Additionally, the IWW faced vigilante violence throughout the year as Wobblies would be (often violently) driven out of towns and cities before they could begin to organize. This phenomenon particularly hampered the Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union (AWIU 110), which boasted a mainly migratory workforce, in their attempts to create a new industrial union for oil workers.

In the courts, however, the year was even worse for the IWW. There were numerous convictions across the West Coast for criminal syndicalism. Defense and legal fees forced the IWW to dig deep into its pockets, which were already strained due to decreased membership and the big trials of the last few years. Beyond the uptick in arrests and convictions, the organization was handed a crushing defeat when they lost appeals on both the Centralia trial and the big Chicago trial that had sent a large portion of the union’s leadership to jail in 1918.

Local 8:

While Local 8 was not as frequently mentioned in the paper, its suspension and eventual expulsion loomed large over the IWW for most of the year. The controversy was nominally over the local’s high initiation fees, outlawed by the IWW’s constitution.[1] The root of the dispute, however, stemmed from accusations that the local had been loading munitions for the White Army the year before. Having multiple dimensions, this conflict served not only as a flash point for budding enmity between Wobblies sympathetic to communists and those who took a stricter line on anarchism, but also as a continuation of the long-running ideological struggle between centralizing and decentralizing syndicalists. Key industrial unions weighed in and adopted defined stances on the matter either publicly[2] or privately. By the end of the year’s general convention, the GEB had voted to expel Local 8,[3] but debate over the decision would continue to plague the IWW until its split in 1924. In terms of immediate impact, the union lost the local which had famously achieved a 100% closed shop in a major port and was led by some of the most notable black Wobblies, including Ben Fletcher.[4]

RILU:

On the international front, the IWW was most occupied with questions about whether they should affiliate with the Third International’s union arm, the Red International of Labor Unions, the RILU. Though the union had declined to officially affiliate with the Third International itself after declaring Marxism-Leninism to be incompatible with its goals, it remained publicly supportive of the Bolsheviks as they battled the capitalist White Army in the Russian Civil War. The founding of the RILU in 1921 opened the door again for potential cooperation between communists and the IWW.

Early in the year, the RILU wrote the IWW a well-received letter inviting the organization to join the international and attend its first annual convention.[5] Following this, the Industrial Worker continued to sympathize with Russian communists and published supportive news articles reporting on conditions, asking Wobblies to donate, and tracking the civil war as it wound down. At the general convention in late May, the GEB briefly discussed its stance on the RILU before deciding it would remain neutral until the international’s convention in November.[6] In November, the IWW sent George Williams as their representative to the convention. Despite initial optimism, the convention ended as a disaster for the IWW. The RILU effectively asked the union to disband its current structure and work exclusively as infiltrators within American trade unions. This, in addition to other complaints which Williams would expand on in the Industrial Worker in 1922, destroyed any possibility of cooperation for the time being. After the convention ended, the GEB immediately voted against affiliation and denounced the RILU.[7]

Class War Prisoners:

By far the most important internal conflict in the IWW in 1921 was how to proceed with the defense of class war prisoners, those who had been imprisoned near the end of World War I for opposing the war. The issue aggravated divisions between those known as centralizers and decentralizers, where centralizers favored political action and legal defense to free the union’s imprisoned leaders and decentralizers considered these tactics to be the first step away from revolutionary unionism and towards becoming a complacent political party.[8] Tensions were further inflamed after multiple Wobblies out on bail, including Bill Haywood, fled the country,[9] forcing members who had put up money for bond to forfeit their contributions. These incidents reinforced the decentralizers’ opinion that devoting time and resources to legal defense was not only ill-advised, but a betrayal of the union’s principles.

Despite this, the General Defense Committee continued to work with liberal organizations like the ACLU to garner public sympathy and put political pressure on the Harding administration to release prisoners.[10] Throughout the year, IWW locals held amnesty meetings in which speakers like Elmer Smith would talk to fellow Wobblies and concerned citizens about the fight to release the remaining class war prisoners.[11]

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