Today in Labor History August 20, 1909: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was engaged in a free-speech fight in Fresno, California, over the right to organize workers from street corners. Native American, Frank Little, led the fight, and the drive to organize local agricultural workers, including African Americans and immigrants from China and Latin America. Little, was lynched in 1917, during a labor struggle in Montana. During the Fresno Free Speech fight, hundreds of Wobblies hopped freights into Fresno to engage in civil disobedience, speaking on street corners to challenge the gag order against them, and filling the jails to capacity. They strategically chose not to hire attorneys and waste limited union resources. Instead, they defended themselves against high-paid corporate lawyers, with juries that were comprised almost entirely of the city’s business elite. Eventually, the city decided it couldn’t afford to continue housing and feeding its class war prisoners and chose, instead, to allow Pinkertons and vigilantes to brutally attack the activists on the streets.

Click here to read commentary on the struggle from union papers of the era: https://weneverforget.org/tag/fresno-free-speech-fight-of-1910-1911/

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