Millions of Americans enjoy liberties off and on the job that were pioneered by a working class organization that few of them are familiar with--the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
The standard of living for most working Americans was grim when the IWW was founded in 1905. Wages were low, housing squalid, civil liberties limited, safety regulations nonexistent, and job security tenuous. Employers routinely denied their workers the right to unionize, much less to strike or picket. Few major labor disputes ended without death playing a hand.
In Solidarity Forever, a score of IWWs...