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# 2024-12-18 - Wobbly Walk Through The Siskiyous
IMG 1920 Oregon Railroad Map (287 KB small)
IMG 1920 Oregon Railroad Map (5 MB large)
I found an interesting local article:
DIR Wobbly Walk Through The Siskiyous
Wobbly is slang for Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
TEXT 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.
DIR One Hour Of IWW Music
DIR Sabo Tabby Kitten
DIR Songs of the Wobblies
DIR Little Red Songbook of the IWW (1919)
DIR The Wobblies (1979 Documentary)
tags: history,non-fiction,oregon,political,vagabond
# Tags
DIR history
DIR non-fiction
DIR oregon
DIR political
DIR vagabond