Always on Strike: Frank Little and the Western Wobblies

210 Pages·2014·2.21 MB·English

by  Arnold Stead

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“[The governor] asked me what we would do if the companies did not yield to
our demands. I told him we would call every man out of the mines. Then he
said that if we did, that he would place them under federal control. I laughed
and told him we would call out every worker in the country—agriculture workers,
lumbermen, munitions workers, miners, mechanics, and all classes of working-
men. He said, ‘Why, man, you wouldn’t do that. This country is at war.’ I said,
‘Governor, I don’t care what country your country is fighting. I am fighting for
the solidarity of labor!’”
P
is considered by some to be the greatest organ-
izer produced by the US labor movement and yet precious little has
been written about the infamous Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) agi-
tator. Little was a key leader of the country’s first free-speech fights, organized
a number of mass strikes, and was considered such a threat to corporate interests
that he was lynched by company thugs for decrying attempts at strike-breaking.
Police and government officials not only turned a blind eye to his murder, they
later used his words and actions to justify a campaign to scapegoat and persecute
other members of the IWW.
Always on Strike chronicles and critically engages with Little’s exploits in
P
hopes of exposing a new generation of radicals to his life, legacy, and politics.
is a poet, fiction writer, historian, playwright, and jazz and film critic.
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AlwAys on strike
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Always
on Strike
FrAnk little
And the western wobblies
Arnold Stead
Haymarket Books
Chicago, Illinois
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© 2014 Arnold Stead
Haymarket Books
PO Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
[email protected]
www.haymarketbooks.org
ISBN: 978-1-60846-220-9
Trade distribution:
In the US, through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, www.cbsd.com
In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca
In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, www.turnaround-uk.com
All other countries, Publishers Group Worldwide, www.pgw.com
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions.
Please contact Haymarket Books for more information at 773-583-7884
or [email protected].
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and the
Wallace Action Fund.
Cover design by Julie Fain. Cover image from a painting by Keith Seidel.
Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in Canadaby union labor.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To the memory of my brother, Christopher Anthony Stead,
a workingman and artist
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Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter One: The Western Wobblies 15
Chapter Two: The Free-Speech Fights 41
Chapter Three: Iron Miners, Harvest Hands,
and Oil Workers 69
Chapter Four: Urgency and Conspiracy 111
Chapter Five: Big Bill Haywood and Frank Little 143
Chapter Six: Three Western Wobbly Martyrs 155
Conclusion: Frank Little, Where Are You
Now that We Need You? 163
Acknowledgments 167
Sources 169
Notes 175
Index 183
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introduCtion
Many years after the fact, during a far more conservative period of
his life, Ralph Chaplin writes that Frank Little was the first to ar-
rive for a meeting of the General Executive Boardof the Industrial
Workers of the World in late July of 1917. Although we may have
reason to doubt his memory(it has Little leaving Chicagoen route
to Butte a full week after that city’s press announced the hobo agi-
tator’s arrival in Montana), Chaplin’s vivid description of his last
encounter with Little has a ring of truth to it. He writes: “Frank
wore his Stetson at the same jaunty angle, and his twisted grin was
as aggressive as ever.” The meeting’s primary purpose was to decide
whether or not Wobblies should register for the draft. Board mem-
ber Richard Brazier, like Chaplin and Haywood, thought opposing
conscription would put the International Workers of the World,
known as the IWW or the Wobblies, “out of business.” Little shot
back at him: “They’ll run us out of business anyhow. Better to go
out in a blaze of glory than to give in. Either we’re for this capitalist
slaughter fest or we’re against it. I’d rather take a firing squad.”
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