Wobblies on the Waterfront
Subtitle: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia
Series: Working Class in American History
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: July 27, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780252031861
Subjects: Political science & theory; Social history; Work & labour; Social Science; Ethnic Issues; Sociology; USA; Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General; Labor & Industrial Relations - General; United States - 20th Century; Social Science / African-American Studies; History; Labor unions; Pennsylvania; Philadelphia; Social aspects; Stevedores
Description: "For almost a decade during the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) era. In a period when most unions, like many institutions, excluded blacks or segregated them, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was ideologically committed to racial equality. More than any other IWW affiliate, however, Local 8 worked to become a progressive, interracial union. For much of its time, the union majority was black, always with a cadre of black leaders, which included Ben Fletcher. Local 8 also claimed immigrants from Eastern Europe, as well as many Irish Americans, who had a notorious reputation for racism." "In Wobblies on the Waterfront, Peter Cole outlines the factors that were instrumental in Local 8's success, both ideological (the IWW's commitment to working-class solidarity) and pragmatic (racial divisions helped solidify employer dominance). He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union's destruction."--BOOK JACKET.