The Wobblies

The Wobblies (1979) is a documentary directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer. It chronicles the rise and fall of a unique union--Industrial Workers of the Word. The IWW was open to all, was worldwide, and opposed World War I while trying to bring down capitalism.

I think this movie is a must for anyone interested in the U.S. and Canadian labor movements, as well as the extent to which our government was willing to go to destroy the union. (These actions included the infamous Palmer Raids. Government officials broke into IWW offices, took all the documents, and destroyed typewriters, radios, etc.)

By now, all of the original Wobblies are gone. However, in 1979, the directors were able to find Wobblies who still believed in their cause, and who could relate powerful stories of IWW activity.

By filming these interviews, and by showing us original footage from the early 20th Century, we get a strong sense of what the Wobblies were striving for. They went down in the end, but definitely not without a struggle.

We saw this film on the large screen in the excellent Dryden Theatre in the George Eastman Museum. It was shown as part of the outstanding Rochester Labor Film Series. It will work very well on the small screen.

The "Wobblies" was a nickname for a radical labor union that was founded in 1905. Unlike other unions of the day, the IWW was open to all people--regardless of gender or ethnicity as they were a very democratic organization. This and their anti-war stances were admirable--especially in WWI when the US went to war for no particular reason. They were also hard-core theoretical Marxists who believed in the ownership of industries by the workers. At the time, I guess I couldn't blame them--as working conditions at the time were often dangerous and some employers didn't seem to care about their welfare or decent wages. However, the Wobblies belief that all private ownership was evil and their looking towards eventual worldwide revolution scared the powers that be--particularly following the successful revolution in Russia.

The film is a well-constructed film--with lots of interviews with surviving union members from the early days and vintage footage. However, the film really does not seem like it was very objective, as it tended to present the story just from the Wobblies' point of view. In other words, the context for the labor problems and government persecution of the movement wasn't really explored--making them look virtuous and the government and bosses 100% evil. The members were definitely political prisoners--harassed by the government. also rather "pie in the sky" and selfish as well. Because there is no balance to this film, it might seem more like propaganda and loses a few points from me because of this. Here the story is simple--they are victims and all their post-WWI activities are ignored.

FYI--Though very, very small today, the IWW still exists today.