Funny, it looks like the same cat as was also used by a large PNW regional lumber company. Black cats seemed to be used quite a bit in the 1910s era timber related culture.
black cats? 1910s? logging town?
tsiatko wrote:
Funny, it looks like the same cat as was also used by a large PNW regional lumber company. Black cats seemed to be used quite a bit in the 1910s era timber related culture.
i know nothing of the black cat image in syndicalism or the IWW. was it around at/before the founding in 1905? was it co-opted form this culture perhaps?
The black cat motif used to denote sabotage/direct action was done as a brain-storm by Big Bill and Ralph Chaplin in 1912. None of this - sabotage, black cats, etc - was ever endorsed by the membership (to the best of my knowledge). The IWW dropped sabotage/black cats, etc in 1915 when organizing in the Agricultural workers really took off. Obviously it was used against North American wobs extensiveley during the repressions in Canada (1914-18) and the US (1917-21). I've read a number of regrets of the usage of black cats, etc by wobs from that era.
Any idea why they selected black cats as the motif? Some people seem to have some sort of fear of black cats, which I've not been able to figure out. Volunteers at the local animal shelter tell me they have a harder time placing black cats than any other color.
Short-haired all-black cats are a distinctively American breed of cat, according to vets. Vets call them "American shorthairs."
i have a black cat on my wall. i think that's cool.
anyway, what's with the newest libcom article. the blurb for it sounds really patronizing: i don't find prole.com or whatever that easy to read. not when one doesn't know anything about the subject anway.
i mean, not massively simple: bitesize for memory.
i have a couple black cat comrades living with me here. photos of them are on my homepage:
http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel
Salvatore Salerno wrote about the use of the cat imagery as a carry-over from a tabby cat, which had been used previously, in the syndicalist movement in Europe. I think FW tsiatko is incorrect to state that the use of the black cat was abolished during the agricultural workers' drive. In fact, I would argue it became more prominent there from about 1915-1917, than amongst the "homeguard." C'mon, you mean you haven't seen all the AWO (Agricultural Workers' Organization) Chaplin cartoons with the cat? The phrase "110 Cat" ring a bell? (AWO later was split-up, but the agricultural membership took the administrative designation IU 110).
P.S. The tabby cat does appear in some older IWW materials.
pghwob wrote:
Salvatore Salerno wrote about the use of the cat imagery as a carry-over from a tabby cat, which had been used previously, in the syndicalist movement in Europe. I think FW tsiatko is incorrect to state that the use of the black cat was abolished during the agricultural workers' drive. In fact, I would argue it became more prominent there from about 1915-1917, than amongst the "homeguard." C'mon, you mean you haven't seen all the AWO (Agricultural Workers' Organization) Chaplin cartoons with the cat? The phrase "110 Cat" ring a bell? (AWO later was split-up, but the agricultural membership took the administrative designation IU 110).P.S. The tabby cat does appear in some older IWW materials.
I'll crush your specious historocity, I mean...I'll look it up my files again, pg who bs. I think you're right that my years are off, but I know that the entire sabotage thing was withdrawn fairly quickly. For example, the Cleveland printing groups (Gurley Flynn and Chaplin I think) was placed under GEB authority, Sabotage - never an official pub btw - taken out of print, etc.
The AWO was founded in 1914, so could have easily dropped the black cat motif by 1916. I've donated my library and papers to the Glaberman, so this will wait until I get there again.
pghwob wrote:
I think that pamphlet may have been published out of Pittsburgh. It was not an official publiction. I've seen the cat into late 1916/early 1917.
probably in the industrial Worker, which wasn't an official newspaper, but a joint publication of several PNW branches.
ftony wrote:
another question then, for you IWW buffs out there: when did the black cat begin to re-emerge? was it quite a recent thing, or has it been going for a while?
It was around from the 1960-70s on, as the first generation died out it became more promenant, especially after 1990 and the influx of Earth Firsters. But I've don't remember seeing a black cat in any of the copies of the IW prior to 1965 or so. Nor was it used on pamphlets, etc. AFAIK.
newyawka wrote:
i know nothing of the black cat image in syndicalism or the IWW. was it around at/before the founding in 1905? was it co-opted form this culture perhaps?
The black cat motif was used for Parisian nightclub ads in I think the 1880's with the posters produced by Letrec in particular (sp?) becoming 'art'. I've not been able to find the image online but some of these were of a black cat with an arched back. Given that there were a number of anarchists and syndicalists in those circles there may be a connection - even as simple as someone copying a cat off a poster to produce a graphic.
tsiatko is correct that the cat was not favored after the Chicago indictment. Although, the cat was featured in the "Can Opener" the publication of the "Cook County Can" (Chicago) in 1917.B
The sabcat was published in Solidarity. And I do think the Industrial Worker was an official paper of the entire IWW. In fact, did not the GEB appoint its editor for many, many years?
Solidarity was the official Eastern Organ. Now, why would it not be just the "official organ" if there was no other? The Industrial Worker was actually the official paper/journal starting in 1906, and then the Industrial Union Bulletin (with slight name variations) until the IW started up again in Spokane, I believe, in early 1909. The papers were merged ca. 1931 in Chicago. Also, keep in mind that the Industrial Worker was not printed from about 1914-1916.
I am curious about the prominence of the IWW-style sabocat amongst the various revolutionary unions and anarcho-syndicalist unions in Europe. Was not that cat (featured on the front of June's IW) designed by Hal Rammel ca. 1980s? If so, it begs the question of why many European unions far more influential in the period of the 1980s-90s would want to borrow an image from a relatively smaller union. Or perhaps they just liked the graphic. Anyone know where the modern cat originated?
OK, here's the scoop. The IW (started 1909) was published by joint PNW branches. In 1912, Walker C. Smith (not M. Downing) started publishing articles supporting Euro style sabotage - distruction of machinery, etc. The GEB took more control over the IW, naming a new editor in 1913 because of this advocacy of sabotage was undermining the support for Lawrence Textile Strike defence - Ettor and Giovannini murder trial, etc. Smith and the IW also argued against spending money on legal defense, an idea that would re-emerge in the EP split. Most of the IW subscribers supported Smith as editor and canceled their subscriptions and refused to pay for bundles that they owed upon. The Spokane based IW shut down in 1913 and was resurrected in Seattle in 1916.
coincidence?