Notes on lesser-known Wobblies

Just starting this thread to put my information on lesser-known Wobblies somewhere. Somewhat related is my thread on American anarchist publications 1920s-1950s. A few years ago, I planned to write a whole series on people like this. Unfortunatly, I only did one, on Vincent St. John.

The person I was most interested in was Frank Cedervall. He was in the IWW during the 1930s (maybe before), seemingly until the 1950s, and then back in the union in the late 1960s, until his death. Most of his involvement seems to have been as a paid organizer, specifically in Cleveland, but also in Detroit. His brother, Tor, was also in the IWW for a time. His wife, Jennie, was also in the IWW for some time.

Arthur Miller talks about him here:

3. Frank Cedervall: Fred and Walter were storehouses of information, but it was Frank who had the old fire and brimstone of the old Wobblies. In the old days Frank was an IWW soapbox speaker and when I knew him he still had his stuff. Now days there are few speakers around that can cut right threw you and reach the center of your being. At that first convention that I attended it was decided that Frank would go on tour to promote the IWW. His first stop was in San Diego. We had set up three events for him. The first was in downtown San Diego at a square where the San Diego Free Speech fight had taken place 60 years earlier. At that square were a lot of people waiting for buses and some homeless people. Without announcing anything, Frank got up on a soap box and started to speak. Within a few minutes there were near a hundred people gathered around listening to him. He asked me to introduce him at one of the events and to give a little IWW history. I told him that I had never done any public speaking before and did not know how to go about it. He then told me that it was about time that I started. He sat me down and started to teach me what he could. He first told me that no matter who you were speaking to people can only remember a small amount of what you say. You can either ramble on and hope that they get the most important parts, or you can decide which parts you want them to remember. You do this by drawing greater attention to those parts. He also said that there are two ways to affect people. First, you can affect them intellectually. And this is important that you state your case in such a manner that people will agree with it intellectually. But, that alone with not light the fire in them to become active. You need to reach their spirit. In other words you must not only reach their mind but you much also reach their gut emotions. For that is where you will convert them.

Frank was a key Wobbly organizer in the '30s in the Murray Body drive and later in organizing machine shops in Cleveland. Those shops the IWW was able to hold on to until the early '50s.

Arthur mentions him again in another piece:

As a young Wobbly my mentors were old-time Wobblies who were still around, people like Gilbert Mers, Blackie Vanughan, Fred Hansen, Carl and Fanny Keller, Paul Ware, Walter Westman, Frank Cedervall, Fred Thompson and others. From them I learned what being a Wobbly was all about and I learned Wobbly history that you will not find in any books. The first thing they taught me was that there is only one class of Wobblies and no matter if you joined years ago or you joined today, every Wobbly is a Wobbly, there are no second class Wobblies. And that every worker no matter how they labor, as long as they did not labor against their fellow workers like scabs and cops, were just as much a worker as any other worker. Though these old-timers may not be in the history books, to me they were the real working class heroes of the IWW because they never gave up on the class struggle.

Frank is mentioned several time in George Pearce's 'The IWW since 1932'.

From August to October 1932, he was part of a IWW speaking tour.

For some reason, I have a link to the November 2, 1935 issue of The Militant in my document on Cedervall. Quick scan didn't reveal mention of him, will check later.

According to February 12, 1936 Elyria Chronicle Telegram, he was arrested with a few other organizers.

In 1936, he sued someone in the Cleveland area for false arrest related to organizing activities.

Ottilie Markholt's memoir mentions Cedervall several times.

In a 1970 forum about people involved in the early CIO, John W. Anderson talks about how Cedervall was the one who got him into the IWW. Anderson talks about Cedervall and the Briggs strike on pg. 61-62 of Rank & file: personal histories by working-class organizers.

This account of Cleveland during the Great Depression, it says Cedervall "jolted" businessmen with his radical talk.

In the 1970s, he did a (national?) speaking tour for the IWW. Among many places, he stopped in Champagne-Urbana, San Rafael, California, and San Diego.

He gave the keynote speech at the 1972 IWW Convention. That same year he spoke on a radio program about the history of the union.

Patrick Murfin mentions Cedervall coming to Illinois to support a campaign the IWW had there.

In Calf's Head & Union Tale: Labor Yarns at Work and Play, Cedervall is referred to by someone who might know the origin of a labor song.

In Builders and Dreamers: Habonim Labor Zionist Youth in North America, Cedervall is described as soapboxing at a 1975 strike in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

He wrote a manuscript called 'IWW Radio Broadcasts from the 1930s'. It was never published. Not sure where it can be found.

Frank met his wife, Jennie, at a Junior Wobblies event in the 1930s. She passed away in 2008.

I tracked down this picture that's supposed to be Cedervall. It's from the 1930s, and no one I know who met him could say whether it is him.

Comparing to this photo, it seems like it is him.

UPDATE (5/28/2016): I added this obituary (and picture) of him that I got from a fellow Wobs collection.