The Progressive Era is “a period of explosive economic growth” (Toner 684). Progressive is an accurate verb to describe this period because of the emerging realization and demand for the rights of women, workers, and immigrants. Various organizations emerged to unite groups of people to fight for their rights. In 1905, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago. Unlike the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the IWW embraced unskilled workers and rejected capitalism. Solidarity was the key concept for IWW and also became the newspaper name for the IWW, where IWW would publish articles to support different movements. IWW was active during the Progressive Era and carried out the idea of solidarity by including people from different ethnic groups, selecting influential leaders that united people from different social groups, organizing noticeable IWW strikes, carrying out the concept of “direct actions,” and supporting the feminist movements.

Solidarity is the key word for the Industrial Workers of the World, and that value was displayed thoroughly through their very actions. The idea of diversity and inclusion was founded in its birth when 43 social group representatives gathered together to form this organization. A strike of mostly unskilled workers actually inspired IWW. The strike was put down by the state militias, and since the unskilled workers could not gain any support, the strikers gave up. IWW was then formed to protect and unite all the workers. After its foundation, it was constantly obstructed by capitalistic authority. To gain more support, IWW distributed membership cards and put up posters to share their anti-capitalist beliefs. 

Since the newspaper became the prevailing way to communicate and spread ideas, IWW designed a poster to encourage more people to join the union and fight for their rights. In the propaganda poster called Industrial Democracy, the phrase “one big union of labor” was highlighted, inferring that IWW wanted to unite all the people from the working class. Even though this might seem similar to the AFL’s goal to help workers achieve economic security, the purpose of IWW was to reject the excluded policy of AFL, which only incorporated skilled workers in different trades and crafts. In IWW, those excluded from AFL, including unskilled workers, women, and immigrants, were supported and allowed to fight for their rights in the workplace. By highlighting the keywords like “Emancipation,” “working class solidarity,” and “working class education and organization” in the poster, the viewers could see the organization was focusing on the working class and the wage-earning groups, and the poster straightforwardly appealed to this group of people. In the book Give Me Liberty, Eric Foner also describes that IWW intends to “extend a fraternal hand to every wage-worker” (697). The intent is to include women and men, skilled and unskilled workers, and immigrants and natives. This purpose is the exact opposite of the capitalist beliefs of the partnership between only the private business sector or skilled workers and the federal government. Moreover, the poster described the capitalist system as “crumbling” and “inherent evils.” Through these negative dictions, we can see the stances of IWW, who believed that the current system of capitalism would not be everlasting and should be overthrown. 

To fully embrace the idea of solidarity, IWW served to help any workers, even the recently emancipated black people that faced injustice. Between 1900 and 1916, the rights of Southern blacks were restricted by the state government. The newly liberated enslaved people were not treated equally, and some even remained in the lifestyle of an enslaved person. Their suffrage was deprived because of the desire to end election fraud, and the setup of literacy tests also secluded many blacks from voting. Since the blacks usually did not receive an adequate education, they were often neglected in courts when they tried to uphold their righteousness in the workplace. Unlike other organizations that intended to keep a blind eye toward the situation of the blacks, IWW practiced what it preached by involving blacks in the meetings and supporting organizations that intended to unite the blacks. In the chapter “Socialism, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Black Worker'' of the book The Black Worker, Philip S. Foner and Roald L. Lewis stated that “10 percent of the one million membership cards issued by the IWW between 1909 and 1924 went to Afro-American” (492). Haywood, the leader of IWW, showed reverence to the black people. During a convention, blacks could not join the meeting without breaking the state law because the law in Louisiana stated that colored people cannot meet in the same hall as the white men. Haywood believed that “this is the occasion that law should be broken” (Foner and Lewis 492). The Black Worker quoted here is a credible source that intended to recognize the blacks in the labor field that were often absent or footnotes in history. Philip S. Foner is a labor historian who has written or edited over 100 books. Roald L. Lewis was a history professor at West Virginia University. Both authors were knowledgeable and experts on the topic of labor unions, so the information provided would most likely be reliable and trustworthy. Haywood’s quotation reveals his active support for blacks to unite against employers. 

Many prominent black workers union leaders were inspired by IWW or from IWW. Benjamin Fletcher, a black IWW member, organized the Marine Transport Workers to unite the dock workers (primarily blacks). Many blacks joined the IWW conventions and sometimes played a crucial role in IWW. The inclusion of Blacks during the Progressive Era revealed the level of solidarity and intolerance that IWW was able to fulfill. It inferred that IWW was able to follow its doctrine and carry out the ideas it stated through actions.

In order to create a powerful union, leaders should be determined and ambitious and hold the core value of solidarity in their daily life. Among all IWW's founders and leaders, William Dudley “Big Bill” Haywood was undoubtedly the most famous and influential figure. He was fearless and tried to remove capitalism. In his speeches that started the convention for IWW, Haywood said: “This is the continental Congress of the working-class… The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to the capitalist masters.” In this speech, he clearly stated his and the union’s stance of opposing the division between workers and rejecting the concept of capitalism. He deliberately noted the word “working-class” to isolate the privileged employers that are primarily involved in the AFL. Immediately after he was acquitted of the murder of a former anti-union governor, he held a street convention to deliver his speech on socialist beliefs and the danger of capitalistic ideas. 

The adherence to the standard of solidarity was also shown in the numerous strikes that Haywood and IWW leaders participated in. Events in Lawrence, Massachusetts, brought the most attention to the crowd and gained lots of attention. In 1912, the workers of the American Woolen Company, mostly immigrant women, found out their wages, which were already too low, were dropped again. They immediately quit their jobs and reached out to IWW for assistance to initiate a strike. Joseph Ettor, an IWW leader in New York, soon came to help by organizing mass meetings and parades. State government and militia intervened with violence killing a striker and arresting Joseph and other IWW authorities (Zinn 336). Haywood took over Joseph’s job. However, after this event, state laws were erected to prohibit talking on the street. Haywood designed the idea to mass picketing, protesting by holding armbands that said: “Don’t be a scab.” Since the strikes were lasting for a long duration, food storage was starting to run out. The socialist party and IWW family in New York offered to take care of the starving children of the women strikers. Thus, thousands of children were sent on a train to New York. As the children marched up Fifth Avenue, the spectators were startled by what they saw. One spectator commented, “ I have worked in the slums of New York, but I have never found children who were so uniformly ill-nourished, ill-fed, and ill-clothed” (Foner 701). Even though things were not looking good, the women and IWW still did not give up. Zinn described that “one pregnant woman was carried unconscious to a hospital and gave birth to a dead child.” Attributed to the strikers’ persistence and IWW’s support, the American Woolen Company gave in and offered a “5 to 11 percent increase” to their wages (Zinn 337). This was a reasonable and accurate depiction of the strikes, given that People’s History of the United States is a reliable source of information. The author of A People’s History of the United States Zinn earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University and taught students at different universities in the United States. In this chapter (that most of the information above was found), Zinn maintained an unbiased tone and alluded to many direct quotes from the strikers, showing his deep research into the strike that happened in Lawrence, Massachusetts. This event was not only a significant victory for the IWW and the women strikers, but it also established IWW as an approachable organization and victorious labor union. Many workers celebrated Haywood as a hero. In this event, strikes were tested to be effective and crucial for the mistreated workers. After this, many strikers asked for assistance from IWW and joined IWW to fight for a better working environment and wage. There were more successful cases, and more companies were willing to make adjustments or were just scared by the threats of the strikers. Solidarity was also clearly shown in the strike. These workers were women and immigrants, two minority groups that were consistently not welcomed in most of the other labor unions because they usually remained only close to communities with the same ethnicity or gender. These isolations were always a great advantage to employers. The workers that were not united together had less strength and were usually quickly suppressed by unemployment and the substitution of workers. IWW served as the glue that united these workers from different social backgrounds into one union to gain better and more reasonable wages.

Haywood's perseverance affected many other members of the IWW, including Joe Hill. Joe Hill was deeply affected by Haywood and was amazed by its success in Massachusetts. He wrote the poem “Rebel Girls”, describing IWW leader Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s contribution to the strike. Even though he did not play a crucial part in the strikes themselves, he used his literary talent to help promote the solidarity ideology and advocate strikes as a method for workers to gain voices in the workplace. His songs and poems exposed the plight of immigrants and black workers. His songs were “biting, funny, class-conscious, inspiring” which allowed the audience to be both entertained by the unique dictions and educated about the severity of the workers’ condition (Zinn 334). Because of Hill’s ability to create unique connections with the audience through literature, he was described as a “legend” by Zinn (334). However, he was arrested and charged with the crime of murder. Even though there was limited information to confirm his crime, he was still executed. Before his death, he telegraphed Haywood and said: “I die like a true rebel. Don’t waste time in mourning. Organize.” In his last words, the audience can see his dedication to the Industrial Workers of the World. His last word called for direct action from the working class instead of hesitation in standing up for oneself. He intended to encourage workers to go on strikes, actively fight for their rights, and be more courageous and determined in what they were doing. These last words inspired lots of workers. He became a folk hero and a martyr who died honorably, and his stories were commemorated in the history of American labor movements.

“Direct action” was the approach that IWW ought to take when the rights of the workers were being offended. “They argued against making contracts with the employer because this had so often prevented workers from striking on their own” (Zinn 330). Even though violence was not encouraged, IWW people led a strike of six thousand workers in 1909 in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. The strike happened at the Pressed Steel Car company in McKees Rocks, a highly corrupted company. Due to the diverse ethnicity of the workers, the workers were pretty divided without much interaction with each other. The employers exploited the workers physically by forcing them to labor long hours, and this exploitation even included injuries and death. The strikes broke out when several employees were fired because they asked about their wages, which were supposed to be determined by the “whim of the foremen.” IWW quickly came to support and allied with the strikers. They “promised to take a trooper’s life for every worker killed” during the direct confrontation between the workers and employers (Zinn 311). The company, at last, gave in, and the strikers gained the victory. This success was crucial because it showed the ability of solidarity between different groups of workers. Eugene Victor Debs, one of the founding members of the IWW, described this victory as “the road of industrial unionism.” Industrial unionism, a form of solidarity, means the union of skilled and unskilled workers in a particular industry. In the strike, the immigrants from Russia, Germany, and Italy were all united into one group, along with the skilled and unskilled workers. This revealed the ability to neglect the differences when one’s rights and well-being were endangered. Craft unionism that focuses on the difference in craft ability is adopted by AFL and capitalism. However, in this context, craft unionism will not be the ideology that would be pursued by IWW and also the strikers.

Solidarity could not be fully carried out if IWW was simply working solitarily. IWW intended to help any other labor union that faced difficulties. IWW showed support to the feminists that emerged in this period. IWW was inclusive to the workers, especially women workers, which became prevalent in this period. IWW allowed women to participate in the convention and serve in leadership roles. In fact, one of the founders was a feminist. During the birth-control movement, feminists brought up a new concept of freedom, where “the ability to enjoy an active sexual life without necessarily bearing children '' should be included (Foner 704). Margaret Sanger, one of the critical leaders of the movement, began a column on sex education and openly advocated for birth-control devices. In order to show support, IWW distributed the writings and united women to discuss this new concept. This was not the only time that IWW showed support for the feminists. Later, IWW would advocate for the women's suffrage movement and the rights of women in the workplace. 

Even though the IWW strikes were not always successful (some members were sent to jail, and some were even sentenced to death), IWW’s concept of solidarity and unity was still spreading readily among the workers, posing a significant threat to the capitalist class. In People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn attributed the success of the organization to “their energy, their persistence, their inspiration to others, their ability to mobilize thousands at one place” (331). The IWW members used their voices as weapons to unite the workers who those huge manufacturing industry companies were poorly treating. In IWW, solidarity was not just a propaganda method or a simple slogan. It was thoroughly carried out by the acceptance of people from different social backgrounds, the leadership of Haywood and other IWW leaders, the direct organization of strikes, and the involvement of the feminists and the immigrant unions.

Works Cited

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Foner, Eric, et al. “The Progressive Era, 1900-1916.” Give Me Liberty!, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 697–706. 

Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis, editors. “SOCIALISM, THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD, AND THE BLACK WORKER.” The Black Worker, Volume 5: The Black Worker from 1900 to 1919, Temple University Press, 1980, pp. 491–534. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvn1tcpp.11. Accessed 11 May 2023.

Haywood, Bill. “The General Strike.” The General Strike | Industrial Workers of the World, 2015, archive.iww.org/history/library/Haywood/GeneralStrike/. 

Industrial Workers of the World. Industrial Workers of the World Poster: “Industrial Democracy.” University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division., JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/community.29378442. Accessed 11 May 2023.

IWW. “‘Jersey Justice’ at Work.” “Jersey Justice” at Work | Industrial Workers of the World, 2005, archive.iww.org/history/library/iww/jerseyjustice/. 

“IWW Strikes 1905-1920.” IWW Strikes 1906-1920, 2015, depts.washington.edu/iww/strikes.shtml#:~:text=IWW%20and%20WFM%20members%20went,are%20filling%20the%20strikers%20places. 

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Zinn, Howard, and Howard Zinn. “The Socialist Challenge.” A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, London, United Kingdom, 2015, pp. 321–357.