The Wobblies: The Story of the IWW & Syndicalism in the United States

by Patrick Renshaw

Index, bibliography, illustrated with period photos. This edition corrects some minor errors that cropped up in the original hardcover edition.
"In this new edition of his classic study of the Industrial Workers of the World, Mr. Renshaw tells the story of how they planned to combine the American working class & eventually wage earners all over the world, into one big labor union with an industrial basis, a syndicalist philosophy & a revolutionary aim. A sensible & penetrating examination...Topical even today."--Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

Genres: History, Labor, Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology, American History, Economics

258 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[P.J. Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One trouble with unions is disunity, factional infighting, and there is plenty of that in this book. Eventually the syndicalists prevail. What exactly was a syndicalist? It isn't clear from this book, which could benefit from a glossary of terms. What exactly was an anarcho-syndicalist? A Menshevik? The author assumes that you know these terms. And this book could use a roster of the leading players and where they stood on the divisive issues. Maybe even a chart or graph. Because there are lots of characters in this drama and the beginning reader may have trouble sorting them out. Some prominent ones among them: Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, William Z. Foster, Joe Hill, Eugene Debs, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Frank Little.

Some of the divisive issues:
• A strong central union? Or autonomous, decentralized branches?
• To organize horizontally or vertically? By craft/ trade or by class?
• To engage in sabotage? Seizure of property? Sit-ins?
• Strikes—good or bad?
• To bore from within existing political parties or unions? Or to be independent of them?
• To achieve revolution by the ballot box? Direct action? Economic power?

It is a story of struggle for justice and dignity against relentless and brutal persecution—and lack of money. The author is sympathetic to the IWW and its aims: to unite all workers into one big union, to emancipate them all and put an end to the wage system. Revolutionary, but not violent in theory.

Was the IWW a success or a failure? This book concludes that it left "a mark in the field of civil liberties," influenced later organizations such as the CIO, and had "an importance which goes beyond its achievements and failures."

An exciting story, full of pain and suffering. Indexed, with bibliography. Illustrated with archival photos. Recommended to readers interested in labor history or early twentieth century American history.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Wobblies as a kid. Older high school friends had turned me on to them during the sophomore year and had taken me down to their international headquarters in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood before it had gentrified. There, most notably, I met Fred Thompson, author of their official history, a fellow whom I became politically associated with much later, in the eighties, through the Socialist Party.

The first substantial, scholarly book I ever read about the IWW was the collection, Rebel Voices, everything I'd read previously having been their own in-house publications, mostly reprints from the teens. That I'd absorbed while visiting Hawaii as a callow sixteen year old. A big book, it consisted primarily of reprints, reprints of songs, poems, manifestos, articles, art--enough to give a sense of the soul of the organization, the full personhood of its membership.

The Wobblies were primarily working stiffs, though they certainly had their supporters amongst the intelligentsia, Americans ranging from miners of the Western Federation to recent immigrants in the textile mills of the East. Their activists, as activists tend to be, were young--young, brash and idealistic men and women. Their egalitarian ideology was simple: the people who work to produce wealth deserve the product of their toil.

Renshaw's book is a very good general introduction to the history of anarcho-syndicalism in general and of the Industrial Workers of the World in particular.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many people focus on the downside of unions stressing their violent history and strong arm tactics, and miss their accomplishments such as the 8-hour work day and paid vacations, to name only a couple. Perhaps they're thinking about the Industrial Workers of the World, better know as the IWW or the Wobblies. That's fair because the Wobblies were rather extreme and violent, wanting to overturn the capitalist economy. The basic idea of the IWW was to organize unions to challenge the power of the Trusts in the early 20th century. They succeeded and they didn't, and they left quite a legacy.

[David Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

1967 vintage book about the short history of the International Workers of the World (IWW). Updated in 1999. Reads a little tedious because of all the formed, broken, reformed political and union alliance surrounding this socially liberal attempt at unionizing all workers. Good overview of some of the maim players and their parts in the life of the Wobblies.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, quick, even-handed account of basic IWW history, though possibly a little too focused on the big names (Joe Hill, etc.) rather than the hundreds of thousands of workers that moved in and out of Wobbly membership during the union's main heyday.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a very good book. i wish these people, the anarchist labor class, wouldve won way back when. i was surprised to see so many names i knew in the history of radical labor.

i want to know more.