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