March 8, 2024
A
Very Musical Reputation
The
early history of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has become the stuff
of legend for the U.S. socialist left. In its first decade, the IWW led massive
strikes of industrial workers that cut across ethnic boundaries in the east and
brutal free speech fights for the rights of its organizers to publicly promote
industrial unionism in the west. Many of its organizers were assassinated by
right-wing vigilantes or executed by the state, and some have become martyr
figures for U.S. socialism and trade unionism. Key to the legendary status of
the early IWW is the notion that the organization was a “singing union.”1
