Industrial Worker newspaper

Industrial Worker newspaper

Partial archive of articles from the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World.

Originally the voice of the IWW in the Pacific Northwest during the 1910s and 1920s, the Industrial Worker eventually became the main official English-language publication of the union, which it continues to be today.

For paper subscription info, please visit iww.org

For a partial PDF archive of issues, check here

Comments

Juan Conatz
Jun 6 2016 03:26

The numbering system is very confusing and makes little sense to me.

The September 4, 1913 issue is "Volume 5, Number 21".

February 17, 1917 is "Volume 1, Number 45".

October 1, 1927 is "Volume 4, Number 39 (Whole No. 563)"

It seems to follow this numbering system until sometime between 1934-1936 when I think it restarts.

Then it changes sometime between 1940-1970 and its the format we have today.

I may have to just give up trying to figure this out and stick to organizing these strictly by dates instead.

Steven.
Jun 6 2016 10:51

Ha ha yeah that seems a bit ridiculous! I guess they must restarted it on multiple occasions, maybe when it moved cities/editorial teams? I guess doing it by date is simpler, so I would stick with that, but just have the volume/issue number somewhere in the text or intro

Juan Conatz
Jun 6 2016 14:31

Yeah that's probably what I'm going to do. Maybe add a note about numbering problems.

Juan Conatz
Jun 24 2016 01:46

Part of my confusion also is that I apparently can't read Roman numerals! Embarrassing, considering I'm an avid (American) football fan...

Steven.
Jun 24 2016 09:33

Ha ha oh dear hopefully sorted now? BTW is there anyone who could help you with this? We could try to do a call out on FB, or maybe the IWW could do one as well?

Juan Conatz
Jun 24 2016 19:23

Really the only help I need is getting access to the materials. The IWW started putting PDFs of current Industrial Worker issues online in 2005. Marxist Internet Archive put up PDFs of the paper until 1913. So 1914-2005 is only out there in hard copies, microfilm and bound reprints. Quite a few institutions such as historical societies and universities have microfilm going up until the 1940s at least. Very few universities have the bound reprints, I haven't come across them at all actually and have only heard second hand that they exist. Probably the most difficult period to track down is 1950s-1990s, which seem only to exist as scattered hard copies in institutions and people's homes.

Juan Conatz
Mar 17 2017 19:20

Finally finished uploading 57 issues from 1917-1940.

syndicalist
Mar 17 2017 23:51

Good stuff. Appreciating all the post WWI materials.