Industrial Workers of the World March to Mark 100 Year Anniversary of Everett Massacre

Originally published to It’s Going Down

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) marched in Everett, Washington to remember armed clashes between Wobblies and law enforcement that broke out 100 years ago that left 5 radical labor militants dead. As an article on LibCom wrote:

In 1916 in Everett, Washington, a passenger ferry loaded with Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) free speech activists attempted to dock. On the dock, the local sheriff, along with armed deputies and armed guards hired by local businesses, attempted to block the ship from docking. According to lore, when the sheriff asked, “Who are your leaders?” the response from the ferry was a shout from everyone aboard, declaring, “We are all leaders here.”

From about 1910–1920, cities and towns across the U.S. were outlawing public speaking in an attempt to control IWW “soapboxing” in which IWW members would speak publicly against industry and capitalism, and for the need for workers to organize as a class. The Everett Massacre was one of many free speech fights that the IWW initiated. What made this one so infamous is that it was so brutally repressed. During the Everett free speech fight, the IWW had made a call for members to converge on Everett in order to challenge the new laws against public speaking.

The free speech struggle in which the IWW engaged entailed making calls for Wobblies (as IWW members are sometimes known) to flood into towns that had passed public speaking ordinances and get arrested en masse by illegally speaking in the streets. This would then overwhelm the jails and courts, and the towns would be forced to repeal the public speaking ordinances. This style of “direct action” came to characterize the union’s tactics.

The Herald Net in Everett wrote on the Massacre:

The IWW had set its sight on organizing the city’s workers, many of who worked in the mills that dominated Everett’s waterfront. Mill work was dangerous — and sometimes deadly — and paid little. The Wobblies, as IWW members are called, had been banned from speaking on Everett’s main streets and met stiff resistance from local business leaders.

After several violent clashes, hundreds of Wobblies set out by boat from Seattle for Everett, where they meant to demonstrate at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore avenues.

Local lawmen and a mob of armed vigilantes met the first boatload of Wobblies at the dock. Gunfire soon broke out. When the ship limped away from Everett, at least seven men — five Wobblies, a local National Guard lieutenant and a sheriff’s deputy — were dead or dying. A half dozen more IWW workers somehow disappeared in the bay.

Check out our social media roundup of the march and if you were there – send us a report!

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795006245644083201

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795005979582574592

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795053430674837504

Who says the IWW is dead? – Everett Massacre memorial. via /r/socialism https://t.co/ELsX0Ar8TG #socialism pic.twitter.com/UQC3dWv50w

— Jeff (@pnwsocialists) November 6, 2016

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795001612502593536

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795021449006153728

https://twitter.com/oblomberg/status/795105900490936320

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