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Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers
2022 International Labor History Association Book of the Year
A dramatic, deeply researched account of how legal repression and vigilantism brought down the Wobblies—and how the destruction of their union haunts us to this day.
In 1917, the Industrial Workers of the World was rapidly gaining strength and members. Within a decade, this radical union was effectively destroyed, the victim of the most remarkable campaign of legal repression and vigilantism in American history. Under the Iron Heel is the first comprehensive account of this campaign.
Founded in 1905, the IWW offered to the millions of workers aggrieved by industrial capitalism the promise of a better world. But its growth, coinciding with World War I and the Russian Revolution and driven by uncompromising militancy, was seen by powerful capitalists and government officials as an existential threat that had to be eliminated. In Under the Iron Heel , Ahmed White documents the torrent of legal persecution and extralegal, sometimes lethal violence that shattered the IWW. In so doing, he reveals the remarkable courage of those who faced this campaign, lays bare the origins of the profoundly unequal and conflicted nation we know today, and uncovers disturbing truths about the law, political repression, and the limits of free speech and association in class society.
A dramatic, deeply researched account of how legal repression and vigilantism brought down the Wobblies—and how the destruction of their union haunts us to this day.
In 1917, the Industrial Workers of the World was rapidly gaining strength and members. Within a decade, this radical union was effectively destroyed, the victim of the most remarkable campaign of legal repression and vigilantism in American history. Under the Iron Heel is the first comprehensive account of this campaign.
Founded in 1905, the IWW offered to the millions of workers aggrieved by industrial capitalism the promise of a better world. But its growth, coinciding with World War I and the Russian Revolution and driven by uncompromising militancy, was seen by powerful capitalists and government officials as an existential threat that had to be eliminated. In Under the Iron Heel , Ahmed White documents the torrent of legal persecution and extralegal, sometimes lethal violence that shattered the IWW. In so doing, he reveals the remarkable courage of those who faced this campaign, lays bare the origins of the profoundly unequal and conflicted nation we know today, and uncovers disturbing truths about the law, political repression, and the limits of free speech and association in class society.
360 pages, Hardcover
Published October 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 18, 2022
Few books written by academics make for vibrant, engaging reads, but Ahmed White’s UNDER THE IRON HEEL is a superb exception. White tells his story with an astute eye for the telling detail, a winning absence of jargon, admirable pacing, and an unerring grasp of the larger story. Although I already had some familiarity with the topic, I put the book down with a much fuller understanding of the relentlessness and brutality that the business class resorted to in its war on the Wobblies—a war whose price, as White makes clear, the United States is still paying to this day. A most rewarding read.
October 25, 2022
Meticulously researched and very well-written.
January 21, 2023
A History to Appreciate
Starts a bit jumbled then it becomes clear that the story will wind up with lots of radical history that is mixed with legal actions...great job of pulling together into a tight labor history. Good lessons for today...that benefits all
Starts a bit jumbled then it becomes clear that the story will wind up with lots of radical history that is mixed with legal actions...great job of pulling together into a tight labor history. Good lessons for today...that benefits all
November 18, 2025
Poor working men and woman viciously persecuted for wanting what should be basic rights. The people of the IWW never stood a chance against the powers that be. The worst perpetrators were the progressives who gave lip service to change but then were not willing walk the walk.
Excellent read.
Excellent read.
October 27, 2022
A great read. The scale of the book is epic. The detail can be almost overwhelming at times but I think it helps to tell a sad but inspiring story of oppression and resistance.
March 12, 2024
After the shooting of the Verona: "Indeed, one can appreciate that in some very meaningful wags McRae and his men, like many others who wore badges and guns and were never prosecuted for this kind of behavior, were the law." - page 52 describing the monopoly on violence
"police responded by raiding the IWW camp and searching everyone. Finding a gun in the possession of a man... they arrested Lake and brought up before the police court, where he was convicted the next morning on a weapons charge" - page 62
"she tried to post bail for a group of fellow Wobblies, she was arrested and subjected to a humiliating physical examination of the kind usually reserved for prostitutes -- something the U.S. attorney justified as appropriate for IWW women" - page 127
"Police raided the general defense committee's San Francisco office seven times over a six-month period and seized all the office's documents. Others who worked there besides Pollok were repeatedly arrested, typically for vagrancy, and one man who worked in the office was picked up fifteen times in four months. Those who tried to raise defense funds and publicize the union's cause by distributing handbills on the street were also arrested, and the defendants' mail, including communications with lawyers, was intercepted by government agents, who replied under false pretenses and used this artifice to uncover details about the defendants' legal strategy." - page 128
"Hanson declared that if the strike had not ended by the morning of February 8 he would impose martial law, and he issued a proclamation that implied that anyone who usurped civil authority would be summarily shot" - page 132
"Malley told the judge that the case against him was "a crime against free speech," to which the judge replied that Malley had committed "crimes of social insanity."" - page 151
"police responded by raiding the IWW camp and searching everyone. Finding a gun in the possession of a man... they arrested Lake and brought up before the police court, where he was convicted the next morning on a weapons charge" - page 62
"she tried to post bail for a group of fellow Wobblies, she was arrested and subjected to a humiliating physical examination of the kind usually reserved for prostitutes -- something the U.S. attorney justified as appropriate for IWW women" - page 127
"Police raided the general defense committee's San Francisco office seven times over a six-month period and seized all the office's documents. Others who worked there besides Pollok were repeatedly arrested, typically for vagrancy, and one man who worked in the office was picked up fifteen times in four months. Those who tried to raise defense funds and publicize the union's cause by distributing handbills on the street were also arrested, and the defendants' mail, including communications with lawyers, was intercepted by government agents, who replied under false pretenses and used this artifice to uncover details about the defendants' legal strategy." - page 128
"Hanson declared that if the strike had not ended by the morning of February 8 he would impose martial law, and he issued a proclamation that implied that anyone who usurped civil authority would be summarily shot" - page 132
"Malley told the judge that the case against him was "a crime against free speech," to which the judge replied that Malley had committed "crimes of social insanity."" - page 151
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews