Material from the years 1940-1949 of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Articles and/or issues from the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
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The January 13, 1940 (Vol. 21, No. 43, Whole No. 203) issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Contents include:
-No compromise on war issue!
-Pipelines carry flow of profit
-Women workers worst exploited, lowest paid
-Socialist city bosses prefer cheap labor
-Frisco waterfront farce shows up phony leaders
-Should share equally in all there is by T-Bone Slim
-Company union independent, court rules
-No truce in class war even when bosses change attitude toward unions
-This is not a war for freedom!
-Union holds one election in 18 years
-Of Men and the World: an open letter to Gurley Flynn
-So-called revolutionary Mexico government helps fix wages at peon level
-British libertarians voice opposition to war talk
-IWW is road to freedom, defense against dictators
This issue scanned for libcom.org as part of an effort which was made possible from funds donated by our users.
Attachments
Industrial Worker (January 13, 1940).pdf
(5.52 MB)
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A polemic by Art Hopkins towards Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a one-time IWW organizer who became involved with the Communist Party USA. Originally appeared in the Industrial Worker (January 13, 1940)
Don’t know why, lately I’ve been picking on old, old Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, once called a “child wonder” but who now can appropriately be called an “old age wonder”. And it is a wonder that one individual can change so completely. It’s almost as amazing as Mussolini’s turn to fascism.
What gets me now, is that Gurley has the gumption, the audacity in her column appearing in the Sunday Worker of December 24, 1939 to quote part of the IWW Preamble and say “The words of the old IWW Preamble come to my mind, more familiar to me that a Christmas carol: ‘There can be no peace as long as hunger and want are found among the millions who make up the working class and the few, who make up the employing class have all the food things of life” These words might be very familiar to Gurley Flynn but she doesn’t believe it or she is so hynotized with commizarism that she things she believes it.
It Hurts
Somehow it hurts to hear Gurley Flynn quote the IWW Preamble – it’s almost as bad as hearing Harold L. Varney quote the IWW Preamble, and say it’s familiar to him.
I remember long ago, when I was still a kid, my ambition was to meet up with a rebel girl like Gurley Flynn. I remember even writing an epigram in a book I gave a birthday gift to a young lady, “The world needs more Gurley Flynn’s and Emma Goldman’s”
I must apologize to Emma Goldman for using Gurley’s name in the same sentence with her’s.
Perhaps, it is wrong for an individual much younger to criticize an older person. But be that as it may, here goes;
What surprises me, Gurley Flynn, is that you, who have been reared in a tradition of struggle and direct action, of revolutionary industrial unionism, have stayed so long in the Communist part. Perhaps it’s because you have changed, or did you have dreams that you could be a commissar here in the United States for Soviet Russia? Or perhaps you have turned practical, and have found some kind of paying position within the ranks of the Bolsheviki and for the sake of the dollar are continuing to as a tool in a political machine.
IWW Versus C.P.
Surely you cannot suggest that the Communist party has anything in common with the IWW. And the part of the Preamble you quote: “There can be no peace…” remember the time your comrades were speaking of United Front; there was peace between those classes for the party. And you were part of that party.
“There can be no peace…” yet the Soviet Union has made peace with a ruthless, barbaric ruling class in Germany.
“There can be no peace…” yet the party has done its utmost to break up the IWW, and the party supports the CIO and AFL as against the IWW and the former two believe that there can be peace between the working class and the employing class. And you are member of that party.
Gurley, you write in your column: “…my sympathy goes out tot he poor people, struggling desperately in a rich, fertile, productive country like the USA, to provide food, warmth, cheer and joy for their little ones on at least one day of the year…Better than even the sweetest Christmas carol would be a fighting American slogan that the earth and the fullness thereof belongs to the people everyday. 1940 is the year, to make the good fight to give American back to the Americans. What a grand Christmas stocking full that would be for the children.”
Do you really believe that Gurley? I doubt it! Your actions don’t prove it!
Transcribed by Juan Conatz
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The January 20, 1940 (Vol. 21, No. 44, Whole No. 204) issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Contents include:
-Prepare for Lakes IWW drive!
-IWW workers win sixth raise at Cochrane Brass Co. plant in Cleveland
-British cooperatives divided on war issue
-Learn about militancy from women by T-Bone Slim
-Dies seen as potential Hitler
-Rat Hynes testifies
-Labor in belligerent nations
-You can improve your job by taking it easy
-Court rules employer need not sign contract
-College Professors demand junking of Dies Committee
-Chief political watchdog of capitalism speaks up
-Bossetto thanks GDC
-E. Goldman speaks at Winnipeg
-Crucible steel strike action still curbed by CIO union leadership
-Latest NMU agreement is rank open shop sellout
This issue scanned for libcom.org as part of an effort which was made possible from funds donated by our users.
Attachments
Industrial Worker (January 20, 1940).pdf
(5.75 MB)
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Nah, what's up on libcom is all I have and I have no plans to do any further digitization or archiving.
However, there is an internal IWW archive for (primarily) members that exists and I could send an email to the person maintaining it asking to give you access to the IW section if you want.
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The February 10, 1940 (Vol. 21, No. 47, Whole No. 207) issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
This issue scanned for libcom.org as part of an effort which was made possible from funds donated by our users.
Attachments
Industrial Worker (February 10,1940).pdf
(5.46 MB)
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The February 17, 1940 (Vol. 21, No. 48, Whole No. 208) issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Contents include:
-Bringing ore from Chile for mills of Bethlehem is no cinch for seamen
-Duluth youth 26 per cent unemployed
-Cleveland IWW smokes out boss who tries to hide behind AFL
-Communist union seeks to save prestige by claiming to be dual to MTW of IWW
-Reno Hughes, rebel, buried in Baltimore
-War time slavery is a sign of new dark ages
-Negroes got slight break in AFL union
-IWW basketeers headed for 1940 championship
-It's baseball writers who play fast game by T-Bone Slim
-Efforts of AFL fizzle on Minnesota Iron Range
-Canadian war profits soar
-Columbia Records accused of working girls 92 hours
-IWW has real union for seamen
-AFL union fined in trust case
-Am. Stove Wobblies cure foremen of annoying habit
-14 WPA strikers get jail
This issue scanned for libcom.org as part of an effort which was made possible from funds donated by our users.
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The February 24, 1940 (Vol. 21, No. 49, Whole No. 209) issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Contents include:
-Lorain IWW authorize strike
-California's scrambled politics mix groups in mess of confusion
-County to fingerprint employees
-War brews revolt in Australia
-Chicago to give Industrial Worker benefit March 9
-Brass band can't drum up jobs
-13 women in WPA strike freed; one goes to jail
-6 more unionists indicted in anti-trust drive
-Capitalist system is top-heavy by T-Bone Slim
-Many New York cops drop fascist order
-Letters to the Editor: Use war to clean up by J.K.
-Won't know a Communist when they see him
-5,000 take strike vote at Intl. Harvester
-Shopmen try to make craft unions work
-Capitalism and culture by Peter Lane
-Ball players draw $15 jobless benefit
-"Free enterprise" leaves textile workers high and dry in ghost towns
-Mud Mountain conditions call for Wobbly action
-Striking masons win strike at Masonic Temple
-Men now living will see end of old social order by Scott Nearing
This issue scanned for libcom.org as part of an effort which was made possible from funds donated by our users.
Attachments
Comments
Articles and/or issues from the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Comments
Articles and/or issues from the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Comments
The November 13, 1948 issue of the Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Contents include:
-Not bread but comic books
-People do it ! by Henry Jones
-Pacific Coast is it peace?
-Calumny on Joe Hill refuted by Friends of Joe Hill Committee
-Editorials: Joe Hill and your future; Repeal Taft-HartleyISM
-Review by Fred Thompson of The legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti
Attachments
Industrial Worker (November 13, 1948).pdf
(574.36 KB)
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