Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World

Bys: Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman

Book Overview

The stories of the hard-rock miners' shooting wars, young Elizabeth Gurly Flynn (the "Rebel Girl" of contemporary sheet music), the first sit-down strikes and Free Speech fights, Emma Goldman and the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1844675254
• ISBN13: 9781844675258
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

"Don't mourn, organize!"

This is one of the most enjoyable books on the hidden and suppressed labor history of American workers. Made all the more enjoyable by the variety of people's artists/cartoonists that have contributed to what is surely a labor of love. This is not what you're going to be taught in schools or colleges. This book portrays clearly that long memorable struggle for dignity among the working class that continues to the present day. The Wobblies held to a grass roots approach of organizing workers, prefering "crude vigor to polished banality", a system of priorites too little seen in these waning days of capitalism. Each young person, parent and school should have this information available to them, for any soul not born with a silver spoon wedged in their mouth will come away from this history with a lump in your throat and a new spring in your step. In light of encroaching globalism (that is no friend to worker's anywhere) this is a handbook to inspire and encourage a new generation to take control of their own destiny. Solidarity Forever! P.S.- Check out the recordings of Utah Phillips, the modern troubadour/sage of the Wobblies.

The "Wobblies!" is an excellent graphic novel...

The "Wobblies!" is an excellent graphic novel spelling out history of the IWW. It's chock full stories told by some of the top notch hardest working political comix artists alive today. So check it out and if you got the $$$, it's definitely worth the buy - in solidarity - Savannah Skye...

5 Stars for Buhle's "Wobblies!"

As a youth activist, organizer, and scholar, I find Paul Buhle's "Wobblies!" to be a refreshing and unique reminder of the revolutionary tradition of the Industrial Workers of the World. Combined with amazing graphics and informative texts, "Wobblies!" is not just *any* graphic novel--it's a historical testament to the creative, inspirational, and rebellious struggle for freedom and justice that the Wobs fought (and continue to fight!) for. From the Paterson and Lawrence Strikes, Free Speech Fights, various interesting graphic-biographies of Rebel Girl Elizabeth Gurley, Ralph Chaplin, and Joe Hill, to the role of Black and Mexican Wobblies--usually not the focus of most scholarship--this book is a treasure to all and anyone interested in, as Mike Davis writes, "REPLANTING THE SEEDS OF REBELLION." I recommend this book with utmost sincerity. You won't be disappointed! "Perhaps some fading flower then would come to life and bloom again" --from Joe Hill's last will ["WOBBLIES"!]

A wonderful, timely, fun book

WOBBLIES! is truly a wonderful, unique piece of work. The book tells the story of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, better known as the Wobblies) through a collection of over fifty graphic stories (i.e., comics) produced by some of today's most exciting progressive artists/writers (Harvey Pekar, Mike Alewitz, etc). The individual works are incredibly diverse, linked thematically into six chapters: (1) "Early Days" (founding convention, Big Bill Haywood, western miners, Mother Jones...); (2)"Lawrence and Patterson" (the most famous strikes the Wobs led); (3) "Wobblies Far and Wide" (Joe Hill, free speech fights, itinerant Wobs (or, hoboes); (4) "Repression, Martyrdom, General Strikes"; (5) "Beyond Martyrdom" (focusing on the often neglected Wobbly history of the 1920s); and (6) "The IWW Lives!" (the Wobblies up to the present). As a special treat, there is a collection of original IWW cartoons and illustrations at the end (indeed, this book carries on that very special wobbly tradition). This is a wonderful book that couldn't be more timely-- being released on the centennial of the founding of IWW (one of the best comics in the book depicts the founding convention of the Wobblies in 1905). Because of its graphic/comic form, it will surely help popularize the IWW to a new generation-- at a time when this is needed more than ever. (And, on top it all, it is a very *FUN* read-- highly recommended)

Workers of the World Unite

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the `Wobblies', is 100 years old in 2005. In celebration, Paul Buhle, Nicole Schulman and comrades have brought together an illustrated history of the Wobblies. The IWW was considered by many as the most dangerous labor organization in the 20th century US. Their ideas and organizing style spread well beyond the borders of the US into Canada, into the revolutionary milieu of Mexico, and much of the industrializing world. The IWW was primarily influenced by left anarchist thought. It sought to organize all of the working class across sectors and regardless of sex, race or nationality. Bourgeois interests feared the Wobblies because of their inclusiveness. The IWW embraced the strike as the primary tool to better the lives of the working class, improve working conditions and pay. They were fiercely in favour of free speech, especially during World War I, and opposed all interstate wars. Unlike the AFL in many ways, the Wobblies paid for their militancy with beatings, unjust prison sentences and murders but left many powerful models for action and organization including the sit-down strike and the basis for the CIO. During and after the World War I, the federal government, local police authorities, corporate thugs (i.e. Pinkertons), and even other members of the working class attempted to destroy the Wobblies but their ideas persisted. While they never returned to their pre-war strength, locals were maintained. Their actions and ideas fused with the civil rights movements to provide examples for sixties' activists and, today, the economic justice movement. Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World primarily employs comics to show some of the organizational lineages and successes. The text highlights the careers of some of the Wobbly legends: Lucy Parsons, Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Richardo Flores Magon, and Frank Little. More importantly, its labor struggles are documented from the Ludlow strikes to Lawrence and Patterson strikes to Butte to Centralia to Naranja, Mexico; the free speech movement during the Wilson Administration; and the IWW's ongoing direct action agitation to this day. The comic is a particularly powerful form for communicating some aspects of Wobbly history because it makes a strong and immediate impact on the reader, but also because many Wobbly cartoonists have influenced popular culture through to the present. This inspired volume is a testimony to the craft, intelligence, wit, and solidarity of the thirty-plus artists who contributed graphics for it. The same is true of folk music noted with frequency within the book with references to the songs of Joe Hill and other Wobblies who inspired Woodie Guthrie on through to Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco. This is an excellent primer for anyone interested in the IWW as well as those who think that another world is possible and want to organize, educate and agitate for it.