Friday's Labor Folklore 
Con Carbon, Minstrel of the Mine Patch


 



The Wobblies
In 1905 the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was organized in Chicago. Nicknamed "the Wobblies" the IWW set out to organize the downtrodden and the dispossessed, that large body of unskilled workers of factory and field who were generally considered unorganizable by the American Federation of Labor, then the major trade union organization in the United States.

The Wobblies knew how to use the power of music and poetry to agitate and organize.  In 1908 they published the first edition of their "Little Red Songbook" which went on to sell thousands of copies each year.  On its cover it carried the slogan: "IWW Songs -- To Fan the Flames of Discontent."  In 1956, the 29th edition appeared to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IWW.

The IWW offered hope of a better and brighter tomorrow.  "Sing and fight" was their cry, and many Wobbly poets shaped their grievances into song.  Some of the best known were T-Bone Slim, Harry McClintock, Richard Brazier, Joe Hill and Ralph Chaplin.

Edited from "Songs of Work and Protest" by Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer.  

The Rebel Girl

sung by

Hazel Dickens

(4:00 min. music video)

 

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

(1890 - 1964)

A labor leader, political activist and feminist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).  At age 19 she declared "my sole aim in life is to do all in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class." A pacifist and suffragist she was a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  In the 1950s she was attacked by right-wingers led by Sen. Joe McCarthy and served 2 years in prison for her political beliefs.  In 1915 she visited  Joe Hill in his Salt Lake City jail cell as he awaited execution by a firing squad. Joe wrote the song "The Rebel Girl" and dedicated it to her.  Hazel Dickens modernized some of the lyrics.  Click on the link (above) and listen to the voice of Gurley Flynn speaking; it serves as an intro to Hazel's song.

There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. 
 -- Preamble to the constitution of the IWW