Founding of the IWW (1905)

Tue Jun 27, 1905

Image

Image: The IWW logo

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded on this day in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, is an anti-capitalist and internationalist labor union whose slogan says “An injury to one is an injury to all!”

The IWW promotes the concept of “One Big Union”, and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy.

The IWW was officially founded in Chicago, Illinois on June 27th, 1905. A convention was held of 200 socialists and radical trade unionists from all over the United States who opposed the policies and politics of the more moderate American Federation of Labor (AFL). In particular, the IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor’s acceptance of capitalism and its refusal to include unskilled workers in craft unions.

The IWW’s founders included many historically important labor activists and socialist thinkers, including “Big Bill” Haywood, James Connolly, Daniel De Leon, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Hagerty, Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, Frank Bohn, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, Ralph Chaplin, and many others.