This is a chronological database of campaigns, strikes, and labor related events as recorded in Industrial Worker and other sources. It was researched by Christopher Mulcahey, with additional entries by Arianne Hermida. Start by reading the highlights report. Below that is the database.
Following the successful textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, IWW organizers moved through the mill towns of the northeast. They found their next big campaign in the silk weaving factories of Paterson, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. Facing wage cuts and the de-skilling effects of new machinery, thousands of mostly Italian and Jewish silk weavers struck in February 1913, initiating a struggle that lasted six months and became the major focus of IWW resources and publicity that year.
The IWW also led or joined dozens of strikes in other industries including strikes by garment workers, lumber workers, railroad workers, silk workers, and rubber workers. Some were successful, gaining wage increases for the workers. Most were not, including the dramatic Paterson strike which ended when starving workers finally gave in.
1913 also saw important free speech campaigns in Denver, Kansas City, Minot, North Dakota. The Denver fight lasted the longest and ended in a victory for freedom of speech and assembly. January: The month began with railroad camps on strike. Their hours were cut along with a cut in the wages. They want a cut in hours but retain the pay they received for ten hours work. The picketing ended up being called off and the workers sent back to work in order to organize more effectively in the future. The unused money collected for the strike is to be sent to Merryville to help the striking lumberjacks in Louisiana. [1]
[read full report/close report]The IWW won a textile strike in New York that raised wages from five percent to twelve percent, but things don’t look good in Merryville because the lumber association is trying to starve the workers back to work. [2] After two months of being on strike in Merryville, the governor of Louisiana has also given the lumber company two hundred rifles to go along with two machine guns. [3]
There were a few other victories to go along with the win in New York and they include twenty five members winning pay for legal holidays at a diamond shop in Seattle, [4] and plantation workers in Hawaii were able to get a four dollar a month increase from twenty dollars a month to twenty four dollars a month. This happened despite the organizer being beaten up and run out of the county. [5]
February: Free speech fights erupted in Denver as the authorities arrested nineteen people for given a speech in public. They were giving speeches at noon in order to reach garment workers on their lunch break. The police don’t want anyone speaking on the streets of Denver. [6] The IWW answered this infringement on free speech by rushing men to Denver to exercise their right to free speech.
In Merryville, The Santa Fe railroad and American Lumber Co. raided the offices of the union and took all books and papers, wrecked the kitchen and deported all union men. [7] A large number of silk workers in Pennsylvania went on strike as well as rubber workers in Akron, OH. Most of the silk workers decided to join the IWW, even though the AFL was on the scene as well. [8]
March: The rubber workers strike in Akron has become the largest IWW strike since the Lawrence textile strike with almost twenty thousand workers on strike. Around the clock chain picketing is being employed and they march around the Goodyear plant. A sign of the solidarity is the fact that fifteen thousand workers stood in the mud to listen to speakers speak in diverse languages and hear the wage scale being proposed. [9] On March seventh, the police and deputies charged the peaceful picketers after three weeks of peaceful protests. The attack landed one person in the hospital with serious injuries and eight other people in jail. [10]
April: The Akron rubber strike has been called off and the men have gone back to work. They hope to organize better in the future and have created a good local IWW as a result of seven weeks of dissent against the rubber industry. [11]
May: Lucy Parsons, widow of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons, has been arrested for selling literature without a license and held for twenty-four hours. [12] Some judges in Washington decided that if you possess membership in the IWW then you are barred from becoming a citizen. [13] The fight for free speech in Denver has been declared a victory and the IWW will be permitted to speak at four designated points from noon until eleven at night. A stipulation in the agreement states that the men who took part in the fight will leave town if they can’t find work soon. [14]
The striking silk workers have been going strong for about fourteen weeks. There are twenty five thousand workers out in Paterson NJ, while there has been solidarity in the strike and mills in New York and Pennsylvania are also struck. [15]
June: A general strike has been called against United Fruit Company’s ships. The reason given is because the company cut wages by five dollars a month. On June eleventh, city police and detectives fired into the sailors and marine transport workers union, even though the men were unarmed. [16]
Lumberjacks in the Puget Sound Area decided to proceed with a general strike for an eight-hour day and other things, which include increased wages and better living conditions. [19] The lumber strike started off strongly but faltered because many of the men were itinerant workers and that made it difficult to form effective picket lines. Also, Alexander Scott was sentenced to serve not less than one year for reporting the truth on conditions in Paterson, NJ. He called the police chief “strike breaker Bimson,” and the authorities didn’t take kindly to it. [18]
July: The strikers in Utah have called off a strike because most of the contractors have given a twenty-five cent raise and began improving the living conditions for the workers. The contractors have done this even though they still don’t recognize the union. [20]
In Massachusetts, there has been a strike for at least nine weeks at a knitting mill that pays just six dollars per week. This wage makes it the lowest paid knitting mill in the country. On June 10th, the workers were picketing when the police began to shoot and club the picketers. This resulted in the death of a woman striker while several other people were wounded. [21] It is ironic that the owner of the mill is a bishop. Later, he would forcefully evict all the strikers from company owned houses.
August: A great battle has broken out with the effort to organize workers harvesting wheat in Minot, North Dakota. Eleven socialists and twenty-seven IWW’s were arrested. They were charged with obstructing sidewalks and using obscene language. It’s a never-ending fight for free speech.
An IWW-led strike by harvest workers who are camped at a hop farm in Wheatland, California, ends in a deadly clash. When authorities try to break up a strike rally and arrest IWW leaders, gunfire kills the Country District Attorney, a deputy sheriff, and two strikers. A massive roundup of Wobblies follows and two strike leaders are convicted of second degree murder.
The articles referenced in the database can be found in the online copies of Industrial Worker digitized by Marty Goodman of the Riazanov Library Project at marxists.org.
Date | Article title | Place | State | Event description | Source |
01-01-1913 | Stone and Webster Construction Strike | Big Creek | California | Strike was for better wages, hours and working conditions | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 |
01-01-1913 | Cannery Workers Strike | San Francisco | California | Strike in response to wage cuts. | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 |
1/2/1913 | Ten Camps on Strike | Portland to Eugene | Oregon | Three hundred workers strike for reduced hours with no reduction in wage, Sunday holiday, and no mandatory overtime. The Portland, Eugene, and Easten Railroad is shipping scabs from different parts of the Northwest. | Industrial Worker |
1/2/1913 | I. W. W. Strikes In Frisco Canneries | San Francisco | California | 150 women workers strike against California Fruit Canneries Association. Workers. They demand $1.25 minimum wage per eight hour shift and one full hour for dinner. | Industrial Worker |
1/2/1913 | Corean Organizer Beaten By Thugs | Hawaiian Islands | Hawaii | I.W.W. organizer, B. Duck Sue, was whipped for organizing fifty-two plantation laborers. He was forced from the county, but the workers' wages were increased from twenty dollars a month to twenty four dollars a month. | Industrial Worker |
1/3/1913 | Both Sides Claim Victory | Little Falls | New York | Textile workers settle their six month long strike for a wage increase of 5 cents. Though the strike was called by the AFL, the IWW supported it throughout. | The Times Dispatch |
1/3/1913 | Webster, Mass | Webster | Massachusetts | IWW calls a strike of the American Woolen Mills Co. | The Commonwealth |
1/9/1913 | New York Strike is Won | Utica | New York | Strikers return to work with a raise in wages from five percent to twelve percent on the fifty-four hour work week. | Industrial Worker |
1/9/1913 | Merryville Men Need Aid | New Orleans | Louisiana | Merryville lumber strike continues despite the company's boasting that it will starve the workers back to work. | Industrial Worker |
1/10/1913 | Waiters Gain Strength | New York | New York | IWW takes control of the waiters' strike. | The Washington Times |
1/12/1913 | Strikers De Luxe Now Invade Hotels | New York | New York | One striking waiter arrested on charges of assaulting other waiters. | New York Tribune |
1/16/1913 | Hotel Workers in New York City Vote to Strike | New York | New York | Hotel workers vote to hold a strike, which will be co-led by the International Hotel Workers' union and the Industrial Workers of the World. | Omaha Daily Bee |
1/16/1913 | Machine Guns at Merryville | Alexandria | Louisiana | Merryville is still shut down tight after more than two months on strike. It is reported that the Governor of Louisiana has loaned the American Lumber Company two hundred Springfield rifles. | Industrial Worker |
1/16/1913 | Garment Workers Strike | New York City | New York | One hundred thousand garment workers strike, affecting more than four thousand shops. Their demands are for the abolition of the sub-contract system, a twenty percent wage increase, time and a half for overtime, double time for holidays, and improved workplace conditions. | Industrial Worker |
1/23/1913 | Ripley To Whip The I. W. W. | Alexandria | Louisiana | Merryville is still down. The company is trying to do the work of thirteen hundred men with about two hundred "scabs, suckers, and gunmen." Ripley, President of the Santa Fe railroad, intends to whip the I. W. W. to a "frazzle." | Industrial Worker |
1/23/1913 | Seattle Workers Win Strike | Seattle | Washington | Twenty-five members in the Diamond Shop of M. Vollman and Co., struck and won pay for Christmas, New Years, and all legal holidays. | Industrial Worker |
02-01-1913 | Rubber Workers Strike | Akron | Ohio | Early in February, 300 workers from the Firestone rubber plant walked off the job for better wages. Very few of the strikers were IWW members but the group was eager for organized leadership as the strike grew from 3,500 people on February 15 to 14,000 by February 18. Local authorities responded with beatings and arrests, which quickly undermined the IWW's tenuous leadership in the area. By March 31, the strike was broken with no reported gains. | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369; Dubovsky, We Shall Be All, 286-7 |
02-01-1913 | Silk Workers Strike | Hazelton | New Jersey | Strike for higher wages. | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 |
02-01-1913 | Silk Workers Strike | Paterson | New Jersey | Over the previous year, Paterson mills began implementing a four loom per worker system to meet the industry demand for cheaper silk. While this system allowed for potentially higher wages, it raised questions about worker health and safety as well as sustained full employment. When the largest company in town enacted this policy, what began as a small walk-out was expanded to the entire plant through the leadership of IWW Local 152. | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369; Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 267-9 |
2/13/1913 | Bill Haywood Speaks In Spokane | Spokane | Washington | Industrial Worker | |
2/13/1913 | Nineteen I.W.W. Men Jailed In Denver | Denver | Colorado | Nineteen fellow workers jailed for the crime of having spoken on the streets of that city at high noon on February seventh. | Industrial Worker |
2/13/1913 | Taft Organizes I. W. W. Local | Taft | California | Oil Workers' Industrial Union No. 453 formed. A good stock of literature was ordered and the new local started off with an order of fifty copies of the Industrial Worker and the same of Solidarity. | Industrial Worker |
2/20/1913 | First Violence in Rubber Strike | Akron | Ohio | One striking rubber worker stabbed. | Omaha Daily Bee |
2/20/1913 | On To Denver You Rebels | Denver | Colorado | The authorities in Denver, CO have refused to permit the members of the I . W. W. to exercise their constitutional right of free speech and have placed all the active members of the organization under arrest. | Industrial Worker |
2/20/1913 | Patriots Preparing For Violence | Seattle | Washington | Spanish-American War Veterans are making preparations to forcibly break up any May Day parade that might be held in the city. | Industrial Worker |
2/20/1913 | I. W. W. In The Saddle | New Castle | Pennsylvania | Organizer Frank Morris has assumed charge of the four hundred striking section men on the Pennsylvania railroad. They demand an increase of thirty five cents a day, or from $1.75 to $2.10 for 10 hours work. They had been promised this raise and the strike broke out when they opened their envelopes and found the company had lied to them. | Industrial Worker |
2/25/1913 | Thousands Silk Workers Strike | Paterson | New Jersey | IWW calls a strike of various silk mills to secure a weekly wage of at least $12. Twelve thousand are expected to strike. | The Rock Island Argus |
02-25-1913 | Strike Spreads to Other Mills | Paterson | New Jersey | The IWW called for all mill and dyehouse workers to strike. 25,000 workers responded, effectively shutting down the industry. The workers demanded higher wages in dyehouses and an eight hour day. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 269-270 |
2/27/1913 | Mob Violence In Merryville | Alexandria | Louisiana | Gunmen, detectives, and officers of the Santa Fe railroad and the American lumber Company began a campaign of violence against the Merryville strikers. | Industrial Worker |
2/27/1913 | 20,000 Workers Strike In Akron | Akron | Ohio | Twenty thousand rubber workers on strike against Goodyear and other rubber plants. | Industrial Worker |
2/27/1913 | Silk Workers Strike In Hazelton, PA | Hazelton | Pennsylvania | Altogether about 1400 workers are out on strike. Although AFL organizers were present, almost all the strikers opted to join the IWW. | Industrial Worker |
03-01-1913 | Rubber Workers Strike | Cleveland | Ohio | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
03-01-1913 | Textile Worker Strike | Esmond | Rhode Island | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
3/5/1913 | Ettor Deported by Canadian Officers As an Undesirable | Blaine | Washington | Joseph Ettor denied entry into Canada. Reports cite either unwillingness to answer questions posed by immigration officers or history of agitation as the cause of denial. | Omaha Daily Bee |
3/6/1913 | Rubber Workers On The Firing Line at Akron | Akron | Ohio | The sixteenth day of the great strike of rubber workers here finds the workers standing firm with ranks unbroken. All attempts to create dissension and break their solidarity have failed. According to the most reliable information approximately twenty thousand are on strike. | Industrial Worker |
3/9/1913 | I.W.W. Leader Denies He Incited Strikers to Riot | Paterson | New Jersey | Patrick Quinlan, one of the four IWW members indicted on charges of inciting silk workers to riot, denies any involvement in the riot. | The El Paso Herald |
3/13/1913 | Silk Workers Strike in Paterson NJ | Paterson | New Jersey | Five thousand silk workers on strike. Haywood is said to be on his way to Patterson from Cincinnati and the authorities state that his appearance before a strike meeting will be a signal for his arrest. As a result of denouncing this suppression of the right of free speech the state secretary of the Socialist party was arrested and taken from the platform where he was addressing a crowd of three thousand strikers. | Industrial Worker |
3/16/1913 | World of Labor | Los Angeles | California | Two members of the Los Angeles barbers' union suspended and each fined $100 for joining the IWW. | The Arizona Republican |
3/20/1913 | Police Start Violence in Akron Strike | Akron | Ohio | Police storm a picket line and beat strikers, one of whom was hospitalized after being detained without medical attention and is expected to die. Eight others arrested and held in jail. | Industrial Worker |
3/20/1913 | All Seattle Tailors Out on Strike | Seattle | Washington | As an outgrowth of the tailors strike against M. Vollman & Co., a permanent injunction has been granted against the I. W. W., restraining them from placing more than two pickets in front of any one struck shop. | Industrial Worker |
03-30-1913 | Haywood Arrested | Paterson | New Jersey | After being denied a public meeting in Paterson, Bill Haywood marched approximately 1000 people toward Haledon. Before reaching their destination, Haywood was arrested for disturbing the peace. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 277 |
3/31/1913 | Haywood Locked Up | Paterson | New Jersey | IWW organizers Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessing arrested on charges of unlawful assembly after leading a march of striking workers. | The Washington Herald |
4/1/1913 | I.W.W. Organizer Is Given Term in Jail | Paterson | New Jersey | Haywood found guilty of unlawful assemblage and sentenced to six months in jail, the maximum. The other charge of causing unlawful assemblage held for the grand jury. | The San Francisco Call |
04-01-1913 | Electrical Workers Strike | Stockton | California | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
4/5/1913 | Freedom for Haywood at Court Trial | Paterson | New Jersey | Lessing and Haywood dismissed after the court hearing of their unlawful assemblage charges. | The Rock Island Argus |
4/10/1913 | Akron Rubber Strike is Called Off | Akron | Ohio | The strike in Akron is called off. The men have gone back into the factories for the purpose of perfecting their organization. | Industrial Worker |
4/10/1913 | Strike of Globeville Smeltermen | Denver | Colorado | A strike of two hundred men occurred at the Globeville smelter. This is the third attempt of the slaves to wrest better conditions from the Smelter trust that controls the state. Packing houses, smelters, and other enterprises all employ mixed crews so as to prevent solidarity as much as possible. | Industrial Worker |
4/15/1913 | Deny Papers to I.W.W. Members | Seattle | Washington | Chief Naturalization Examiner John Speed Smith to challenge all citizenship applicants in Washington, Montana, and Idaho who belong to the IWW. | Aberdeen Herald |
04-19-1913 | Bystander Killed in Skirmish | Paterson | New Jersey | Modestino Valentino was shot and killed by company detectives during a conflict between strikers and scabs. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 278 |
4/24/1913 | Stockton is in the Strike Zone | Stockton | California | One hundred seventy-five men go on strike, organized by the IWW, against two electric company for increased wages. | Industrial Worker |
4/24/1913 | El Paso Smelter Tied Up Tight | El Paso | Texas | Six hundred Mexicans went on strike against the El Paso Smelter. The strike demands are for an eight hour day, twenty percent increase in wages, discharge of the head surgeon, and no hospital fee to be paid by the men. | Industrial Worker |
4/24/1913 | The I. W. W. to have a Book | The book will be entitled "The Trial of a New Society." The book, besides being replete with statistical and other data, will be illustrated by portraits, posters and cartoons. | Industrial Worker | ||
5/1/1913 | Lucy Parsons Maltreated | Los Angeles | California | Lucy Parsons is charged with selling literature without a license. | Industrial Worker |
5/1/1913 | Take This Away, Judge! | Montesano | Washington | There are a few judges in the state of Washington who are barring from citizenship all applicants who are suspected of being members of the I. W. W. | Industrial Worker |
05-01-1913 | Lumbermen Strike | Marshfield | Oregon | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
5/3/1913 | Giovannitti Again in Toils | Hopedale | Massachusetts | Three IWW organizers including Arturo Giovannitti arrested on charges of violating town ordinances. | The Evening Star |
5/8/1913 | Denver Free Speech Fight is Won | Denver | Colorado | The fight for the right to speak on the streets of Denver has been won by the I. W. W. "The city authorities will grant the I. W. W. permits to speak on the streets of Denver at four designated points from the hours of 12 noon until 11 p.m., provided all the men who took part in the free speech fight will leave town if unable to get work." | Industrial Worker |
5/8/1913 | Police Pinch 25 in Los Angeles | Los Angeles | California | Twenty-five I. W. W. men arrested at a picnic on a charge of disturbing the peace and selling beer without a license. | Industrial Worker |
5/8/1913 | Sawmill Men Out at Pilchuck | Pilchuck | Washington | A strike has broken out at Pilchuck, WA. The demands of the men are: the right to organize, sanitary bunkhouses at the camp and mill, pure and wholesome food at the mill cookhouse, fire escape to be put on the three-story bunk house at the mill. | Industrial Worker |
5/8/1913 | Paterson Strike in I. W. W. hands | Paterson | New Jersey | According to the New York World, the control of the silk workers strike has been swept entirely out of the hands of the A. F. of L. and into the I. W. W. | Industrial Worker |
5/8/1913 | Hawaiian Unions Bar all but Whites | Honolulu | Hawaii | Letter from reader of the Industrial Worker saying that he attended a lecture about labor conditions in Hawaii in which the speaker maintained that employers had the upper hand in part because the AFL unions exclude Asian workers. "He then added that no trouble from this source was anticipated as the whites would admit none to the unions except white men. Rather significant. How much longer will this class of men be in position to make this statement? Not long, fellow worker, for the I. W. W. is growing in Hawaii." | Industrial Worker |
5/15/1913 | Philadelphia Notes | Philadelphia | Pennsylvania | The silk strikers are standing firm at Kensington and refuse to return until the Patterson strike is settled. | Industrial Worker |
5/15/1913 | Strike Still on at Pilchuck | Pilchuck | Washington | The strike at Pilchuck is still on. The sawmill and camp are badly crippled | Industrial Worker |
5/15/1913 | Nine Arrested in Detroit | Detroit | Michigan | Automobile Workers Union No.16, I. W. W. is growing and in the near future expects to have enough workers organized to present a very serious problem to Ford, Studebaker and Company. | Industrial Worker |
5/15/1913 | Strike is off in Naramata | Naramata | B.C. | Strike called off after winning only "small concessions." | Industrial Worker |
5/15/1913 | Men Locked Out Scotia, California | Scotia | California | One hundred men revolted on April 30 at Scotia, CA when the Pacific Lumber Co. tried to force them to "feed and flop" in the company slop joint instead of boarding at private houses. The hundred men quit without calling a strike. As a result, the men are pouring into local 431, I. W. W. Nineteen new members joined in one bunch on May 1st. | Industrial Worker |
5/20/1913 | Jail for 17 Women, 68 Men in Paterson | Paterson | New Jersey | 85 arrested and given 10 days in jail for conduct in a riot related to the arrival of scabbing silk workers. | The New York Tribune |
5/22/1913 | Loggers Strike in Coos Bay | Coaledo | Oregon | The foreman of Camp 2 ordered all loggers who were I. W. W.'s or sympathizers to roll up and roll out. About twenty-five men left at once. Local 435, which is the headquarters for the Coos Bay loggers immediately called a strike of all Coos Bay logger. The men are demanding a twenty-five percent increase in wages and no discrimination. | Industrial Worker |
5/22/1913 | Striking Silk Workers Need Assistance | Paterson | New Jersey | The struggle of the silk workers of the East has spread until it now is the greatest strike the labor movement of this country has ever known. In Paterson, NJ, where the strike started, there are twenty five thousand workers out. In Pennsylvania and NY states the mills are struck. The wheels have ceased to turn in the entire silk industry of America. | Industrial Worker |
5/22/1913 | Strike on in Western Montana Logging Camps | Missoula | Montana | Lumber companies want employees to work overtime in order to keep the mills in operation. Workers refuse to work overtime because there are people without a job that need work. Laborers demand more workers in logging camps and no more than nine hours of work in any one day. | Industrial Worker |
06-01-1913 | Textile Worker Strike | Ipswich | Massachusetts | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
6/5/1913 | Break Hunger Strike | Peoria | Illinois | Seven IWW members ended their hunger strike after being fined $200 each and six months in the workhouse possibly due to destroying property in jail. | The Arizona Republican |
6/5/1913 | Strike Proclamation! Loggers and Lumber Workers | Puget Sound region | Washington | The strike vote recently taken shows that there is an overwhelming sentiment among the loggers and lumber workers of the Puget Sound region in favor of declaring a general strike to obtain better working conditions and shorter hours. Beginning June 5th, all loggers and lumber workers of the Puget Sound region are called upon to go on strike unless the workers' demands are met. | Industrial Worker |
06-07-1913 | IWW Pageant Held | New York | New York | In hopes of gaining funds and publicity in New York, John Reed organized the march of strikers into Manhattan and a production that featured songs and the reenactment of Paterson strike events. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 280 |
6/12/1913 | New Orleans Transport Men Call a Strike | New Orleans | Louisiana | Marine Transport Workers Union has called a strike against United Fruit in concert with the Sailors Union of the Atlantic. The strike was caused by the United Fruit Company cutting wages by five dollars per month. | Industrial Worker |
6/12/1913 | Missoula Woodsmen Standing Firm | Missoula | Montana | The lumber workers strike in this part of the state has settle down to a test of endurance. | Industrial Worker |
6/12/1913 | Lumberjacks Responding to Strike Call | Seattle | Washington | Over fifty camps are now affected, employing over five thousand loggers. The strike is gradually spreading and will soon enroll double the number of strikers now out. | Industrial Worker |
6/19/1913 | One Thousand Montana Men Tie up Camps | Missoula | Montana | Over one thousand men are striking against the ten hour day and conditions in the camps. | Industrial Worker |
6/19/1913 | Slaves Walk out of Paper Mills | Oregon City | Oregon | One thousand slaves walked out of the paper mills at midnight in protest against damnable conditions. The workers have the eight hour day but it means eight continuous hours without a moment to eat or go to the bathroom. | Industrial Worker |
6/19/1913 | A. F. of L. Scabs on Transport Workers | Atlantic and Gulf coasts | The Marine Transport Workers strike against United Fruit ships has spread up the Atlantic coast, joined by Sailors Union of the Atlantic (AFL) in New Orleans. But Mr. Bodine, head of the AFL union told sailors in New Jersey and New York to scab on the very ships that are being struck by the men who are buying him his bread and butter. | Industrial Worker | |
6/26/1913 | Detroit Auto Slaves Are in Revolt | Detroit | Michigan | Six thousand of Studebaker's automobile slaves in revolt. Demands are for an eight hour day, twenty five percent increase and weekly pay. | Industrial Worker |
6/26/1913 | Lumber Strike in Full Blast! | Puget Sound Region | Washington | The strike has been going on for three weeks. Thousands of loggers have drifted out of the region and this seems to be one of the chief drawbacks involved in calling strikes of the migratory workers. | Industrial Worker |
6/26/1913 | Free Press Denied in Paterson | Passaic County | New Jersey | Police Chief Bimson said he would break the silk workers strike and Scott referred to him as "strike breaker Bimson." He also called Paterson a "hot-bed of brass button anarchy" Judge Klinert said, "The crime is a very serious one." Scott was sentenced to serve not less than one year in jail. | Industrial Worker |
6/26/1913 | Strikers Ranks at Tucker are Unbroken | Tucker | Utah | The strike of railroad construction workers was called on June 9th and about 1300 men came out together, foreigners and all. The companies threaten to use scabs but so far not successfully. Eight fellow workers are in jail in Provo, five charged with inciting to riot and damaging company property, the others with vagrancy. | Industrial Worker |
7/3/1913 | New Orleans Seamen Appeal | New Orleans | Louisiana | Forty-three members of the United Unions are in jail charged with inciting to riot. Five men were also shot and one died. The appeal is for funds to help them. | Industrial Worker |
7/3/1913 | Agriculturalists at Brawley Win Out | Brawley | California | I. W. W. men pulled a strike and in thirty minutes they succeeded in raising wages five cents an hour and gaining better board for sixty cantaloupe pickers and teamsters. | Industrial Worker |
7/4/1913 | Patrick Quinlan Is Given Two-Year Term | Paterson | New Jersey | IWW organizer Quinlan sentenced to no fewer than two and no more than seven years in prison and given a $500 fine for inciting a riot. | The Omaha Daily Bee |
7/10/1913 | Lumber Strike Called Off | Seattle | Washington | At a special meeting held for the occasion it has been voted to call off the strike of loggers and lumber workers of the Puget Sound Region. This is because of the limited amount of men remaining to do picket duty. A serious drawback to strikes of migratory workers of the West. | Industrial Worker |
7/10/1913 | Tucker Contractors Concede Demands | Salt Lake City | Utah | As most of the contractors on the D. & R. G. construction work at Tucker have conceded the twenty cent raise with better accommodations, the strike has been temporarily called off. | Industrial Worker |
7/10/1913 | Labor Skinner a Sky Pilot | Ipswich | Massachusetts | A strike has been in this town for the past nine weeks. The Ipswich Knitting Mill is the lowest paid mill in the knitting industry. On June tenth, the strikers were picketing when they were attacked by police. One woman was killed and some other workers were arrested with murder and riot. Murder charge was dropped because of a lack of evidence. | Industrial Worker |
07-13-1913 | IWW Member Killed by Strikebreaker | Paterson | New Jersey | Vincenzo Madonna was shot and killed by a strikebreaker. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 280 |
7/17/1913 | Los Angeles Electricians Join I. W. W. | Los Angeles | California | Class-conscious wage slaves secured from the General Office a charter of organization privileging them to meet under the banner of Industrial Unionism and to be known as Electrical Workers Industrial Union No. 488, Los Angeles, CA | Industrial Worker |
7/18/1913 | 3 Soldiers Hurt in a Street Fight | Seattle | Washington | Three soldiers stabbed by a crowd of men at an IWW street meeting. | The Rock Island Argus |
7/19/1913 | Red Flag Is Attacked by Boys of Navy | Seattle | Washington | Navy members ransack IWW and socialist headquarters and set fire to their furniture and literature. | The Rock Island Argus |
7/24/1913 | I. W. W. Wins Strike in Utah | Prico | Utah | The fellow workers in the state road camp walked out when one of our number was discharged without pay. All demands were granted in just eight hours. Five workers were arrested on trumped up charges. | Industrial Worker |
7/24/1913 | Strikers Evicted | Ipswich | Massachusetts | The mill owners suddenly got busy yesterday morning and began to evict strikers from company houses. | Industrial Worker |
7/25/1913 | Barbers Again on Strike | New York | New York | 12000 barbers go on strike supported by the IWW. | The Bemidji Daily Pioneer |
7/27/1913 | Merchants Estop I.W.W. Meeting | Seattle | Washington | Judge issues an injunction prohibiting socialists and IWW members from holding street meetings at the corner of 4th ave and Westlake. | The San Francisco Call |
8/1/1913 | Patrick Quinlan is Given Year Term for Disorderly Conduct | Paterson | New Jersey | Quinlan given a one year sentence for disorderly conduct after saying, "Elect a social mayor and then you won't have cops like Bummy Ryan batting you over the head with a club," at a recent IWW meeting. | The Omaha Daily Bee |
08-03-1913 | Hop Pickers Strike | Wheatland | California | In a series of meetings, IWW members such as Richard "Blackie" Ford helped the seasonal hop pickers of the Durst Ranch to draft a list of demands which included a set minimum wage, water availability and improved camps. Durst recruited local law enforcement to dispel a mass meeting, which in turn led to a violent clash between workers and authorities. The Yuba district attorney, a deputy sheriff, a worker and an English boy were killed while many others were injured or beaten. The IWW were blamed for the violence and law enforcement sought out IWW members throughout California in response. | Brissenden, The I.W.W.,369; Dubovsky, We Shall Be All, 294-7 |
8/11/1913 | Troops May Quell North Dakota Riot | Minot | North Dakota | IWW street meeting leads to the arrest of eighty people. | The El Paso Herald |
8/13/1913 | I.W.W.'s Deported | Minot | North Dakota | Fifty-eight IWW members marched out of town surrounded by sheriffs and citizens and told to not return. | The Daily Missoulian |
8/21/1913 | Hell is Popping in Minot, ND | Minot | North Dakota | A little city in the heart of the great wheat belt is in the throes of the greatest labor battle in the history of the state. It's a fight for the right to organize workers. | Industrial Worker |
09-01-1913 | Annual Convention | Chicago | Illinois | At the annual convention, the IWW reported 14,000 members. The meetings revealed a conflict between members who favored autonomy of locals and those who promoted more centralized leadership. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 81-87 |
09-01-1913 | Tobacco Workers Strike | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | Brissenden, The I.W.W., 369 | |
09-01-1913 | Industrial Worker Ceases Publication | Spokane | Washington | The Industrial Worker ceased publication during a period of time in which the IWW faced internal turmoil between those advocating for stronger leadership and those hoping for a more decentralized model. | Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 288 |
9/4/1913 | Free Speech Established in Minot | Minot | North Dakota | Socialists and Wobblies successfully unify to release the over one hundred people jailed for IWW involvement. | Industrial Worker |
9/18/1913 | I.W.W. Men Attack Farmers | Minot | North Dakota | IWW saboteurs hide spikes and rocks in bundles of grain to slow down threshing and damage equipment. | The Weekly Times Record |
9/30/1913 | Boyd Is Convicted | Paterson | New Jersey | IWW organizer convicted of advocating sabotage. | The Arizona Republican |
10/22/1913 | I.W.W. Arrested by Ogden's Sheriff | Ogden | Utah | 22 IWW members claiming to act as an "advance guard of an army" were arrested shortly after getting off a freight train on charges of riding illegally. | The Daily Missoulian |
12/5/1913 | Industrial Workers of World Declare War on Kansas City | Kansas City | Missouri | Five IWW leaders fined $100 each for impeding traffic during a street meeting. One declared the city would soon after be inundated with IWW members sent to preserve free speech. | The Omaha Daily Bee |
12-24-1913 | Free Speech Fight | Juneau | Alaska | Free speech fight begins on December 24 at 8 o'clock. 11 arrests so far. | Solidarity 01-31-1914 |
12-26-1913 | Members Arrested for Street Speaking | Kansas City | Missouri | I.W.W. local 61 free speech fight. 85 men in jail for speaking on the street. Local requesting men to come to Kansas City and join struggle. Fight began because of the arrest of 5 I.W.W members for holding a street meeting on behalf of the wheatland prisoners. | Solidarity 01-03-1914 |