above: Poster for the Paterson Pageant, 1913

below: Lawrence textile strike cartoon from the Industrial Worker, 1912.

Chicago, 1905

On June 27, 1905, veteran unionists came together in Chicago to create a new labor organization. Two hundred and three delegates hailed from the Western Federation of Miners, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the American Labor Union, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labor Party and other groups. Prominent individual labor activists such as Eugene Debs and Daniel DeLeon attended as well. Despite great ideological differences among the delegates regarding how the labor movement should be organized, all were unhappy with the American Federation of Labor’s (AFL) restrictive organizing efforts that emphasized craft unionism and specific areas of manufacture – and in many cases, excluded women and minorities

Convention delegates deliberated, argued and voted. In the end, they created an industrial union based upon principles of class conflict, with a low dues structure and an international membership open to all workers regardless of gender, race, or occupation – the Industrial Workers of the World.

above: A.W.O cartoon from the Industrial Worker, n.d.

below: Harvest Workers Cartoon from the Industrial Worker, n.d