeared in the ninth (1916) edition of the Little Red Song Book.
—Fred Thompson
Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology
© 2011
This edition © 2011 PM Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-60486-483-0
LCCN: 2011927961
Cover design by Josh MacPhee/justseeds.org
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Published in conjunction with the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company
C.H. Kerr Company
1726 Jarvis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626
www.charleshkerr.com
Printed on recycled paper by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan. www.thomsonshore.com
Published in the EU by The Merlin Press Ltd.
6 Crane Street Chambers, Crane Street, Pontypool NP4 6ND, Wales
www.merlinpress.co.uk
ISBN: 978-0-85036-651-8
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Preface to the First Edition
One Big Union: The Philosophy of Industrial Unionism
Manifesto
Father Hagerty’s “Wheel of Fortune”
Preamble (1905)
Preamble (1908)
Workingmen Unite, by E.S. Nelson
The Banner of Labor
Union Scabs, by Oscar Ameringer
The Red Flag, by Jim Connell
A.F. of L. Sympathy, by B.L. Weber
A Song for 1912
Why Strikes Are Lost, by William Trautmann
Paint ‘Er Red, by Ralph Chaplin
One Big Industrial Union, by G.G. Allen
Dump the Bosses Off Your Back, by John Brill
Solidarity Forever, by Ralph Chaplin
The Commonwealth of Toil, by Ralph Chaplin
We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years
Hymn of Hate, by Harry McClintock
Dan McGann, by Dublin Dan
The Portland Revolution, by Dublin Dan
With Folded Arms: The Tactics of Direct Action
I.W.W. “Red Special” Overall Brigade, by James H. Walsh
Political Parties and the I.W.W., by Vincent St. John
The General Strike, by William Haywood
Sabotage, by Ben H. Williams
Some Definitions: Sabotage-Direct Action, by Frank Bohn
Farmer Jones on Party Problems, by Bert Willard
Saw Mill “Accidents,” by The Wooden Shoe Kid
The Rebel’s Toast, by J. Hill
Hey! Polly, by Ralph Chaplin
The One Big Strike, by G.G. Allen
That Sabo-Tabby Kitten, by Ralph Chaplin
The Kitten in the Wheat, by Shorty
Testimony of J.T. (Red) Doran
Note on Sabotage: The Case of John Mahoney, by Agnes Inglis
Riding the Rails: I.W.W. Itinerants
Hallelujah on the Bum
Meet Me in the Jungles, Louie, by Richard Brazier
The Suckers Sadly Gather, by Richard Brazier
My Wandering Boy
Out in the Bread-line
The Flight into California, by W. Metcalf
A Voice from the Jungles, by Tyler Williams
Everywhere You Go
The Two Bums
The Dishwasher, by Jim Seymour
The Priest, by Ralph Chaplin
The Floater, by Charles Ashleigh
The Migratory I.W.W., by J.H.B. the Rambler
The Mysteries of a Hobo’s Life, by T-Bone Slim
The Popular Wobbly, by T-Bone Slim
The Outcast’s Prayer
Modern Hieroglyphics
How He Made It Non-Union
Tightline Johnson Goes to Heaven, by William Akers (Ralph Winstead)
Soapbox Militants: Free Speech Campaigns 1908–1916
The Spokane Free Speech Fight-1909, by John Panzner
The March on Fresno, by E.M. Clyde
The Mainspring of Action, by C.E. Payne
We’re Bound for San Diego
His Honor Gets His, by Jack Whyte
Everett, November Fifth, by Charles Ashleigh
The Voyage of the Verona, by Walker C. Smith
Their Court and Our Class, by Walker C. Smith
Jails Didn’t Make Them Weaken, by Jack Leonard
Joe Hill: Wobbly Bard
The Preacher and the Slave
Casey Jones-The Union Scab
Coffee An’
Where the Fraser River Flow
Mr. Block
Scissor Bill
The People
We Will Sing One Song
What We Want
The Tramp
There Is Power in a Union
Stung Right
Nearer My Job to Thee
How to Make Work for the Unemployed
Workers of the World, Awaken!
Ta-Ra-Ra Boom De-Ay
It’s a Long Way Down to the Soupline
It’s a Long Way Down to the Soupline
The Rebel Girl
My Last Will
The Last Letters of Joe Hill
In Memoriam: Joe Hill
Joe Hill’s Funeral, by Ralph Chaplin
Joe Hill, by Ralph Chaplin
Circumstances Relating to the Disposal of a Portion of the Ashes of Joe Hill
Bread and Roses: The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike
The Industrial Democracy Arrives, Justus Ebert
The Marseillaise
The Internationale, by Eugene Pottier
Strike, by Fred E. Beal
The Eight-Hour Song, by Richard Brazier
Workers Shall the Masters Rule Us? By Frank Brechler
Few of Them Are Scabbing It
In the Good Old Picket Line
John Golden and the Lawrence Strike, by Joe Hill
Statement of Camella Teoli
The Walker, by Arturo Giovannitti
The Cage, by Arturo Giovannitti
Joseph Ettor’s Testimony to the Jury in the Salem Trial
Address of the Defendant Giovannitti to the Jury
Bread and Roses, by James Oppenheim
Paterson: 1913
Who Is the Leader?
The Rip in the Silk Industry, by William D. Haywood
With Big Bill Haywood on the Battlefields of Labor, by Carlo Tresca
The Pageant of the Paterson Strike
The Pageant as a Form of Propaganda
The Truth About the Paterson Strike, by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Organizing the Harvest Stiffs
I Went to the Country, by August Walquist
&nbs
p; Class Communion, by Ed Jorda
Bloody Wheatland, by Mortimer Downing
Overalls and Snuff
When You Wear That Button, by Richard Brazier
Harvest War Song, by Pat Brennan
Pesky Kritters, by Elmer Rumbaugh
Down in Harvest Land, by Joe Foley
Along the Industrial Road to Freedom, by G.G. Allen
Gathering the Grain, by E.F. Doree
Harvest Land, by T-D and H.
An Ill Wind in the Palouse, by E.H.H.
The Big Combine
Lumberjacks: North and South
Who Said a Logger Lives?
Us the Hoboes and Dreamers, by Covington Hall
Timber Workers and Timber Wolves, by William D. Haywood
Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks
Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks (2nd version)
Bindleless Days, by Archie R. Sinclair
The Lumber Jack’s Prayer, by T-Bone Slim
Tall Timber Tales
The Timber Beast’s Lament
The De-Horn’s Nose Is Deepest Red, by J.B.
Centralia Pictures, by Anise (Anna Louise Strong)
Wesley Everest, by Ralph Chaplin
Chin-Whiskers, Hay-Wire, and Pitchforks, by Ralph Winstead
Johnson, the Gypo, by Ralph Winstead
Why I Am a Member of the I.W.W.
Down in the Mines
The Kanawha Striker, by Ralph Chaplin
When the Leaves Come Out, by Ralph Chaplin
The Mine Guard, by Ralph Chaplin
Down in the Mines, by Pat Brennan
The Iron Ore Miners
The Miner, by “Scottie”
The Campbells Are Coming, by “Scottie”
Cornelius Kelly
The Copper Strike of ’17, by Joe Kennedy
Workers Unite, by “Scottie”
To Frank Little, by Viola Gilbert Snell
When the Cock Crows, by Arturo Giovannitti
Bisbee
Light Exercise and Change, by Ralph Winstead
Behind Bars: War and Prison
Comrades, by Lawrence Tully
Blasphemy, by Covington Ami (Hall)
Onward Christian Soldiers
Onward Christian Soldiers, by William Lloyd Garrison
Christians at War, by John F. Kendrick
The Red Feast, by Ralph Chaplin
My Country, by O.E.B.
The Deadly Parallel
I Love My Flag
Yellow Legs and Pugs
Tulsa, November 9, 1917
On the Inside, by William D. Haywood
We Shall Eat—Bye and Bye
Somebody Must, by Anise (Anna Louise Strong)
Remember, by Harrison George
Thoughts of a Dead-Living Soul, by Manuel Rey
Prison Nocturne, by Ralph Chaplin
Mourn Not Idle Dead, by Ralph Chaplin
To My Little Son, by Ralph Chaplin
What I Read in the Paper
The Men I Left at Leavenworth, by Pierce C. Wetter
Our Defense, by Vera Moller
We Made Good Wobs Out There, by Vera Moller
An I.W.W. Miscellany: 1924–1964
Sacco and Vanzetti, by Jim Seymour
A Jest, by Lisa
One of Ours, by Matilda Robbins (Rabinowitz)
The I.W.W. on a Full-Rigged Ship, by Harry Clayton
Hold Fast: The Cry of the Striking Miners
Education, by Clifford B. Ellis
Depression Hits Robinson Crusoe’s Island, by Mrs. Mary Atterbury
T-Bone Slim Discusses the Big Potato
Ballad of Big Boss Briggs, by a Briggs Striker
Boom Went the Boom, by W.O. Blee
Auto Slaves, by Louis Burcar
The Politician Is Not My Shepherd, by Covington Hall
Our Line’s Been Changed Again
Nuthouse News
Reminiscences of Spain, by Raymond Galstad
Paccio Hymn to the Nude Eel
It Happened One Night, by Matilda Robbins
Nothing Down, by John Forbes
The Art of Making a Decent Revolution, by Fred Thompson
Parable of the Water Pump, by Chazzdor (Charles Doehrer)
Where Are the Voices? by Carlos Cortez
Digging the Squares at Jack London Square, by Carlos Cortez
Hiroshima, by Lin Fisher
Today’s Dream, Tomorrow’s Reality, by J.F. McDaniels
Notes
Language of the Migratory Worker
Selected Bibliography (1905–1963)
Digging IWW History: Books Published Since 1963, by Fred Thompson
A Short Treatise on Wobbly Cartoons, by Franklin Rosemont
Index
William Henkelman (Industrial Worker, April 9, 1947)
Preface
You hold in your hands the most important book ever written about the Industrial Workers of the World.
The IWW is an extraordinary and transformative labor union with a core belief that workers themselves are in the best position to improve their own jobs, run their own organization, and ultimately bring genuine democracy into the workplace. Rebel Voices could not be more compatible with this belief in the power of everyday workers to make dramatic change: it features IWW members and close allies speaking in their own voices about their experiences as workers, unionists, and, yes, as revolutionaries.
No academic study has touched the brilliance of Rebel Voices and none ever will. Through these essays, poems, speeches, songs, and illustrations, I think you will come to appreciate what makes the IWW one of the world’s truly great labor unions with a profound vision and strategy to achieve a just world. The insight, wisdom, and breathtaking solidarity found on these pages staggers the heart and the intellect just as powerfully as when they were written, in some cases over one hundred years ago. If you read just one book on the IWW, let this be the one.
In these early years of the twenty-first century, the rise of the large global corporations and the neoliberal economic system by which they impose their will are causing massive hardship to working people around the world but also massive resistance. Egypt and Tunisia have seen longtime dictators ousted through popular pressure and working-class power. Powerful movements against antiworker austerity measures are erupting in Europe. Social movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are challenging centuries-old oppression.
In Madison, Wisconsin, a law designed to break public-sector unions sparked a labor upsurge of a scope unseen for decades in the United States. For the first time in the nation’s recent memory, thousands of workers in Madison were seriously discussing a general strike, a major subject in Rebel Voices, not as a historical relic but as a practical, powerful tool to make real change at work and in society; on the ground educating people about the nature and functioning of a general strike were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (of course). Madison was a powerful reminder that the fighting spirit and sense of self-worth of the American worker are alive and well despite decades of unrelenting attacks on wages, working conditions, and worker organization.
* * *
With such profound challenges and opportunities for positive change facing working people around the world, this new edition of Rebel Voices and the IWW’s three-point program of education, organization, and emancipation are very timely indeed. Consider some of the issues tackled in the book, all with tremendous relevance in present times: economic insecurity resulting from precarious employment arrangements, the power of the very rich to distort the political process, the pernicious role of corporate media in undermining working class solidarity, the impotency of the business union model, and attacks on fundamental liberties such as the freedom of speech, to name a few. Similarly, the solutions offered by the Wobbly worker-scholar-poets in Rebel Voices are as relevant as ever: the worker, not the bureaucrat or the politician, as the primary protagonist of change; unity between workers regardless of race, nationality, or type of work; direct
action to harness workers’ ultimate power; and the call, not for piecemeal reform, but for revolutionary change where democracy and liberty prevail in the world of work.
The launch of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union on May 17, 2004, marked a decisive turning point for the One Big Union. With the U.S. economy dramatically shifting towards service-oriented jobs, millions of workers are finding themselves in retail and fast-food jobs with low pay, unpredictable work hours, and a profound lack of respect from management. At the same time, the large traditional unions have had little interest and close to no success connecting with workers and building a union presence in this sector.
With the Starbucks campaign, the IWW is demonstrating to working people (and their adversaries) how effective and relevant its worker-centered organizing model is to the current realities of the global economy. With their massive treasuries and not insignificant political power, the traditional trade unions had made no inroads into organizing at the Starbucks Corporation, the world’s largest coffee chain. By contrast, Wobbly baristas at Starbucks, using a model now known as solidarity unionism, have won important victories at stores across the country and have succeeded in building the first-ever independent voice for Starbucks workers. Through direct action and worker-led advocacy, IWW baristas have won important wage increases, ousted abusive managers, remedied health and safety violations, increased the security of work schedules, and much more. This year, in a memorable and emotional victory following a hard-fought three-year campaign, the IWW won equal treatment at Starbucks for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s federal holiday including a time-and-one-half holiday premium for every barista around the country who works on MLK Day. A fitting achievement for a union that has always refused to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity.
Solidarity unionism, and the demonstration of its effectiveness at Starbucks, is spurring workers in diverse contexts to connect with the IWW and become engaged in solidarity-union activity. Because solidarity unionism has been so integral to the revitalization of the IWW, it’s worth exploring a bit here.
Solidarity unionism is labor organizing in its most basic and, in my view, most powerful form. Deemphasizing or avoiding government certification altogether, a solidarity union is simply a group of workers who come together, support each other’s development as leaders, and carry out their own direct-action campaigns around issues of concern at work such as unsafe line speeds, poverty wages, and abusive management.
The first principle of solidarity unionism is rank-and-file control; that is, workers on the shop floor have ultimate decisionmaking authority in the union and are the primary actors in the union’s campaigns. This member-centered approach stands in sharp contrast to the business union model in which paid union representatives not employed on the shop floor are the primary movers of union initiatives. What makes a union powerful is not merely that it’s an organized group. The nature of a union’s power is that it’s an organization of workers who can use their labor power to carry out, or not carry out, production. To dislocate power away from workers on the shop floor and place it in staff outside the workplace is to wrest labor away from the wellspring of strength from which unions ultimately derive their unique ability to make real change on the job. No one is better positioned to defend workers’ interest at work and assert working-class power in society than workers themselves.