1910s

Mr Block comic

Submitted by Reddebrek on Mar 11 2014 16:15

Mr. Block, who has no first name, was created November 7, 1912 by Ernest Riebe, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Block appeared that day in the Spokane newspaper Industrial Worker, smoking a cigar and wearing a checkered suit with top hat. Subsequently, Mr. Block lost the fancy clothes but often kept a hat, ten sizes too small, perched on one corner of his wooden blockhead.

Helen Keller - Why I became an IWW

Hellen Keller in 1920

An Interview, written by Barbara Bindley, New York Tribune, January 15, 1916.

The Voice of the People newspaper

First front page

Voice of the People was the new name of the Lumberjack the Wobbly Weekly covering New Orleans and the surrounding area.

The Lumberjack newspaper

Lumberjack Front page

An archive of a Wobbly Weekly Newspaper covering New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana and focussing (at first) on the Lumberjacks of which it was named. It ran for the first half of 1913 before being revived as The Voice of the People.

Direct Action journal

Direct Action was published by the Industrial Workers of the World Australian Administration.

It printed 135 issues between January 1914 and August 1917. Twelve more issues were published between May 1928 and May 1929 and another two in November 1930. A history of the paper can be found here.

Images from the 1917 Bisbee deportation

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Dec 22 2013 23:05

Images from the 1917 Bisbee deportation, where an armed, anti-union 'Citizen's Protective League', in alliance with law enforcement, forced striking miners in the Industrial Workers of the World union out of state,

A martyr to his cause: the scenario of the first labor film in the United States

The background and script to A Martyr to His Cause, the first labor film, made in 1911 in defense of the McNamara brothers,who were accused of bombing the Los Angeles Times during a labor dispute.

“You understand we are radical”: the United Mine Workers of America, District 18 and The One Big Union, 1919-1920

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Dec 9 2013 04:04

The story of the United Mine Workers of America District 18 and their path into, and then later out of, the radical One Big Union.

Ghosts of Leninist past: a review of The Roots of American Communism

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Oct 7 2013 03:05

A review and some comments from Juan Conatz on Theodore Draper’s history of the various factions that would become the Communist Party USA.

The roots of American communism - Theodore Draper

Submitted by Anonymous on Oct 6 2013 22:24

Theodore Draper's incredibly detailed book about the many groups, factions and individuals that would form what became the Communist Party USA. Mostly focusing on the years 1917-1921, Draper traces the roots from the 'Left-Wing' of the Socialist Party of America and the IWW, to the Third International-linked CPUSA.