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# 2024-12-18 - Wobbly Walk Through The Siskiyous | |
1920 Oregon Railroad Map (287 KB small) | |
1920 Oregon Railroad Map (5 MB large) | |
I found an interesting local article: | |
Wobbly Walk Through The Siskiyous | |
Wobbly is slang for Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). | |
IWW | |
While reading this article, i learned a few things. I had always | |
thought of the IWW as historical, but apparently it still operates. | |
Anyone, anywhere can join. If there is not a local chapter, then one | |
can be a member "at large." Chapters exist in Eugene, Corvallis, and | |
Portland. | |
> IWW local 66 had been organizing construction and power plant | |
> workers in Fresno and offered to include agricultural workers as | |
> well. Fresno officials considered exhortations to "struggle" and | |
> seize "that which they produce" to be sufficient grounds for | |
> arrest. When the IWW journal Industrial Worker urged members "to go | |
> to Fresno and break the law," one hundred twelve Wobblies responded | |
> in Portland. In the previous year, 1910, Wobblies successfully | |
> conducted a passive resistance campaign that filled Spokane jails | |
> with speakers who defied a prohibition on street corner speaking, | |
> so they targeted Fresno with the Spokane tactics. | |
> Like the Black Panthers a couple of generations later they were | |
> judged more for what they said than by what they did. | |
For the duration of the Fresno campaign, each member was assigned a | |
number, and the wobblies used their numbers instead of names. At the | |
end of the campaign, they burned their records. | |
I was surprised to read how much the railroad employees cooperated | |
with the 112 Wobblies going from Portland through to Ashland. | |
> The conductor's decision to add a car in Albany for the convenience | |
> of the Wobblies suggests that a rapport was developing with the | |
> trainmen. | |
The Eugene Daily Guard reported: | |
> Meanwhile the train crew declared that the Southern Pacific had | |
> added two boxcars in Portland "to avoid a confrontation." | |
Below are links to historic IWW songs and a documentary. | |
One Hour Of IWW Music | |
Sabo Tabby Kitten | |
Songs of the Wobblies | |
Little Red Songbook of the IWW (1919) | |
The Wobblies (1979 Documentary) | |
tags: history,non-fiction,oregon,political,vagabond | |
# Tags | |
history | |
non-fiction | |
oregon | |
political | |
vagabond |