Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW, labour and Communist activist, b. August 7, 1890

What is a labor victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back to work with the same psychology, the same attitude toward society is to have achieved a temporary gain and not a lasting victory. For workers to go back with a class-conscious spirit, with an organized and a determined attitude toward society means that even if they have made no economic gain they have the possibility of gaining in the future. In other words, a labor victory must be economic and it must be revolutionizing. Otherwise it is not complete.  - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW, labour and Communist activist, b. August 7, 1890

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was an early IWW leader who played a critical role in many labour struggles across the United States. The famous labour leader and martyr Joe Hill wrote the song "The Rebel Girl" in her honour. She was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and organized mass protest campaigns against the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. 

In 1936 Flynn joined the Communist Party of the United States and went to prison for two years in the 1950s as a result of the anti-communist persecution of the Smith Act. Flynn became the National Chairperson of the CPUSA in 1961. 

Flynn died while visiting the USSR in 1964. She was accorded a public state funeral in Moscow.

For a brief biography of Flynn see the scan below from the Communist Party of Canada's 1999 People's Voice calendar.  

Bread and Roses Strike Begins, January 11, 1912

Women workers on the march during the Bread and Roses strike!

Today is the anniversary of the start of the "Bread and Roses" strike in 1912 in Lawrence, Mass. This was a pivotal battle in American labor history and in the struggle for women's rights in the United States. The backbone of the strike were women workers and workers from immigrant communities.

As the Zinn Education Project article on the strike states:

 The 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Mass., was one of the most significant struggles in U.S. labor history due to its level of organization and collaboration across ethnic and gender lines. Thousands of largely female workers engaged in a lengthy, well-organized, and successful walkout, standing firm against an entrenched group of mill owners and their hundreds of militia and police. Workers maintained soup kitchens and nurseries for children. Meetings were simultaneously translated into nearly 30 languages. Representatives from every nationality formed a 50-person strike leadership group. 

The IWW played a major role in the strike and as a history of it on their website notes:

 ...the Lawrence strike resonates as one of the most important in the history of the United States. Like many labor conflicts of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the strike was marked by obscene disparities in wealth and power, open collusion between the state and business owners, large scale violence against unarmed strikers, and great ingenuity and solidarity on the part of workers. In important ways, though, the strike was also unique. It was the first large-scale industrial strike, the overwhelming majority of the strikers were immigrants, most were women and children, and the strike was guided in large part by the revolutionary strategy and vision of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)...

...The spark was lit on Jan. 11, 1912, the first payday since a law reducing the maximum hours per week from 56 to 54 went into effect on Jan. 1. Because mill owners speeded up the line to make up the difference, workers expected their pay would remain the same. Upon discovering that their pay had been reduced, a group of Polish women employed at the Everett Cotton Mill walked off the job. By the following morning, half of the city’s 30,000 mill hands were on strike. On Monday, Jan. 15, 20,000 workers were out on the picket line. Soon, every mill in town was closed and the number of strikers had swelled to 25,000, including virtually all of the less-skilled workers. The owners, contemptuous of the ability of uneducated, immigrant workers to do for themselves, did not bother to recruit scabs, certain they would prevail quickly. By the time they realized they had a fight on their hands, the strikers were so well-organized that importing scabs was a far more difficult proposition.

Readings: 

The Real Bread and Roses Strike Story Missing from Textbooks

Bread and Roses a Hundred Years On

Bread & Roses Centennial Committee History of the Strike

Bread and Roses Strike of 1912: Two Months in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that Changed Labor History

Joe Hill IWW Hero - Born October 7, 1879 - Featuring the Classic Song Sung by Paul Robeson

Joe Hill, the IWW union organizer and hero, murdered by the bosses in Utah in 1915, was born on this day in Sweden in 1879.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me
Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead,"
"I never died," says he.
"I never died," says he.

"In Salt Lake, Joe," says I to him,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

"The copper bosses killed you, Joe,
They shot you, Joe," says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man,"
Says Joe, "I didn't die,"
Says Joe, "I didn't die."

And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes
Says Joe, "What they forgot to kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize."

"Joe Hill ain't dead," he says to me,
"Joe Hill ain't never died.
Where working men are out on strike
Joe Hill is at their side,
Joe Hill is at their side."

From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill -
Where working men defend their rights
It's there you'll find Joe Hill.
It's there you'll find Joe Hill.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me
Says I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead",
"I never died," says he.
"I never died," says he.





See also: In Honour of Paul Robeson's Birthday - Music and Resistance

5 Great Songs for International Workers' Day! Featuring Paul Robeson, Billy Bragg, The Red Army Choir & more

Happy International Workers' Day!

Happy International Workers' Day!

Whatever way you will be celebrating it (perhaps at a march or rally) here is a playlist of five great revolutionary songs to help to put you in the mood of the day!

The Incomparable Paul Robeson sings "Joe Hill"

 


The great song about the murdered American IWW hero, Joe Hill, sung by another American hero, the towering performer and Communist Paul Robeson.

The Red Flag - Billy Bragg




As hard as it is to believe now, Labour Party MPs in the UK used to sing this from time-to-time in parliament!  Here the iconic British socialist singer Billy Bragg covers it.

The Red Army Choir Sings "La Marseillaise"! 




It may be the French National Anthem...but it is also one of the great revolutionary songs! Here the USSR's Red Army Choir do a rousing rendition.



"Do You Hear the People Sing" from Les Miserables 

  

Yes -- I know -- it is from a musical. But I love musicals, and this is every bit as rousing as many "legitimate" revolutionary songs...so...

Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory sing "The Internationale"

This particular version is so beautiful -- so stirring -- that it surely ranks as one of the great performances of this greatest of all worker's classics ever.

Happy May Day!

Workers of the World Unite!

Leftist Throwback Thursday: I.W.W. Songs of the Workers

Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system' 

- Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Published in Chicago, July, 1956 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IWW, Songs of the Workers was a 64 page booklet of songs and poems that reflected the IWW's goals of revolutionary industrial unionism and that paid moving tribute to martyrs of the American labour movement like Joe Hill, Wesley Everest and Frank Little.

It contained classics that are still sung today, like Solidarity Forever, The Red Flag and The International as well as numerous others less familiar today.

Click on images to enlarge.