above: IWW Headquarters 1946

below: IWW foreign language pamphlets, c. 1936.

War and Syndicalism Trials

U.S. involvement in World War I had a profound effect upon the IWW. For many Americans, the union's inflammatory language was uncomfortably close to that of radicals from other parts of the world. Many believed that the IWW’s organizing efforts during the war were counter to the patriotic spirit of the time. Membership rolls with large numbers of foreign immigrants, African Americans, women, and others also helped cast the Wobblies as an internal menace to the security of the United States. The federal government began to investigate the IWW.

During 1918, the last year of the war, the government seized the records of the IWW and its locals, and jailed many leaders and local union members, including the entire executive board. Eventually the IWW's outspoken leader, Bill Haywood moved to the Soviet Union, where he is buried alongside the columnist John Reed at the Kremlin wall.

The trials against its members broke the back of the IWW. Bereft of money and its most influential leaders, the union never again attained the widespread support it enjoyed in the early 1900s.

above and below: Artwork from the Industrial Worker by Joe Troy. Troy was an illustrator for the IWW newspaper in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.